Illuminate Labs
Develops and markets rendering and baking technology especially tailored to satisfy the needs of next-generation game developers based on the proprietary LiquidLight technology.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Illuminate Labs, founded in 2002 and headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, specialized in advanced lighting technology for the video game industry. The company's core business revolved around developing and marketing rendering and baking software that enabled game developers to create more realistic in-game lighting and accelerate their production pipelines. Its client base consisted of prominent game development studios, including major players like Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo America. The business model was based on licensing its proprietary software tools to these development studios.
The company's offerings were centered on its proprietary LiquidLight technology. Its two flagship products were Beast and Turtle. Beast operated as a game engine-independent content pipeline tool for generating advanced global illumination, light maps, and dynamic relighting of characters. Turtle served as a sophisticated rendering and baking plug-in specifically for Autodesk Maya, a popular 3D animation and modeling software, used for lighting and content creation. These tools were recognized for helping developers enhance the aesthetic quality of their games by defining environments and creating atmosphere. A key achievement for the company was its expansion into the North American market with the opening of a San Francisco office in 2009 for technical sales and consulting.
A significant milestone in the company's history was its acquisition by Autodesk in July 2010 for an undisclosed amount. At the time of the acquisition, Magnus Wennerholm was the CEO of Illuminate Labs and subsequently joined Autodesk along with his team. Following the acquisition, Autodesk announced plans to continue licensing Beast as a standalone product while integrating Turtle into future Autodesk offerings, discontinuing its sale as a separate plug-in. The Illuminate Labs technology was later incorporated into Autodesk's Gameware suite, which was officially discontinued in 2017.
Keywords: Illuminate Labs, game development, lighting technology, rendering software, baking technology, Autodesk, Beast middleware, Turtle plugin, LiquidLight, global illumination, light maps, character relighting, game content creation, Magnus Wennerholm, video game graphics, 3D lighting, game engine tools, Autodesk Maya plugin, digital content creation, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo