Cymatics FX

Cymatics FX is a spectral wave-noise material library for Unity. It provides a clean-room HLSL include for Shader Graph Custom Function nodes, starter noise templates, generated support assets, live CPU previews, Design Package export, demo scene generation, and Texture2D, Texture3D, and Cubemap baking for mobile or fallback workflows.

Open

Tools/EQLabs/Creation/Art/Cymatics FX

Tabs

Tab	Use
Library	Browse and search starter templates, inspect generated asset status, select support assets, copy Shader Graph Custom Function setup, generate starter designs, previews, sample materials, recipe files, and create the demo scene.
Design	Pick any starter template, retune its parameters, apply shaping presets, preview or animate the result, load selected CymaticsSpectralDesign assets, save a design asset, or export a full Design Package.
Bake	Pick any template, apply bake presets, tune parameters, preview or animate the result, and bake Texture2D PNG, Texture3D asset, or Cubemap asset outputs under Assets/EQLabs/Generated/Create_ArtVFX/CymaticsFX/BakedTextures/.

Starter Templates

• Terrain Strata
• Watercolor
• Manga Paper
• Ink Bloom
• Foliage Variation
• Magic Dissolve
• Hatching
• Cloth Weave
• Pixel Dither
• Volumetric Mist
• Flowmap Basis
• Custom Spectral

Shader Graph

Use a Shader Graph Custom Function node:

• Source: File
• File: Assets/EQLabs/Shaders/Create_ArtVFX/CymaticsFX/EQCymatics.hlsl
• Precision: Float
• Starter function examples: EQCymaticsTerrainStrata, EQCymaticsWatercolor, EQCymaticsMagicDissolve, EQCymaticsHatching, EQCymaticsVolumetricMist, EQCymaticsFlowmapBasis, EQCymaticsCustomSpectral
• Primitive function examples: EQCymaticsWave2D, EQCymaticsWave3D, EQCymaticsSpectral2D, EQCymaticsFBM2D, EQCymaticsPaperGrain2D, EQCymaticsCellular2D, EQCymaticsCurl2D

File-mode Custom Function nodes do not expose an HLSL expression field. Set the function name, wire the inputs and outputs, and Shader Graph includes the HLSL file automatically. The expression in each Markdown recipe is a readable reference only.

The Library tab can copy the exact setup for the selected template, generate per-template recipe files, and generate real Shader Sub Graph assets in URP/HDRP projects that have Shader Graph installed.

Shader Graph SubGraphs

Use Generate Shader Sub Graphs from the Library tab inside a URP or HDRP project with Shader Graph installed. The tool writes one .shadersubgraph per starter template under:

Assets/EQLabs/Generated/Create_ArtVFX/CymaticsFX/ShaderSubGraphs/

Drag the generated Sub Graph into any compatible Shader Graph, tune the exposed controls, and wire Noise or Flow into the material behavior you want. Generated 2D Sub Graphs sample mesh UV0 internally; generated 3D Sub Graphs sample geometry position internally. A .shadersubgraph is not a material shader by itself, so do not create a Material directly from the Sub Graph asset. This keeps the generated assets pipeline-neutral instead of locking them to a specific URP or HDRP Lit target.

Generated Support Assets

Use Generate Starter Support Assets from the Library tab or the batch validation entry point to create:

• starter CymaticsSpectralDesign assets
• preview textures
• sample preview materials
• per-template Shader Graph recipe files
• Shader Sub Graph assets when the project has Shader Graph installed

Generated support assets are written under Assets/EQLabs/Generated/Create_ArtVFX/CymaticsFX/.

Design Package

The Design tab can export a tuned Design Package for any starter template. A package contains:

• a custom CymaticsSpectralDesign asset
• a preview texture
• a sample material
• a Markdown design recipe with the Shader Graph setup and parameter defaults

Custom packages are stored under the generated Cymatics FX folders so artists can iterate without touching the source package.

Animated Preview

The Design and Bake tabs include an animation strip below the preview thumbnail for templates that expose a Phase parameter.

• Play/Pause advances the preview phase in the editor.
• Speed ranges from -3 to 3 cycles per second, so the preview can move forward, slow down, or reverse.
• Reset returns the preview phase to 0.

The animation is preview-only. Saved design assets and baked outputs still use the current static parameter values. To animate the same noise at runtime, drive the Shader Graph Custom Function Phase input with Time, a material property, a MaterialPropertyBlock, or a pipeline-specific material controller.

Bake Targets

The Bake tab supports three output targets:

Target	Output	Typical use
Texture2D	PNG texture	masks, paper grain, dissolve maps, hatching, flow maps
Texture3D	.asset volume texture	fog, mist, volumetric fields, 3D lookup patterns
Cubemap	.asset cubemap	world-space fields, sky-driven masks, direction-dependent lookdev

Pipeline Notes

Cymatics FX does not hard-reference URP or HDRP assemblies. The HLSL include is pipeline-neutral and intended for URP/HDRP Shader Graph Custom Function nodes. The built-in pipeline can include EQCymatics.cginc from custom shaders.

If the current project does not have URP or HDRP installed, the tool still compiles and the CPU preview/bake workflows remain available.

Sample materials use the best available preview shader in the project: URP Unlit, HDRP Unlit, Built-in Unlit, or Standard fallback.

Bake Path

The bake path evaluates the same wave-noise family on the CPU and writes deterministic assets directly. This avoids transient material and render-target bake failures, and mirrors the architecture chosen for the Unreal Engine version after production testing.