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Sorry it’s been so long for an update but basically I think after the last update I spent 3 months restructuring somethings in the TimelineFX library and then decided that the renderer really needed some work as it was a little cumbersome to work with. So I made the decision to spend some time refactoring it and then 10 months later here we are! Was it worth it? Yes definitely, I am very pleased with where my renderer is at and will have it as a separate open source project that I might start pushing out more. This is a Read more

Another new alpha version has been uploaded with more new features and improvements. Here’s an overview of some of them:   2d Paths Paths are now available for 2d as well as 3d. They have pretty much exactly the same features as the 3d paths with the obvious exception that there’s no z axis for some of the settings. Otherwise the same generators are there plus I added a basic selection of preset paths under the Add Emitter menu. There’s still a lot I want to do to improve the interface for creating paths such as direct node manipulation and Read more

I’ve been very busy with the latest releases that I didn’t have the time to update these blog posts but thought I should have a quick catch up so here’s a round up of the latest additions.   Paths A big new feature is an emission type called paths (currently 3d only). This is where you can create a path that particles can spawn and travel along allowing for a great range of new effects and emitters to be created. This is a feature that is still under development as it’s not easy to create the interface that makes them Read more

Just a quick update! I’ve mainly been working on adding spline paths in to the library the last month which I’m still working on but I wanted to just get a new alpha out which fixes a bunch of bugs and also introduces a simple but very effective feature where you can now spin particles on their pitch and yaw axis. Previously you could only spin particles on the axis that faces the camera but now you can set the Particle Rotation settings to free align and then adjust the spin attributes under particle behaviour. I also added the ability Read more

This is the final update for version 25 where I’ve been focusing on help and documentation. In this version I’ve added 2 new features to help new and existing users get a quick insight into how each effect and emitter works.   Insights I’ve introduced a new tab labelled Insights. On this tab is auto generated documentation for each effect that gives a brief overview of the main properties that are used. Each property that is referenced has a link that you can click on that where that property is so you can easily get to grips with where things Read more

I just uploaded the latest alpha which builds on the last version with a brand new help section! This help is entirely in the editor and searchable by key word. It even works like a simple browser where you can go back and forward to previous sections you were looking at and it also has links that link either to other help files in the editor or externally too. I also added an About pop up that opens up on start up. It’s pretty basic for now but I can improve it at a later date. Both the about and Read more

Happy New Year! Alpha version 24 has now been released. It has been a very busy period for me over the holiday, and a real time of learning new things.   Bounding Boxes for Sprite Data Something I wanted to accomplish was calculating the bounding boxes for each frame of a sprite data animation. This is where you can pre-record your effects and simply use a compute shader to interpolate the compressed data to playback the effects. It is a very fast way to use effects, as almost everything happens on the GPU. All the CPU has to do is Read more

I just completed a refactor of the TimelineFX library so it’s further along in terms of stability of code, ie., less chance of me making a lot of breaking changes. I mentioned in the last post what I’d be working on but here’s what I did: Implemented my memory allocator for much cleaner memory management. A large memory pool is now allocated on initialisation and then sub allocated from. If the pool runs out of space then a new pool is automatically added. This of course can be overridden if anyone wants to use their own allocator instead. I did Read more