deadeye's Forum Posts

  • What would you use a physics object that doesnt collide with anything for? Wouldn't it just fall off the screen if it had gravity?

    Particle effects. That's the major use. And a lot of particle effects don't use gravity.

    Also, if there were no physics collisions, you could then test for sprite collisions, which would give you the ability to create detectors for your physics objects, or code your own collision routines instead of using the default physics collisions (which aren't conditionable).

    For instance: Make a solid ball that's 32x32, then overlay it with an unsolid ball that's 34x34, give them the same mass, feed them the same velocities, etc. and you have a detector that will follow your ball without lagging behind.

  • As a sidenote, I was thinking of renaming 'Movements' to something like 'Addons' because of this - their scope is not limited to just moving stuff... they're very flexible <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" />

    Not to mention things like Selection Box, Drag and Drop, and Wrap aren't really movements so much as functions.

    But anyway, how about "Prefabs?" "Addon" sounds a little too much like "Plugin."

  • Yeah, I think I'd wait until Construct gets a little closer to v1.0 for a Games thread. That's why I figured SH/SC, to get people who are more interested in the coding side. I'll write up a post and see what happens.

    Also, I was browsing through Jeff Tunnell's blog today and I found a link to the Great Games Experiment. It's kind of like MySpace, only for game developers, and without the glitter graphics.

    My profile:

    http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/user/deadeye

    You should check it out, Ashley. It might be a good way to network with people interested in helping out. And we could start a Construct group.

    Plus I need friends in my list <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad">

  • Hey Ashley... I've been meaning to ask, are you currently the only person working on Construct? Also, how easy would it be for a coder to come into the project "cold," so to speak?

    The reason I ask is I've thought about posting a request for help on the "Serious Hardware/Software Crap" forum over at Something Awful. There's a lot of talented coders lurking around there who might be willing to pitch in on the project. It's the best place I know of offhand where a request for help might get a decent amount of consideration. The SA community has it's detractors (mainly because of GBS), but it is a large and busy place.

    On the other hand, SA goons can be pretty lazy so there aren't really any guarantees. Still, it might be worth a shot.

  • I just realized there should be a "None" option under the Collision Mask property for physics objects.

  • Go for it deadeye, help the lad. I refuse.

    I have to cook dinner <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_confused.gif" alt=":?" title="Confused" />

    C'mon, give him another chance. Attan's an okay guy. A little rough around the edges, maybe. Uncultured and boorish, certainly, but you get used to it.

    (jk Attan <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" />)

  • Just change the mass to like 20 or something.

    Ah yeah, that works better now.

  • Not really behind you, since youre example isn't exactly what i'm looking for. Even if it generally goes more in the direction of the larger clusters, it doesn't look like real gravity.

    Thank you Deadeye! That's exactly what i'm looking for!

    What, really? I thought Jeswen's looked better than mine actually. Mine go flying way too fast. The second For Each Object loop I added wasn't really necessary.

  • deadeye: Hehe, 3 minutes behind me.

    Dammit <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_mad.gif" alt=":x" title="Mad" />

    Oh well, mine supports multiple balls SO THERE SMARTY PANTS <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" />

    Edit:

    Oops, so does yours. Boy, I feel dumb.

  • Fixed it for you, using "For each object" loops, and "add force" instead of "set force." Added some extra balls to show that it works on all the balls. Try moving the boxes around into different arrangements, the balls will be drawn to larger clusters of boxes.

    http://www.mediafire.com/?3xgpmzzz5bj

    Edit:

    <img src="http://xs121.xs.to/xs121/07485/events.jpg">

  • This should probably go in Help/Tech Support. Also, you should post a .cap so someone can take a look at it and see what's going on <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" />

  • The features we need BADLY for the animation editor are:

    • Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Reorder for Frames
    • Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Reorder and Rename for Animations and Sub-Animations
    • Animation Preview

    Features that we need not quite as badly:

    • Paste that includes transparency in the image editor
    • Construct remembers the last tool you were using
    • Double-clicking a sprite in the layout editor opens the image editor (defaults to first frame of first animation)
    • "Select Animation" (or sub-animation) from inside the image editor (instead of having to save and close the editor and reopen a new frame in a different animation)
    • Creating a new animation automatically adds a new blank frame to the animation

    And a bug:

    If you remove the only frame from the default animation of a sprite, you get a blank sprite with no (infinite?) size. The size fields in the properties box blank out. Resetting them to a number (like 32, 32) temporarily makes the sprite that size again, but if you deselect it it jumps back to infinite size. Adding a new frame to the animation and saving it will allow you to set the size correctly again.

    Also, if you try running your app with a sprite that has no animation frames, it will crash immediately.

    Not allowing a user to delete the only frame of the default animation should take care of this. Also, Construct shouldn't ever have any "empty" animations with no frames in them, and if the user tries to delete the only frame of a non-default animation he just gets a popup asking if he would like to delete the that animation entirely.

    Bug posted on SourceForge <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" />

  • I'm able to set animations properly as well, but yeah, we definitely need the animation editor fleshed out a little more.

  • The While and For loops are a nod at "real" programming languages. Be careful with While loops, it is possible to get stuck in an infinite loop and your game will become unresponsive. I just tested it out and I got it to freeze up pretty easily (and I had several Temp.exe's in my task manager too. I froze it before it even drew the window <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /> )

    As for the For loops, in BASIC it would look like this:

    FOR X = 1 TO 10
 Y=Y+1
NEXT
[/code:24u1bze4]

This sets up the loop to run ten times (1 TO 10).  X is the loop name, but it is also a variable... each time the loop goes around, it gets 1 added to it.  As for the code inside the loop, on each pass the loop adds 1 to Y.  When X equals 10, the loop ends.  When the loop is finished the result is Y = 10.

In Construct, if you want to make a simple loop like this that just runs a specific number of times, it's more efficient just to use the "Repeat" loop.  Also, there is no "NEXT" command, Construct just automatically knows when the loop ends.

You could also nest loops like so:

[code:24u1bze4]
FOR X = 1 TO 10
 FOR Y = 1 TO 5
  Z=Z+1
 NEXT Y
NEXT X
[/code:24u1bze4]

For each X loop, Y loops five times.  The result when both loops are done is Z equals 50.  In Construct, you can nest loops by using sub events:

<img src="http://xs121.xs.to/xs121/07483/loop.jpg">

You could also use variables to define the parameters of the loop instead of regular numbers:

[code:24u1bze4]
FOR X = 1 TO numOfEnemies

FOR X = playerHealth TO playerMaxHealth

etc.
[/code:24u1bze4]

And in Construct:

<img src="http://xs121.xs.to/xs121/07483/loop2.jpg">

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  • You might just try creating the ghost trail on a layer below the main layer. It doesn't have to interact with anything, does it?

    As for the level editor aspect... it wouldn't feel so much like a level editor if there were meanies trying to get you and you had to quickly drop what you were doing and chuck some rocks at their heads <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" />

    And there could always be limits to his power, like not being able to levitate or manipulate certain things. I remember this one DOS puzzle game from when I was a kid where you had a wand that could turn anything into anything else (you could even turn a wall into a bad guy, or turn the exit door into a coin), but the wand didn't have any effect on iron objects. It could be something like that. Or like how the Green Lantern can't affect anything that's yellow for some weird reason.

    But I'm sure you have your own ideas about the play mechanics, I'll stop backseat driving now <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" />