EQSynth Lab

EQSynth Lab

Type: Custom Asset Editor (Pattern B) · Asset class: UEQSynthAsset · Category: Labs

A VFX texture authoring environment that combines a 2D fluid solver with a layered source-stack and chainable processing pipeline. Compose textures from multiple sources, route them into specific simulation fields (density, temperature, velocity), run chained processing modes (advect, liquify, diffuse, erode, grow, ripple, generate), apply non-destructive post-process (levels, contrast, edge detect, gradient remap), and export the result as a sprite-sheet flipbook or per-frame image sequence — all in-engine, without a round-trip to EmberGen, FluidNinja, Substance Designer, or Houdini Copernicus. Six fluid-sim presets (Torch, Campfire, Candle, Explosion, Smoke Plume, Rocket Plume) ship as one-click starting points; six stylization presets (Realistic, Cel-Shaded, Anime, Ink Wash, Pixel Art, Comic Book) re-skin the export non-destructively.

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When to use it

• Authoring flowmaps for water, lava, cloth ripple, hair — feed a noise source through Liquify + Advect, export the velocity field as RG flow texture
• Generating fire / smoke / explosion sprite sheets for Niagara flipbooks — start from a preset, refine with sliders, bake, export as 4×4 / 6×6 / 8×8 atlas
• Synthesizing distortion / displacement maps — combine voronoi + warped FBM noise, run through Diffuse and Edge Detect post-process
• Building erosion / wear masks procedurally — Erode + Grow processing modes drive realistic wear patterns from a base mask
• Producing reaction-diffusion patterns for stylized VFX — multiple sources writing to ConcentrationU/V fields, chained Generate steps
• Creating stylized 2D-aesthetic VFX — apply Cel-Shaded / Anime / Ink Wash / Pixel Art stylization at export

When not to use it

• Don’t expect 3D volumetric fire / smoke — V1 is a 2D solver. 3D Eulerian solving and VDB / SparseVolumeTexture export are V2.
• Don’t use this as a runtime sim — EQSynth Lab is offline / authoring-side. The output is a baked texture that runtime emitters consume.
• Don’t expect Houdini / EmberGen feature parity — those are dedicated AAA tools. EQSynth’s value is in-engine workflow + non-destructive layered authoring + zero round-trip cost.
• Don’t run 512×512 on low-VRAM GPUs — sub-RTX 3060-class cards may stall. Drop to 128×128 or 256×256.

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Creating the asset

From the Content Browser:

1. Right-click in the Content Browser
2. Pick EQLabs → EQSynth Asset
3. Name it; double-click to open

From the EQLabs Hub:

1. Open Window → EQLabs Hub
2. Search EQSynth or browse to Art → VFX
3. Click the EQSynth Lab tile — pick Create New or open a recent asset

The asset is a UEQSynthAsset .uasset. It stores every source layer, every pipeline step, every post-process op, plus optional baked frame data (LZ4 / Zlib compressed).

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Editor layout

Toolbar (top)

Control	What it does
Play / Pause / Reset	Drives the live simulation
Bake to RAM	Records the full simulation to memory for deterministic export
Export	Opens the export dialog
Display Mode	Density / Temperature / Velocity Vectors / Fuel / Pressure / Obstacle Map
Grid Resolution	128×128 / 256×256 / 512×512
Preset row	Torch / Campfire / Candle / Explosion / Smoke Plume / Rocket Plume

Source Stack (left panel)

The source stack is the input system. Up to 6 layers, each with:

Field	Options
Source Type	Noise (Perlin / Voronoi F1 / F2 / F1-F2 / DomainWarpedFBM) / Shape (circle / box / gradient) / Texture (imported UTexture2D) / Painted (in-tool brush — adapted from Painting Lab)
Blend Mode	Replace / Add / Subtract / Multiply / Screen / Overlay / Difference / Mask
Opacity	0 – 1
Target Field	Density / Temperature / VelocityXY / Fuel / ConcentrationU / ConcentrationV

The target field routing is the key feature — different sources can feed different sim fields simultaneously. A noise into Density + a painted shape into Temperature + a gradient into VelocityXY produces emergent results no single-source tool reaches.

Six named source presets ship in V1 (e.g., Cumulus, EmberShower, FlowField, Vortex, ReactionDiffusion, Erosion). One click loads a known-good source stack.

Pipeline (middle panel — top)

The pipeline is the processing chain. Up to N steps; each step’s output density field becomes the next step’s input. Velocity / pressure / temperature reset between steps so each operation gets a clean physical context.

Available processing modes:

Mode	What it does
Advect	Velocity-driven displacement of density. Drives flow-map and smoke-trail look
Liquify	High-viscosity displacement — slow, dense fluid look
Diffuse	Density blur / spread
Erode	Mask-style erosion — reduces density at edges
Grow	Mask-style dilation — expands density
Ripple	Wave equation — circular / wavefront patterns
Generate	Pure synthesis (reaction-diffusion / Turing patterns)

Six named pipeline presets ship — quick recipes like “Smoke Trail”, “Wear Mask”, “Voronoi Diffuse”, “Reaction Pattern”, “Wave Field”, “Erosion Field”. One click chains 2–4 steps with sensible defaults.

Post-Process Stack (middle panel — bottom)

Non-destructive operations applied to the display buffer before export. Never writes back into the simulation fields — pure presentation pass.

Op	What it does
Normalize	Rescales values to fill the 0-1 range
Levels	Black point / white point / midtone (gamma)
Remap	Curve remap of input → output values
Contrast	Linear contrast around midpoint
Power	Gamma-style power curve
Invert	1 - x
Sharpen	Unsharp mask
Blur	Gaussian blur
Edge Detect	Sobel / Laplacian edge isolation
Gradient Remap	Maps grayscale through a UCurveLinearColor ramp

2D Canvas (center)

The live simulation viewport. Color-mapped visualization of the active field with pan + zoom (scroll-wheel to zoom, alt-drag to pan). Tiled preview overlay (2×2 / 3×3) for evaluating tileable flowmaps. Emitter glyph is draggable for repositioning. Obstacles render as solid overlays. Sim-field injection brushes (Temperature / Force / Vortex) let you paint into the live simulation.

Emitter & Obstacles (right panel)

Section	What it does
Emitter Shape	Point / Circle / Box
Position	Drag glyph or set by value
Size / Direction / Velocity / Fuel Rate / Temperature	Slider per field
Obstacles	List of placed Box / Circle obstacles. Add / remove / reposition
Display Mode	Mirrors the toolbar dropdown

Timeline + Status bar (bottom)

Play / Pause / Reset / Scrub / frame counter / total-frames spinner. Status bar shows live FPS, VRAM usage, baked frame count, and bake-to-RAM progress.

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Asset model — what’s stored

UEQSynthAsset serializes:

• Source Stack — TArray<FEQSynthSourceLayer> (up to 6, with type / blend / opacity / field routing)
• Pipeline — TArray<FEQSynthPipelineStep> (chained processing modes + parameters)
• Post-Process Stack — TArray<FEQSynthPostProcessStep> (non-destructive display ops)
• Solver settings — grid resolution, all combustion + emitter parameters
• Emitter + obstacles — shape / position / size / parameters
• Color ramps — fire ramp + smoke ramp (UCurveLinearColor per asset)
• Optional baked frame data — LZ4 / Zlib compressed for portable sharing

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Workflow

Pyro-style preset workflow (fastest path)

1. Create the asset, open it
2. Click a preset (Torch / Campfire / Candle / Explosion / Smoke Plume / Rocket Plume)
3. Tweak buoyancy / turbulence / vorticity for the look you want
4. Reset → Bake to RAM to record frames deterministically
5. Export → Sprite Sheet → pick grid (4×4 / 6×6 / 8×8), resolution, stylization preset
6. The exported atlas appears in the Content Browser, ready for Niagara

Synthesis workflow (composing a flowmap from scratch)

1. Add a Noise source (DomainWarpedFBM) → Target Field: VelocityXY
2. Add a Shape source (radial gradient) → Target Field: Density → Blend Mode: Multiply
3. Add an Advect pipeline step (drives density via velocity field)
4. Add a Diffuse step (smooths the result)
5. Add a Normalize post-process op (rescales to 0-1)
6. Bake → Export → Image Sequence (EXR for full precision)

Obstacle-driven art direction

1. Set up a fire preset
2. In the Obstacles panel, add Box obstacles
3. Drag them on the canvas to force flow through narrow channels / under arches
4. Bake + export — obstacles are baked into the simulation, not the export, so the result reflects them naturally

Stylized export (same simulation, multiple looks)

1. Bake the simulation once
2. Click Export → pick Stylization Preset (Realistic / Cel-Shaded / Anime / Ink Wash / Pixel Art / Comic Book)
3. Export
4. Repeat with a different preset — same source frames, different visual treatment, no re-bake

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Settings reference

Solver

Field	Default	Range
Grid Resolution	256×256	128 / 256 / 512
Fuel Rate	2.0	0 – 10
Ignition Temperature	0.3	0 – 1
Burn Rate	0.4	0 – 1
Smoke Generation	0.6	0 – 1
Buoyancy Strength	1.5	0 – 5
Turbulence Intensity	0.5	0 – 2
Vorticity Confinement	0.3	0 – 1
Wind Angle	0°	0 – 360
Wind Speed	0.0	0 – 5
Dissipation	0.02	0 – 1
Cooling	0.05	0 – 1
Timestep	0.016	float
Jacobi Iterations	40	10 – 80
Total Sim Frames	64	int
Advection Quality	MacCormack	Semi-Lagrangian / MacCormack

Source Stack

Field	Range / Options
Layer count	0 – 6
Source Type	Noise / Shape / Texture / Painted
Noise Variants	Perlin / Voronoi F1 / F2 / F1-F2 / DomainWarpedFBM
Blend Mode	Replace / Add / Subtract / Multiply / Screen / Overlay / Difference / Mask
Opacity	0 – 1
Target Field	Density / Temperature / VelocityXY / Fuel / ConcentrationU / ConcentrationV

Export

Field	Default	Options
Format	Sprite Sheet	Sprite Sheet / Image Sequence
Sprite Grid	8×8	4×4 / 6×6 / 8×8
Output Resolution	2048	1024 / 2048 / 4096
Stylization	Realistic	Realistic / Cel-Shaded / Anime / Ink Wash / Pixel Art / Comic Book / Custom
Storage Mode	Export-Only	Export-Only / Embedded (LZ4 / Zlib)
Channel Mapping	Fire→R, Smoke→G, Temp→B, Alpha→A	configurable per channel

Asset persistence: every parameter, source layer, pipeline step, post-process op, and (optionally) the full baked frame payload lives inside the .uasset.

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Engine integration

• Sprite-sheet export produces a UTexture2D atlas in the Content Browser, immediately assignable to a Niagara emitter as a flipbook texture or to a Material as a SubUV sample.
• Image-sequence export writes per-frame PNG / EXR to disk, suitable for compositing pipelines (Nuke, AE, Resolve) or reimport as a Media texture.
• Embedded storage keeps the baked frames inside the .uasset (LZ4 / Zlib), so the asset is self-contained and portable across collaborators without a re-bake.
• No runtime cost — EQSynth Lab is editor-only. The output texture has zero solver dependency at runtime.

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Tips & gotchas

• Bake before exporting. The export pipeline reads from the recorded frame buffer, not the live simulation. You’ll get an empty / partial export if you skip Bake to RAM.
• Density survives between pipeline steps; velocity does not. Each step starts with a fresh velocity field — design pipelines around that. Use Advect early (when velocity is fresh from sources) and Erode / Grow / Diffuse later (where they don’t depend on velocity).
• Source target-field routing is the killer feature. Multiple sources writing to different fields simultaneously creates emergent looks impossible in single-source tools. Try noise → Velocity + shape → Density + gradient → Temperature.
• Tiled preview is mandatory for tileable flowmaps. The 2×2 / 3×3 wrap overlay catches seam discontinuities while you’re authoring, not after you’ve exported and assigned the texture.
• Stylization is non-destructive. Bake once, export with three different stylization presets — same source frames, three different deliverables.
• Sub-256 grid resolution sacrifices obstacle fidelity. Box / Circle obstacles rasterize at grid scale; at 128×128 fine details disappear. 256×256+ for complex obstacle layouts.
• Rocket Plume preset has a known buoyancy / velocity imbalance. Reduce buoyancy strength manually for elongated directional plumes — fix scheduled for polish pass.
• Jacobi iterations under 20 produce visible divergence. Smoke drifting sideways unnaturally = pressure solver under-converged. Default of 40 is stable for most setups; raise toward 60-80 for high-accuracy work.

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Related tools

• Flipbook Maker — Niagara capture-based flipbook authoring; EQSynth Lab is the procedural / simulation-based alternative
• Painting Lab — paint custom source masks for the EQSynth source stack (Painted source type)
• Niagara Profiler — profile the runtime cost of materials and emitters consuming EQSynth Lab outputs
• Texture Channel Packer — pack EQSynth EXR exports into combined channel-packed textures
• VAT Management Suite — VAT bakers and EQSynth Lab cover different VFX texture problems (geometry-cache vs flowmap / sprite-sheet); both feed Niagara

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