tulamide's Forum Posts

  • I never thought collisions were also based on overlapping. I thought that if I'm hitting a wall it was because it detected a collision.There are only two (but important) differences between "on collision" and "is overlapping".

    • "On collison" only triggers once, no matter how long the objects collide, while "is overlapping" is true as long as they overlap.
    • Different picking behavior.

  • Thank you :)

    I'll test again in August then. Now with at least some way to export to .exe, C2 gets more interesting to me. That's my motivation for asking and hoping it will work reliably. <img src="smileys/smiley9.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • Sorry for bumping Ashley, but I think it's worth to look at. I don't mind if it isn't meant to work on WinXP, I'd just like to know.

  • This plugin also doesn't help me with my idea. I hoped for a plugin that not only manages a deck, but several decks plus the stack. Also the card's type may be the same, but its strength may vary. For example, the card "mighty warlock" may exist with an attack of 10 or 12. Both cards would have the same ID, but a different tag. Giving every variant of "mighty warlock" a different ID would break the real existing number of cards.

    Would it be possible to enhance the plugin in such a way?

  • I tried your cap and it doesn't run the collision event. It did trigger in my setup, so I thought about it and this is what I've come up with.

    If an object has the solid attribute than the platform object will never collide with it but stop right before the collision.

    That's why it worked with the mouse behavior, I simply moved the solid object across that invisible border and the collision took place.

    I'm not sure, how exactly you want your platformer to behave, but if it is simply a matter of "solid if floor, destroyable if ceiling", you could, for example, use this event in your example cap:

    + Sprite2: overlaps Sprite : offset (0,-1)

    -> Sprite: Destroy

    This will destroy the sprite only if Sprite2 overlaps with 1 pixel offset above (1 pixel offset is exactly what is missing, when the platform behavior stops the sprite because of a "solid" obstacle)

    EDIT: *sigh* why is ROJO always beating me to it <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • Have you tried this in a fresh cap? I made a new project, added 2 sprites and one panel, set all 3 to solid, gave sprite 1 the platform behavior, panel placed below to stop sprite 1 from falling, and gave sprite 2 the mouse behavior.

    + Sprite: On collision between Sprite and Sprite2

    -> Sprite2: Destroy

    Worked. So I guess there must be something else that interferes with that event.

  • The actual SDK is of version 0.99.3, compatible with R2, and you find it in the "Construct engineering" forum: http://www.scirra.com/forum/plugin-sdk-0993_topic37692.html

  • Neat video! I wish my eventing/whatevering would yield instant results :-P

    But at least that's how music composition generally works for me.

    That's interesting. It is exactly my experience too. Maybe because music composition already has that direct media connection? We instantly hear what we are playing, or how it affects the music if we change a note, a chord, an effect, etc.

    Game design should feel the same.

    I often read about complaints from non-programmers about the arrays in Construct. They said "I can't see them." And I didn't understand what they meant. Until I saw this video and its part about binary search. It's the same algoritm, that I use in "Verve!" for Construct's arrays. But all my comments in the events can't explain the functionality nearly as obvious than Bret's visual representation. This must have been what the people meant by "seeing the array".

    But there's a downside. Making an editor with instant media connection would always be a solution to specific demands or else will be bloated with dozens of tools and functions you probably never need.

    One side-note: I think, Bret's principle is exactly what people find so attractive about Spriter. It is following exactly this principle. You instantly see what you are doing and how changes affect it. I'm sure, there are other examples from fellow Scirrans out there.

  • I really mean the title. This evening a friend of mine send me a link in Skype. It was a short video on YouTube. At first I wasn't very impressed, but soon enough it got me. I started online searches and finally found the origin of the short video. It was a one hour talk of Bret Victor on "Inventing on Principles"

    I know that not everyone will have the patience, but I really, really recommend to watch the whole thing. It is not just about programming or game design, but about being creative using the computer in a way that feels much more natural than current usage.

    Those of you who don't want to watch the whole thing, watch at least the first 23 Minutes and from 29:20 to 34:00. I promise it will feel like seconds.

    Now that you have watched it, let me tell you that it already influenced some game creators. For example,

    .

    I'm really excited, as you can tell.

    Any thoughts?

  • I've been addicted to a special idea of a collectable card game, but never made progress. I just downloaded your plugin in the hope it might make a lot of things easier. <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • You don't need to excuse a question you had. That's what the help section is for. <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

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  • Hmm, there are many ways to let something rotate. You should use the method that is most suitable. Most of them can (and should) be combined with TimeDelta to enable rotation over time. If you prefer rotation over ticks, that's possible as well.

    First, let's have a look at your proposed RotateAngle(start, end, step). It will rotate the object to step'th-angle between start and end.

    For example:

    RotateAngle(10, 20, 5) will set the angle to 15

    RotateAngle(30, 60, 12) will set the angle to 42

    RotateAngle(90, 50, 8) will set the angle to 82

    To let it rotate over time, combine it with a variable that you raise with TimeDelta on every tick.

    + Sprite: Angle Less than 90

    -> System: Add 90 * TimeDelta to global variable 'myStep'

    -> Sprite: Set angle to RotateAngle(0, 90, global('myStep'))

    This event will let Sprite rotate from 0? to 90? within 1 second (90 * TimeDelta means 90 per second)

    For Sprites, there are also specific expressions for rotation. Rotate clockwise and rotate counter-clockwise will start at the current angle and rotate by the amount given. If the sprite currently has an angle of 0?, then using

    Sprite: Rotate 5 degrees clockwise

    will set the angle to 5 (or rotates by 5 degrees per tick, when used in an always event, for example)

    Mixed with a TimeDelta'd variable you can again rotate it over time:

    + Sprite: Angle Less than 90

    -> Sprite: Rotate 45 * TimeDelta degrees clockwise

    This will rotate within 2 seconds (45 * TimeDelta means 45 per second, a total of 90 is needed == 2 * 45 == 2 seconds)

    You can also directly set the angle and when using lerp() you can get a smooth rotation too:

    + System: Is global variable 'myStep' Less than 1

    -> System: Add 0.5 * TimeDelta to global variable 'myStep'

    -> Sprite: Set angle to lerp(0, 90, global('myStep'))

    With 0.5 * TimeDelta it takes two seconds to raise 'myStep' from 0 to 1 (used as t-value in lerp) and therefor 2 seconds two rotate from 0 to 90

    When working with TimeDelta time has precedence over accuracy. That means, the ending angle might not be exactly 90, but e.g. 90.35762 If you need it to be exactly 90, just add an event:

    + Sprite: Angle Greater than 90

    -> Sprite: Set angle to 90

  • Thank you <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

    I'm glad I could be of help. And imagine my big grin. "Progamming consultant"? Sounds good!

    I hope you'll finish it. Can't wait to see that credit entry... <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

  • Tips'n'Tricks #2: nth Root Calculation

    Here's another one you might find useful. Say, you want to take the squareroot of a number. You'll use the expression sqrt():

    pv = sqrt(16) = 4

    That's good, but what if you need to take the 3rd root or the 5th root? There are quite some situations, where you need them (e.g. when working with audio)

    Here's the trick. Instead of looking for an nth-root expression (which doesn't exist in CC), head towards raising to a power. While 2^3 means 2*2*2, you can calculate the root of a number by using (1 / nthroot) as the exponent.

    For this example we will take a number that we know the 5th root of: 32. The 5th root of 32 is 2 (2*2*2*2*2=32)

    1/5 equals 0.2

    32^0.2 = 2

    Test it in CC. Create a text box and set the text in runtime to 32^0.2 or 32^(1/5). I prefer to use the calculated value (0.2 in this case), because divisions can get inaccurate with single precision floats that are used in CC.

    So, just remember:

    nth root of a number is the same as number^(1/nthroot)

  • Tips'n'Tricks #1: Automatic Loop Counter

    You might already know about the trick to automatically switch between 0 and 1, by simply writing

    pv = 1 - pv

    if you start at 0, consecutive calls of the event will set pv to:

    pv = 1 - 0 = 1

    pv = 1 - 1 = 0

    pv = 1 - 0 = 1

    etc.

    So far, so good. But what if you wanted to switch between 1 and 2? Or count from 1 to 5, repeatedly?

    There's a treasure, we can use here. It's called mod (short for modulo, or modulus), and in CC you use the %-sign to indicate modulo calculation. Modulo calculates the integer remainder of a integer division. For example, 5 % 4 equals 1. To better understand it, let's look at the calculation from the other end. 4 fits into 5 exactly one time (remember: integer division)) and it remains 1. Got it? Ok, what about 11 % 4 ? 4 fits into 11 exactly two times and it remains 3 (2*4 = 8, 11 - 8 = 3). So 11 % 4 equals 3. But why the heck do I tell you this? Because the remainder will never exceed the second number of the calculation. See this list:

    1 % 3 = 1

    2 % 3 = 2

    3 % 3 = 0

    4 % 3 = 1

    5 % 3 = 2

    6 % 3 = 0

    See? It loops. And with a simple but clever trick you can use this to your advantage and implement an automatic loop-counter that doesn't need any bounds check.

    pv = (pv % [upperbound]) + 1

    Fire and forget. Let's say you want to count from 1 to 4 in a loop. 4 will be your upperbound. If you start at 1, consecutive calls of the event will set pv to:

    pv = (1 % 4) + 1 = 2

    pv = (2 % 4) + 1 = 3

    pv = (3 % 4) + 1 = 4

    pv = (4 % 4) + 1 = 1

    pv = (1 % 4) + 1 = 2

    pv = (2 % 4) + 1 = 3

    etc.

    You can do a lot of other things, too. Say you want to switch between 3 and 5. Take an upper bound of 4 but add 2 instead of 1. Here you go:

    pv = (pv % 4) + 2

    pv = (3 % 4) + 2 = 5

    pv = (5 % 4) + 2 = 3

    pv = (3 % 4) + 2 = 5

    pv = (5 % 4) + 2 = 3

    etc.

    You prefer switching between 3 and 4? Alright:

    pv = (pv % 2) + 3

    pv = (4 % 2) + 3 = 3

    pv = (3 % 2) + 3 = 4

    pv = (4 % 2) + 3 = 3

    pv = (3 % 2) + 3 = 4

    etc.

    Or maybe you want to count from 4 down to 2 in a loop? Tricky, but possible:

    pv = (pv % 3) + 2

    pv = (2 % 3) + 2 = 4

    pv = (4 % 3) + 2 = 3

    pv = (3 % 3) + 2 = 2

    pv = (2 % 3) + 2 = 4

    pv = (4 % 3) + 2 = 3

    etc.

    "Right", you say, "now do something completely weird. Your dumb trick will never succeed. I want you to automatically calculate the numbers 5, 2, 4, 6, 3 exactly in this order and looped. HA!" ...Hmm, you mean like so?

    pv = (pv % 5) + 2

    pv = (3 % 5) + 2 = 5

    pv = (5 % 5) + 2 = 2

    pv = (2 % 5) + 2 = 4

    pv = (4 % 5) + 2 = 6

    pv = (6 % 5) + 2 = 3

    pv = (3 % 5) + 2 = 5

    etc.

    You can even do an addition that doesn't add anything, but always stays at the number you add. Ok, it doesn't make sense, but it is possible <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> :

    pv = (pv % 1) + anynumber

    pv can be any number too, e.g. 143

    pv = (143 % 1) + 5 = 5

    pv = (5 % 1) + 5 = 5

    etc.

    Now that you learned the magic of modulo, go out and spread the word. Find wonderful rows of looped numbers, or find new ways of using modulo. The fantastic world of modulo counting awaits you...