Download Construct 2 release 30

Download Construct 2 public preview 30

Link to release 29

Autocomplete and tips in the parameters dialog, and some basic canvas effects, notably 'additive', which is great for explosions, lasers, lighting etc., as well as opacity.

The autocomplete works a bit better than the 0.x one, including listing instance variables, and with better keyboard shortcuts:

<img src="http://www.scirra.com/labs/autocomplete.png">

Parameter tips (only for system expressions right now, there aren't any object expressions with parameters yet anyway) help show you how to use different system expressions. The implementation is a little naive at the moment, it doesn't support nesting and so on. However, it's still handy when used in simple cases, or as a reminder if you've hidden the object panel.

<img src="http://www.scirra.com/labs/paramtips.png">

The additive effect, and the new opacity property, are great for games! This should spruce up the visual appearance of lots of games, and is all hardware accelerated in the latest browsers (IE9, FFox4, Chrome). You can also try a live demo of the additive effect (here's the .capx file). Canvas does support one or two other effects (XOR, some basic overlap effects), but they're not as useful as additive. It looks like this on supporting browsers:

Changelog

• [Add] Sprite & Text: 'Opacity' property, and set, get and compare opacity ACEs.
• [Add] Sprite: 'Effect' property and 'Set Effect' action. This isn't a substitute for the full shader support in 0.x, but allows a quick way to access a couple of the simple effects that HTML5 Canvas has. Effects don't currently preview in the layout.
• [Add] Parameters dialog: simple expression autocomplete. E.g. type 'Sprite.' and you get a popup of all expressions and instance variables in Sprite to choose from. Seems to work a bit nicer than the old 0.x autocomplete.
• [Add] Parameters dialog: parameter tips for system expressions with parameters, e.g. typing 'distance(' pops up 'distance(x1, y1, x2, y2) - X position of first point.' These only work with system expressions (there are no object expressions with parameters yet anyway). It also doesn't handle nesting or editing after it's all typed, but is handy in simple situations.
• [Add] Object panel: F4 toggles visible. This state is remembered. (You might want to hide it and just go by autocomplete.)
• [Change] Object panel: instance variables are no longer listed in alphabetical order - they're ordered the same way you specify them in the Instance Variables dialog.
• [Performance] Fixed some known inefficiencies in the javascript runtime that were a result of writing it as quickly as possible. Looping conditions and subevent performance should be improved.
• [Fix] Fixed issues with string escaping (backslashes disappearing, error using newlines)
• [Remove] Got rid of pay-what-you-want UI.

Maybe Construct 2 already does it but will "effects" include "set color filter"? I pretty much use that more than I do any pixel shader.

Additive is certainly one of the most used effects. It's great to have it already in C2, very good update!

...Firefox 4 beta 12 drops to around 31 fps.

no problems here in FF4Beta. Getting steady 60+. Drops to 52ish when rapidly clicking.

Maybe Construct 2 already does it but will "effects" include "set color filter"? I pretty much use that more than I do any pixel shader.

Canvas doesn't seem to support it natively yet. However, it's possible to do it basically by a bunch of setpixels and then caching the result. The problem with this is if you change the filter every tick it will be incredibly slow (probably unusable, since creating a new tinted image will take a long time), and if you have lots of different instances all with different tints, it will use a lot of memory from caching a separate image for each instance.

I'd prefer not to do it that way because it's grossly inefficient if you haven't heard of that limitation, assume it works like 0.x, and then wonder why your game is crawling slow or using tonnes of memory. I think it's best to wait for native support for this type of thing (WebGL would also allow this, since it is equivalent in functionality to the 0.x DirectX runtime).

What do you use tints for? Do you tend to only have one or two different colour filters?

Firefox 4 beta 12 drops to around 31 fps.

Holds a steady 60fps for me - but if it's slow, it should be easy for browser makers to speed it up. Most graphics cards support additive as easily and as efficiently as ordinary alpha blending.

What do you use tints for? Do you tend to only have one or two different colour filters?

I use it for flashing enemies being hit and I also make some greyscale effects that I tint for multiple uses.

wee-hee, i was waiting for opacity \o/

This forum moves so quickly I can't keep up . I feel like I'm being left behind...

SLOW DOWN PLEASE

Thanks for the update! I'll be trying it out soon.

Deadeye, have you consider investing in the walker? It may help you to keep up.

SLOW DOWN PLEASE

Don't listen to him! KEEP GOING I LOVE IT!

> SLOW DOWN PLEASE

>

Don't listen to him! KEEP GOING I LOVE IT!

[2]

Awesome work !

Next up in release 31: Sound *hint *hint

Can I choose a browser for preview or is it always default?

Always default, we'll get a browser selector in at some point.

Is there any way you guys could add picking for instance variable. By this I mean to pick the object with the lowest or to highest instance variable to the next build like in construct 0.x.