Version 1.0.4 of Ephemeral has been released. There are no new features with this release. Instead I’ve improved the error reporting to clearly describe problems (in version 1.0.1 the error messages were rather obscure):

- If your Mac doesn’t support everything required by Ephemeral you will see an orange screen with a message that describes the incompatibility.
- If any other error occurs then you will see a red screen with a message stating the nature of the problem, along with an invitation to send an error report. This is now as easy as clicking on a “Send Error Report” link in Ephemeral’s configuration options.

NOTE: At present it appears that the drivers for all ATI Radeon GPUs (including those in brand new iMacs) do NOT allow OpenCL to access OpenGL images, and therefore Ephemeral can’t run with these GPUs. Until Apple or ATI release updated drivers there is nothing I can do to get around this problem.

The new version of Ephemeral is available from here.

Ephemeral is my new screen saver for OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) that draws animated IFS fractals, giving an ever-changing display of complex, natural shapes. It uses OpenCL (a new feature of OS X introduced with Snow Leopard) to harness the power of your GPU to efficiently perform the IFS calculations. And as usual, it’s free!

Download Ephemeral here. There are also some screenshots to give you an idea of what Ephemeral looks like.

(Has it really been a year since my last update? I’ll have to try harder next year!)

An updated version of my Reversi game is now available. The changes in this version are:

- Added a menu item to immediately start a new game with unchanged settings.
- The position of the board (spin and tilt) can be locked in place.
- The spin and tilt settings are now saved between sessions, so you can position the board how you like it, and it will stay that way.
- Added a preference for faster piece flipping animation.
- The board is drawn larger to better fill the window.

Download the new version of Reversi here.

My next game for OS X is now available. Reversi is a fully 3D rendered version of the classic board game. The AI is strong (with five skill levels) and it plays quickly. Or if you prefer, you can play against a friend. Reversi requires OS X 10.3.9 or later, and works on both Intel and PowerPC Macs. And it’s free! Take a look at Reversi here.

A new version of Coblyn is available. The main changes are:

- Coblyn now records high scores. For each level it remembers the most diamonds you have collected, and the fastest you have completed the level. It also records all your actions while playing the levels, so you can replay them later.
- Pressing Command-Return at any time will toggle between full-screen and windowed modes.
- Pressing Command-Q while in full-screen mode will quit the game (it always worked when windowed).

Download the new version of Coblyn here.

I’ve also started work on my next game, so stay tuned!