Howdy, Titaneers. Happy Fourth of July. This is Warcabbit with a very important message about independence.

First, sit back, and watch our video. Then I’ll explain.

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We’ve made videos before. You’ve seen them. And I’ve got to tell you something. We used things we bought that other people made for most of them. A building here, an animation there. Even the particle effects from the FX video were pulled straight out of Unreal Engine 4’s library.

Not this time.

Every special effect, from the mortar launch to the sizzling arc, to the explosion in bright colors, is the loving result of some very hard work from all of our coders and artists. You know we never do anything for just one reason - this was our tool to make sure we had the FX system under our command.

I think we’ve got this one.

And that’s right - those mortar shells you see launching actually fly through the air, and they’re timed to explode when they hit the apex of the arc, thanks to gravity. Every firework is the result of physics, from ignition to the time the last spark hits the ground. Every spark is a calculated flame, dying on the breeze. The wind can blow it, the smoke can drift, up and down.

Every boom, every pop, every crackle is spawned by the animation, at the appropriate time. Nothing is pre-judged, nothing is pre-loaded.

And when we say boom, pop, and crackle, they’re there. Our recording software couldn’t pick them up, but they’re built in to the explosion itself.

Even better than that, though, is that we had five different people making those fireworks. And each person passed the design to the final person who assembled the whole thing. And, as you can see, it all worked. We’ve learned a few trouble spots we’ll have to clear up, but we’re really starting to make progress on having people work on things together. And that’s something we’ll need.

We’re now at a point where we can say many buildings you see are made by one of our artists. I mean, really, how many giant Phoenix shaped lighthouses are there? Well, besides the one in our logo, of course.

We’ve got day, we’ve got night. We’ve got a sky with stars, and a sky with clouds.

This is how far we’ve come. There are miles to go, and skyscrapers to build, but this is the point where we stand on our own two feet and say, “Happy Independence Day!”

And hey, if you thought this was shiny, wait till the next tech update.

Yours, Chris ‘Warcabbit’ Hare, Nate ‘Dr. Tyche’ Downes, DeathSheepFromHell, Petalstorm, Ozonicus, Haki, BobMC, and the rest of the City of Titans family.

Discuss this update here: http://cityoftitans.com/forum/discuss-our-independence-day