Fork Particle 1.0 Released
Fork Particle launches Fork Particle 1.0

Pleasanton, California - July 15, 2005  – Fork Particle, a leading middleware developer of particle-system effects software and SDK, announced the official launch of Fork Particle Studio and Fork Particle PC-Runtime release 1.0. The beta evaluation version of the middleware generated excitement at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this March. The current major release incorporates wide-ranging customer feedback from a lengthy beta trial process, registering an improved user interface whilst also introducing various new capabilities. The cross-platform middleware particle system pipeline technology has already been used by Electronic Arts—one of the global leaders in the gaming industry—to enhance the quality of special effects in their title ‘Urbz: Sims in the City.”

Fork Particle 1.0 invites game developers to enter a particle-system authoring studio—with user-friendly controls and real-time feedback—to create, test and fine-tune cutting edge special effects and incorporate them into their games with minimum fuss. All features of the product carefully target game development: the particle engine allows key-frame animation with curves for interpolation between frames; flip-book animation for both textures and 3-d models; randomization of fields; render-state blend modes; and, work flow enhancements.

The particle systems engine design and architecture is efficient on console and PC platforms and scalability and access to engine components allows programmers to add custom functionality with minimum bother. Components of Fork Particle 1.0 that particularly distinguish it are Fork Live Tuner and Fork Runtime. Fork Live Tuner lets the effects artists or designers tweak and fine-tune their assets in-game. This reduces iteration time on assets to a minimum: the artist continues to work in the familiar Fork Particle Studio environment, which connects directly to the target where the game application is running. Fork Runtime is an easy to use runtime SDK component, which easily integrates with internal and 3rd party game engines, and is used in Fork Particle Studio to ensure that what you see is what you get in the game application. This not only separates the phases of creation and integration of assets and ensures quality, but also cuts down significantly on production time.

“At Fork Particle, quality is our key asset. Fork Particle is motivated by the belief that great special effects take the excitement in a video game to its peak. Our software empowers game developers to focus on production of high quality and creative content while saving time and money,” commented Noor Khawaja, CEO of Fork Particle. With reference to Fork Particle 1.0, he added: "With this release, our customers can create top quality special effects to enhance graphics and add life to their game environments. Fork Particle’s proven expertise in advanced particle system software, along with average hardware requirement and minimal maintenance cost, makes us the natural choice for companies looking to maintain the highest standards, whilst increasing productivity, minimizing risk, and reducing development costs. Fork Particle 1.0 represents the best value for our customers, who are discerning game developers: they understand that the advanced feature set, ease of use, and affordability of the product, are hard to match.”