VS 2.4 is out, and it's a free update for everyone who owns VS 2. A layer can now be a GPU particle system: up to 131,072 particles simulated every frame, as streams, swarms, solids and clouds, some of them lit and casting shadows. They answer audio and MIDI through the same modulation matrix as everything else.
Ten particle models. Orbits, Cube Stream, Disintegrate, Lightning Tree, Solids, Nebula, Strata, Slipstream, Bloom and Combed Flow. Each brings up to seven parameters of its own, and every one is a destination in the modulation matrix: a kick drum can scatter Solids, a MIDI note can turn its pyramid into a cross, an LFO can run ripples over it.
Your image, in particles. Disintegrate rebuilds a layer's own image from particles, takes it apart as smoke, an explosion, crumbling dust, a vortex or a gale, and brings it back from the edge it left from.
22 factory presets built with particles, to start from.
Better recordings. VS now records in ProRes 422 HQ next to H.264, saved as .mov on macOS, Windows and supported iOS devices. On Windows, H.264 recordings use the graphics card's encoder, so 4K recordings no longer drop frames, and the plug-ins run on Direct3D 12 when the computer supports it, as the app does.
More formats in. AVI (DV footage included), QuickTime Animation, PNG, HAP, CineForm and DNxHD video, and .m4a audio on macOS and iOS.
Your library, organised. Create, rename and delete your own banks, keep User Materials in folders, and sign your presets with an Author field.
Particles run on macOS, on iPad, and on Windows with Direct3D 12; they are not available on Android. Everything else is in the full changelog.
New to VS? VS 2 is €129 for a desktop licence that covers up to five computers, or €9.90 a month over 12 months with rent-to-own, and VS 1 owners get an upgrade price. On iPad and Android, VS 2 is €59.99. The demo has no time limit; the output carries a watermark until VS is licensed.
Download VS 2.4 from the downloads page, or explore VS. On iPad and Android, update from the App Store or Google Play.
