once again i come to you, humbly and embarrased..

i decided that i want to make dynamic grass blades for my platformer. lots and lots of grass blades that sway when the player overlaps them. this is no issue, BUT:

i was wondering what would be the best way to make them appear. now, i could plaster my level full of them and they would be ready when the level starts, but the obvious problem would be the object(instance) count.

it would be kind of unnecessary to have all those grass blades taking valuable resources.

that leads me to streaming them on screen.

i could do it with making either comparing distance between the player and a ground sprite. or with a box ,always position it to player, make it big enough so that it goes over the screen.

i have ground sprites,that i could use to compare overlapping with the box object, so that upon overlapping, the ground sprite would spawn grass blades on the hotspots placed on the ground sprite. then just invert the overlapping with the box to destroy the grass blades that arent visible anymore. i guess it sounds simple enough, but i cant really make it work.

i have trouble with object picking and determining what blades should be destroyed. i have a bad feeling its something really simple,but is there anyone out there who could help me build this streaming event properly from the ground up, to make it the most efficient possible?   <img src="smileys/smiley9.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

also, i was wondering, is it really even worth the reduced object count, because the cpu still have to do some workout streaming the grass? so, sticks and stones, eh? or am i just completely clueless? probably.

> is there any newer versions of the blob?No, you are working with the newest version. But I'm always willing to help. So, if you happen to have any idea or feature request that's within the possibilities of an effect, I'm more than happy to try implementing it.

> in that road example pic you posted, did you use some overlay sprite or is that just a textured sprite?The structure is as follows:

1) Background layer (contains one tb with a texture)

2) Blob layer (contains several instances of a white "blob"-sprite with radial gradiented opacity). The layer has the blob shader applied and on top of it the Burn shader.

Hope, this helped?

i just tried that and it works perfectly! thats really nice. only thing is that id like to use different texture for the road (think BG grass and sand road on top for example), but i guess there could be some kind of simple workaround..?

i'll keep that request thing in mind, if i can come up with something that could possibly be achievable.

one thing that ive always wanted is some kind of realtime mesh editor (in the editor,that is. i know theres a separate editor in the construct folder), since i have never really liked doing tiled sprites. i remember seeing some video of some game creating software,that had this ability and it looked interesting, but i really dont want to start using any other program than construct, cuz i like it so much. i always use just textures that has a some form of transparency at the sides,so i can merge them together,while still looking adequate. but i know that mesh editor isnt probably the highest priority for construct,and i guess less so with classic construct. something like the terrain creation used in little big planet would be more than welcome though,only in 2D, pretty much the only thing i like about the game :)

anyway, thanks for the tip, its really awesome!

ugh, i posted 3 repliess and i got a weird error. now im exhausted and dont want to write all that stuff for the fourth time. but anyway, thanks for clarifying and sorry if i gave credit to a wrong person,i just wrote that out of memory.

few questions:

is there any newer versions of the blob?

in that road example pic you posted, did you use some overlay sprite or is that just a textured sprite?

anyway, thanks for clarifying!

hi fellow constructors!

just a minor thing, im not sure if i have seen anyone post something like this, maybe there is, but anyway here goes:

i was just fooling around with quazi's brilliant blob_test effect and tried to make it as a layer effect and it seems to work pretty nicely to get a cartoonish look and it also makes terrain look very smooth, if you dont want to use traditional blocky tile based terrain. for more detailed environment, you can simply use overlay sprites/graphics on a different layer. you also get a nice merge and outline effect. if you want a separate outlined object,just put it on another layer.

you need the blob_test effect if you want to open the .cap i presume.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11157144/terrain-example.cap

here's also the exe from the .cap if you dont have the effect or just want a quick look.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11157144/terrain--example.exe

just a little note:

if you encounter stuttering in the .cap/exe, its probably due to me being lazy and using just the basic per pixel collisions, i tried making a custom collisions using sprites with bounding box collisions and it seemed to run smooth. anyone correct me if im mistaken.

yes, its exactly like what is shown in the screenshot for me. strange.

shame that i cant try it on my old ATI card, cant assemble the old parts again, i dont remember having this issue on my old computer, but thats more because i never really used the overlay effect <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

i may test this on my old laptop some time this week when i got the time. it really looks like a problem that would be great to get sorted somehow.

hope theres others who would like to test this.

as much as i like ATI cards, they can be annoying sometimes. i still havent found a way to get that glorious sikkmod for DOOM3 working properly <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

hi.

i tried that .cap and im not sure what im supposed to be looking at, but anyway, the green overlay light is not correctly placed at the same position as the other light when the overlay effect is on. with it off, its placed fine. also, im getting this weird green ghost effect when i move the player under the overlay light. and just one more thing, the muzzle flash isnt correctly placed for me, it spawns a good distance away from the tip of the gun..? anyway, wish i could help more, but aside from those, the .cap looks great actually. hope you get it resolved.

here's my specs btw,for what its worth:

Win 7 (64 bit)

ATI Radeon HD 6770

current desktop res. 1440 x 900 (75Hz)

right of the editor where theres tabs for project,animator and layers, select project tab, there should be a folder called layouts, right click mouse, add layout.

no problem lol. i did try to figure it out myself,but i didnt get any good results with the sliding. but dont take any stress for it, im in no hurry <img src="smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

yes it works normally while running the debugger, or while there is another preview window running, it just doesnt work alone. .exe contains the same problem,just tried it.

but something interesting happened again. i changed the resolution of the layout to the same one my desktop has (1440x900, native monitor resolution would be 1680x1050 but i consider it too small (text etc),thats why i use 1440) and somehow it seems to work...? it has some minor random hitches, but now its running normally, smoothly and it doesnt feel like 15-30 fps. i was using 1280x720 res before and btw i always have it running in window. strange...

EDIT: except when running fullscreen. then it gets all sticky again.. <img src="smileys/smiley11.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

EDIT2: further investigation suggests that its not just that one layout either. i tested some older .caps ive made and the same problem. single preview window stutters, but two windows at the same time works perfectly. its getting pretty clear that the problem lies in my hardware somewhere. now if i could only know where. i tried to set the cpu affinity to a single core but it didnt do anything.. <img src="smileys/smiley19.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

EDIT3: and to continue the above text, switching the same cap's resolution to 1440x900 fixed the stuttering and now that cap is running perfectly. could it be some kind of weird upscaling/resizing/stretching/resolution issue?

hi tula, oh and btw, im still waiting for that sliding example <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

though it can wait for now, need to get this fixed first.

i was actually wondering about the cpu myself, i remember having problems before trying to play thief 3 on my old computer, it had problems with dual core processors. there was a workaround for that, and i could try and see if theres something strange happening with the cpu while running construct.i havent tried unlocking the fourth core or anything. but still, im puzzled, that why does it work normally,while another construct window is open..

well catalyst sttings didnt do anything. also, to make things even more strange, not sure why, but when i deleted a portion of my layout and tried debugging the layout, it suddenly worked again.. tried the normal preview afterwards,but the problem was there again. <img src="smileys/smiley7.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

is my construct haunted? <img src="smileys/smiley8.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

yeah what i meant about drivers should be ok is that it was the first thing i did when i built my computer, downloaded/installed drivers <img src="smileys/smiley36.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

well i tried deleting everything up to a point where i only had one player object and one solid object, but it didnt remove the problem.

i havent tried tweaking catalyst settings yet, had to sleep for a while, but i dont really see it helping either, other than maybe catalyst A.I giving some weird troubles, but even that feels a little far fetched. the previous GPU was ATI too, radeon x1950 if i remember right. that didnt give any problems at all.

ah yes was just about to edit my post, just noticed that the new version was released, though i still have the 1.2

might as well try and download the new version, if it helps..

EDIT: nope, the problem still persists.. really strange.. whenever i have another construct application's preview window running its all good.. maybe i should try tweaking ATI CATALYST settings a little..?