What's new?

Introducing FWsim 3.4

All Editions

• New Dark Design (you can go back to the old design by disabling “Dark Mode” in the preferences)
• Improved Camera Animation System
• Saving and Loading of camera positions
• Topdown Camera View
• Improved “Create New Effect” dialog with many more sample designs to choose from
• Fullscreen Mode (press ALT+ENTER in the show editor)
• Preferences easier to navigate
• When snapping in the timeline, FWsim is now indicating what exactly your cue is snapping to
• Russian Translation

FWsim Pro

• New option to insert cues at burst time, instead of firing time. This affects inserting, pasting and snapping.
• Vertical Reference Line when moving (needs to be activated in preferences)
• Snap to Cursor when moving cues (always active, disable by holding the Control key)
• New pin sorting order for automatic channel assignment: “By Diameter (Single Shots first)”
• DMX Cues now have a minimum firing duration of 0,01sec.
• If channels are locked, this is now indicated in the table view.
• Cue position now shown in table view
• PDF and HTML export: Option to order by channel instead of time.
• Can now use Multi-Letter currency symbols in effects data (for example, CZK and EUR)
• The position selection box in the sidebar is now also available for DMX cues
• DMX cues can now be exported as channels on the firing system (currently only possible with the FirePioneer and Pyroneo systems - please let us know if you would like to use this mode with your firing system)
• FirePioneer system
• Pyroneo: Can switch between exporting flamejets with actual duration, or to ignore show duration and export with constant duration
• Pyroneo: ON time can be configured (previously it was fixed to 500ms)

Bugfix Update

This Update is only released for FWsim Pro, and it only affects French customers of ARDI SA.

• Selection in timeline can be expanded by holding SHIFT key and drawing multiple rectangles.
• Fix: A small number of users reported FWsim after activation switching back to trial mode. This has been solved.

This update is for FWsim Pro only. FWsim Basic and FWsim Creative Edition are still on version number 3.3.0.20.

• Support for the Russian Pyrocontrol system added

This update is for FWsim Pro only. FWsim Basic and FWsim Creative Edition are still on version number 3.3.0.20.

• Documentation updated to clarify how channels are assigned to a music player.
• Bugfix (Cobra System): It is now possible to use 0 as a module number.
• Bugfix (Firestorm System): Exporting a PDF plan previously did not work when “assign a channel” on a music cue was activated.

Bugfix: In the previous update, 3D models with non-English characters in their name could not be imported.

Steam Version:

• Steam version now has access to the online fireworks database.

FWsim Pro:

• Module list shows nr of channels and position for each module.
• The “Enter Time” functionality is now available for multiple cues, instead of just one. Simply select a group of cues, right-click and choose “Enter Time”.

FWsim Pro:

• Channel editing in Table View
• Pyrodigital: Module and Pin numbers now displaced hexidecimally. Also, a new Pyrodigital demo video is available
• Label Export: Options to hide / show borders and cue number

• Bugfixes
• Slight visual improvements to the effects included with FWsim
• Slight improvements to the tail components “Explosion Sparks” and “Mortar Sparks”

• New effect selection window with better filters and animated preview
• Right-click in effect selection window to delete effects
• Even more performance improvements
• Some very old effects were removed from the library, and replaced with new designs. (The old effects are still included as a ZIP file in the FWsim program directory, in case you want to get them back)
• Effect Editor: Pause, scroll forwards and backwards in time, and see your updates instantly.
• Effect Editor: Special tail components now available. These tail components can be inserted instead of a normal tail, and they represent real types of tails. This is a good way to immediately make your effect more realistic!
• Effect Editor: Stars can be configured to not change color when using the “change color” option in the show editor.
• Effect Editor: Ascent Stars can be configured to change color when using the “change color” option in the show editor. (this is off by default)
• New option to automatically go back to starting point after playing a section in the show editor
• Changed behaviour with tails in effect editor: The density is now independent of the time. Previously, when you made a tail half as long, the density was twice as big. This change only applies to new effects that are now created, not to existing effects, and not to copies of existing effects.
• Users without a middle mouse button can now use the CTRL key plus left mouse button to move the free camera.
• Fixed layout problems on 4K monitors

The following improvements are available in FWsim Pro only:

• New firing system: Mongoose by Simplifire
• Custom Components in Effect Editor: Create your own custom tail components. Create a tail design once, then re-use it for all your effects. This can be done for star tails, ascent tails and ascent stars.
• Color Variation Tool: Create one effect, then use this tool to automatically generate lots of copies for different colors.
• New sorting options for pins (by position, and by effect)
• CSV angle was now renamed to “Angle Inverse” (because it is inverted compared to the angle in the show editor). New “Angle” option added which reflects the angle in the show editor.
• New option to calculate total mass of active material while editing a show.
• Firetek: New modules with 16 pins per slat now supported
• For multi-monitor users, timeline height and window positions are now remembered

• Bugfix related to “Change Type (for effect selection filter)” option in Effect Editor

• Bugfix: Video export would fail if the video filename contains any non-English characters like accents

• Loading of waveform for music is much faster
• Stability improvements
• During video rendering, previously FWsim used the Windows “temporary files” folder for intermediate files. From now on, only the video output folder is used. This is helpful for users having multiple hard drives in their computer.

• New demo show
• A small number of new effects added to all editions
• Bugfixes

• In video export, MP4 is now the default format.
• MP4 format details changed. It should now be compatible with most video editing software. (If the file doesn’t work in your favorite video editor, please let us know)
• Effect selection filters easier to use
• Bugfix: Crash when adding a new firing line at the same position as a previous one.

FWsim Pro only:

• Effect selection window: Hover mouse over an effect to view caliber and other details
• Bugfix: Crash when entering invalid channels for a stepper and then switching to a different stepper

• In-App Tutorial German translation updated
• Bugfix: When adding two camera moves to an empty show, and using “Free Camera”, and then editing the second one; the first one would update too.
• Bugfix: Since version 3.2.0.0, some customers reported instability in video rendering. This update will probably fix that.

• In-App Tutorial expanded
• Supporting more kinds of 3D models - as always, please send us models that are not working.

Show Editor

• Enormous performance improvement. Playback should be much more fluid than in previous versions.
• Live Preview! Scroll through your show to see the display at any time, without needing to hit “Play”
• Option to pack your show file, including effects and 3D models and music, into a ZIP file.

Features Unlocked

• Point Positions are now available in all editions of FWsim. (Previously, FWsim Basic and FWsim Creative Edition could only create lines, no single firing points)
• Multi-Select now available in all editions of FWsim. Select multiple cues by holding the SHIFT key, or dragging a rectangle with your mouse.

3D Worlds

• Three new simple 3D Worlds included in all editions: London Tower Bridge, Burj Al Arab and “Arabic City”. When you load any of these 3D Worlds, some pre-defined firing positions will be added to your show.
• New options in World Editor:
  • Display Lines on/off (some 3D models contain thin lines. Sometimes you want these lines, but often they are a distraction)
  • Show backside of geometry on/off (turn this off for a good performance improvement)
  • Change ground texture
• 3D worlds load faster
• Can now load 3D models that include embedded textures. For example, the FBX model format allows to embed textures directly into it - without separate texture files. As always, if your 3D model doesn’t work, do not hesitate to contact us.

FWsim is now easier to user

• FWsim now contains an interactive beginner tutorial. This is automatically started if you have started FWsim less than 10 times before. You can manually start it from the Help menu.
• Free Camera:
  • is now the default
  • helptext shown on Screen
  • changed behavior: The SHIFT key now makes it go slower
  • simply click into the 3D view, then use keyboard W-A-S-D to control it. (Previously, you also needed to keep the mouse button pressed)
  • keys are now working correctly for Canadian users with French language
• If focus is on the timeline, then the timeline is highlighted with an orange border

Sound

• Completely new sounds, designed by Norwegian sound designer Dan Wakefield
• Crossette and Fountains now have sounds (crossette sounds can be disabled in the effect editor)
• Background wind sound (can be disabled in preferences)
• Better Audio / Music / Video synchronization - both in show editor aswell as in video export. If you find a show that isn’t in sync with the music, please let us know.

Languages

• FWsim now completely available in Spanish

Bugfixes and small improvements

• When exporting a video without enough disk space, FWsim now shows a better error message
• Fixed: Some previous versions of FWsim were blurry on high-resolution displays.
• Fixed: When selecting a cue in the timeline, in some situations you needed to click again to be able to delete it.
• A small number of customers reported crashes with “Custom Shape”. This should be fixed.
• Fixed: When selecting a cue in the timeline, in some situations you needed to click again before being able to delete it with the DEL key.
• New “About” box and installer images designed by Josue Beauregard

FWsim Pro

• Now showing every individual angle for a Stepper in export.
• Improvements to Pyrotecmex firing system.
• Now supporting semi-automatic firing mode for Pyroneo - so that you need to press a button on the firing system before the next segment in the show plays. To define segments, simply insert comments that end with » (two angled brackets pointing to the right). Each comment designates the start of a segment. Semi-automatic firing is supported for Pyroneo, RfRemotech and Pyromac. Let us know if you need this feature for any other system.

• Fixed problem with “License Info and Upgrade” button in the Help menu

• Direct YouTube Upload from FWsim is now possible.
• Video rendering now offers a file size setting - allowing you to create a large video file with great quality, or a small video file with lower quality.

• Fix: When copying cues, front/back rotation is not copied. (Update January 2021: Unfortunately, it looks like this bug still persists. We apologize for that. It will be fixed with one of the next updates.)
• Fix: When shooting a lot of fireworks, the lights on the ground and on 3D objects would flicker. This bug is actually ten years old and has always been in FWsim. It’s finally been fixed.

• FWsim Pro: Pyrotecmex Firing System supported.

• IMPORTANT CHANGE: For play/stop, FWsim now uses the Spacebar instead of F1
• Improved lighting on environment
• FWsim can now produce MP4 files when rendering a video (read more about video quality in the FWsim manual)
• Option in 3D world editor to disable the rendering of lines (explanation here).
• Option in 3D world editor to change the ground. You can even add your own ground textures.
• 3D world editor allows greater range of scaling
• “Free camera” rotation is now a bit less sensitive
• When using multiple music cues, snapping to beats now works correctly.
• When you are in the textbox next to a trackbar and press ESCAPE, the previous value is restored. When you press ENTER, the new value is accepted and you will leave the textbox.
• Fix: buttons cut off when using moving camera
• Fix: Sometimes, when clicking a cue, it would stick to the cursor. Or it would move very quickly towards the right, resulting in shows that have one or two cues at very large times, like 1000 hours. (Please note: It is possible that this problem still occurs in some situations. Should the problem still occur, please let us know right away.)
• Fix: On small monitors, when activating color-changing in the effect editor, FWsim would crash

FWsim Pro:

• Pyrodigital firing system added (However, we have only tested on one type of Pyrodigital equipment, so there might be problems. If you try it, please let us know how it goes).

• Huge number of new, super realistic effects added:
  • Watch demo video of the new effects
  • FWsim Basic now has 486 effects
  • FWsim Creative Edition includes 1718 effects
  • and FWsim Pro comes with 2303 effects
  • plus, every edition gives you access to the online fireworks database (as always)
  • Please install these extra effects from your license page: Click the “Help” menu and then “License Info and Upgrade”
• Effect Editor: Possibility to adjust brightness over time for stars. For example, you can make stars fade in later, disappear quickly, or fade in very slowly.
• New background sky with higher resolution, ideal for creating 4K videos (in 3.1.0.1)
• New demo show with music (in 3.1.0.2)
• Simulation: The angle of mortars is now slightly randomized, for improved realism. As always, you can switch to perfectly accurate simulation in the preferences.
• Effect Editor: Time Display
• Effect Editor: XLarge stars added
• Various Bugfixes concerning small displays, crossette, crackling, custom position height and data export.
• New, more realistic default colors for stars
• Made the sound for mines more quiet and realistic.

FWsim Pro:

• The Galaxis export now writes module and pin numbers into the file.
• “SkyDirector” firing system renamed to “Pyroneo”
• There is now only one “Cobra” firing system. Previously, there were two “Cobra” options depending on your firmware version. Please note that you need Cobra firmware v4 or later.
• New firing system: Liuyang Happiness
• The effects list in the PDF export can now display the caliber

• Cues can now be copied between shows: Open one show, copy a cue, then open the other show and insert it. (To copy multiple cues between shows, FWsim Pro is required)
• Changed behaviour with fireworks on buildings: Before version 3.0.1.12, when “Set Height” is activated, the fireworks would adjust themselves to be at the actual height of the building. Now, when “Set Height” is activated, the fireworks shoot from exactly the height that was configured.
• Bugfix for FWsim Pro: When a position was set to “Point”, an “End Position” slider would be visible - which makes no sense for points.

• FWsim Pro: new time format for CSV, HTML and PDF export: “hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds”
• Various bugfixes

Bugfixes:

• 600mm shell would display as “1mm” in the effects editor
• Crash with certain firing sytems when exporting a show that includes DMX cues
• Pyrosure Export: the music filename is no longer shortened to 12 characters, as it was before

• Fix: Online Fireworks Library Upload

Bugfixes

Betatest is finished, this is the public version.

• Fix: Crash when clicking + / - buttons on zoom slider in show editor
• Fix: Issues with PDF export

• Fix: Some stars missing in peony
• Fix: Invisible explosions for shell-of-shells

• Various bugfixes

• French and Italian translation updated.
• Phrase search in Effect Library: If you want to search for an exact phrase, simply write “Red Peony” (including the quotation marks). This will display effects that mention “Red Peony” but not “Peony, Red”. If you omit the quotation marks, both of these examples will be found.
• Various bugfixes (“Rotate” checkbox in Stars, Crash when changing birthtime, layout improvements)

We are now moving into the second phase of our beta test, and we aim for a public release within the next weeks. A big “thank you” to everyone who submitted ideas, bug reports and suggestions! Please keep the feedback coming.

• FWsim now looks much better on displays with high pixel density (many pixels on a small space). If you notice any screens that don’t look right on these displays, or any form of visual errors, please let us know.
• German translation complete. (French and Italian translations will be updated in the next weeks)
• Stars can now be set to 200% speed. This means you can make smaller and quieter bursts that expell faster stars than their explosion strength would usually allow.
• When selecting an effect to insert, the effect selection window now remembers the previously selected effect.
• Effect selection window layout improved, bigger size by default, and its size can now be changed.
• Sidebar width in show editor can be changed.
• When a larger cue completely overlaps a smaller one in the show editor, the smaller one is always displayed on top. This prevents situations where a cue hides behind another cue.

FWsim Pro:

• RFRemotech is now working fine.
• “Select all Cues” feature in Show menu - you can use this, for example, to quickly delete all cues from the show and start again.

• Shape shells (smiley, letters, etc…) - create a Shell and select “Custom Shape”. Click the black image, and FWsim will open MS Paint where you can draw your own shape!
• Cakes can now have multiple parts. This allows combination of different shapes and timings. Use the arrows on the top of the cake editor to move between the different parts and edit them separately.
• New star size “large”, useful for making effects like Dahlias
• User interface improvements based on feedback from beta testers
• Crossette looks nicer now
• Crossette and Crackling receive momentum from the star they are attached to. If a star burns out while it still has considerable speed, the crossette or crackling will continue moving into the same direction.
• Fix: on some graphics cards, sometimes there would be a situation where during video rendering, the 3D world is constantly reloaded
• Fix: invisible geometry on some 3D models.
• Improved stability and performance of video rendering.

Only in FWsim Creative Edition:

• FWsim Creative Edition now allows to put cues on arbitrary heights, and rotate your fireworks in 3D - features previously only available in the Pro edition.

Only in FWsim Pro:

• New firing system: RFRemotech (please note: We’re still working on it and there is one small problem remaining that will be fixed with the next update)
• “Insert show”: Functionality moved to menu bar. Plus, the functionality now inserts all the individual cues from the other show. (In previous versions, it would insert one very large cue containing all the elements).
• Changes to PyroIgnitionControl export: The column headlines are now in English or French; depending on your system language. Also fixed wrong data being exported in one of the columns.
• Channels are automatically updated before label export. (Previously, channels would only automatically update when exporting to firing systems)
• Feature to insert empty cues while playing back the music - by using the hotkey CTRL+G.
• Paper Size option added to PDF plan export
• Label export now works well in combination with chains and steppers.

• Functionality to define beats in music is now available again, and it’s easier to use.
• Fix: Mine Width option missing from Whistle, Farfalle and Tourbillon
• Fix: Timeline was too small on high-resolution displays
• Music beats now show up on top of the timeline
• Chains on steppers now possible

• New option under “Preferences” to make the simulation more accurate. By default, FWsim adds inaccuracies in timing and height of effects, for increased realism. Using this option, you can avoid that and get a more precise simulation with a bit less realism.
• When an update is found, you will see a list of all the changes before deciding whether to update or not.
• Reduced installer size from 180 MB to 135 MB.
• Shortcut CTRL+HOME to go back to beginning of the show.

Only in FWsim Pro:

• The size of comments in the timeline can be changed.
• Support for the proprietary Pyrodigy firing system
• Possibility to import audio events from text file. Each line of the text file corresponds to one event, and each line must exactly match the format “mm:ss:cc”, where “mm” is the number of minutes, “ss” the number of seconds and “cc” the number of centiseconds (1/100 of a second). To import audio events, select both your music and your text file in Windows explorer, and drag both over the timeline. The text file must have the file ending “txt”.

• Resizing of the FWsim window is now very fast.
• “Fronts” now named “Positions”. The change also performed in the German, Italian and French translations.
• Incorporated bugfix from the current v2: Fireworks on building would not be set to the correct height when the “scaling” in the world editor was set to something other than 100%.
• You can now load 3D models by selecting the model file (in previous versions of FWsim, you always needed to pack your model into a ZIP file).
• Search function in effect selection now searches for individual words. For example, can type “Mine Red” and will see “Red Mine” in your results.

Only in FWsim Pro:

• More label print improvements
  • You can now select label print “per module”, “per igniter” or “per cue”. “Per igniter” is new and shows, among other things, information about chains created with the new chaining feature.
  • Paper size: Landscape formats available
  • When using the “per cue” format, the angle is now displayed visually, and the text layout is improved.
• Address field in PDF or HTML export now indicates “chained” for cues in chains
• “Text comment” option moved from main menu into the toolbox.

• New Design
• Timeline completely rewritten and greatly improved:
  • Large shows open much quicker
  • Dragging and zooming are now completely smooth
  • The Height of the timeline can be changed (simple drag the dividing line between timeline and 3D view)
  • You can now zoom by holding the CONTROL key and using the mouse wheel
  • You can move in time by clicking and holding the MIDDLE mouse button over the timeline, and then moving the mouse.
  • When dragging cues, FWsim waits until the mouse has moved at least 3 pixels before moving the cue. This is to prevent accidential movement of cues.
  • When dragging cues, you can move them to the right or left edges of the timeline to scroll. You can also move them down or up to scroll vertically (if there are enough tracks so that vertical scrolling becomes active).
  • In previous versions of FWsim, you could add more tracks by simply dragging a cue downwards. This is still possible, but now you can also click “Show -> Add More Tracks” or simply press CTRL+SHIFT+N to add extra empty tracks.
  • In previous versions of FWsim, the music was displayed within the timeline. In FWsim 3, additionally the music is now visible on top of the timeline. To avoid seeing it twice, simply right-click on the empty background and un-check “Display Music in Timeline”. To change the size of the music on top of the timeline, right-click into the top area of the timeline (where the time indicators are) and select a size.
  • Add music to timeline by dragging and dropping the audio file from Explorer
• New music file formats supported: AAC, M4A, MP4, WEBM, FLAC. This is in addition to the other formats previously supported (WAV, MP3, OGG, AIFF).
• Peonies look more realistic and more clean. Additionally, there is a slider in the effect editor under “Stars” to adjust how clean the shape of the peony looks.
• Undo and Redo for most functions in the show editor
• Warning before deleting a position that is in use
• Less stuttering when you have lots of effects
• A search box in the effect selection window
• Improved performance: Application starts faster, effect editor opens quicker, loading large shows is faster. The effect selection window also opens quicker.
• Option to rename effects from within the effect selection window
• Removed “selection mode” button. When adding a single firework or stepper, FWsim now inserts only one copy of a cue by default, and then switches back to the normal mouse cursor. If you want to add multiple cues with the same firework, click “Single Firework” or “Stepper” and then tick the checkbox in the right lower corner. You can then add multiple cues, and when you’re done, simply right-click on the timeline to get the normal cursor back.
• Timeline zooming with CTRL + Mouse Wheel
• Option in the preferences to mark the area in the 3D view that will be visible on video export
• Effect preview images look a bit nicer
• Effects that are not found show up in grey in the show

Only in FWsim Pro:

• Channel information is now displayed as a small red box on top of the cues
• Possibility to add chains. When you chain effects together, only the first cue of each chain will receive a channel on the firing system. To set this up, click a cue and press CTRL+D, then click the cue you want to connect to. Alternatively, select two or more cues and press CTRL+D to chain them all together.
• Label Export:
  • Options for commonly used paper sizes.
  • Dimensions are now in inches for users in the US.
  • New label export format displaying more information.
  • Settings are remembered.
• Module numbers for Cobra firing system can now start at zero.