Update

I always get less done than I hope. I took a week off from my co-op at Paychex, went down to visit my family in PA, proceeded to gain five pounds, and basically solved two issues: frame buffer objects and touch interaction, the latter only with the help of my brother.  It's progress though.  Slow and steady wins the race!

Status Update

So, I've had an opportunity to work on Finger Fireworks again this week end.  I guess that is one benefit to having a job; no reason to worry about your work on weekends.  I met with a friend who will hopefully be helping me with some of the UI stuff, so that I can concentrate more on the graphics stuff.

One notable improvement I have made recently is to load vertex data less frequently, as I found that I was loading the same vertex data repeatedly for every frame for each billboard object.  It actually does seem faster, but that could just be some form of observational bias.

I've also made the physics engine move and control other aspects of the particles more effectively and interestingly.  The different particles now have streams and are colored differently from one another.  I have included screenshots below: