I've been working like mad on Caustic these past few months, and I'll soon have something to show for it (at least for testing) but over the Easter break, I had to scratch an itch...

I'd been optimizing code for a few days when I decided to tackle the modular synth that's going into Caustic. I got a few % back but the main optimization strategy I had thought of actually turned out to yield worse performance, so I reverted a full days work and I felt like I had lost my edge.

Enter the "Falling Sand" game. Ever since I played the original Java game back in 2005-2006, it's been one of my favorite time-wasters. I have a few different versions on iPad, but most of my devices are Android and there simply wasn't a falling sand game on Android that ran as fast as on iOS and that bugged me. Well, after this latest modular synth optimization setback, I knew what I needed to do to get my confidence back.

Here's the result of a few evenings optimizing and modifying the EnigmaSand 2 source code. How fast it runs will depend on your CPU-to-screen size ratio, but I can safely say it's A LOT faster than other Android falling sand games.

It's a full native (C/C++) app so Android 2.3 or greater is required. You also need a screen 800x480 or bigger. It might work on smaller screens, but I don't have anything smaller than 800x480 to test on so no guarantees.

0 dollars, 0 permissions. Enjoy.

Looking for a little distraction from composing?

Fellow KVR'ian Aldo Calpini has posted his first Android app and it's dedicated to synth lovers. It's a quiz where you have to name the synth model based on a picture that's shown on screen.

I'm terrible at identifying vintage synths but I did get a few right! How many can you name?

Check it out, it's a straight APK download from his website, with no Android permissions required.

Synth Quiz

Hi Caustic lovers, passer byes and developers.

I have started to write some technical blog posts about the CausticCore and CausticToolkit on my company blog. This relates to Java Android developers, Apache Flex and Flash Player Adobe AIR developers.

See; http://blog.teotigraphix.com and http://blog.teotigraphix.com/category/caustic/

If you have any questions about any information on my blog, post a comment on the blog and I will be sure to get back to you with an answer. I'm also a committer and PMC member in the Apache Flex project, so AIR mobile developers expect some interesting things in the future.

I am also looking for beta testers that develop on these two platforms, if your interested, get a hold of me through PM on this site, my contact page on http://www.teotigraphix.com/contact or in the forums here.

Here is an excerpt from one of the first blog posts;

Here's a peak at one of my side-projects. I've wanted to make a modular synth since I began making sense of synths a few years ago and wrote Caustic's subsynth.

Now that Caustic 2 allows for dynamic rack placement of machines, it also expands things for new machines. One of the suggestions that often comes up from gear-heads is the idea of a fully modular synth. I.e one you can make from pieces and connect however you wish. These monsters are great experimenting and learning.

Press "read more" below to get it...

Although it has been out for over a week now, I just thought I'd mention here that Caustic is now available on BlackBerry's tablet.

The PlayBook is a really slick tablet, and can be picked up for pretty cheap in most parts of the world. The performance is great, the latency is low (~16ms) and the OS is really nice once you get used to it (coming from Android).

Caustic 2 is available as a free demo and full/paid version on BlackBerry AppWorld.

A big welcome to those coming here from their PlayBook, I invite you to register and join in on the forums.

Update - 15 June 2012: It seems as though AppWorld is refusing to publish the "Community Content Pack" installer because it's not a "real" app. So I"m offering it via this website in the meantime. Download the ZIP file, connect your PlayBook and open it as a USB device, browse to the misc/caustic/ folder and extract the ZIP contents there. The content should then be available through the app in "community1" folders in both the demo and paid versions.

This also means it will be harder to get 3rd-party content packs over from the Android market as well. Zvon have put their stuff on a dedicated PlayBook page here, with instructions.