Zeus's Forum Posts

  • Hello, yesterday when Ashley posted his latest blog about graphics card drivers he sounded a little down beat so I thought I`d take a moment just to let him and Tom know what a top notch job that they are doing with regards to making one of the best tools that I have ever used.

    Construct 2 is a really special program to me. It is not the first tool of its kind that I have ever used on the PC, far from it. In my quest as an artist to create my own games I have tried several programming languages and just as many game making tools to realise my ideas but none so far have allowed me to do that despite their promises. Many of these were buggy and the ones that had potential were never updated or their creators never listened to their users. Scirra is different...

    I have been thoroughly impressed since day one by both Ashley and Tom. They both seem like really passionate guys who go out of their way to keep everybody here happy. They stay at the forefront of technology and it shows both in Construct 2 and on their website which is fantastically maintained with informative blog posts that give us some fun facts about how and why C2 works the way it does and an insightful up to date manual (which is a huge plus after using some other programs that have bare bones manuals or none at all!).

    Ashley keeps Construct 2 updated on a regular basis without fail and every update is a joy to download just to see what exciting new stuff he has put in for us to play with. Bugs are squashed with each update and you are never left feeling that a problem will be left unresolved. Unlike other developers Scirra also takes the time to listen and you genuinely feel that if you suggest a feature to them that they agree would be beneficial to others then it will be added.

    The more I use the program the more I can see how cleverly it has been thought out behind the scenes, it really is a fantastic, solid piece of work and I cannot wait to see what comes next. After coming from other languages I can truly appreciate the amount of hard work that has been done for us that would be a nightmare for the less technically minded. Things like physics, smooth delta timing and so on have all been taken care of so you never have to worry about these things which is a god send. I hope Scirra will continue to knock down the barriers for those of us who would rather be creating our games then having to solve endless problems. Many creative types simply do not want to learn complex mathematics in my experience (or simple cannot grasp it despite endlessly trying) and C2 goes to great lengths to make sure that we do not have to. Hopefully more features will be added to shield us from these things as I believe this to be one of C2 biggest assets.

    For the first time I can honestly say that creating a game of my own in now truly within my grasp, thank you Ashley, thank you Tom for creating such an awesome product and a great place on the web.

    I`m looking forward to see what you guys do next...

  • Same, OGG.

  • Thanks for the replies. Strangely it works fine in Firefox but not Chrome (latest version). I have tried changing the order of events and setting -50db as suggested but that had no effect.

    No big deal just wondered what may be causing this.

  • Hello, I have loaded a short music file from the sound folder (that I do not want to stream thus why it is in the sound folder) that I wish to play instantly upon the start of layout which I have set. Straight after this I have an action to set the volume of my sound to -10db. This doesn`t seem to work. If I move the action set volume action into another event it does work however.

    Can anyone suggest what is wrong? Here is what I am doing.

    System - OnStartOfLayout > Audio - Play "GameMusic" Looping (tag "Music")
                           Audio - Set "Music" Volume -10db

  • Nimtrix, thanks for pointing me to the FAQ I will have a read. I have skimmed through before but must have missed that part.

    Hi Ashley, thanks for taking a look at my suggestions. Please only use ideas that you think will benefit your program. I know that your todo list is long enough as it is. I must say though that it is nice for a developer to actually listen to his user base and makes a very nice change from many other tools I have used in the past.

  • Hello sqiddster

    2. Your right, sorry about that. Please disregard that request.

    5. Regarding Lerp, I have absolutely no idea how to use this even after reading the manual. Please could you give me a small idea of how it would work in a game situation?

    Actually, this confirms what I have mentioned above, non technical people would not link the Lerp command to what I am looking to do. Once you know that it can be used for this then you can look it up but if you have never heard of it then you wouldn`t even know where to start.

  • Firstly, I hope that you do not mind me posting ideas for future features here, I`m sure that you have a huge list already. If it is a problem then please do say.

    OK, here goes,

    1. Would it be possible to display the polygons that are use for collisions during running of the game, maybe this is already a planned feature if a debugger is a possibility?

    2. Can a status display be added to show the current rotation of the selected object in layout? Object scale would be most welcome to.

    3. The dashed window area in layout is hard to see on a dark background in layout, maybe if other grid display options are implemented a set colour choice could also be added.

    4. An option to manually set the distance away from the game window that objects are no longer updated\drawn. Could save performance on mobiles? I`m not sure what the current settings are? I did read your latest blog (great read) but saw no mention of this.

    5. I think that the scroll to actions would be great if they allowed you to set an ease in\out amount in a simple way. Being an artist one of the huge benefits of C2 to me is it`s ease of use in this regard. I`m really hopeful that you continue to make options like this for those of us who are less mathematically minded. (It is greatly appreciated.)

    6. Currently we have a wrap to layout option but no wrap to window. If you have a game like Space Invaders that also scrolls vertically wrap to window could take care of enemies that go off the bottom of the screen and then reappear at the top of the window (i.e they shouldn`t wrap to the top of the layout which is well out of view of the player). I know that this is easily done manually but it would be a nice complement to wrap to layout, maybe part of the behaviour?

    7. I really miss having a move object to destination command (with different ease in\out varieties) Can one be added in the future as it would be a great addition and it useful in many different game types.

    8. How about an option to set an object in motion, say rotate an object from one angle to another in a time set by the user, again with ease in\out settings which can then be left to carry on on it`s own? A kind of set and forget system. This could tie in with my above idea and create a very handy selection of commands which could automate commonly used tasks. I think that this would be a fantastic addition for a lot of users and make things like professionally moving items around\scaling and rotating a breeze, again especially useful for the less technically minded. Building bosses like this would be a lot simpler too. You could set a chain of events in motion which would trigger at set times.

    9. Finally, the ability to set one object to follow another would be great for drones, snake body parts and so on. With the ability to set the speed that the object set to follow moves at to catch up to it`s parent.

    Thanks for reading. Hopefully some of these ideas are helpful to you.

  • Thanks for the tips guys.

    I did read the last blog but this wasn`t mentioned. It was actually the reason why I brought this topic up actually.

  • Hello, just really wanted to ask if objects are automatically deactivated\not drawn when outside of the game window or should this be taken care of by the user? Or are they still active\updated but the performance hit is not worth worrying about?

  • Great, thanks for reading :) Keep up the fine job that you are doing.

  • There is also a small visual glitch (stray pixels) just above-left the plus symbol when you choose to add a instance variable\behaviour etc...

    The program is just so professional looking that I thought I`d mention it as it always catches my eye. Sorry for being picky! I`m sure that you are aware of it.

  • Sorry, I meant if you close it during your project but later wish to reopen it without restarting C2. Kind of like pressing home in your browser to return to your home page.

  • With regards to point seven, I have just reread the manual description and I still do not understand the process that takes place. Can C2 be made to leave a trail of images behind the player by not clearing the screen?

    I have no real use for this but would just like to know although I have seen games in the past where a trail of the players previous attempts at a level have been left via this method.

    Another request I forgot to mention is the possibility to add a preview of the layer zooming\scale rate to the layout view in the same way as the parallax preview enables you to see each layers scroll rate. Being able to set a rotation amount for each layer in a similar way would also be a nice addition.

  • Hi guys, I have been using C2 now since it was first released and am extremely happy in the direction that you are taking it, the future looks very promising and it is nice to be along for the ride.

    Both the program and website are very well maintained, you both do a great job and it`s to nice feel the passion that you obviously have for product. Thanks for making such a nice tool.

    Anyway, I have a few small suggestions that I think would improve usability, hopefully you do not mind taking a moment to read them.

    1. Would it be possible to have a visual display of the grid in the layout editor? Also, even though the window size of your project is shown in the upper left of the layout would it be possible to make this extend\tile across the whole of the layout view? That way you could place things where you knew screen boundaries were going to be, for example you could place a door leading to the next room. At the moment you just have to guess or use the co-ords in the status bar.

    2. Can effects be made to show in the layout view, additive for example, or is this not possible? Being able to view parallax in layout is really nice, it would be great to have visual previews of all things in the layout. Also is it possible that we could have a multiply effect as additive, normal and multiply are the most common blend modes. Have I missed it somewhere?

    3. The save asterix reminder that appears next to your project cannot be seen if you are in the layers tab, can it also be added to the title bar too?

    4. Is there a way to re-open the start page after it has closed? If not could this be added.

    5. When entering animation names into the event editor it would be nice to have a list of the animation that have been created for an object to appear in a list so that we could easily choose one. Maybe this is planned to be added when the art editor is updated? Also, if you change an animations name that was already previously placed in the event editor it doesn`t get updated to reflect the new name.

    6. When loading in another persons project into your C2 their browser preference is used above yours.

    7. Clear background seems to have no effect for me. It seems to clear when on or off in multiple different browser. When off shouldn`t a trail of images be left behind? Maybe I misunderstand?

    8. Recently, after trying to create a tilemap I had real problems. Do you plan to update this part of the program? Even some simple controls for using tile maps would be most welcome as currently having to change the starting frame of the animation strip (consisting of tiles) is quite annoying especially if you have lots of tiles. Also having to click to place each one is a chore on big maps. Is it simply a case that tiles are no longer relevant with todays technology or are they still likely to be included at a future point in time? The ability to continuously paint tiles quickly would be a huge help as would a simple tile pallet to choose from. GameMakers editor is pretty simple but it speeds up work flow which must be a good thing.

    Thanks for reading.

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  • That`s fine Ashley, thanks for the update. I`m happy to wait until Chrome gets updated, I just wanted to point it out. Now that I understand what`s going on behind the scenes I can see why it is happening.