ptbcomposer's Forum Posts

  • ok, here's the demo (should just load automatically from the link)

    http://www.philipcomposer.com/comic

    there's still some minor problems like I haven't added the menu button on layout 2, the return to layout from menu isn't perfect, etc. but this is a long way from where it was this morning!

  • Alright folks. I've solved the elusive pause/unpause problem. Wanna' know how it's done? You guessed it...instance variables for every freakin' object in the program. Yuck. But it works.

    I've put comments on everything in the hud and layout entry sheets to explain how it works as best as I can. Unfortunately, I believe I will have to do this for every layout/object...some serious time consumption coming my way.

    I have a new, yet smaller problem now. If I pause and then unpause in layout 2, the layout repeats before moving onto layout 3.

    (ignore the problem of layout 3 disappearing at the beginning for now, this is probably something easy compared to the other problems)

    Thanks to all who posted something useful, namely Nimtrix and ramones for giving me ideas, and thanks to the manual for explaining instance variables!

    philipcomposer.com/comic/wayofthesaxcapx.capx

  • I understand you completely here ramones. However, when I restore more than one object timescale, the system appears to crash. Nothing happens. I think I might need a completely different approach. Is there anyway to have a fade in and out effect for each frame of an animation?

  • alright, I tried making the events in layout a group, then set it to deactivate when menu is set to 1. that didn't work, so i tried to deactivate it when the pause button is clicked...that didn't work. everytime, the captions still fade out. also, in layout two, there is a part where a new panel fades in over the layout. if you hit pause, the panel still fades out. it is supposed to pause too, dammit! oh, this is so frustrating.

    here's the capx again, the only thing I added are aesthetic things that control the buttons continuing to move after timescale is set to 0.

    I've added comments to help explain what is supposed to happen, and what happens instead

    http://philipcomposer.com/comic/unnamed.capx

    thanks

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  • can anyone translate that?

    seriously, you obviously didn't read my first post where it links to the post saying what my project actually is...it's an interactive graphic novel. If that doesn't appeal to you, then you don't have to read it.

  • fyi, I think the fade out problem might be because you got rid of my family behaviors. I'll try putting those back in.

  • Thanks, you fixed the problems, but you did indeed break a couple of things. When pressing pause, the current caption now continues its timescale and thus fades out. Also, when returning to the current layout, the black bar at the top is no longer at the top of the layer.

    I'll try to fix these, then let you know. Otherwise, thanks a bunch!

  • I'm still not getting the whole menu global text variable thing. It's a little too complicated for me to even explain. Here's the updated capx. You can go to the menu event sheet to see what I changed.

    http://philipcomposer.com/comic/unnamed.capx.

    Thanks.

  • oops, forgot to delete the touchmouse instance. should work now...

    http://philipcomposer.com/comic/unnamed.capx

    I'm such a noob...

  • My bad. Here is the capx without the 3rd party plugins. I use Rex's Touchmouse plugin. Very useful for easy testing on my android devices.

    This has mouse only...

    http://philipcomposer.com/comic/unnamed.capx

  • The thing is, I want to pause everything, including the automatic tendency for the system to switch layouts. See, the program is still ticking even though all the objects are paused, thus time still runs. Is there a way to maybe turn the "go to layout" function as a global variable that I can switch on and off (this is inspired by your solution to the menu problem)?

    I will try the menu fix and let you know.

  • Hi,

    I'm having trouble making somewhat sophisticated pausing and menu systems.

    I made the post below, so you can know what the project is that I'm working on...

    http://www.scirra.com/forum/interactive-comic-book-how-many-people-would-buy_topic49895.html?KW=

    (first of all you can access the hud at the top by clicking the top black bar or you can hover over the top corners to bring up either the pause or menu buttons)

    As you can see from my project capx (below), when you click the pause button (top right), everything pauses as it should. However, if you leave it paused you notice that it still goes to the next layout anyway. I know this is because the system is still running and only the object timescales are paused, but I don't know how to fix it. If I use the system timescale = 0 then I will run into problems with animations of the play, pause, and menu (top left) buttons, probably some other problems way down the road as I add more features.

    As you can see I have timescale instance variables for each item in layout 1 (I haven't added them to the other layouts yet because what's the point if it doesn't work). When layout 1 starts, only the zooming in part has a timescale instance variable of 1, everything else starts at 0. When it is time for things to fade in and out, those instance variables then become 1. This (and the lovely family behaviors system) helps everything from popping up at once right at the start. Any ideas how to also pause the transition to the next layout without actually pausing the whole system??

    Next problem...

    As you can see I've begun the process developing a pretty good menu system (yes, the layout is empty but that's the easy part; there will be some stats and whatnot). You click on the button in the top left, which brings up the menu layout. However, I can't find any function anywhere in the program that returns you to the previous layout. Let's say you're on layout 2...you go to the menu, then exit the menu. Where do you go? If I program the menu event sheet to go to layout 2, then it goes to layout 2 everytime, regardless of which layout you were on. When I did a search for this problem on scirra, I found a post where it mentions that you actually CAN go to a previous layout, but it's only on contruct classic. Why isn't this feature on construct 2? Any ideas on how to fix this one, or am I going to have to put all the menu items on every single layout of the comic (there will probably be something like 75-100 layouts when the whole thing is finished).

    thanks.

    http://philipcomposer.com/comic/unnamed.capx

  • I doubt it. PDF seems to support flash and moving objects according to the very long article on Wikipedia, but it would not be practical at all. The file would be very large, and there might be conversion errors. Also, what would be the point? All new browsers, including IE9 support it natively, not to mention it can be wrapped in an app for Chrome or iOS.

    BTW, I'm new at this development stuff, so if I'm wrong about anything, feel free to correct me.

  • can't use just use MS Paint and turn on gridlines?

  • I'm a musician and composer seeking out to make an interactive comic book. My comic book is going to have a lot of game-type elements such as achievements, music and narrative, a HUD during pause, and multiple paths.

    In addition to a great story about a traveling martial artist/jazz saxophonist, there will be nice fade in/out screen transitions, items to be clicked on and "collected" for an achievement system, a save option (maybe), music tailored for what's going on in the panel (unlike current HTML5 comics), psuedo animation (kind of like the Tron Legacy comic), and more.

    I know this is ambitious, but I have a friend who is a great comic-book artist and writer, I have a masters degree in composition so there will be nice epic orchestral music, and I have been working with the Construct 2 program for a few days now and have figured out how to do about %75 of what I want so far.

    I'm just curious how many people would buy this as an app on Android/iOS or subscribe to it on a website (probably $1 for each issue).

    Philip