A couple of great free tools to check out.

First off is Make Human. They just posted an update about clothes so they are not naked any more!

This is a free alternative to Poser. It will export directly into Blender with the proper bone weights and armature.

It also exports to Collada, so you are able to use it with other applications like Maya,Poser, 3DS, Lightwave and XSI.

Make Human

<img src="http://www.makehuman.org/sites/mhnew.jwp.se/files/images/23/mh_new_clothes.png" border="0">

If you do not want to learn Blender then you can install a render engine like Pixar's Renderman, or the free Aqusis rendering engine.

Very useful for still images.

If you are not an animator do not worry.... Here is a free library of 2500 BVH motion capture animations you can use with Blender or your favorite animation package.

Carnegie-Mellon Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database

Here is a nice little viewer so you can see what the anumations look like:

sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/bvhplay

They have everything from people riding horses to people swinging golf clubs.

Be sure to check out all of the shape targets in Make human, they have some for aliens and a few other monster, and animal features.

The new clothes update is in the SVN version you can read about here:

makehuman.org/node/571

If I get a 64 bit version compiled tonight, I will post a link for windows 7 and maybe a .DEB package.

It is not really a big deal to me. I just lost a few sentences when I tried to edit my post with a link, and it told me I could not post links after I hit submit.

The only reason I mention it is so that you can see it from a customers standpoint in an extreme condition.

Most people would just blow it off, and say nothing. It just seemed really odd to me at the time , so I thought I would point it out.

I am really glad to hear that the issue is already known, being addressed.

I have lost a couple of really in-depth posts I have made to people because the cookies expire too quick.

If it is possible, maybe a warning, or remove the post button when it expires. Then we will know we need to copy the post, refresh the page, and paste.

It is partially my fault. I copy the posts to the clipboard in case this happens by habit. Every time I lost the data was because I was in a hurry and did not do this.

When I am off work, I usually take the time to open up Abiword. i do this so I have a backup in case of a browser crash or I accidentally close the browser tab.

Thanks. :)

If spam bots are purchasing construct 2 to make spam posts here, you guys would be missing out on a major money making possibility by denying them.

Instead of just treating the new customers like third rate citizens, and potential spam bots, why not make a quarantined area for them to post.

Edit your HTaccess file, so Google and the other spider bots ignore the quarantine area. This should keep all those embarrassing newbie posts away from potential customers eyes, and it would completely defeat the spam bots mission.

Plus, you guys would have all the extra revenue from the bots continually buying licenses to post here.

I really do not think people are wasting their money to post spam links though.

I think Scirra is basically seeding the search engines with complete polished products, to keep its image high.

The point system only truly verifies weather a person has RTFM or not.

I have no problems with it, I think it is a good idea to force people to RTFM before they ask questions, or post finished works. I just dont like being told that I am a potential spammer after i gave a company $100+ dollars.

If after you guys verify my steam account, my paypal account, My email account and you see me actively conversing on the forums,and you guys still call me a potential threat, then I really question the security of my sensitive information with your company.

Seriously... If someone spends $100 on something, and you can not verify weather they are a customer or not, there is something seriously wrong here.

If spam bots are really buying full licenses, then shouldn't they be treated like customers too? Don't spam bots get equal rights if they purchase a license?

If they follow forum rules they should be allowed, especially if they bought a Commercial or enterprise license?

The only time they should get silenced is when they break the forum rules and post spam.

Why deny them at this point? You guys would probably be the first company in history to actually profit from spammers.

Please excuse the dry humor, you guys really have to laugh at it when you stand back and look at the situation from a distance.

Wow, typed in a big explanation and my cookie expired. Sorry for this short one, but I need to get to work. I just lost 20 minutes of typing for some stupid security feature. Looks like 2 other people have made posts since I lost my work, sorry if I say something that has already been said, or if I am vague.

Here is the file I made for you :

dl.dropbox.com/u/1660874/scale.capx

in a nutshell, you spawn the sprite, have it set angle to Target.X and the Target.Y then you scale it until it hits the target. After it hits, then simply destroy it, or have it wait a split second and destroy.

Put the origin on the far left of the sprite to set the scale point. Have it scale while it is on screen. Have it destroy once it collides with target.

I usually start out with a seamless pattern generated with a utility like this AWESOME free one:

neotextureedit.sourceforge.net

Very cool little product, there are comercial products like Genetica too that make seamless tiles.

I used Texturemaker for years now, but it does not seem to function with windows Vista or higher.

Once I have a seamless pattern I will import it into ink scape and Set my shape template to use the seamless pattern.

In the past I have done the same thing with Blender, but that is a lot more tricky if you are not accustomed to the blender GUI, and workflow.

The nice thing about blender is that you can do shaded things with normal maps, just make sure you set your camera to Ortho-scopic, and pit whatever kind of light that you choose behind you shing directly off a 90 degree angle from the tile face normal.

Inkscape and GIMP are the applications I turn to most in this situation.

I like Inkscape over GIMP because it is so easy to change a single color throughout the entire document.

The main thing about seamless texture is that you want to Homogenize the colors somewhat so there is no real noticeable feature that really stands out.

Texture maker actually has a Homogenize filter , not sure where to find it for Gimp or neo-texture edit.

Another nice tool is a macro-feature resampler. Gimp has one called Textureize, and Texturemaker had one called iSample.

texturemaker.com/tour.php

The Gimp plugin was linux only the last time I checked. I am sure there are others that re-synthesize a texture swatch.

I will use a "variator" decal that I will put over some of my tiles to break things up too. Just small alpha masked things, like patches of grass and rocks to go over a dirt texture. Or on top of a grass block, I will put things like an alpha masked patch of grass, some flowes, or little piles of rubble.

Hope you find some of this useful :)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install construct 2 v114 From Scirra.com

2. Install construct 2 v119 64bit Via Steam

3. Uninstall Stable version 114 from windows.

4. Try to open .CAPX file from windows 7 explorer and file association broken.

5. Find the steam version of construct 2 in the steam/commons folder and associate the file with the 64 bit executable with the automatic open file dialog.

6. Double click on the CAPX file to launch the file, and it will load as the free demo version, not as the licenced version.

Observed result:

Demo version if you load from explorer.... Full version if you load from inside construct 2.

Checked the registry for erros ad it seems to be linking everything properly :

"C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Construct2\Construct2-Win64\Construct2.exe" "%1"

Expected result:

Proper file associations upon uninstall if the older version.

steam://rungameid/227980 is not valid for the file association.

Browsers affected:

Chrome: NA

Firefox: NA

Internet Explorer: NA

Operating system & service pack:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit version USA ,SP current from auto update.

Construct 2 version:

Steam, 119

Here is a quick fix I did.

I made a batch file with the command:

taskkill /im construct2.exe /f

saved it and put it on my windows 7 taskbar.

Try to close it normally before you use that.It is not a replacement for the close window. It is really handy to not have to press Cntrl-ALT-DEl , find C2.exe, and task kill it, confirm, close task manager , nearly every time I close it. If it freezes I just click on my batch file and it closes it quietly.

I have noticed it more often with Steam, and Desura. Especially with Steam if I immediately go from chatting with someone, change focus to the C2 window, and try to hit the X to close it.

Maybe this is just a coincidence though. I have had it freeze like this when neither Steam or Desura are in memory.

Thanks — I did not know this was a common thing. I was blaming my computer, and Steam+desura. :)

Hey cool, I love lying with idlers in IRC :)

Thanks very much Kyatric!

Looking forward to maybe meeting some people in the community, and trying to help out newbies too. I idle in 12 dev channels

Ok, never mind.

I spent the entire afternoon testing and found my solution.

Does anyone run a pay-pal "help desk"? I would have payed up to $10 yesterday for the solution to this.

Looks like you only have random (360) did you try random (1,360) ?

Does the Set stepping iterations action effect only the object that changes it?, Like the enable/disable collision global setting, or does this effect the entire simulation like the gravity action?

here is what the manual says:

"Set stepping iterations

Set the number of velocity iterations and position iterations used in the physics engine. The default is 8 and 3 respectively. Lower values run faster but are less accurate, and higher values can reduce performance but provide a more realistic simulation."

It never really specifies if this is on a per-object basis or on the entire simulation.