With the latest addition from Corona Labs in adding the support for Particle Designer, I’d love to hear any opinions out there from people about using one or the other - or where each one has its strengths.
I’ve been using Particle Candy and enjoy it, but I was thinking that Particle Designer might have better performance since it’s baked into the framework.
Thanks for the thoughts!
As I understand it, Corona has basically just opened the door for you to use Particle Designer ($50), which seems to be the current Photoshop among particle visualizers (at least, for game/app developers). If you want to spend your time making the perfect particle setup without code, PD seems to be a great way to do it, and it may save you some time because the full UI suite gives you a way to quickly iterate and try out different effects.
I can’t speak to Particle Candy apart from saying X-PRESSIVE have supported Corona SDK for quite some time, so their code is probably quite solid, but I’m not sure they provide a visualizer. I can speak to CBEffects (free!) which works great but basically means you have to write code to try it out, as there’s no outside visualizer. But both support G2.0 now and are perfectly valid options.
Just FYI, that $50 price is for upgrades – new versions of Particle Designer are $75.
Looks like (at least initially) the particle engine in Corona SDK will be limited to Pro users and above. Particle Candy and CBEffects can still be used in the free (and cheap) versions of the SDK.
Jay
Hmm, wish there was a launch promotion or something like that to make it a little more affordable.
Personally i think this is great, and particle designer is a great tool. In my opinion it’s price is justified but, to each his own i guess 
Thanks for adding this CoronaLabs!
Indeed I’m sure its worth every penny. I will probably buy it sooner or later.
I use both but prefer using particle candy as I am not really a mac guy so always have a hard time with trying to do stuff in the UI on particle designer but hey I have the same problem with Photoshop on the Mac, I use it on my windows box everyday but get pissed off every time i have to open it on the mac.
Now if PD had a version for windows I would switch in a second.
As I understand it, Corona has basically just opened the door for you to use Particle Designer ($50), which seems to be the current Photoshop among particle visualizers (at least, for game/app developers). If you want to spend your time making the perfect particle setup without code, PD seems to be a great way to do it, and it may save you some time because the full UI suite gives you a way to quickly iterate and try out different effects.
I can’t speak to Particle Candy apart from saying X-PRESSIVE have supported Corona SDK for quite some time, so their code is probably quite solid, but I’m not sure they provide a visualizer. I can speak to CBEffects (free!) which works great but basically means you have to write code to try it out, as there’s no outside visualizer. But both support G2.0 now and are perfectly valid options.
Just FYI, that $50 price is for upgrades – new versions of Particle Designer are $75.
Looks like (at least initially) the particle engine in Corona SDK will be limited to Pro users and above. Particle Candy and CBEffects can still be used in the free (and cheap) versions of the SDK.
Jay
Hmm, wish there was a launch promotion or something like that to make it a little more affordable.
Personally i think this is great, and particle designer is a great tool. In my opinion it’s price is justified but, to each his own i guess
Thanks for adding this CoronaLabs!
Indeed I’m sure its worth every penny. I will probably buy it sooner or later.
I use both but prefer using particle candy as I am not really a mac guy so always have a hard time with trying to do stuff in the UI on particle designer but hey I have the same problem with Photoshop on the Mac, I use it on my windows box everyday but get pissed off every time i have to open it on the mac.
Now if PD had a version for windows I would switch in a second.
Does particle designer only work on corona PRO or above?
Yes its a premium graphics feature.
Does particle designer only work on corona PRO or above?
Yes its a premium graphics feature.