Quick answer: Unity SSR (Screen Space Reflections) cleanly visible head-on but disappearing at grazing angles? SSR depends on what’s on screen; grazing rays exit the screen and return no hit — expected behavior.

Water at lake’s edge looks fine; at grazing distance you see no reflection — just the base water material.

SSR Limitations

SSR ray-marches in screen space. Rays leaving the viewport return no hit — grazing reflections of off-screen objects look wrong or vanish. Inherent to the technique.

Fade at Edges

HDRP SSR volume override has Screen Fade. Smoothly blends SSR to reflection probe / sky at screen edges so the disappearance is gentle, not popping.

Reflection Probes Fallback

Bake reflection probes for the area. SSR overlays where it has data; probes fill the rest. Convincing combined look.

Ray-Traced Reflections

For RT-capable hardware, ray-traced reflections look perfect at any angle. Costs more but no off-screen problem.

Verifying

Reflections look continuous at all angles. SSR fills the high-quality center; probes fill the edges.

“SSR can’t see off-screen. Fade to reflection probes at the edges.”

Bake reflection probes in every reflective scene — combined SSR + probe is the industry default for a reason.