FW Editor: Can you tell us a few things about yourself and your passion for programming? What determinate you to focus on mobile platforms and not on Windows or Mac OS X based systems?
Nils Schaetti: I'm a 25 years old developper, working in a trading software company as a C++ developper. I started programming when I was 14 with Microsoft Visual Basic and with C a few weeks later.
Programming is my passion because I like intellectual challenges and resolving problems.
I started developping for mobile phones in June 2010, and PhysX was the first application I created for this platform. Before that I developped for the Linux systems because I like free software philosophy, therefore I decided to also develop for Android.
FW Editor: What is the main difference between PhysX Live Wallpaper and PhysX Live Wallpaper Pro?
Nils Schaetti: The idea behind PhysX Pro is simple: if you liked PhysX you can pay for more options and a more personalized app, and I think you'll prefer PhysX Pro.
So what are the options available with PhysX Pro? First of all, you can choose your own particle and background color, and you can also turn particles into images such as hearts, smilies,...
Second of all, and the most interesting option to me, is the possibility to set your own attraction power for each kind of particle, so the user can create his/her own simulation model.
And finally, I added some graphical possibilities like twinkling particles and two new kind of touch actions.
FW Editor: It is true that particles movement in randomly generated? That makes PhysX Live Wallpaper a one of a kind wallpaper.
Nils Schaetti: There is a large use of random number generator in PhysX Live Wallpaper, and it is necessary to make the simulation more realistic.
How is it used? The starting force on (x,y) axis of each particle is randomly generated. This helps to avoid having the particles all going the same way when starting the simulation.
I'm currently working on new ideas with particles having a random force added or removed at each step, making the whole thing even more realistic.
FW Editor: Can you tell us more about the attraction between particles? How does that work?
Nils Schaetti: The goal of PhysX is not to be a simulator based on physc's formulas, but just to be pretty, so I didn't use Newton's equation to create the attraction between particles, but just a linear function, which start at A (the particle's attraction power) to zero at D (the maximum attraction distance of the particle). This technique is faster because we don't need to check all particles but only those with distance < D and it stays realistic.
FW Editor: PhysX Live Wallpaper is not your only developed application. Can you tell us a few things about your portfolio? Which is your favorite software?
Nils Schaetti: Before this, I developed for Linux, but the fact that there's a market place on the Android platform allowed me to publish my first software. The softwares I was developping before were more of the experimental programming kind, like neural networks, cryptography or artifical intelligence.
FW Editor: Is there anything else you would like to add about PhysX Live Wallpaper?
Nils Schaetti: Try it!
About this interview
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