Bob Thulfram's Forum Posts

  • I'm really considering buying C2 as I really love creating games; but ?50 doesn't come around too much for me.. What I want to know is; is the standard edition of C2 worth the price it costs? I am very restricted for money and I know there is the potential to profit from it, I want to know from you guys if it was worth it.

    I think it is very "worth it" in the sense that you can create games and sell them. You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to make games, so make 'em and sell 'em and make back the cost pretty fast. Go for it!

  • Didn't see your question about depth sorting.

    In 2D games, depth sorting is a way of faking a third dimension by examining the relative Y positions of two objects to decide which one is supposed to be in front of the other. It is accomplished by moving one object to a layer above or below the first object's layer, or using z-order to move one object to the front or back of the layer.

    Although it isn't called depth sorting, it is discussed in Part 2 of the tutorial on page 5 (starting with Families)

    The problem:

    hen you ran the game did you notice that Mikey always appears in front of the trees, rocks, and walls? This doesn?t look right at all!

    And the solution:

    his event says that if Mikey is overlapping the Terrain family from the north (offset 0,100) then put him behind any objects in the family. Else is a special system condition when applied here it means ?in any other circumstance? send Mikey to the front. Try out the new and improved game!

    Of course there is no Else in C2, so that isn't the exact logic I used to accomplish it.

    Anyway, you can see the depth sorting happen in the demo if you try to walk behind and in front of the trees. When Mikey's "feet" are higher than the tree's "feet", Mikey is considered to be behind the tree, he needs to be moved to the back of the z-order. If Mikey's feet are in front of the trees feet, Mikey is considered to be in front of the tree, he needs to be moved to the front of the z-order. Notice as you pass beside the tree the moment when the switch is made. In the case of a tree it looks pretty good - sort of like Mikey is brushing aside the branches in his way. (If the object is solid, like a wall, it doesn't look quite so good, so you have to use solids cleverly to keep the player from getting too close.)

    For a maze game, as the player moves through the maze the depth sorting is really important to make the character appear in front of or behind the maze walls (like the castle walls and the house in the demo.)

    Don't worry. It is much simpler than it seems when you first learn you have to do it! Took me awhile to grasp what was going on.

    EDIT: One of the reasons I wondered about making this work for the free version of C2 is that it is really easy to deal with depth sorting if you have LOTS of layers to work with. But I managed to do all that is needed with 4 layers.

    Thanks for explaining about depth sorting. The last time I wrote a complete game was in the 8-bit era and layers weren't even part of Photoshop (and maybe Photoshop didn't even exist). Very cool and makes me excited even more about Construct.

    4 layers is better than 25 when doing a tutorial. Simple is good when trying to understand things. And there is a certain value in having a tutorial be available for the free version of Construct 2 -- it can get people to see that Construct 2 is cool and they should buy it!

  • I'm waiting to hear from scidave about how he wants the port posted, since Mikey is his baby. Of course I will post all parts if it is okay with him.

    I forgot to mention that so far I'm only using 4 layers and about 25 events (more or less, depending on how they are counted) so it should work with the free version, at least through part 2.

    Hey, scidave, please approve! <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

    4 layers and 25 events are just fine. Simpler is better.

  • Part 1 is done of course, but I'm not posting it now, since it isn't very interesting as a demo. In part 1 since Mikey can't do anything except walk around in the first area. Take away the conversation with Jill and the Key Guard and the ability to get through the castle doors, and you have part 1! Oh, and of course there isn't any depth sorting in part 1. For your needs in creating a maze game, the depth sorting is quite important.

    I'm hoping you'll publish all 5 parts when you are done. I'd be thrilled to read each part as you do it, just to follow along. I'm really a newb and I don't even know why depth sorting is or why I need it. <img src="smileys/smiley18.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • If you prefer to script and work faster that way Impact might be the right tool.

    Huh, what? Is there another HTML5 tool? How does it compare to Construct 2? Here are a few features I like about Construct 2. Does it do:

    1. Code obfuscation?

    2. Export to HTML5 sites such as Chrome Store, Windows 8, Kongregate?

    3. How large and helpful is the community?

    4. How much do they provide for wannabe RPG game creators?

    5. Any other feature comparisons?

    I love Construct 2, but inquiring minds wanna know!

  • > I see in the manual that WAV files are recommended, but I'm wondering if I can add an OGG file and an AAC file instead. My files would be:

    >

    > bang.ogg

    > bang.m4a

    >

    > Note that .m4a is an AAC file.

    >

    > If I add these two and keep the same filename but with the appropriate extension, will everything be cool?

    >

    > I just tested a simple game that plays a sound with both files uploaded, and it worked in Firefox, IE9, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

    >

    > This is fun. I like playing with browsers and audio formats!

    Further testing shows that Chrome not only does not play the sounds, it freezes when a collision happens. All the other browsers work just fine, even Safari. I am not running this on a server and Chrome works fine with I run the project from within Construct. I guess I need to get that Opera Unite server running on my network. I ran into the sample problem when I was writing HTML5 Web Worker code.

    Is Construct 2 using Web Workers? I can't see why Canvas would not run on a client.

    I finally set up a server and Chrome works just fine on a web server.

    Everyone may already know this, but Opera browser has a free web server built in. You just have to install Opera and then set up Opera Unite. This will create a password protected server on your network. I put this on an old netbook running the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Opera seems to use a lot of resources but maybe all servers do, and this is a low-spec old Acer notebook with 1GB of memory and a puny Atom processor.

    I'm more of a client guy, but I think it is cool that Opera gives you a server that can server pages, files, and stream media. As well as a bookmarks and notes across all instances, a blog, photo gallery, and probably all kinds of other stuff. I especially like the way I can sync bookmarks with my Android phones! And so far, everything from Construct works on Opera also.

    As you can guess, I'm a browser nut, and always have the following on my machines for testing: Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Iron, Songbird, Maxthon, and SeaMonkey. 9 browsers, that's not too many. <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> I live in the browser world, which is one of the reasons why I'm so gung ho on HTML5 and Construct.

    So no problems with Chrome and OGG/AAC for me.

  • Yeah you can import a .ogg and .m4a with the same name, that's what importing a .wav does for you (it creates the two files automatically).

    If the game freezes you should check for browser errors and report anything you find.

    Thanks for the quick answer. I appreciate that Construct 2 will convert a WAV file for me, but I also like the ability to create and use my own OGG and AAC files.

    Construct is awesome!

    Two quick questions:

    1. Is there a way to search through the manual?

    2. If I can't find something, can I file a bug on the manual or make suggestions?

  • I managed to finish up part 2. It looks very similar, although there are some significant differences in implementation.

    Here is a link to the demo:

    Mikey's Adventure Part 2 for C2

    Looks like it works. How about Part 1?

    Very cool. Keep at it!!!

  • I see in the manual that WAV files are recommended, but I'm wondering if I can add an OGG file and an AAC file instead. My files would be:

    bang.ogg

    bang.m4a

    Note that .m4a is an AAC file.

    If I add these two and keep the same filename but with the appropriate extension, will everything be cool?

    I just tested a simple game that plays a sound with both files uploaded, and it worked in Firefox, IE9, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

    This is fun. I like playing with browsers and audio formats!

    Further testing shows that Chrome not only does not play the sounds, it freezes when a collision happens. All the other browsers work just fine, even Safari. I am not running this on a server and Chrome works fine with I run the project from within Construct. I guess I need to get that Opera Unite server running on my network. I ran into the sample problem when I was writing HTML5 Web Worker code.

    Is Construct 2 using Web Workers? I can't see why Canvas would not run on a client.

  • I see in the manual that WAV files are recommended, but I'm wondering if I can add an OGG file and an AAC file instead. My files would be:

    bang.ogg

    bang.m4a

    Note that .m4a is an AAC file.

    If I add these two and keep the same filename but with the appropriate extension, will everything be cool?

    I just tested a simple game that plays a sound with both files uploaded, and it worked in Firefox, IE9, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

    This is fun. I like playing with browsers and audio formats!

  • >

    > C2 only need a RPG behavior and a better and complete new Z ordering menu to overcome Stencyl in all the ways..

    This :D

    I wish I could give a +1 to this. I'm struggling to figure out how to do an RPG in Construct 2. Making progress. But struggling. RPGs are my love, ever since I played Ultima II on one of the first Macs.

    Please, oh, please, make plumbing for RPG. The latest version of RPG Maker came out, but distributing RPG Maker games is difficult. Distributing an RPG in HTML5 would be easy.

    RPG! RPG! RPG!

    Errr ... does Stencil have RPG behavior built in? <img src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • in my experience, one of the big features of mac and linux, is that it allows you to ask why [insert software here] is not available for mac and linux. Ashley wanted to preserve this feature for C2.

    This is both truthful and wise.

  • Bob Thulfram: all major browsers hardware accelerate their canvas, but only Firefox and Chrome support WebGL right now.

    Good to know. Since IE, Safari, and Opera are still around, is there a way to check the browser and turn off WebGL, or does that happen automatically?

  • IE10 isn't bad - it's got a good javascript engine and at least the canvas is hardware accelerated. Most games will probably run fine in it, it's only seriously intense stuff or heavy particle effects that drag desktop renderers down.

    Hardware acceleration of Canvas is good. Who else hardware accelerates Canvas? Firefox? Chrome? Opera? Safari? Songbird? (Just kidding about Songbird.)

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  • I've got it partially done--through lesson 1, and started lesson 2. I didn't follow it exactly, in part because Construct and Construct 2 are so different, but in part because I wanted somethings a little different, such as making a tile sprite object with different frames instead of using tile background objects. This approach means I just have to lay out the grid once, and then just swap frames to switch between dirt, grass, water, etc. for different levels. I was working on how to manage the layering of the trees and rocks when I got sidetracked. I'll see what is needed to finish it up and let you know.

    Edit: Question. Do you think this would have to be done for the free version, with its limited layers, or can I go for the paid version?

    scidave, I hope you don't mind. If you want to take over once I get it running, I'll give you a list of what I did differently. Or if you'd rather do it yourself, let me know!

    Pretty picture for encouragement...

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57899112/mikeysadventure.PNG" border="0" />

    Edit #2: I got the z-order sorting working except for where the tall door and tall wall adjoin, and Mikey can overlap both objects. Cheat solution is to just block that little spot. Real solution is to look at neighboring terrain objects and move them forward or back, too. Hmmm. That doesn't seem right. They should be moving with Mikey overlaps them, too. A collision mask problem?

    Edit #3: It was an origin problem. The wall and the door had different origins. I shouldn't have messed with them!

    I'm very, very excited to see you doing this. Maybe once you are done with Lesson 1, you'd let us test it out. I am so eager to see this.

    My own answer would be to go for the paid version. My guess is that most of the people who would care about an adventure/RPG would be on the paying customer side of the fence.

    Again, this is super cool!!!

    THANKS!