News, in the app
This is the first item in a feed the app reads itself. From Ripple Effect 1.5.1, the home screen has a News button, and a number on it when something here is new since you last looked.
What it is for
Some news isn't in the editor's release notes, because it isn't about the editor. The engine Ripple Effect plays campaigns with is also published for other people's software, and the hosts built on it ship on their own schedule:
@ripplefx/playerand@ripplefx/soundscapeon npm, which play a campaign and its soundscapes in a web page.- The C and C++ binding, for native games and engines.
A new binding, an integration, or a documentation page that has moved has nowhere to go in a changelog, so it goes here. The same goes for anything you need to do: a step before an update, or a change in how something is installed.
You don't need an update to get the news, an account, or a visit to this website. A news item is published here and appears on your home screen the next time the app starts.
What it costs you
Nothing about you. Once per launch the app asks this site for the feed. The request carries no identifier, no version number and no cookie. Any picture with an item comes from this site too, and from nowhere else. The app remembers which items you've read on your machine, and never sends it.
If you'd rather not have it, switch off News under Settings ▸ Updates. That stops the request at once. The Privacy Notice, §4.7, is the formal version of this paragraph.
If you accepted version 1.0 of the licence, the app tells you that version 2.0 exists. It asks you to accept 2.0 no sooner than thirty days later. Until you do, 1.0 is what governs you, and the app doesn't fetch the news.
The same items are also at ripplefx.app/news, with an RSS feed for any reader that wants it.