Timeframe for EXE exporter?

Yeah there's some annoying problems with input. First, you keep selecting things outside the game and loosing focus. If you're , say, pressing a button and you character is walking , if this 'unfocus' occurs the button up event never occurs so your character keeps walking and walking forever even if you released the button. Other problem: Key or mouse events sometimes doesn't register mainly if you're pressing too many buttons at the same time. This is most likely a browser problem. The truth is that HTML5 tech is not completely ready yet for more complex games. There's canvas there's webgl, but that supplies only the rendering part. So, C2 is evolving very fast but browser techs are not keeping up. I hope this changes soon.

> Exe exporter won't be coming anytime soon most likely.

Yeah, the more I read this thread, the more convinced of this I become. Or possibly, it will never come from Scirra, but from some developer who wants it done

Yeah same here, i doubt it will happen anytime soon but i guess if the EDK was made available there would then be more chance of it happening.

I am wondering why Construct 2 runs as EXE though which is apparently a redundant format. I quite liked it that way and the fact you could use it as a offline standalone, but with all of HTML5's benefits over EXE then C2 might be going fully browser based in the future by the sound of things.

Yeah same here, i doubt it will happen anytime soon but i guess if the EDK was made available there would then be more chance of it happening.

I am wondering why Construct 2 runs as EXE though which is apparently a redundant format. I quite liked it that way and the fact you could use it as a offline standalone, but with all of HTML5's benefits over EXE then C2 might be going fully browser based in the future by the sound of things.

It is doable as a browser based app, but then a license wouldn't make much sense. It would however, make sense to do it as a service.

Question is, how much would people be willing to pay, say each month?

Anyway, no its not a redundant format, just cant be distributed as easy.

Which makes perfect sense for an editor.

Input problems are a minor problem that can be relatively straightforwardly solved. That's not an argument for an EXE exporter! By default Construct 2 blocks the key press actions in the browser if there are keyboard events for it. So if you want to prevent scrolling add some empty 'on arrow key pressed' and 'on spacebar pressed'. That fixes the keyboard scrolling issue - we've automatically done that on the arcade which is why it doesn't scroll. Also, for accidental selections, the canvas uses the onselectstart="return false;" attribute, which prevents you being able to accidentally select the canvas. If you accidentally select other things on the page, you can easily prevent this by adding that attribute to the other elements. You can even add it to the body tag which prevents anything in the entire page being selected (but that might be annoying for the user). Alternatively fullscreen-in-browser games never have these problems.

So input isn't because HTML5 sucks nor is it impossible to fix and therefore we must have an EXE exporter; it's just a difference in the technology and if you know how to use it you can get it working exactly like you want.

Of course an EXE exporter won't come soon! I've been trying to convey just how busy we are - at times we've both been working 14 hour days for long stretches of time. I think you don't really understand how insane it would be for us to try and take on another huge project like the EXE exporter right now. It has to be pushed back out of pure practicality.

The editor is an EXE for a number of reasons, the main one being: the editor is literally orders of magnitude more complex than a game and that makes it much more painful to make in HTML5. If you're seeing pain points in HTML5, imagine those times ten for an editor in a browser. We think it's an interesting idea but HTML5 really isn't ready for that yet - but it's ready for games which are in comparison a lot simpler. Then there's other points like licensing, the tools we're familiar with, etc.

This thread is 9 pages long and still nobody's persuaded me anything that an EXE does better other than slightly better performance. HTML5 introduces some features that are very different to the "usual" web that most people are familiar with. The people designing HTML5 are deliberately designing it to be able to mimic native apps but in a browser. There are some quirks and differences (like the scrolling issue) but they are all solvable, or will be solved, since the tech is still being actively developed. An EXE exporter would be useful for high-performance demanding games, but there really is nothing else it does better for games! I know it takes getting some used to because it's a radical idea, but I really think it's true. HTML5 is better for you too, because way more people can and will play your game.

I can only speak for myself, but I don't think anyone has gone so far as to argue that html5 "sucks" because X reason. I brought up the input, 'not' as a pro for exe's but as an issue that needs to be recognized. It's cool that it's seemingly easily ammended, but if you hadn't pointed that out I'm not sure I'd have found that solution on my own. Or known how to implement it. I'm horrible with html/css and I struggle with editing my wordpress themes. I'd hazard a guess that there are a few more people like that.

An nice solution to that could be expanded export settings sometime in the future.

With the news that Chrome will be getting gamepad support (confirmed?), AND this https://wiki.mozilla.org/JoystickAPI I'd say screw exe exporter. Someone make a gamepad plugin! =)

With the news that Chrome will be getting gamepad support (confirmed?), AND this https://wiki.mozilla.org/JoystickAPI I'd say screw exe exporter. Someone make a gamepad plugin! =)

now you sir, said a mouthful.

if i were a 'smart' person, i'd already be on that.

Ppls, just create an exporter to Construct Classic and build the exported C2 project and voila, you have an EXE. Maybe its simple than create an exporter directly in C2.

Um, is that even possible?

Ashley

Thanks for clarifying things about input.

Well i think this thread has no meaning anymore. I know very well the time that would take to make an EXE exporter. And currently the time is already full i believe :) Ashley and Tom are doing a great work and there's much more to do. Let's only hope that web technologies continue to evolve so that there will come a day when we won't need an EXE exporter at all. Or it all merges together, who knows. Win8 is taking the first steps with this.

This post it's a call on the thought that EXE is "slightly" better at performance then HMTL5.

Diversity is a good thing. And I knew the EXE wouldn't come for at least a year, and that's fine. HTML5 has portability (everything else it's all a point of view) over EXE, but EXE has performance over HMTL5, and I do not think it's "slightly" at all though. See, I have a computer which is not powerful at all for today's standards, but still, amazingly enough it can run games like [prototype], RE5, Alice Madness. etc. without feeling like it's struggling or chocking. These games are HUGE in size and also heavy on graphics. The HTML5 games I have seen, aren't big at all, in fact they are quite small. Yet, I struggle to run them on ANY browser, it lags, freezes for a few seconds and it's choppy. To this day, I could not play a HMTL5 game that runs 100% smoothly. So, is HMTL5 a format that leaves the old computers without a choice? Why is my computer having so much trouble running HTML5 but not heavy 3D games as EXE? Would these same laggy/choppy HTML5 games also lag as an EXE? I can tell you right now and quite surely, they wouldn't.

Yeah i can't deny that right now i'd much prefer an EXE exporter than the current HTML5. I'll tell why with a question: How do i make money with HTML5 ? Right now i don't. There's other things like shaders, blending modes, color tinting , but i hope these will be coming with WebGL. I don't like canvas like it is now. The faster we get free of it the better. If we will be going web, the way to go is full hardware accelerated content on it with full access to graphics card, no less.

I too am hoping for a EXE exporter.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/q7w68.jpg" border="0" />

To be honest the issue of wanting an EXE, at least for my part, has nothing to do with performance/reliability (or html5 suck blah blah blah...).

I believe that a main reason(and a very important one) is something like Steam/GamersGate/Desura. Its hard to ignore such juggernauts accepting indie devs, but you cannot do anything about it because your game is in html5. I'm pretty sure they will ask you for a binary format. They will even accept flash games as long they as are in binary format (like VVVVVV when it first came out on steam).

So the ideal thing for me is if at least there is an html5 wrapper would suffice, maybe with chromium or any other webkit implementation (hmm I wonder if they support webgl). Monetization is extremely important for many users, and right now due to the early stage of construct 2, we can only have the html5 exporters (and fo course phonegap and chrome :)) (which is fine of course n_n).

But I think its important to understand that many people buy and download exes, even if the consumer doesn't realize it, through other channels like steam.

And yes, Kiyoshi put it kind of blunt, but also kind of true: "How do i make money with HTML5? Right now i don't."

At least without chrome web store (which is awesome, but I feel its too small an audience).

That said, kudos for making the experimental Phonegap integration. I'm sure many of us(I do) is very happy for that implementation, even if its experimental.

I think many understand that this will take a lot of time.. its just a matter of patience.. everything will sort out :)

My opinion is that HTML5 is better than EXE

because it is more secure , will be native ( i think ) , Will run on all browser (i hope), and do not need to be downloaded , but this technology is not stable for every browser i think we need to wait a little before publishing the EXE because i am sure that soon the html5 will be popular and the EXE will not be used alot

So continue Ashley on working on the HTML5 and when you finish think about the EXE

Hey just my 2p here,

very much agree with edwoodgrant. While there's nothing inherently wrong with HTML5, the commercial market is just not there yet. Partly because of lacking browser support (this will of course change in the future), partly because of lacking distribution models (this will also most probably change in the future).

That being said, an .exe wrapper isn't really all that difficult to code. I can probably look into that and use something like awesomium if theres enough interest.

Cheers