I made a lot of companion apps with Construct 2 and 3 for Android.

I used iframes for news and guides, project files or external Google tables for generating lists like achievements and item collections and I added some interactive maps.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=4693892187157839345

Which one is made with Construct?

Thanks, all for the replies, yes I also used other game tools before, just as simple utility apps I created for my own use or for things that are actually not even game related. Great to see others are actually using it similarly.

I completely understand this will be heavier than just plain HTML+JS, but it's quick to prototype and get things doing quickly and change it.

Example, even making a simple AJAX button that makes a HTTP call and/or makes an animation when pushed is quite intensive doing manually, now assume you don't like it and want to change it, or wait, you want that button to be drag and drop, so you can move it on the screen as well. All this would require to refactor all your code completely, which is extremely time-consuming, with Construct it would just require a few clicks to change the behavior, test and export.

Now, the export runs in a contained sandbox, I assume. At least this is how it worked in Construct 2. I'm just trying to get some more information because I did not check Construct in almost 10 years and Construct 3 seems a lot more evolved in terms of web support technologies.

For example, I see it has an iframe option now to load external web content. As for the HTML option, I tried it put in the demo, and it worked, but here comes my question.

I copied a simple bootstrap code into an HTML box. In the preview, it clearly did not work correctly because you need to actually load the bootstrap CSS and JS files. Putting heavy code like that would clearly be extremely intensive (or not?) because it's not made to handle a full website. So, my idea was the following.

You have a regular page, let's say using bootstrap 5, you have your libraries and depend on ices in the header and footer for the JS and CSS files. And now you want to run a Construct 3 export on the page. Would it be possible to apply the external page elements to the Construct 3 export? For example, the HTML bootstrap code that is inside Construct 3 to be rendered correctly?

Note, you can completely assume here that you have complete control over the domain, server that hosts all files including your page code, bootstrap and, of course, construct exported file. What would need to be done technically to allow this, since I assume the canvas on which everything runs in Construct 3 is an entirely different security browser sandbox.

Has someone thought about the idea of using Construct 3 for a web app or mobile app? Not necessarily a game?

It does seem to support HTML, JavaScript, AJAX calls (which can be probably used for external databases)

But how about local files or authentication? How would someone run it for authenticated users only. Would it also be possible, for example, to call a remote file on the local computer? Assuming you ship your own .exe or executable with the Construct 3 export in a installer, being able to call that file passing some data (arguments) from the created Construct 3 interface. Basically, use Construct 3 for the GUI.

What about the other way around? I guess the web export runs on its own sandbox, but can you actually talk to things outside the exported game? For example, you run it on your own domain or page, or inside Electron, but need to talk to an element or data outside but still on the same domain/page.

I'm playing around the idea to generating a simple drag and drop editor and a menu with a few buttons that just do some actions when clicked. Nothing seriously complex but it would be faster than hand coding this in HTML/CSS/JavaScript and having a way to quickly add events, animations seems nice. It does seem to support HTML, but this is mainly to display HTML inside a game for interfaces, in my case, I actually want to generate the specific HTML (or just any other code or text) with specific elements.

Example, you create 5 buttons, when you drag it to a canvas, it will then store that code. Then have everything exported in someway. I know, this is for game design, but a game is basically a complex application that just mixes animations, graphics and sounds in the end. I guess the most difficult challenge with Construct is trying to talk to the native OS which most games don't because it's not required, but maybe running it inside something like Electron could do the trick and rely on those functions?

Just curious if someone has tinkered with this idea. I always thought this was a great for web animations, and it seems someone at Scirra thought the same, and they now launched Construct Animation. If you think about it, Construct 3 could also be used, maybe with some more functions and development for a basic mobile or web app.

Do I still need Construct Animate if I buy Construct 3?

The logic tells me that animate is just a light version focused on HTML animation only; hence it is also cheaper, but in a video it says you can export the animation as video only or web, which is unique to animate

What if I want both? Do basic animations but also games? Do I need to purchase both subscriptions?

What exactly is your point?

You more or less confirmed what I said or misinterpreted what I tried to explain. Between only p2p and only a server side setup, I prefer the last, between both if I need to choose, I would still go with the last, and between a combination of both, of course I would take both to benefit from both of them. It just seem it was going to be one or another, if you can combine both of them, then great.

I was not trying to argue with you.

I did not realized I was still running build 139, sorry.

Was this feature removed from Construct2?

scirra.com/manual/169/debugger

I cannot find it anywhere, not even when loading it manually in the url bar.

Where did the debbuger tool went?

I cannot post anywhere now. Not even reply to any other post.

This forum system is absolutely AWFUL.

I had this error before as well and loading multiple times the url worked. Now I cannot create any new topic anymore. I get permission errors or the nasty message that my session expired while its not true.

I tried Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Firefox, all of them have the same error. I tried from different connections, no luck.

This forum software is clearly broken.

Colour cycling isn't as cheap as it used to be. Back in the day when colour cycling came around; it was created around a colour and memory limination. The games in question usually had about 256 colours and used a pallatte array rather the current system of RGBA.

So with an array the colour cycling is by changing the colour value in the array and thus change the colour of all pixel with that array colour index. Nice, simple and cheap.

But today that's not really case. We don't use the pallette array; we use the RGBA in memory. So to colour cycling requires some for of pixel xy manipulation. So colour needs to change each RGBA pixel, offloading this on the GPU however at least takes a large load off of the valuable CPU.

So the best way is to use a WebGL shader. In C2 you can do this. It's an effect you can similar to a behaviour; except in teh effects list. So no new plugin is required.

That makes sense. Actually those demos are pretty intensive as I can imagine that changing each pixel is way more inefficient today.