digitalsoapbox's Forum Posts

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    There is no and has never been an accepted definition of "third party" in which a piece of software that is marketed as running on a specific OS is the first party and the OS is the third.

    The OS is the host. The software is the guest. With no OS, the software cannot run. From the disturbingly limited POV of Scirra, Microsoft may be *a* third party, but you are still a guest in their house.

    If the software does not run on the OS, that is a software issue, regardless of if it ran on the OS okay previously, and regardless of that being the fault of the OS or software. The OS makes the rules. Period. This has always been the case. It is not a new development or concept. It predates the birth of every single person on this forum.

    Construct is not a special case. It is not an exception to established rules. Microsoft provides a platform, and developers create software to run on their platform, not the other way around. You are running on their OS at their discretion. If they want to make changes, and it breaks something you did (assuming that's what happened here), it's on you to make it work again. Not them. This has always been the case, outside of extreme circumstances. Once again, Construct is not an exception to the rules. It is a tiny software fish in a much, much larger OS ecosystem. It is not the top of the food chain, or the arbiter of change, on the OS.

    In the end, none of this argument matters. Fix the software so it works properly or sunset it. One thing that can't be explained away regardless of shifting definitions of terms or the placement of blame is the effects of selling faulty software, to both Scirra's reputation, or potential violation of, say, Steam's policies surrounding the sales of software with known, breaking issues. So if Scirra doesn't want to fix their software, I can't imagine there won't be any (more) consequences to that decision.

    Maybe Scirra can also not try to alter the definition of trolling to pointing out that it is a software developer's responsibility to ensure that the software they produce works properly, and no one else's? Because it isn't. It's on Scirra to support the software they develop and sell. Transparent attempts to handwave away this responsibility, or place blame, does not make the software work as it should. Vague, conveniently-applied "rules" on a forum do not change this, and I would think it would be better for Scirra's reputation that it's dealt with on their forum instead of say, the rest of the internet where, as a reminder, Scirra has zero control of what content can be posted or read.

    But hey, it's your business. You can not support the products you sell if you don't want to, despite that approach going against previous announcements related to ongoing support. But that's going to cause issues past the hurt feelings of a Scirra developer that can't admit when they may be wrong about something.

    NOTE: Edited for overall clarity, spelling, snark.

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    For the record, this is categorically an issue with Windows. Unless the dialog still takes a long time to appear with "Don't show unique icons", then any delay is entirely in Windows, and there is no question about whether it's in C2. I also can't resist pointing out the great irony that people accuse us of depending on third parties too much with HTML5, but you can't get away from third parties on native either!

    The dialog does, in fact, still take a long time to appear with the "Don't show unique icons" option set in preferences. And, as mentioned previously, it gets worse over time until a full restart.

    Interesting that this occurs only with C2 and not with any other, more complex software that features heavy icon/generated thumbnail usage that I've tested, but is categorically a Windows issue due to recent patches, despite occurring on multiple systems here (as in, directly in front of my eyes), where Windows updates have not been installed in months.

    If I'm reading this correctly, the "third party" you're referring to is Microsoft. In which case, reality is that they're the first party. Because it's their OS that software is expected to run on, and not the other way around. It is the software developer's job to ensure that the software is fully functional on the OS it's designed to run on - especially when that software is still for sale, and even if the blame can "uncategorically" be placed on an OS update. This fact - and it is a fact - of software development doesn't seem all that difficult to understand. The mental gymnastics to avoid the obvious probably take more effort.

    You mentioned upon the release of C3 that Scirra would be fixing any bugs that appear in C2 - this is a bug, regardless of whose fault it is. If Scirra will no longer be fixing known, proven issues that occur when using the software they have for sale, please let users know so that the appropriate steps can be taken.

  • a friend of mine with GTX1070 has also reported bad rendering on far zoomout.

    Same issue here. I see it more on Intel embedded GPUs than nVidia, but it happens on both.

  • I just released r251 beta which has some changes to try and resolve the crash on startup. Can everyone affected please try it out and let me know if it works better?

    No more crashing on startup here. Thanks for the fix.

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    If a Windows update slows down some Windows code that C2 calls, the root cause is categorically with Windows itself. We might be able to work around it, and I'm looking in to it today. What is annoying though is when users blame us specifically for the problem, when all the evidence points to it not being our fault. It sucks enough that we're a small team left scrambling to cover up for Microsoft's mistake, and then having people blame us specifically for the issue and refusing to accept the possibility that it could be anyone else's fault (as if we're totally incompetent and all problems are obviously our fault)... that's just salt in the wound.

    Basically I think this would be reasonable: "Hey Scirra, it looks like a recent Windows update slows down C2. This kind of sucks, do you think there's anything you could do to help?"

    But this is unreasonable: "A recent Windows update slows down C2. OMFG C2 is so crap and is broken. WTF is wrong with Scirra. Why haven't they fixed it already? Do they even know what they're doing? Unbelievably poor service OMG!" (Maybe nobody used those exact words, but it's definitely the impression I get)

    While this position is somewhat understandable, I think it's maybe a little revisionist to assume that even a majority of people pointing out the issue place blame 100% on Scirra. This is of course aside from the fact that it's not really anyone else's problem that Scirra is a "small team" (wasn't C3 going to subscription supposed to help alleviate this issue?) or that the changes Microsoft made were a "mistake." It's their OS. Scirra (and every user) is a guest. Software is designed to run on their OS, not the other way around (also an issue that still exists with C3 and Chrome/NW.js, before we get into that sales pitch).

    As for quality of service - dismissing issues that exist because they're not Scirra's "fault" doesn't change the fact that when the issues were initially brought up, the response from Scirra was...well, pretty dismissive itself, in terms of the impact the software issue has on its users.

    Anyways. None of the rest of the noise surrounding it - as in, the emotional reaction of Construct's users or Scirra's - really matters. You've said it's being looked into. Great! Thumbs up all around.

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    So, real questions here: even if the issue is 100% "Windows fault," does that matter? The software is made to run on Windows. It's also still for sale. Shouldn't it be Scirra's responsibility to fix the software that is supposed to run properly on the platform it's marketed as being designed for? Does the placement of blame matter? Doesn't the responsibility ultimately fall on Scirra, the software developers, and not Microsoft?

  • > andreyin Are leaderboards working for you? Sounds like a lot of people in this forum are having trouble getting it to work.

    >

    Ooh I see. My game doesn't use them so I thought they were already had been implemented. Sorry!

    Yeah...they don't work currently. Another example of somewhat misleading claims - C2/3 don't really support XBox One features needed to release a commercially viable title outside of the very, very limited Creators program that doesn't provide games with much visibility or XBL integration at all.

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  • Still waiting on achievements... It's the only thing left that I need to get my game out of the Creators Program and into the regular store, I believe. Here's hoping 2018 is the year I can finally release my game on Xbox One properly!

    Achievements, friends lists, and I think leaderboards.

  • Props to Colludium for being so fast with updates and eliminating issues! This behavior is very useful and is already saving me a lot of time setting up more advanced platform-style interactions.

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    Ashley

    Trolling? C'mon now. Lots of people have the issue. Even on brand-new, higher-end PCs. The inability to address the root cause can in no way be pinned on users. That's not how product support works.

    And I thought part of the point of the subscription model for C3 was to allow an increase in headcount? Make up your mind, dude.

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    Having the same issue, which started with either r249 or r250 on a project that hasn't grown past its size previous to r249. This is on a fairly high-end PC that's less than 4 months old, running Windows 10.

    The issue only occurs with Construct 2 and is definitely not an issue with the PC itself - nor is it likely an issue with Windows 10, as the PC OS/drivers have not been updated since the time when Construct 2 was working properly. The project itself does not have thousands of variables, or objects, so it's not likely the project size is the main (or only) culprit either.

    With the specs of the machine, there's little reason outside of an issue w/ Construct 2 itself that simple dialog boxes or popup menus should sometimes take 5-10 seconds to open, especially when it's the only piece of software running. Pretty sure if I can run 3DSMAX & After Effects simultaneously with zero performance hits, C2 shouldn't be causing such issues - it's not doing anything nearly as complex in the IDE as 3DS or AE is doing.

    Specs:

    Win 10 Enterprise

    i7 7700K 4.2 Ghz

    64GB RAM

  • Same issue as well. r250. Reinstalling from scratch fixed it.

  • ThePhotons

    Pretty cool! I haven't played w/ dynamic interest areas yet, sounds useful.

  • Read between the lines, they hacked the TNP source files.

    Try loading some of the cap files into an editor some time to see what's really going on.

    Construct is mostly an xml editor, a pretty darn good one at that, but the real magic happens in the runtime. Which is what they chose to dedicate their time to, rather than have some half assed attempts at making it work on other platforms like all the other so called cross platform exporters. Sure it's html5, but its the only one that gets it right.

    What flavor *is* that kool-aid, I wonder?

    I dunno about you, buy I make games to sell them, and I want to sell them in as many places as possible where people buy the kind of games I make. Construct seems to actively prevent that, despite repeated mentions - for years, now - of plans to support other platforms, as well as the features people who buy games expect on those platforms. End of story. Not everyone wants to make knockoff games built on purchased templates in a misguided attempt to generate money through mobile ads.

    Anyways. Good on Aurelien for finding a way to bring his (pretty awesome) game to other platforms. Shame it had to be achieved in such a time-consuming, roundabout way, due to the misleading claims of the original engine's creators. Live and learn I suppose.

  • Cool article, perhaps there is hope for bring C2/C3 to the Switch after all!

    Except...it's not really C2/C3. Scirra doesn't seem very interested/capable in making their engine run on consoles. As it stands, we still depend on third-party plugins like Steam4C2 to provide desktop games with the features people expect to be supported on the largest PC game store, let alone consoles designed and optimized to run games specifically.