Download Construct 2 release 43

Download Construct 2 public preview 43

Link to release 42

New this build: time scaling and five new behaviors!

Time scaling is as per Classic. If you haven't used it before, you can create slow motion effects by setting the time scale to 0.5 (half speed). It's also great for making a pause function - set the time scale to 0 and everything stops, but events are still running.

A new time scaling feature for C2 is you can set individual object's time scales. For example, you can have the entire game go in to super-slo-mo (time scale 0.2), and keep your player on normal time (time scale 1.0). The whole world is going slow but you can run round at full speed!

Four of the new behaviors are pretty straightforward, but there's also the custom movement. This is a fairly basic version of the Classic one but hopefully should cover essential features. I'm afraid it's also not well tested - Davo wrote the original in Classic so I'm not familiar with the code, and haven't tried everything out yet. Try it out and let me know if you have any problems or if there are glaring omissions.

Here's a little demo using the custom movement to make an asteroids type space movement: custom movement demo.

Image editor on the way, honest!

Changelog

• [Feature] Time scaling. New system actions: Set time scale, Set object time scale, Restore object time scale. New system expression 'wallclocktime', which is the game time unaffected by any time scaling that may have happened (the ordinary 'time' expression increments at a different rate if the time scale is not 1.0). New object expression 'dt' to return dt at the object's own time scale.
• [Add] 'Custom movement' behavior. Trimmed down version of the Classic behavior.
• [Add] 'Scroll To' behavior, which automatically scrolls to an object. If added to multiple objects, it scrolls to the mid-point of all those objects (the average of their positions). Also has a 'Shake screen' action.
• [Add] 'Destroy outside layout' behavior, which simply destroys the object if it leaves the layout area.
• [Add] 'Bound to layout' behavior, which stops the object leaving the layout area.
• [Add] 'Wrap' behavior, as per Classic, makes objects reappear on the opposite side of a layout when they leave.
• [Add] Array: 'For Each element', as per Classic
• [Fix] Previewing with Firefox sometimes opened different tabs with "C:\Documents", "and", "settings\..."
• [Fix] Error messageboxes during export/preview sometimes opened under the main window which was confusing - now they're always on top
• [Fix] Mouse object: detecting clicks/mouseovers on objects on a parallaxing layer did not work
• [Fix] Using shift+enter to write a multiline comment didn't expand the comment to be big enough to fit all the text

[quote:grfftlhb]Set object time scale

This will be epic in future games

ps. Ashley, I see C2 is one the very right way! Can you more/less estimate how many more build will be there for C2 to get close to CC in functionallity?

Oh, thank you

I alredy apllied the time scale to a game i was doing. And the fix to clicks in parallax is great, that will make work other things that are in the game.

I only want to ask something. if its posible to change the keys of the behaviors, like in classic. Thanks.

Edit: Thats weird, maybe i missundertood, but it doesnt work for me the clicks in paralax layers.

"A new time scaling feature for C2 is you can set individual object's time scales. For example, you can have the entire game go in to super-slo-mo (time scale 0.2), and keep your player on normal time (time scale 1.0). The whole world is going slow but you can run round at full speed!"

You have no idea how badly I've wanted that feature XD I never thought it was possible. Great update!

Yesssss!

Ash, you rock.

Edit: Thats weird, maybe i missundertood, but it doesnt work for me the clicks in paralax layers.

I thought I fixed this, can you post a .capx where it doesn't seem to be working?

Nicely done! Though, there are a few ommisions concerning the Custom Movement Behaviour...

I tried replicating Davo's "Sonic-style movement" method, and some things stopped me right in my tracks:

• "Push out of Solid" is not only locked into "solid", but also does not allow you to put in a number for an angle. I've got two sensors, both of them require a "push out of solid" action with the angle based off "PlayerSprite.Angle + 180", but the actions as they are now make this impossible.
• There is also no "change motion angle" action. EDIT: Turns out there is. DERP.
• There is no "bounce off <object>" action.
• Also, I think we need to be able to pick by behaviors, because I discovered that you can't pick "solid" when you're trying to determine if an object is overlapping something that is "solid". Families won't cut it either for this problem, because families are limited to a single object type.
• Plus, it would be a good idea to an action that allows you to move horizontally/vertically while also setting an angle of orientation. I haven't discovered if such an action is actually necessary for what I'm trying to do, yet, but I think it may very well be.

Hey Ash. I can't seem to get the 'CurrentXYZ' expressions to work. Here's a cap... Should this make a grid of tiles, or am I missing something?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1378330/array.capx

You're doing a great job, can't wait to see the first stable release !

- There is also no "change motion angle" action.

Isn't that equivalent to the "Angle of motion: Set" action? I changed some terminology along the way to try and make it clearer. As for the other points, I'll see if I can add the omissions for the next release.

OH. Cripes. I didn't notice it before because "angle of motion" has its own "section" with three choices of events, I was expecting just the one "set angle of motion" event, and I missed it completely as a result. WELL I'LL BE DAMNED. XD

Hey Ash. I can't seem to get the 'CurrentXYZ' expressions to work. Here's a cap... Should this make a grid of tiles, or am I missing something?

You just made a little mistake, your 'update' event runs before the 'initialise' event, and the array defaults to all zero!

Just a warning: creating grids of sprites is extremely inefficient! You should definitely use a tiled background as a base, and only create sprites for tiles which are different on top of that, and even then you should still use tiled backgrounds wherever possible.

What I did for TimeScaling objects only was to set its speed to Object.Speed * TimeScale or dividing if the other way around.

But this looks alot easier, and just gave me an idea for-

OH GREAT NOW I WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD OF WHAT I AM DOING AGAIN. UGH.

Phobos - you're right it's possible to compensate for the time scale by dividing/multiplying all the speed, accelerations etc., but it's often inconvenient. It's also impossible when the time scale is 0, because your dts are all 0 so there's no way to recover any other time scale. With this release, though, you can pause the game by setting the time scale to 0, but still have an animated pause menu by setting a time scale of 1.0 for all the objects involved in the pause menu. I thought it was worth a dedicated feature, anyway.

Why are tiledbackgrounds more efficient than sprites? Sounds like its best to use them for anything static.