lucid's Forum Posts

  • it would be very cool to be able to create functions, or groups of events

    that can be included in Caps, other than their original cap

    other than system events and actions, most require objects

    it would be very useful to be able to be able to specify a variable object in these events

    or when a group of events was exported, and imported to a different cap, these objects would automatically be loaded as variable objects

    so you would import a group of events with Object A, and Object B variable objects in place of actual objects, you would not be able to run a cap with Variable objects in place, you would specify the objects that should go in their place, or give the option of automatically adding the original object type and then you could run it

    there would be logistical issues, such as private variables, but it would be an extremely useful feature that would allow reusable code for one's own caps, and also, a method for non-programmer users to contribute precreated functionality for other users

    there could be an ever growing library of presolved common problems and situations, not worth creating plugins for, but common enough that it would be useful to have.

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  • if unbounded scrolling is not checked

    the scrolling still stops at the location it would at 100% zoom even if you're zoomed in, and it has more wiggle room at the greater zoomed in view

    a user was requesting help with this problem at this topic:

    http://www.scirra.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4492

    there is a solution in my reply, but it involves a few events that may not be immediately obvious to a new user, and the behavior provided by these extra events is what you would expect it to do normally

  • the reason why this happens is because construct limits the scrolling to within your layout, so it will never show any pixels outside your layout

    unfortunately, it doesn't update these numbers as you zoom in.

    to fix this problem, first check "unbounded scrolling" in your layout properties

    this will allow it to show the outside of your layout

    this is still not what you want however, because you don't want your players seeing a void outside your layout everytime you get near the edge of your screen

    I made a cap with the math necessary to fix this

    scrollxLeft [/code:3bmets29]
is an expression that tells you which pixel location of your layout is on the left of your screen, 

so
[code:3bmets29] ScrollXRight-ScrollXLeft[/code:3bmets29],
 would tell you how many pixels wide the zoomed in area of your screen is regardless of zooming  

[code:3bmets29]((ScrollXRight-ScrollXLeft)/2)[/code:3bmets29]
is one half zoomed in screen of pixels from the left of your layout
which is where you would want the center of your screen if you wanted it as close to the left of your layout as possible when zoomed in, but not showing the outside of your layout

[code:3bmets29]LayoutWidth-(ScrollXRight-ScrollXLeft/2)[/code:3bmets29]
is the same thing, but on the right side of your layout

ask questions if you still don't understand after looking through the cap
I won't be on until tomorrow probably , but someone will probably be able to explain it a little better, and if not, when I log on, I'll try to clarify if you have questions

[url]http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1013446/scrollbounding.cap[/url]
use the arrow keys to move the box
mousewheel zooms in and out

if you toggle those events off with the scrollx and scrolly, and just let it scroll to the green block
you'll see how it would display the outside of the layout without those extra events as you got closer to the edge

  • global objects?

  • nah, alot of people are shy about asking questions in the board

    it's not like people who know the answers are annoyed by the presence of more questions

    when I first got here I asked a million questions, and half of the answers were on the wiki

    now I'm a super awesome construct badass

    and all for asking a million basic questions until I was really comfortable

    I'm not suggesting you don't check the wiki, and do the tutorials

    I'm just saying, don't hesitate to ask, even if you haven't read through every smidgen of information

    ask, ask, ask, and if someone says, "you should check out <a certain wiki or tutorial>" check it out

    and ask questions again next time you have em even if you didn't finish the whole tutorial

    and then ask some more

    on the boards, not in PM

    where more people can read answers if they have the same questions

    and you can get more varied answers from more people

  • i dont remember how to do it your mouse doesnt have a zoom wheel, but this feature is in there. try holding shift or cntrl and using your mouse wheel

    or + or _, or search the forum for when i asked about this same thing.

    its in there though

  • holy f'in crap dude

    yeah the 2d was beautiful and inspirational for 2d game making

    but goodness dude

    I felt the same way when I saw guild wars1

    the graphics in game are sooooooooo f'in good

    I only played a trial of the first game

    and I really liked the type of powers you could get, and how the fighting was more than clicking on a monster and watching them slide their walking animation against you and do a biting animation once every 4 seconds..

    world of warcraft

    I just didn't have time for an rpg

    anywho, beautiful looking game

    and thanks for sharing the 2d thingy

  • they should mark unstable and stable

    and people interested in helping construct become complete and stable

    and people more concerned with having the latest features and less concerned with stability can download the latest build

    which they will use, test, and report bugs

    people new to construct should be linked to the latest stable build on the download page

    and people concerned more with stability than the latest features use the last stable release

    this version may have been marked stable prematurely

    but that doesn't mean the entire practice of having stable and unstable builds is flawed

  • <img src="http://tom.net.nz/uploads/matrix.gif">

  • New Customizable Controls plugin

    • Change your key settings at runtime.
    • Works with built in behaviors.
    • Customize all controls for your games: mouse, keyboard, and XBox360 controls.
    • Display set keys for Key, Mouse, and Pad controls, or use images for XBox 360 Pad buttons.
    • Save and Load Controller Configurations to Disk.

    Fixes some Construct 99.4 glitches to hold you over till the next build

    • Fixes Glitch where fourth 360 Pad isn't Detected.
    • Fixes Glitch where Right Analog Stick Up isn't Detected.
    • Has a working Set Control State action.

    Now fixes 360 pad issues where pressing to the left or right slightly on analog thumbstick will sometimes also trigger up and down movements

    <img src="http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1013446/Captur55e.png">

    DOWNLOAD PLUGIN AND EXAMPLE CAP

    FOR THE LAZY FOLKS, HERE'S AN EXE VERSION

    Microsoft Permissive License.rtf

    The button images contained in the CAP file inside the rar file on this page are bound to the Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL).

    these button images are downloadable here.

    To use this cap:

    • click on the name of a control
    • the next thing you press will be set as the button

    example cap is tutorial

    please report if there are any bugs

    also, please tell me your thoughts on the button image system

    I'm considering making it work with sprite frames

    but I'd like to hear scirra's thoughts

    -----------------

    quick tips

    -----------------

    to set default controls for your game

    • make a cap where the player can set controls
    • temporarily make it save to the filename "default" (or whatever you want to call it)
    • load your game, and set the keys, and save
    • then change the cap so it no longer saves to "default", and it saves to "user"
    • you can then choose when to load your defaults as necessary

    How do I show the player what button is set?

    The ControlString(control name, player number) expression returns a string for the name of a set key

    for instance

     Set Text to : CustomKeys.ControlString("Move Left",1)[/code:25l3013g]
would set the Text to [i]"Left Arrow"[/i] if that was the button set for Player [i]1[/i]'s [i]"Move Left" [/i]control
The [b]Set Control Sprite[/b] and [b]Show Control Sprite[/b] Actions allow you to display an image for an xbox 360 control

[h2][u]what if I want it to say [i]Mouse1[/i] instead of [i]Left Mouse Button[/i], or [i]Enter[/i] instead of [i]Return[/i]?[/u][/h2]
the[b] Set Control String[/b] action allows you to overwrite the name of a control, so you can make it say "LMB" instead of "left mouse button" or whatever you want

  • edit:ashy's right, but I already typed this, so...:

    two parts to the answer

    first is, it only jumps down if you have word wrap on

    if you turn off word wrap it'll act as if the bounding box is infinite

    second, is

    you can set Write Text to 2 different settings

    "insert" writes the letters one by one

    as if it were a complete phrase

    it looks nice, and very different for centered or right aligned text

    "absolute" is what you're asking for

    this writes the letters in their final spot, this will make it wrap the words

    before it gets to the letter that causes the wrap

    the following cap demonstrates the difference between insert and absolute

    http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1013446/absolutevsinsert.cap

    left click to see insert

    right click to see absolute

  • Yeah some interpolation would be required. An expression like get stack amount would be nice.

    definitely going to have "get size" stuff

    also considering interpolating, but for other purposes, like

    an action to Lerp Object positions between blank and blank

    which would automatically lerp, qerp, or cubicly interpolate the positions of all the objects automatically making the first and last objects be in the correct positions

    it would be a nice shortcut for a commonly done function

    ...

    Well, it is not a hack per se, just bit of a clever solution. What you do is add two or more families, depends how complex your picking code gets....And that's it from me.

    thanks for the explanation

    and that's a perfect example

    you could do something like this without using the family trick

    I understand the family trick works perfectly well, but logically it doesn't correspond with the intended purpose, as in, reading the events doesn't make it immediately obvious what it's doing like it normally would

    and being able to create these picking relationships on the fly would allow more power and flexibility

    so you could do something like

    if Sprite.x<100 place spriteA in group "LeftFam"

    if Sprite.x<100 place spriteA in group "RightFam" if Sprite.x>100

    if sprite('yodude') = "whatup" place spriteA in group "CoolGuy"

    if spriteA in "CoolGuy" is overlapping spriteA in "LeftFam", do whatever

    know what I mean?

  • Hmmm, how about stack object?

    eh...I don't know, it does alot more than stacks, and stack is a programmer's term

    construct is supposed to be a tool especially made for nonprogrammers to be able to jump in and use

    [quote:10sz4cw5]Oh wait will this even be an object? Cause it kinda needs to be built in. You know with the functionality of an object, as well as a behavior, kinda like families are.

    I can't build it in. I can only make plugins, but I'm not sure why it needs to be like a behavior, or how are families like behaviors?

    you won't be able to use it like a family in the sense that there won't be an icon representing your custom families

    however, I do plan to have collisions and comparisons, etc.

    you would have to use the objects' conditions to test for collisions, as opposed to the sprites' collision tests, though

    but it will amount to the same, and use the same collision testing techniques

    as for object specific things, like sprite 20 having a behavior, or being a panel instead of a sprite, and you want to access those things, one of the main points of this plugin is to fill in any gaps with picking you would have

    the picking system is awesome, but there are certain things that are difficult or impossible to do with picking right now, picking objects included in the plugin is going to be as comprehensive as possible. I am going to try to cover all the bases

    [quote:10sz4cw5]

    As to the double family hack take a look at this:

    http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/666516/stareater.cap

    Taken from one of the compo's lol

    thank you, but can you just give me a sentence or two that describes why you'd need it

    all this segmentation stuff is distracting me from the basic picking issue that makes the family hack necessary

    [quote:10sz4cw5]

    Also for the stack, how about placement as a percent?

    what do you mean?

    like add object at 50%?

    what happens if you have 10 objects and you tell it to place at 15%?

  • it didn't crash or freeze for me

    but I did notice a few things about your cap

    and trust me, I understand most of this is my fault for the lack of documentation

    <img src="http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1013446/Capture14141.PNG">

    1. when you left click you destroyed the fontsprite, and do not recreate it.

    anything that happens from here on out is relying on a glitch in construct or in the fontsprite to continue.

    also you don't need to destroy the panel and remake it, you can just move it, unless you're just testing something. for the fontsprite, just clear it, it will be invisible until further notice

    2.not sure if this was your intention, but "write text" at 0 milliseconds, writes one letter per tick

    if you want the text to come instantly, just use "show text"

    3.it is not necessary (and will most likely cause problems) to set the character sprite and range repeatedly, just do it once in start of layout.

    also, I think something may be wrong with the cap, because I tried changing some things, and they wouldn't work, and I was able to make them work in a fresh cap.

    as far as setting the length and width of the object

    I guess I forgot that part

    consider it done - sometime in the next few days, I'll have an update

    but in the meantime, you can use attach to object

    which automatically always sets the fontsprite position and dimensions to another object

    unfortunately I discovered a bug just now with it

    I realized it sets the position and dimensions at the beginning of a tick, and not after a tick

    so if you don't either Show Text again after the move, or Set Phrase Position after the move

    the fontsprite will always be in the previous position.

    in the following cap, I've included both workarounds (these workarounds will not be necessary when this will be fixed in the next update)

    here's something similar to your cap, with some of the modifications I mentioned :

    http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1013446/arima.cap

    edit: correct - it destroys the fontsprite, but does not clear the text first. it would make more sense if it did, though

    it might be useful to keep the sprites around for something, so I will make it give an option to clear text (set default to yes) on destroy.

    thanks again guys for helping me improve this

  • kinda

    the idea of the family and the arrays are separate

    you can add several things to a family, and they aren't thought of in any particular order

    they are just together

    like a regular family or container

    you can also have an array

    this is ordered, you can add stuff to the top or bottom, remove stuff from the top or bottom

    you will probably be able to do this to the middle as well, but I need to test the efficiency

    you can put arrays inside families, and you can have arrays of families

    you could create a family called 'item'

    [item]

    sprite object of item

    string object's name

    number for the repair level of the object

    you can access it all as if it were one thing, the commands will be different than with private variables, but you will be able to access the name as if it were part of the item

    if item sprite collides blah blah blah

    and item name is "sword"

    -1 from item repair level

    you could make an array of items called 'inventory'

    and then access them by the name inside item

    by an index in the array

    and you can pop or push them to the bottom or top of a stack

    then you can make another family called 'character'

    [character]

    string for name

    number for hit points

    inventory (the array of items)

    then you can create an array called 'army'

    which would be an array of 'characters'

    as I said before, you'd be able to create a random group of objects and put together families randomly for one time use

    like remembering a group of objects a character encountered,

    or a list of coordinates

    but this is an example of how it could be used more powerfully through organization

    and solidly defined containers

    as for the stack controls you could have,

    pick bottom, pick top, push and pop bottom or top

    for starters,

    but any suggestions anyone has, let me know

    oh yeah, and when exactly do you need the double family hack again?

    I haven't had to in a while, and I don't remember

    it falls in this general area though, and a more logical workaround is probably possible here

    also, if anyone has any ideas for what this object should be called...?