Embergen 1.0
EmberGen 1.0, the highly anticipated first official release of JangaFX’s real-time gaseous fluid simulator for game development, visual effects, and motion graphics, has been shipped.
Apart from transitioning the software from beta, EmberGen 1.0 has overhauled the software’s GPU particle system. This includes new features such as particle emission of smoke and flames, particle trails, and improved particle lighting.
Furthermore, the release has revamped the export system, enabling users to export particles to other DCC applications in Alembic format. Additionally, a new built-in flipbook and sequence playback system have been added.
EmberGen is a real-time smoke simulation system that allows for high-detail smoke and fire simulation to be rendered in real-time within your viewport. While Blender also has similar capabilities, the key difference is that it cannot do it in real-time. With Blender, you have to bake the smoke beforehand, and any small changes require the simulation to be recalculated, which can be time-consuming.
Furthermore, with Blender, simulation time is directly proportional to the smoke resolution. The higher the resolution, the longer the simulation time. However, EmberGen can handle high-resolution smoke simulations with ease, with the only caveat being that some simulations may require a more powerful GPU.
EmberGen isn’t just limited to smoke simulations, though. It can also be used for creating dust, explosions, magical effects, storm simulations, and much more.
In its first release, EmberGen comes with a range of simulation templates to help users get started right away. And, for Blender enthusiasts, an Easter egg “donut” template has been included – you can escape the famous donut tutorial can you!
to me whats really amazing is how much smoke the engine can handle without the viewport ever slowing down
you can import in your animated meshes as fbx or alembic objects to use them as mesh colliders or make them particle emitter from which smoke will be emitted
you can iterate at unprecedent speed with the new increment save function, which you can use to easily save new changes in your projects without overwriting your old work using the new save function which will add a number on your save projects.
this official release allows for exporting an array of game data, like final renders as exr files, volume objects or vdbs, motion vectors, normal maps, depth maps and more.
embergen is a paid standalone smoke simulation engine but you can try it for free for 14days, but if you have no plans of buying it thats ok too you can still enjoy free embergen exports that can be used in blender and other dcc applications for free.
if you tryout these free vdbs from embergen and you still crave for more but do have the experience to make your own simulation or 300$ to spare for an embergen license then tryout True-fx’s vdb explosion pack for just 30$, this vdb collection comes with about 15 downloads with all sorts of explotions to use in your projects.
True VFX, the creators of True-Terrain, understands that explosions don’t occur in space but rather near the earth’s surface where there is oxygen. For that reason, they created the True-Terrain add-on, which you can use to create realistic terrains for your explosion shots or any other shots. These highly detailed terrains come with their own shader editor, ensuring that you always have the best materials for your project.
Give them a try and let me know what you think about EmberGen and True-Terrain in the comments!