CRM64Pro v0.20.0: Scene particles, animated lighting, and expanded image support
CRM64Pro GDK v0.20.0 is now available, bringing particle effects directly into Scene workflows, adding animated point and spot lights, and expanding image format support across the GDK and EditorC64.
Building on the particle and lighting systems introduced in v0.19.0, this release makes dynamic effects a native part of Scene authoring and playback. Scene particles can be placed and configured visually, they interact with tile and object geometry, follow Scene objects, and run through the same adaptive worker pipeline used by standalone emitters.
Version 0.20.0 also improves EditorC64 Scene editing, Universal VTT import, renderer handling, font and widget controls, and the performance of particle collision and simulation.
Particle effects become native Scene objects
Scenes can now contain C64Particle objects backed by saved particle assets or built-in presets. Each object owns an independent runtime emitter and participates in object-layer ordering, camera movement, and smooth scrolling. Autoplay, object-following, offsets, off-screen update rates, and collision sources can all be configured per instance.
Particle collisions can use tile layers, TMX object shapes, or both simultaneously. Rectangle, circle, ellipse, segment, and polygon shapes are compiled into persistent physics collision sets, while portals can dynamically enable or disable their particle-blocking and light-occlusion roles as their open or closed state changes.
Independent emitters are now updated in parallel through an adaptive ParticleMgr worker pipeline. Collision queries and Scene collider updates have also been optimized so that moved or resized objects update only their own geometry.
Animated lights and improved ambient lighting
Scene point and spot lights now support pulse, deterministic flicker, and candle animations, along with secondary-color blending, intensity and radius modulation, shadows, and rotation-driven spotlight direction. Animation settings are stored directly with the Scene as TMX properties.
Ambient light intensity can now be configured independently of its color. The lighting pass combines both values before local lights are applied, allowing animated lights to remain visible even when a Scene uses a neutral white ambient color. TMX background colors are also loaded, rendered in the viewport, and preserved when saving.
Scene authoring improvements in EditorC64
EditorC64 can now preview C64Particle objects in the Scenes tab and provides modeless tools for placing, moving, and editing particle instances directly on the map. Direct on-map movement is also available for other Scene objects, complete with visible color markers for standard objects, occluders, and portals.
The Universal VTT importer can assign independent light-occlusion, particle-collision, and movement-cost roles to imported geometry while preserving portal states. Native C64SCENE v3 resources are automatically migrated to v4, including renaming c64te_* properties to c64scn_*.
Import workflows now feature consistent summary dialogs, while synchronized text views, runtime renderer selection, and general panel refinements make Scene and CDC inspection more streamlined and intuitive.
Broader image and interface support
ImageMgr and EditorC64 can now load JPEG, PCX, TGA, and WebP images. EditorC64 can also import animated WebP files as Scenes, while image saving remains available in BMP and PNG formats.
The new IF_BLUR_ALPHA premultiplied-alpha Gaussian blur and IF_DILATE_ALPHA morphological filters make it easier to create glow textures and expand alpha silhouettes. In addition, texture recreation when switching renderers has been fixed and improved.
What this means for CRM64Pro v0.20.0
CRM64Pro v0.20.0 completes the next stage of the effects workflow started in v0.19.0: particle systems and animated lighting can now be authored as part of a Scene, previewed in EditorC64, persisted in TMX and CDC resources, and run with shared collision geometry and adaptive parallel simulation.
Expanded image support and focused interface improvements make it easier to bring existing assets into this workflow, while built-in migration support in EditorC64 ensures older native Scenes remain fully compatible with the new version.