- FWsim 4.4.3: Smarter Cakes, and an NVIDIA Startup Fix - 23 September 2026
FWsim 4.4.3 is rolling out on Steam now. This one is all about building cakes faster and more realistically, a smoother show editor, and an important fix for some NVIDIA graphics cards. Effect Editor V and W shapes behave like the real product. A V is two cakes fused into one and a W is three, so each arm now gets its own timing variation. The simultaneous V and W shapes fire exactly together. New cake actions. "Delete all" and "Repeat this part X times" save you a lot of clicking. Change Timings of selected Effects remembers your last value and can leave pauses unchanged. Shift+click in the shot list ticks or unticks all rows since the last click. New and pasted effects in a cake get their own names (Effect 1, Effect 2, ...). Fixed: tails on motorized stars looked different from normal tails. Fixed: the crackling components were missing since 4.4.2. Show Editor Move cues between tracks…
- v4.4.2 - Massive Effect Editor Upgrade, plus improved performance - 8 September 2026
FWsim 4.4.2 is rolling out on Steam now. This one is all about the effect editor, plus a speed boost that everyone gets without touching a single setting. Faster out of the boxAccelerated Rendering is now on by default. Same visual quality, noticeably faster, and easier on laptop batteries. It works on NVidia and AMD dedicated graphics cards, and you can switch it off under Preferences > Graphics if you prefer. Mortar sparks and launch flames re-tuned: denser, finer mortar sparks, and launch flames that are smaller overall and grow with the caliber. Effect Editor: build better effects, fasterStars Editor redesigned. Settings are grouped into clear boxes, so you scroll less and find things faster. Multi-colour stars. Ctrl+click in the colour grid to give one set of stars several colours at once. The stars are split evenly among the selected colours. Seven new star shapes: Star, Bow Tie,…
- FWsim 4.4 - Motorized Stars, Better Performance, and new effects features - 15 June 2026
Check out update 4.4! Here's what's new:⭐ Graphics improvementsMore realistic appearance of starsAccelerated Rendering (Settings → Graphics) — runs much faster and uses less battery at the same visual quality. Available on NVidia and AMD dedicated graphics cards.Even without accelerated rendering, this new update should be faster on all systems.More realistic water reflections✨ Effects ImprovementsStars and Ascent EffectsMotorized Stars (go-getters / bees / fish) now available. Just enable “Motorized” on the stars and play around with the parametersStar size is now a continuous slider (1–100%) instead of fixed sizes. Old effects are migrated automatically and look the same.Stars and Sparks are now separate modesAscent stars now support all 5 strobe types (Regular, Pulsar, Twinkle, Flash, Fade).Whistles, Tourbillons & FarfalleThose are now much richer and more realistic out of the box.Ne…
- Massive Performance Improvement - 16 September 2025
In this update: Better performance when editing your show, especially on large shows with many cues New option: “Reverse Order on Timeline” (CTRL + SHIFT + R). Use this when you make a stepper out of single cues and you want to reverse the order. The timeline now looks much better when you zoom out very far. Your show will look cleaner and it’s easier to make edits even at extreme zoom levels. Better thumbnail images
- FWsim 4.1.1 - Show Editing is now much faster - 1 July 2025
Exciting news!You can now select your favorite effects and then insert them with just one click. This massively speeds up the show design process, so you can focus on your creativity.Furthermore:Press TAB key to jump forwards to the next beat in the musicWhen you move the playback cursor, it snaps to beats in the music and to existing cues on the timeline.You might have two cues overlap in the timeline by accident. If that happens, FWsim will make them transparent.Effect lines now indicate the actual height of the effect for shells.Give it a try and let us know how it works for you!
- FWsim 4.1 with Automatic Beat Detection - 16 June 2025
Hi everyone! Exciting news: This is FWsim 4.1. Automatic detection of beats Real location downloading is more stable and faster. New star size: XXS
- FWsim - Update 4.0.1.5 - 26 March 2025
Fix: FWsim now always uses your high-performance graphics card (instead of onboard graphics) Several bugfixes Performance improvements Updated Italian, Spanish and French translations. You can contribute to FWsim translations by clicking the Help menu. FWsim now displays a correct waveform if you load 24-bit audio files.
- Announcing FWsim v4 - 19 January 2025
With FWsim v4, planning your shows is now much faster & easier! Show Editor Improvements ➜ Better display of positions, with 3D cylinders - so you can better see where the positions actually are in 3D space ➜ Put steppers through multiple positions (this allows you, for example, to run a stepper in a circle) ➜ New “Fly Around” camera controls - more efficient & intuitive ➜ Comfortable angle selection in 3D window ➜ Select position first, then add cues ➜ Select multiple positions to add multiple cues ➜ In position setup mode, you can select multiple positions and move them together ➜ Stepper renamed “Sequence” ➜ Toolbox made smaller, so you have more space for your timeline ➜ Now using the CTRL key to select multiple items in the timeline, instead of SHIFT (to match the Windows standard) ➜ When pasting, cues are pasted onto the position that is selected in the 3D window ➜ You can copy sh…
- Create better 3D worlds with the Water Removal Tool - 13 September 2024
Hi FWsim fans! In 2023, we added a feature to load Google Earth 3D scenery into FWsim (avabile under Show -> Scenery -> "Real Location"). We also added a water system, allowing you to add water to the scenery (available under Show -> Scenery). Usually, this works really well: set the water height correctly, and it blends in nicely with the Google Earth data However, in some locations there is a "spillover" effect, where water enters areas that should be dry: Here's how to solve this: 1. Open the Water Removal Tool from the menu bar 2. With your mouse, you can now erase the water. (Use the mouse wheel to make the brush bigger or smaller) 3. Close the window, and the changes will be saved. Your environment will now look correct.
- New Crackling Types, Strobing Ascent Effects - 15 May 2024
Popping Flowers (Crackling) can now be adjusted in a much more granular way Ascent Effects can now have strobing 57 different kinds of crackling already included
- FWsim Full Release - Available Now - 3 November 2023
Dear Fireworks Fans, we are excited to announce the full release of FWsim - Fireworks Display Simulator on Steam, today! Since our launch on Early Access back in 2021, FWsim has improved a lot. To celebrate the full release, we are now making it even better with the addition of: Completely new graphics Load the entire world in 3D, thanks to data from Google Maps* Water, which you can add to any existing show, and combine with Google Maps data Multi Color Changes Mortar Sparks and Explosion Sparks Microstars Easier placement of fireworks on buildings *) Please note, we rely on external data for this feature. There is a risk this might stop working in the future - but we will do our best. A few words from the developers: Lukas (Lead Developer): "I am very grateful to everyone who has been using FWsim over the years. I would especially like to thank our users who sent in lots of feedback o…
- FWsim Full Release: Water, Real Environments, New Graphics, and more - 29 October 2023
On November 3, we are leaving Early Access and officially launching on Steam. Check out the new trailer: List of new features in this release Completely new graphics Load the entire world in 3D, thanks to data from Google Maps* Water, which you can add to any existing show, and combine with Google Maps data Multi Color Changes Microstars Easier placement of fireworks on buildings *) Please note, we rely on external data for this feature. There is a risk this might stop working in the future. Want to try the new update right away? You can check out the new version right away, even before the official release, by switching FWsim to the beta branch in your Steam client: Keep in mind we are still working on it, there's a few bugs we still need to fix. If you try it out, please leave your comments below.
- The Entire World in 3D - FWsim 3.5 Beta 1 - 15 September 2023
Dear FWsim Community, we are excited to announce this beta update with the following features: Loading the entire World in 3D FWsim could load 3D models in the past. But if you wanted to simulate a real place, you might face challenges. You’d either have to make your own 3D models or try to find the desired building models online. Yet, typically, you’d only find isolated buildings, not the entire landscape. The latest version, FWsim 3.5, solves this problem. Now, you can launch fireworks anywhere in the world, in 3D. It not only provides the location you want, but also includes the entire surrounding area. Our data is provided by Google and consists of 3D terrain (hills and mountains) for the entire surface of the earth. It also includes 3D buildings for thousands of cities. The data is downloaded on request. Please note, since we rely on an external data provider, there is a risk this…
- FWsim 3.4.1 - Lancework, Better Performance - 6 December 2022
FWsim 3.4.1 is now available! Here's what's new: Lancework FWsim 3.4.1 comes with a new Lancework effect type. Lanceworks are pieces made from wood, with glowing dots arranged in shapes or letters. You can create Lancework through the Effects Editor, and draw your own shape: Improved Performance, Reduced Memory Usage We switched to a newer version of the Microsoft .NET Framework, which should give better performance. We also managed to reduce memory usage. In our quest for better performance, we also changed the way the light falls onto the environment. It should now run faster.
- FWsim 3.4: Dark Mode, Fullscreen, Better Camera Controls, New Effects Samples - 21 February 2022
FWsim 3.4 is here, and we are excited to tell you about it! New Dark Design (you can go back to the old design by disabling “Dark Mode” in the preferences) Improved Camera Animation System Saving and Loading of camera positions Topdown Camera View Improved “Create New Effect” dialog with many more sample designs to choose from Fullscreen Mode available (press ALT+ENTER to go fullscreen) Preferences are now easier to navigate When snapping in the timeline, we are now showing indicators to indicate what snapping Russian Translation Let us know what you think!
- New Online Fireworks Database - 12 October 2021
Starting today, all Steam users will have access to the FWsim online fireworks database. This gives you thousands of new fireworks, made by other users, for free! Simply click Tools -> Online Fireworks Database to access. You can download collections of effects, or upload your own.
- Online Fireworks Database now available - 12 October 2021
Starting today, all Steam users will have access to the FWsim online fireworks database. This gives you thousands of new fireworks, made by other users, for free! Simply click Tools -> Online Fireworks Database to access. You can download collections of effects, or upload your own.
- FWsim 3.3 Now Available - 6 May 2021
Thanks everyone for your feature ideas! The latest update, FWsim 3.3, is now ready. New firework selection window with better filters and animated preview. Helping you to understand the different types of firework effects, even if you have never used FWsim before. Effect Editor: Pause, scroll forwards and backwards in time, and see your updates instantly. That way, you can pause on an important moment in the effect, make your changes, and easily understand the changes you make. Even more performance improvements Right-click in effect selection window to delete effects you no longer need Some very old effects were removed from the library, and replaced with new designs. (The old effects are still included as a ZIP file in the FWsim program directory, located in your Steam folder - in case you want to get them back for any reason) Effect Editor: Special tail components now available. Thes…
- FWsim 3.3. is coming! - 15 April 2021
Hi everyone! It’s a pleasure to see on social media how much you’re enjoying FWsim these days. While enjoying some of your breathtaking shows, we’ve been working hard on making FWsim better and easier to use. These upgrades will be included with the FWsim 3.3 update, which is expected to see the light by the end of May. Here’s a comprehensive list of changes to come: Improved realism of included effects: We will replace some of the old effects in the database with redesigned versions, to take advantage of all the latest improvements in our fireworks rendering. Improved performance. FWsim already runs well even on old computers, and with this update we’ll make it even faster to load and run. Improved effect selection window: Thanks to new icons, new users who are unfamiliar with real fireworks can get a quick sense of the different types available. Animated previews will help you underst…
- Lunar New Year Challenge: update - 29 March 2021
Hello everyone: We hope you're doing well! As many of you know, we started organizing a monthly event called FWsim Challenge after the release of the FWsim: Fireworks Display Simulator Creative Edition. The first edition, focused on Chinese New Year, ended recently, so today we're sharing with you the result! Please congratulate Alberto Posulu, whose beautiful show took our heart from the very first seconds. Also, we invite you to watch the best moments of each submission in this video: We hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing your passion with us one more time. See you in a few days with new updates and April's FWsim Challenge!
