John Cutter's Forum Posts

  • [quote:2mysty13]You can try closing the app manually by double tapping the home button, swiping left or right to the app, and then swiping up.

    Yeah, that doesn't work. The only way I can get the app to start working again is to go into: Settings/Safari/Advanced/WebsiteData, find my website and then swipe across to delete it.

    Maybe I should have her download Chrome. That might work better.

  • So, I've been using C2 for several months now... and struggling a little bit. For my first program I decided to tackle a Flashcard app to help my wife and me learn French, and I got a little hung up on Local Storage, Arrays, .json files, text-to-speech, voice recognition, etc.

    Today at work I actually got to use Construct 2 for something more... graphical... in nature, and I had a great time! I just kept finding one cool feature after another. I had to import some sprites and it was MUCH easier than I expected. Then I realized that the sprites were in spritesheets. No problem for C2, it cut them out for me. Another nice surprise.

    I've been wishing there was a way to replace just an *object* on an event line; today I found "Replace object" in the context menu. <head slap>

    Last week I was moaning about the lack of a MoveTo behavior but this morning I started using "lerp" and it's really nice and super easy. After that I stumbled across the "Choose" expression. Then I wanted to shake the screen and C2 provided there, too.

    And don't even get me started on all the Sprite effects I found! About an hour before lunch I had a great feature prototype to show my Art Director (it ran perfectly on his Mac) and I told him I hoped to have another prototype ready before the end of the day. Nope, I finished that sucker before lunch!

    My only complaint about C2 at this point is that my wife's iPad stops loading my Flashcard app after a few plays. (Just brings up the C2 loader bar and then... nothing...) I have to completely remove the webpage from her device before it works again. (The app works fine on all my other devices. Can't figure it out.)

  • Awesome! Had a great day working with C2 and this was just icing on the cake!

  • Thanks, Landermere. Today at lunch I figured out a way to clear the cache for ONLY my site. As I expected, the app loaded again and everything was working great.

    But she just texted me and it's broken again. So I don't think the issue is an update from Apple. I wish there was an error message or console that could tell me what is going on. I'll do some research on that tonight...

  • A quick followup question: Does anyone know what Construct 2 is doing when an app starts to update? In my case, the C2 loading bar almost instantly appears, but it never starts to load. The app just hangs right there.

    Is it just loading C2-specific files, or is it already trying to load assets? (I'm pretty sure it's the former, I just can't figure out why this was working before and now it's not.)

    Thanks!

  • I'm not an expert either, but web-based HTML5 games need to be uploaded to a web server. So if you have an actual website (and not just a domain name) then you should be fine. Alternately, you can "wrap" your games and give them out to your friends that way.

    When I was first getting started with Construct 2 I uploaded my games to these two (FREE) sites:

    http://www.freewebhostingarea.com/

    Your site will be: [somename].orgfree.com

    https://www.000webhost.com/

    Your site will be: [somename].comli.com

    It's pretty simple, you just Export to HTML5, put ALL the files in a .zip and then use cPanel to upload that .zip to your website!

  • Another day, another question.

    My wife has been using my Flashcard app on her iPad (3rd generation). It has been working fine.

    This afternoon she went to use it again but it's no longer loading for her. When she follows the link she instantly gets a black screen with the Scirra loading bar, and then... nothing. The bar never loads and it just sits there forever. It was working fine this morning so I'm very confused. I tried to load the app in Private Mode but the same thing happened. Then I uploaded a new version but that had no effect either.

    The app loads fine on my laptop, my work laptop, my iPad Pro, my iPhone... So I'm confused. Has anyone seen this before?

    I suspect the app would load if I cleared her cache/history, but I also suspect she would kill me in my sleep.

  • Thanks Nabu0001, I wasn't aware of the "On loader layout complete" condition. It sounds like that is mainly for projects that have a lot of assets, correct? (And it's NOT a replacement for the events I have listed above.)

  • I couldn't find one...

    I'm really enjoying Construct 2, but there are a couple of features I really wish it offered, features I am used to with other game engines I've used in the past.

    DEFINE PATH (AND FOLLOW PATH)

    I'd like to be able to define a movement path for a sprite and then have it follow the path. This would be incredibly useful for Tower Defense titles, Zuma-style games, and more. I use paths a lot when I'm rapid prototyping ideas for work. For example, to show an object float out of chest and do a little loop before flying off screen.

    MOVE TO BEHAVIOR

    I know it's relatively simple to do this using math, but it would be so much quicker if it was an included feature. (And not a plugin, which I try to avoid due to compatibility/bug concerns.) Just the basic feature would be sufficient, though it would be even better with easing and Bézier curves.

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  • I've done some research on this topic but I'm still a little confused. (Seems to happen more and more as I get older. <sigh>)

    I created a custom loading screen and my event sheet for it looks like this:

    First, am I doing that right?

    Second, I didn't initially have the layout marked as "Use loader layout..." and I'm sort of confused about what that option actually does. Does it negate the need for the events above? I haven't really noticed a difference whether I use it or not.

    I'm asking because I'm having a small issue with my app not getting files from updates. Here's the problem:

      1. I upload a new Project File (.json) and a new offline.appcache file 2. I go to my website 3. My app recognizes that there is an update and it *seems* to get the new version 4. When my app starts the Project File hasn't been updated 5. The Project File isn't updated until I refresh the browser window

    This makes me think the error is in my events that download the Project File, but they *look* okay.

    Thanks for any help.

  • gumshoe2029 I need to run some more tests but my problem seems to have returned. Here's what I find unusual:

    I upload a new Project File to my website, along with a new offline.appcache file. Then this:

    SCENARIO #1

    I go to: http://www.cuttergames.com/frenchflash/ and my app correctly identifies that there is an update and downloads it.

    SCENARIO #2

    I go to the secure version of my site: https://secure.bluehost.com/~cutterg1/frenchflash/ and the app doesn't get the update. (Even after I reload the page over and over again.)

    Also, I think each of these links uses a different Local Storage file, right? Could that be related to the issue?

  • Thanks for the reply. No, I don't think it was a C2 bug... just a bug with my app.

    [quote:ur8xa0yk]I did not encounter but I think making separators like Universal Groups (Always Active) and Local Groups (Can be deactivated) can prevent this or separating event sheets per layout or per category will also be good.

    I'll explore that a bit more. Thanks for the suggestion.

  • To keep my C2 code simple, clean, and easy to read, I like to put ALL my code into Groups. When an event in that Group is resolved I deactivate it and activate the next one. Sometimes I have to leave a Group open until events have resolved... This FSM-style methodology works very well for me but I ran into an obscure bug recently and I'm wondering about the best way to prevent this problem in the future.

    My issue occurred when I switched to a new layout and then back again. I expected the layout to basically "restart" but I apparently had a Group open (from before) and that code was executing out of order. Anyone else run into this? I don't think there's a programmatic way to Activate or Deactivate all groups, right? I could do it on a Group-by-Group basis but I have a lot of Groups.

  • Strangely, when I tried to load my website at work today I was only seeing the OLD version of the site. I tried to force the site to update but that didn't help. Switching to Chrome's Incognito Mode fixed the problem, so I completely cleared my cache and now everything seems to be working as intended.

    So I'm thinking it was an issue with my website cache not updating? (I have a loading page in my app that is supposed to check for that. Not sure why it stopped working.)

    Bottom line: everything is back to normal, for now.

  • Not sure if Ashley will see this but maybe someone else can answer the question:

    When I updated to r223 I did NOT uninstall r221 (or r222), even though the installer recommended it. Would that have caused any issues that might have invalidated the test? (I installed the new version to a different drive.)