Particle system from texture doesn't load

Question

I am trying to use a particle system loading the particles for a texture. Since it's just an exercise, it's fine to me to generate the texture "manually". So in this case I just allocate a buffer of data and fill it with red color (RGBA 32 bit format).

But the problem is that when the program starts running, I just see the black screen and there isn't what I am expecting to see (some red particles moving on).

I explain what I am trying to do in the comments:

if( (self=[super init]))
{
    NSAutoreleasePool* pool=[[NSAutoreleasePool alloc]init];

    uint32_t mask= 255+pow(255, 4); // This is a 32 bit red pixel
    NSUInteger size=256; // The texture is 256x256
    void* buffer= malloc(size*size*4); // Here I hold the data, it will be all red
    for(NSUInteger i=0; i<size; i++)
    {
        for(NSUInteger j=0; j<size; j++)
        {
            memcpy(buffer+j+i*32, &mask, 4);
        }
    }
    NSData* data=[[[NSData alloc]initWithBytesNoCopy: buffer length: size*size*4 freeWhenDone: YES]autorelease];  // I wrap it into NSData to automatically release it later. 
    CCTexture2D* texture=[[[CCTexture2D alloc]initWithData: data.bytes pixelFormat: kCCTexture2DPixelFormat_RGBA8888 pixelsWide: size pixelsHigh: size contentSize: CGSizeMake(size, size)]autorelease];
    CCParticleSystemQuad* system=[[[CCParticleSystemQuad alloc]initWithTotalParticles: 100]autorelease];
    system.texture= texture;  // I set the texture in a way that it should be load to draw particles
    system.position= ccp(200, 200);
    system.startSize= 10;
    system.endSize= 5;
    system.duration= kCCParticleDurationInfinity;
    system.life= 1;
    [self addChild: system]; 

    [pool drain];
}

Using an image

I tried to modify the code in a way that I use an UIImage instead of the manually created texture:

if( (self=[super init]))
{
    // Even with glClearColor() it doesn't work
    //glClearColor(1, 0, 1, 1);
    NSAutoreleasePool* pool=[[NSAutoreleasePool alloc]init];

    NSBundle* bundle=[NSBundle mainBundle];
    NSString* path=[bundle pathForResource: @"fire" ofType: @"png"];
    UIImage* image=[UIImage imageWithContentsOfFile: path];
    CCTexture2D* texture=[[[CCTexture2D alloc]initWithImage: image]autorelease];
    CCParticleSystemQuad* system=[[[CCParticleSystemQuad alloc]initWithTotalParticles: 100]autorelease];
    system.texture= texture;
    system.startSize= 10;
    system.endSize= 10;
    system.life= 1;
    system.duration= kCCParticleDurationInfinity;
    system.position= ccp(200, 200);
    // Even changing the start/end color it doesn't work
    //system.startColor= (ccColor4F){1.0,0.0,0.0,1.0};
    //system.endColor= (ccColor4F){1.0,0.0,0.0,1.0};
    system.emitterMode= kCCParticleModeGravity;
    system.gravity= ccp(200, 200);
    system.speed=1;
    [self addChild: system];

    [pool drain];
}

The image "fire.png" in the app bundle is:

I also set some other properties but it still doesn't work: black screen.

Answer 1

I ended up using particles mint to create a particle system, then using the factory method:

CCParticleSystemQuad* system=[[[CCParticleSystemQuad alloc]initWithDictionary: [ParticleFactory makeEffect]]autorelease];