What settings change when building a game?

So I noticed that any time I build a game and play it that some changes occur from what I see when I play in the editor.

1.) In VR, my built versions of my game reduced the load in distance of foliage to be MUCH shorter than I had when i’d do a viewport preview.

2.) My Directional Light I used as a sun would display changes consistent with shadow bias settings changes, as I could see sunlight seeping in through the edges of my interior scenes.

Any ideas what i’m missing? Am I just building a version that has lower graphics settings than I have set in my previews??

Thanks for the help!!