UPDATE 1.0.07 AVAILABLE

Happy new year to all of you! Here is the first update in 2011. The updated version contains the following changes:

• NEW FEATURE: Direct Particle Access
  You can directly access particles now. You can loop through all existing particles using the new commands GetParticle() and GetMaxParticles() to keep track of their individual positions (or other particle properties). See new sample code included ('Sample_Looping_through_Particles') or refer to the updated manual.
• NEW FEATURE: Particle Tap Events
  You can tap particles now to receive a tap event. To enable this, simply define a tap listener and add this listener to a particle type's properties list. See updated section CreateParticleType() in the manual and the new sample code included ('Sample_Particle_Tap_Events).
• NEW FEATURE: FX ID's
  FX ID's are ID numbers that you can assign to a particle type as well as to a FX Field. The FX Field will then only affect particles with the same ID. Other particles will be ignored. This is very useful to affect certain particle types only, but also to improve overall performance (therefore, you should really make use of it to ensure that only certain particle types are checked against FX Fields instead of all existing ones). By default, the FX ID of particle types and FX Fields is 0 which means that all fields affect all particles by default (therefore you don't have to change any existing code).
• FIXED: OPAQUE FX FIELDS
  Since the last Corona update, vector shapes are filled with white color by default. The FX Field feature has been updated to display FX Fields' outlines only (like in previous versions).
• IMPROVED OUT-OF-SCREEN CHECKS
  Particles' out-of-screen check (when .killOutsideScreen of a particle type is set to true) has been improved and also works with nested emitters now or if the emitter is placed in a rotated or scaled group. Please note that bounceX / bounceY and particle weight won't work as suspected when the emitter is placed within a rotated parent since those are calculated on local coordinates.

awesome! thank you for constantly updating this fantastic library all the time!

OUT OF OFFICE UNTIL JANUARY, 27th
Just wanted to let you know that we're currently out of office until January 27th. Each forum post, feature request and email will be answered in detail then. Thanks for your patience, hope you won't mind the short delay.

• BACK AT THE OFFICE AGAIN
  We are back at the office again and are reporting for duty. Please excuse the short delay. The next Particle Candy update is already scheduled, but there is also another great news:
• NEW CANDY LIBRARY AT THE START - BETA TESTERS WANTED
  As you might already found out, we are about to release another Candy library asap and are looking for faithful beta testers to cover all kinds of hardware from older iPhones to Android and iPad devices. If you'd like to give it a test run and provide some feedback, please contact SUPPORT AT X-PRESSIVE.COM and let us know. Please let us also know what kind of device you own.

  Here is a video preview of what to expect:

  WATCH VIDEO

UPDATE 1.0.08 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.08 is out now which contains the following changes and updates:

• NEW FEATURE: Physics driven particles
  Particle Candy now also features physics driven particles, which enables cool stuff like collision detection between particles or between particles and static background objects. FX fields can also be used with this type of particles. Physics driven particles are created the same way than normal particles, all you have to do is to add an additional table in your particle type definition that defines a 'PhysicsMaterial'. That's all! See the updated manual and the new samples 'Sample_Physics_Particles' and 'Sample_Physics_Using_FX_Fields' for detailed info.

  The manual on CreateParticleType() has been updated, where you'll find detailed instructions on how to apply physics to your particles.

• UPDATED MANUAL: SetEmitterListener
  Updated the manual on SetEmitterListener() where you'll find a list of the event's properties now. Particle destroy events now also deliver the index number of the particle that is about to die. You can use this index number with GetParticle() to access the particle direclty.
• PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS:
  Improved performance of attracting FX Fields. The amount of attraction force used is the roughly the same as in previous versions, but it might differ slightly, so you may have to adjust the strength parameter of your attractors a bit to reflect this change.

UPDATE 1.0.09 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.09 went out which contains a whole bunch of new features and updates this time:

• NEW FEATURE: Added two new types of FX Fields: soft and hard particle redirectors to change the movement direction of particles once they enter such a field. Soft redirecting fields can be used to simulate wind, for example. See the added manual section 'CreateFXField' for more info and note the new sample code added ('Sample_FX_Fields_Redirectors')
• NEW FEATURE: FX Fields can now send events when a particle enters or leaves the field. See the new commands 'AddFXListener' and 'RemoveFXListener' in the updated manual, as well as the new included sample code 'Sample_FX_Fields_Using_Events'.
• NEW FEATURE: You can enable or disable FX Fields now by using the new command EnableFXField('MyField', true | false).
• NEW FEATURE: Added new particle type settings to enable random particle motion (particles will change their direction randomly at given intervals). See the updated manual on 'CreateParticleType' and the new sample code included ('Sample_RandomMotion').
• NEW FEATURE: Added a new particle type setting named 'faceEmitter'. If set to true, particles will automatically orientated to face and move towards the emitter's current position once they are created. Use it with the ring emission shape, for example, to create particles away from their emitter and let them move towards it. Useful to create 'worm holes' or similar effects. Please note the new included sample code 'Sample_FaceEmitter'.
• NEW FEATURE: 'SetEmitterTarget'. Use this command to let an emitter follow another object (the target) automatically. Of course this could also be done by grouping the object and the emitter, but this would cause the emitter's particles to being drawn within that group. If the group rotates, all particles within would also rotate. If you don't want this behaviour, use SetEmitterTarget to let an emitter follow a target without the need to group both together. Note the new sample code 'Sample_Emitter_Target'
• NEW SAMPLE: Added new sample code 'Sample_Visuals_Comet' to demonstrate the creation of comet trails.

UPDATE 1.0.10 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.10 is out now which contains the following changes and updates:

• NEW PARTICLE PROPERTY:
  Added .scaleMax property to CreateParticleType. This property defines a maximum scale for the particles. If set to 2.0, for example, the particle will stop growing once it reaches a scale of 2.0. See updated sample code 'Sample_Scaling' and updated reference (CreateParticleType).
• NEW SAMPLE:
  Added new sample code 'Sample_Director_Class' to show how Particle Candy can be used with Director Class.
• FIXED:
  FX Fields events were broadcasted to all other FX Field listeners, too. This has been fixed, you can now define an individual listener for each FX Field which will only receive events from this field then.
• FIXED:
  Fixed clean up issues. The previous version did not reset an internal timer variable on scene start, so it may happen that a whole bunch of particles is created (and deleted immediately again) when you unloaded a scene that used particles and switch back to this scene again after a while. Particle Candy thought that it was still running and a lot of time had passed since the last update call. Therefore, it created a bunch of particles at once to make up the passed time.

Just amazing. I bought particle Candy when it first came out but just started using it. It's soooo cool. Thank you so much. I just bought text candy too. Looking forward for that to become better and better aswell.

NOT AT OFFICE UNTIL END OF APRIL

Just to let you know, we're currently not at our office (until end of april / first week of may), so there might be temporary delays regarding answering mails / forum inquiries and releasing updates. If you sent any mails within the last days and wondered why it has not been answered in time, please be assured that *every* mail (and forum posts, too, of course) will be answered for sure, but currently not as quickly at you might be used to.

Thanks for your patience and please excuse that temporary delay, we are trying our best to keep it as short as possible :-(

REPORTING BACK FOR DUTY
Just to let you know, we're back at the office now and are quite busy to work on a Particle Candy update which will be available within the next couple of days. The new additive blend feature has been added already, but there are some more (and cool) features we'd like to add with the next update.

Thanks for your patience during the april slow-down!

UPDATE 1.0.12 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.12 is out now which contains the following changes and updates:

• NEW FEATURE: POLYGON EMISSION SHAPES
  You can now define a polygon shape (or emission path) for each emitter. All particles of this emitter will be emitted from along this path then. This feature also allows as many different emission points as you like to for each single emitter. See updated manual, new command 'DefineEmissionShape()' for more details. There are also two new samples to demonstrate this feature ('Sample_Custom_Emission_Shapes') and a new visual effect demo that also demonstrates what you can do using emission shapes. Have fun!

  A new demo video shows a visual effect using a single flame emitter. A polygon emission shape has been added to the emitter to outline the "X" in the background (package also includes full source code of this demo):

  WATCH THE DEMO VIDEO

• NEW FEATURE: TEXT PARTICLES
  Emitters can also emit text particles now, using text objects instead of images. You can can define a text, as well as a font, font size and font color with your particle type settings. See new sample 'Sample_Text_Particles' and the updated manual on 'CreateParticleType()'.
• NEW PARTICLE PROPERTY: ADDITIVE BLEND
  As you might have noticed, Corona now provides the long awaited additive blend mode feature. Additive blend is very useful to create any kind of light emitting effects (in other words, use it when creating flames, fire, lasers, flares, sparks etc.). The default blend mode for each particle type is 'normal'. To activate additive blend for any of your particle types, simply use the new particle type property 'blendMode' and set it to 'add'. That's all you have to do -but notice the difference! See updated manual, section 'CreateParticleType', blendMode property.
• CODE SAMPLES UPDATED
  All samples included using fire effects, explosions etc. have been updated to use additive blend now. Please keep in mind that you will need the latest Corona daily build (#497 or later) to see the difference.
• UPDATED: ICON & BUILD SETTINGS
  App icons and build files added to each sample to quickly build them out-of-the-box. You may have to change the build settings depending on your target device, however.

UPDATE 1.0.13 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.13 is out now which contains the following changes and updates:

• FIXED: PAUSING ISSUE
  There has been an issue that emerged when creating new emitters after the particle system was paused, causing particles to be wildly scaled and faded. If you've seen lots of 'alpha below zero' warnings in the simulator, you may have experienced this issue. This should be fixed now.
• PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
  Done some minor changes which should improve performance in certain situations.

PARTICLE CANDY 1.0.14 AVAILABLE

• NEW COMMAND: ChangeEmissionRate()
  A particle type's emission rate can be changed now at any time. Refer to the updated docs, new command ChangeEmissionRate( ).

TEXT CANDY 1.0.06 AVAILABLE

• FIXED: MINOR CLEAN-UP ISSUE
  Fixed an issue with removing text object backgrounds that sometimes occured when calling CleanUp().
• FIXED: VECTOR FONT COLOR ISSUE
  Using setColor with vector fonts that have a drop shadow attached resulted in an error message. Fixed now.

BUNDLE OFFER - 50% OFF!

We are happy to announce our new bundle program: buy one, get the other one half-off!

Purchase either Text Candy or Particle Candy and receive a personal coupon to get the other one 50% off. Check your order confirmation email which will include your personal bundle code. Make sure to enter it when placing your subsequent order to activate the discount.

It is Cool, Amazing and very easy to use.

I am using both Text Candy and Particles Candy in my game (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bomb-hunter/id449474369?mt=8) and it is working fine !

Congratulations !

PARTICLE CANDY 1.0.15 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.15 is out now. This version contains the following changes, updates and fixes:

• NEW: CLEAR PARTICLES OF A CERTAIN EMITTER ONLY
  You can now pass an emitter name to ClearParticles( ) to clear particles of a certain emitter only.
• FIXED: FREEZE / RESUME
  In previous versions, WakeUp( ) was called each time on application resume, also if the particle system has been set to frozen before the suspend event occured. This has been fixed. If you freeze the particle system by yourself, it will stay frozen now as long as you call WakeUp( ) again, also if an application suspend event occured meanwhile.

Please also remember our 50%-OFF BUNDLE OFFER -purchase either Text Candy or Particle Candy and receive a personal coupon to get the other one 50% off. Check your order confirmation email which will include your personal bundle code. Make sure to enter it when placing your subsequent order to activate the discount.

I purchased particle candy earlier this year and I do not see a bundle offer in any of my emails.

Can you shoot one over to me?

my email is info(at)

LCCPartners.com
or
DoubleSlashDesign.com

Thanks

Larry Meadows
DoubleSlashDesign.com

PARTICLE CANDY 1.0.16 AVAILABLE

Particle Candy version 1.0.16 is out now. This version contains the following changes, updates and fixes:

NEW: COLORIZE / TINT PARTICLES
Particles can now be tinted with every color (requires Corona daily build 612 or higher). Two new Particle Type properties have been added: 'colorStart' (which defines the default color of a particle) and 'colorChange' (the amount of color change per second). Use the first one to create particles of any color -without the need to use additional images anymore, and the second one to darken or brighten particles over time -or to change from one color to another. Note the new sample code 'Sample_Color_Change' and the updated manual section 'CreateParticleType' for detailed info.

BUNDLE-OFFER
Note: the 50%-OFF BUNDLE OFFER still continues -purchase either Text Candy or Particle Candy and receive a personal coupon to get the other one 50% off. Check your order confirmation email which will include your personal bundle code. Make sure to enter it when placing your subsequent order to activate the discount.

Existing customers of either Particle Candy or Text Candy should have received a personal bundle coupon via email today, too.

SUPPORT
Please note, that we do not check this forum on a daily basis, so please email us (support -at- x-pressive.com) in case you need instant help or support. Mailing is is the fastest way of getting help, but you might also consider to post here, of course, so that other Candy users can help you with their experience.

MORE INFO / WHERE TO FIND
Particle Candy for Corona SDK Website
Text Candy for Corona SDK Website