If you just want to use elipses to cut out holes in a canvas I'd strongly recommend you use sprites, because you can made the holes in the scenery look more realistic and stuff.

I put together a nice little example that uses a combination of multiply and erase to create holes that leave a darkish shadow

The effect is more pleasing than an aliased perfect circle in my opinion.

What did you want to use elipses for ?

[quote:2pimchfj]especially if you've got to set up an erase blend on a new layer with that thing that makes erase work ticked.

You dont need to put objects on new layers and stuff when pasting into the canvas. The object simply renders into the canvas itself, so if it has an 'erase' effect on it, it will work as expected (as canvas has an alpha channel). It should work with any object and any pixel shader.

An electricity effect I made using some skewed sprites and the plasma object (to leave a trail)

If its events you might be able to speed things up by using conditions which only pick objects that are on the screen or within range of the player. However perhaps theres a particular area in the events when is demanding on the cpu, like nested for each object loops...

You say you have over a thousand objects...are they all scenery or are some particles and stuff? Maybe if you're able to send the cap file we could have a look over it.

Your title screen is already really awesome! However it is a little static and some objects fading in and out or moving around never hurts

I dont think it matters if you pay money for game making software, as long as you have some fun and get some use out of it, it doesnt matter if what you create is awesome or not. And there's a great feeling when you share your creation with other people and you see their responses!

Oh and that video is very pretty!

Another level

4,436,475,174,83,349,4,517,433,121,58,300,4,555,378,145,69,285,1,112,464,139,122,352,4,431,519,246,118,328,1,220,502,191,168,327,4,457,540,236,113,305,1,85,548,193,170,10,4,283,515,263,126,334,1,167,575,166,146,339,4,304,567,368,176,331,1,292,556,164,145,311,4,337,576,282,135,356,1,323,488,131,115,303,4,214,519,410,197,356,2,181,443,254,114,357,4,71,574,540,259,5,2,45,450,174,78,320,4,155,577,504,242,179,2,324,446,160,72,0,4,388,470,304,146,4,3,447,440,164,80,3,5,415,479,254,152,346,3,511,397,265,130,303,5,332,532,303,181,351,3,540,300,173,84,216,5,217,562,324,194,172,3,440,185,214,105,246,4,264,458,206,99,359,4,175,457,230,110,356,2,422,86,117,52,297,2,484,95,144,65,48,5,425,87,124,74,290,2,546,202,199,90,46,4,740,269,82,39,43,2,632,337,214,96,51,2,695,355,239,108,276,2,753,283,119,53,38,2,603,570,164,74,33,3,624,461,213,104,124,3,651,432,246,120,134,2,696,400,168,76,100,2,647,459,132,59,141,1,644,410,111,98,108,1,587,412,104,91,318,1,597,364,73,64,304,1,530,484,90,79,303,1,554,456,69,61,313,1,519,220,98,86,278,1,496,171,42,37,250,1,496,186,66,58,264,1,469,133,62,54,268,1,455,96,60,53,275,1,486,144,64,56,278,1,425,588,140,123,292,1,385,514,111,98,293,1,418,515,147,130,320,1,492,579,194,171,293,1,563,580,86,76,321,1,430,533,172,152,354,1,368,565,142,125,322,1,368,511,123,108,296,1,592,597,66,58,354,2,202,82,202,91,99,2,125,198,215,97,122,2,36,277,172,77,135,1,127,77,157,138,67,1,170,14,130,114,71,1,33,159,185,163,27,1,98,148,140,123,45,1,44,36,172,152,52,1,37,91,158,139,48,1,95,18,143,126,41,1,19,229,123,108,58,[/code:1we3x0ji]

Okay I made an editor. It can load and save files to and from clipboard. Heres a level

4,285,484,311,149,355,4,488,487,320,153,348,4,479,458,295,141,347,1,109,218,256,226,47,4,175,398,201,96,74,1,70,333,232,205,54,4,177,448,260,125,34,1,234,-20,22,19,180,4,147,502,379,182,16,1,58,503,337,298,16,4,72,547,509,244,3,1,214,554,230,203,17,4,209,211,130,62,90,1,337,557,235,207,9,4,193,295,148,71,93,1,486,566,284,251,355,5,218,454,189,113,352,1,644,542,223,197,10,5,142,469,214,128,348,1,765,567,110,97,20,5,418,457,166,99,346,1,708,579,269,237,5,5,328,458,195,116,345,2,294,481,325,147,353,5,126,517,307,183,344,2,484,477,280,126,344,4,17,133,145,69,326,2,685,490,296,133,8,2,160,393,190,86,67,2,190,252,222,100,92,2,140,136,195,88,19,2,31,132,161,72,318,1,39,214,168,148,333,
[/code:8jd7bj30]

To use the editor, use your numberpad and hit a number between 1 and 5. Then click and drag...you'll work it out

See source code of constructs layout editor

Hmm probably wasted a good half hour heh...

I been playing around trying out different styles for drawing ground and grass and stuff

I recorded a video

http://www.fileshack.us/get_file.php?id ... hstyle.rar

Thats not the graphic I ended up using, but its kinda similar except I made my brush textured

But yeah being able to independantly rotate,scale and tint each instance of a sprite in the layout editor makes making these kind of levels really easy! It would be a real headache if Construct limited you to have the same size and angle for every instance!

The level itself in this mockup took me only about 10 minutes to assemble.

As for elipses and polygons, as the canvas object can draw any object into itself, its more likely we'll create a polygon plugin separately (so we can get vector graphics and all that pwetty stuff)

1 - Make a sprite and draw a big white circle

2 - Give the sprite the 'erase' effect

3 - Give the sprite mouse movement

4 - add a canvas object and load some random image off your computer

5 - add an event 'always - paste sprite into canvas'

Now run it and you have an eraser on your canvas

Try adding a gradient or something behind the canvas, and you will see the background appear through the image.