Plugins/effects and C3

Do you think most plugins and effects for C2 will be compatible with C3 as well?

Since we can import Construct 2 projects into Construct 3, it seems to me that the plugins will also be compatible.

I think, however, that most plugins should be updated by their authors to take advantage of the new editor plugin sdk. I can't wait to get my hands on it!

great, let's hope so!

It's too early to tell. But I don't think so. C3 is a completely new editor, which just looks very similar to C2. I think a lot has changed under the hood. We'll see soon I guess.

It's all speculation at this point but my guess is that only the official plug-ins will import with the project from C2 to C3. Currently you can't even upload to the Scirra arcade if your project uses non-official plugins. Hopefully I am wrong though as many of our projects rely on community plugins.

It's all speculation at this point but my guess is that only the official plug-ins will import with the project from C2 to C3. Currently you can't even upload to the Scirra arcade if your project uses non-official plugins. Hopefully I am wrong though as many of our projects rely on community plugins.

Are you sure about that?

Some of my games on the Arcade use third party plugins, and they work just fine.

I believe C3 will have an extended javascript API with backward compatibility, so any plugin written for C2 will work for C3. There is no difference between official and third-party plugins. At the end of the day, they are both javascript code that calls the same API.

The C3 engine can be more powerful and feature rich than C2's, however, from a software design perspective, it is very possible to keep the same API, or at least, to keep the same function names and variables for backward compatibility. I think Scirra will not be as stupid as to change the API in a way that it breaks the hundreds of plugins made by the community.

Personally, It doesn't really matter to me. I regularly maintain my plugins and I'm ready to migrate them to C3 as soon as I get my hands on the SDK. If the API stays the same, that's good. If they improve it despite breaking compat, that's good too, the old API is limited in many ways, we have limited editor control, limited or at least undocumented access to other plugins in other objects in the layout, it is impossible to create an object from scratch, we can't manipulate layers, or trigger the loading of another layout. Plus, Javascript is a terrible language, programming in it should be outlawed as it is almost a form of torture, but we're stuck with it. There is a reason why almost all serious game developers who use Unity prefer C#. I digress, sorry.

Zed2100 No, I'm not sure, I'm going by this (it is old though, maybe there have been changes):

"The new Scirra Arcade allows you to share your game with the world on the Scirra website itself! Here's what you need to know.

Limitations

Currently the Arcade only supports the built-in plugins and behaviors, except for the platform specific plugins (like the Windows 8 object). Also, the Browser object has limited features on the Arcade: any actions which can navigate to a different page are blocked for security reasons. Currently all third-party plugins and behaviors are not allowed. We'll be looking to improve this in future by adding more support, but each plugin and behavior must be carefully reviewed first to ensure the Arcade remains a safe and secure place to play games."

I thought third party plugins were allowed in the arcade for a while now. I found this oldish post about it:

Cool. That's good to know. Thank you for the more recent info. Maybe I'll upload a few of my small games that I didn't think I was able to before.

Since we can import Construct 2 projects into Construct 3, it seems to me that the plugins will also be compatible.

I think, however, that most plugins should be updated by their authors to take advantage of the new editor plugin sdk. I can't wait to get my hands on it!

They've never said that C3 will import C2 projects with 3rd party plugins.

> Since we can import Construct 2 projects into Construct 3, it seems to me that the plugins will also be compatible.

>

> I think, however, that most plugins should be updated by their authors to take advantage of the new editor plugin sdk. I can't wait to get my hands on it!

>

They've never said that C3 will import C2 projects with 3rd party plugins.

Thats a good point.

The structure of existing plugs isn't too bad for uploading.

The use of the .ico type for icons might be an issue.

Then again the blog mentioned the use of svg, and webgl doesn't play well with that either.

That would be a huge feature if they got that to work together.

But as Zed said the new sdk may change the whole thing, and if it's got editor/event integration then ....well it's got a lot of implications.

>

> > Since we can import Construct 2 projects into Construct 3, it seems to me that the plugins will also be compatible.

> >

> > I think, however, that most plugins should be updated by their authors to take advantage of the new editor plugin sdk. I can't wait to get my hands on it!

> >

>

> They've never said that C3 will import C2 projects with 3rd party plugins.

>

Thats a good point.

The structure of existing plugs isn't too bad for uploading.

The use of the .ico type for icons might be an issue.

Then again the blog mentioned the use of svg, and webgl doesn't play well with that either.

That would be a huge feature if they got that to work together.

But as Zed said the new sdk may change the whole thing, and if it's got editor/event integration then ....well it's got a lot of implications.

Not as many implications as expecting large projects to be uploaded to a third-party server for "export," in terms of either reliability of said server (just the website goes down quite a bit), bandwidth use (a huge issue on mobile, especially outside of the US with data rate charges - not that anyone in their right mind is going to work on games on a phone), and legal (providing game assets to an unlicensed 3rd party just to get the game to "export").

I'd suggest you download Unity. Learn C#. Get your games on more platforms, more reliably, and with measurably better performance.

digitalsoapbox I just saw Sombrero's recommended specs on steam.

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i7

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GTX 980 or equivalent with 8GB VRAM

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 500 MB available space

Additional Notes: Best played with a 2 stick controller

I think you should definitely use something other than Construct.

digitalsoapbox I just saw Sombrero's recommended specs on steam.

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i7

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GTX 980 or equivalent with 8GB VRAM

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 500 MB available space

Additional Notes: Best played with a 2 stick controller

I think you should definitely use something other than Construct.

Recommended specs will always be high. The minimum specs should be able to be much lower considering the 2D nature of the game, however because of serious limitations that are endemic to Construct's codebase, which are continuously denied but easy to spot just by looking at the engine code, that hasn't been possible. Even low resolution pixel art games stutter, and that's not just due to garbage collection.

It's simply not a tool for any sizable - or sustainable - game development, period, in its current state. Or seemingly in C3, based on the expectations of either a browser-based or wrapped-browser IDE, on either desktop or mobile, and certainly not on any console, marketing claims aside. When playing YouTube videos can crash a browser on a monster of a machine (with no browser extensions installed), maybe that's not the best platform to base a professional IDE on.

I'm not even sure the appropriate words exist in the English language to fully express the frustration I had getting even acceptable, let alone good, performance in Sombrero - and I've been dealing with web-based tech professionally for around 20 years. While I understand some (Ashley) will blame others for performance issues, that's simply not the case here - the engine just can't cut it for anything large, and definitely not anything that is meant to run at resolutions expected out of modern desktop games, 2D or otherwise.

Don't even get me started on collision (or often, lack thereof) issues, unstable frame rates, buggy native behaviors that Scirra refuses to fix (jumpthrough issues, for example), or missing features that are common enough that I can comfortably say they're available with any other option natively - and by "natively" I mean the actual definition of the word, not the one that Scirra misuses all too often to obfuscate performance issues that can be linked directly to C2.

Anyways, live and learn. There's other tools out there without these issues. I'd suggest looking into them. The event system is cool, but the albatross it's currently shackled to is held together with duct tape and bubble gum that's icky and gooey and the seams are showing.

digitalsoapbox I just saw Sombrero's recommended specs on steam.

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel Core i7

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GTX 980 or equivalent with 8GB VRAM

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 500 MB available space

Additional Notes: Best played with a 2 stick controller

I think you should definitely use something other than Construct.

It's depends what do you want to make and how you make it... (expecally for the ability make the event's very smart and less as possible)

The only issues I could see with the performance is the framerate... sometime just change without anysense and I hope they will fix that.

anyway, if you want to make a perfect performance game you have to code, there is no other way... or just hope scirra get more feature to menage the memory or somestuff like that...