Hello there!

I know It's been a while since the last update. As development of Pixel FX Designer 2.0 shifted to SpriteMancer, I've been focusing all my "dev time" on that, but I didn't forgot about Pixel FX Designer v1.x.

This is a small update with some of the most commonly requested features from the community, and also the addition of a new feature called "Vortex" that I've been wanting to implement for quite a while. This update also updates the engine to the latest version, so It should be more stable and should also have a small performance boost.

If you feel that I missed something, find any new bugs that I can hunt or just want me to add a new feature, please let me know!

• Updated engine to latest version for compatibility and increased performance.
  
• Added UI scaling to app's window
  
• Added highlighting to the input fields being edited.
  
• Attractors can now be properly deleted.
  
• Added new "Vortex" options in Particle > Physics.
  
• Particle spawn point can now be centered with CTRL+RMB.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur when creating a new project.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur when exporting in .gif format.
  
• Fixed a bug where particle spawn point wasn't centered by default.
  
• Fixed a bug that would crash the app when copying an emitter.

Introducing SpriteMancer an all-in-one tool to create and animate effects!

SpriteMancer is the product I've been working for a long time now. It's the combination of all my previous apps into one, and much more!

SpriteMancer includes: Particle Editor, Dynamic Image Animation, Fluids Simulation, 3D Support, Node Graph, and more to come.

All the apps mentioned before will still be supported and expanded with new features, despite SpriteMancer including the functionality there are certain things that can only be done in the original apps.

SpriteMancer will be automatically added to your library If you have any of the following apps: Pixel FX Designer, Juice FX, Fluid FX or Smear FX at the moment SpriteMancer is released.

All of this means less income to myself, but It's the best way I can say thanks to all of you for supporting me through all this time.

More info: http://www.spritemancer.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/azdqRf8

• Glitch FX Node.
  
• De-Noiser Node.
  
• Undo System.
  
• Images origin can now be changed.
  
• Added 'Pixel Interpolation' to images.
  
• Added misc icons to the app.

• Credits updated.
  
• 'Waves' node now has time included.

• [Fixed] Layers can be deleted while editing a slider field.
  
• [Fixed] Deleting a layer that a Node System is using will crash the app.
  
• [Fixed] Dithering node is bugged.
  
• [Fixed] Selecting a particle from the sprite library sometimes crashes de app.
  
• [Fixes] New images aren't properly placed in the center.

This is mostly a bugfix patch with everything reported so far, and a new change that should reduce the VRAM consumption by a lot, about 1/2 of the previous one.

If no major bugs are discovered, this will be promoted to 'stable' and won't require a beta branch anymore.

• Greatly reduced the VRAM consumption of the app.

• Fixed a bug where duplicating an emitter and moving the particles inside would crash the app.
  
• Fixed a bug where nodes wheren't applied correctly when the canvas width/height ratio wasn't 1:1.
  
• Fixed a bug where importing a single nodesystem file would crash the app.
  
• Fixed misc various bugs.

*Small* update to fix some reported bugs and add some minor features.

• Added 'Crop' node.
  
• Added 'Reverse' option to the export options.
  
• The app will try to save your current project If it crashes, and give you the option to load the last project when opening it again.

• Fixed a bug that altered the elements IDs randomly.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented loading projects that used images.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented loading projects after creating and deleting several elements.

• Added particle 'Gravity' setting.
  
• Added particle 'Step Emit' setting.
  
• Added particle 'Death Emit' setting.
  
• Added a 'New Project' section in preferences to customize blank project settings.
  
• Added a 'Max Particles' setting in the preferences to limit the amount of particles spawned.
  
• Added 'Fireworks' example.

• Previews now zoom in/out more accurately.
  
• Burst render should now be always random.
  
• Nodes in the 'Add Node' menu in the NodeGraph are now divided by groups.

• 'Position' node is now properly named.
  
• Visible toggle for layer elements is now properly saved/loaded.

- Right click 'Pixel FX Designer' on your library
- Click 'Properties'
- Go to 'Betas'
- Select "v2.0.0.0" from the dropdown list.
- The app will start updating to the new version.

If this caught you by surprise, the v2.0 update is a full rewrite of Pixel FX Designer from scratch, and brings lots of new features and improvements. The major points being:

• New UI/UX.
  
• Layer support with infinite emitter, particles and images.
  
• NodeGraph system with lots of nodes to expand your animation.
  
• New rendering engine that It's about 20x faster.
  
• Lots of cool features like localization support, arbitrary canvas size, improved export options (frameskipping, mp4 video)

Have in mind that this is a beta version, and that there will be bugs and things missing or to be improved.

First of all, I want to say that I hope you all have a beautiful 2022! I know 2021 has been rough for a lot of us, but 2022 is gonna be great. I swear!

Before finishing this year, and after me not being able to finish the update I've been working on this whole year, I want to show you a tease of what's coming for Pixel FX Designer and Juice FX in the near future (hopefully January, If 2022 behaves).

I've been working on different modules and a base foundation for the tools, this means that Pixel FX Designer & Juice FX (and the other apps in the future) will share the same core library, and that means that despite being for completely different purposes, I'll be able to (most of the times) work on bugfixes and new features for both apps at the same time.

I'm showcasing 3 new things that will be added to both apps: Post-FX Node graphs, New layer system, 3D .obj support:

This might look complex, and in reality it can get as complex as you want it to be. You will have an 'Input' node where you can select the input texture (being able to choose 'All Layers' or individual layers.) and add different nodes with, currently, over 30 different VFXs. There's also modifier nodes that can change the other nodes values over time.

The full node graph system can be exported/imported, and they work cross-app, so If you develop a cool Juice FX system, you can export it and import it in Pixel FX Designer.

This will be an extension of the apps, so don't be afraid If it looks complex as It can be omitted and the app will work perfectly fine!

This module will also work for all apps, and here you'll be able to create, rename, hide and sort layers as you wish. The layers can hold multiple sub-elements and they will inherit the layer transforms.

Initially this will only be available for Juice FX (as I don't think It'd be very useful in Pixel FX Designer) and It'll have basic commands: move, scale and rotate. But this will be further expanded down the road.

Obviously this only affects Pixel FX Designer, but there's a new rendering pipeline and in my machine (i9 9900k/RTX 2060 super, performance will vary on each machine) the performance has gone through the roof:
Old System: Around 3,000 particles at 60fps.
New System: Around 100,000 particles at 60fps.

And there's much more coming, hopefully you'll like what you see! Also, the current version of the apps aren't going anywhere, they will still be forever available as a beta branch.

(The app shown in the gif is my test suite, the final UI/UX will be different on the final product)

- Paths now have an easing option, including the most common easing curves.
- New function: Image Contour. You can now load an image and the particles will spawn on its contour.
- New function: Auto-Trimming. Now when exporting an sprite sheet you'll have the option to trim it in order to reduce space. You'll get the new frame size on the file name suggestion.
- You can now drag and drop images and PPD projects directly into the app.
- GIF are now supported as custom particles. You can drop them into the app or use the custom sprite add function.
- Blur/Glow/Chromatic Aberration effects have been improved.

- Alpha now works correctly.
- Emitter position is now correctly loaded from projects.
- Rendering odd frames won't do weird things anymore.
- All example projects now work correctly.
- Chromatic aberration effect is now properly loaded from project files.
- Glow effect is now properly loaded from project files.
- Blur effect is now properly loaded from project files.
- Render FPS value is now properly saved and loaded from project files.
- Writing text into a slider while introducing a custom value will no longer crash the app.
- Particles will no longer flash on the final frame of their life.
- Timeline is now reset when hitting Render, Play or Burst buttons.
- Buttons will no longer disappear after getting a app message.
- Loading custom particle sprites will no longer crash the app randomly.

• Particle Repel engine: New function in Particles>Motion that allow particles to push each other.
  
• Random Seed selection: You can now set the random seed for seamless looping so if you find a seed that you like, it doesn't get randomized again.
  
• 11 new examples to showcase the new features.

• Alpha now works properly. Yes it does, It's finally here.
  
• Render Desync when rendering while running the app below 60fps is now fixed, no more broken loops.
  
• Input windows will no longer start out of focus.
  
• Several minor bugfixes.