JangaFX releases IlluGen 1.0

Example of the kinds of effects that can be created in IlluGen. JangaFX’s interesting new tool is designed to create both 2D and 3D assets for in-game VFX within a single node graph.

JangaFX has released IlluGen 1.0, its new software for creating visual effects for games.

The unusual new tool is intended to make it possible for artists to create both the 2D and 3D assets required for in-game FX, including base 3D meshes, textures, noises and masks.

Author both 3D meshes and 2D textures for in-game VFX
First unveiled earlier this year, IlluGen is a new tool for creating animated VFX for games – magic and energy effects, smoke, fire, explosions, and the like.

It is intended to make it possible to create both the 2D and 3D assets required for the effects in a single application, rather than requiring users to switch between a number of DCC tools.

Its 2D capabilities include both procedural texture generation and hand painting; its 3D capabilities are geared towards creating simple base forms for effects like energy beams.

Uses a familiar node-based workflow
Workflow is node-based, with users creating effects by wiring together nodes in a graph in a way similar to JangaFX’s other apps, or Adobe’s Substance 3D tools.

Both 2D and 3D assets are authored within the same graph.

The software also includes an animation timeline, with support for keyframing, a curve editor, and options for repeating or looping animations.

According to JangaFX, IlluGen is intended to enable users to “create procedural animations beyond what the typical tool would allow with very little to no code”.

Exports in a range of formats used in games pipelines
Once authored, the assets for the FX can be exported in a range of formats.

As well as flipbook animations of the completed effect, it is possible to export 2D textures – both square and non-square, flowmaps, and UV distortion maps.

3D assets can be exported as conventional meshes, or mesh flipbooks, which contain the geometry from each frame of an animation, separated by vertex color.

More information in the IlluGen 1.0 release notes at the foot of the story
At the time of writing, there is only a brief summary of IlluGen’s feature set on the product website, and we can’t see any online documentation for the software.

For a deeper dive into how it works, check out our story on JangaFX’s first public demo.

The release notes for IlluGen 1.0 also provide more technical detail – they’re more of a feature overview than a conventional changelog – so we’ve pasted them in at the foot of this story.

Price and system requirements
IlluGen 1.0 is compatible with Windows 10+, RHEL 9+ Linux, and macOS 15.0+. It requires at least a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 GPU, or an Apple Silicon M1 Pro processor.

Indie subscriptions, for artists earning under $1 million/year, cost $19.99/month, with users getting a perpetual licence after 18 months. Indie perpetual licences cost $299.99.

For studios with revenue up to $100 million/year, perpetual node-locked licences cost $1,400; floating licences cost $2,300. See more pricing options here.

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JangaFX’s feature list for IlluGen 1.0 (taken from the 1.0 release notes)

Features

Real-time node previews for individual nodes.
2D and 3D viewports for cleaner editing and separation of asset types.
Author procedural 2D and 3D assets within the same graph for ultimate convenience.
Preview individual color channels, and full color with alpha within our 2D viewport.
Conveniently check for texture tiling with our tiling texture preview
Switch between bilinear and point filtering as needed
Preview normal maps, UV warp coordinates (these are used to warp textures), 2D images, grayscale, color, alpha, flowmaps, flipbooks, 3D meshes, 3D mesh points, vertices, UV’s, faces, triangles, quads and a ton more.
Alpha is not a separate concept in IlluGen like other some tools. Anything can be packed as an alpha channel and can be authored like any other RGB or HSV color channel.
Brand new node search system when dragging off of a pin: Allows you to easily type the name of a node or node preset.
Smart and context appropriate node suggestions based on your most commonly used nodes in a given situation.
Reroute pins: Drag off of any active connection to create a reroute node. This is also the proper way to move a bundle of connections to another pin.
Animation timeline complete with keyframing, a full curve editor, repeating, looping, and more.
Easily load and edit existing flipbook textures on a per frame basis.
Export Mesh Flipbooks, 2D Flipbooks, 2D Images, Non-Square textures, and more.
Subgraph support: For commonly used sets of nodes, use subgraphs to make reusable functions out of them and simplify your workflows.
Curve profile and color gradient presets can be stored in custom folders and be shared amongst teams.
Any node can become a preset by clicking the dropdown at the top right of the node info window. This is useful in a case where you may have a very cool custom noise texture that you’ve generated and would like to easily reuse it as a starting point in the future. Once named, you could search for this preset and spawn it right within the node context window (right click).
Basic PBR rendering support
Standard shading model support for VFX asset types: Alpha, Opaque, multiply, translucent.

Included Nodes

[camera]: camera, look at
[color]: adjust, fractal, hue spread, interpolate, ramp, replace, uniform
[export]: color, mask, mesh, multimask, normal, viewport, warp
[geometry]: accumulate, bake, combine color, combine scale, combine transform, copy and transform, copy to points, extract points, merge, noise, points shape, promote, shapes, space warp, sweep, transform, UV
[grayscale]: AO, caustics, curvature, curve, dilate, filter, fractal, gradient, noise, polar scatter, shape, slice, spline, threshold, uniform, xdog
[import]: model, texture
[islands]: generate, padding, to color, to gradient, to grayscale, to uv
[normal]: combine, create
[particle]: 2D render, point attributes
[utils]: alpha merge, alpha split, anisotropic kuwahara, auto crop, bilateral filter, blend, blur, cartesian to polar, color to normal, color to uv, copy and transform, denoise, directional blur, distance, edge detect, fxaa, glow, grid, hsva to rgba, lattice, levels, multi blend, multi switch, normal merge, normal split, normal to color, polar to cartesian, rgba merge, rgba split, rgba to hsva, rgb to grayscale, sheet decode, sheet encode, softblend, tile, transform, uv merge, uv split, uv to color
[uv]: blend, blur, cartesian to polar, directional, flow, from grayscale, identity, noise, radial, rotational, spline, transform

JangaFX releases IlluGen 1.0

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