Awesome update! Now there should be no more unavoidable tedium in using Spriter animations together with effects. Thank you lucid!

Is this in regards to the last update? If so, would you mind elaborating what you mean by that? Sorry for the bother, just interested since it's not clicking right now. Thanks~

EDIT: lucid sent the e-mail

Another general question, but it feels like there are a lot of ways to recolor animations. I'm trying to decide which to use and feel a bit overwhelmed thinking of all the options, any thoughts from anyone?

1) Recolor the PNG files and have a separate spriter object. Probably the worst way.

2) Recolor the PNG files, copy entity, then replace old frames with the recolored frame for each frame of each animation. Works, but very time-consuming and means that if a change to one animation is made, the other has to be updated, which is an issue. Benefit is that assuming we do not use entities for anything else, we can just switch the starting entity to use our recolored version.

3) Spriter's Color Customization feature, though I found it confusing and according to the manual it is not supported yet by plug-ins and also requires indexed color mode (which makes enough sense).

4) Recolor in-game using effects that change properties (AdjustHSL or ReplaceColor for instance? there's probably a better way but I haven't really looked into it)

5) Other method I don't know or forgot?

Looking for a method where the recolor is purely visual so it should reuse all the same other data, but without me having to update changes constantly, if possible. Let me know if you have any ideas.

EDIT:

I remember seeing a post or something for how to preload animations (or something like it) to help the game run faster, but I can't find it. Anyone know what I'm talking about or just have some tips? I'm really struggling on optimization here.

My other question is if it's better to have a spriter object have a separate object for each animation (so in C2 an idle animation would be one sprite object and a run animation would be another one), or to have one object for all animations.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

— help, Gotcha

—, I apologize. Not my strong point, I'll work on being clearer.

— paragraph: C2 generated bounding box. I'm saying the SCML objects use this, of size 50x50 by default. I can change it to another sprite, but I can't naturally make it use the collisions of the Spriter animations that I set in Spriter.

— paragraph: Take a character standing up.

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Let's say this is their collision box. I think you get the idea: it's tall and skinny. Now, if I pin the scml object to a sprite object, and make the sprite object have a collision box of this shape, I now have a character with this static collision box.

However, it's just that: static. If I use the spriter object to change the animation, the collision box does not change to match it. So if an animation is now the opposite, short and wide:

=======

The collision box and the animation do not match, creating an issue in the game. I could maybe hard code collision boxes for every situation, but this would be very, very time-consuming and defeat the purpose of using Spriter.

Hopefully this makes the inherent issue clear.

For the next paragraphs: not much to say since I wasn't able to get the issue across. Admittedly, I have clear visuals and you don't so that's reasonable. I did originally send a CAPX to you for that reason but I get that Edgar is the person to go to for C2 so I shall e-mail him when I get a chance.

Going to start quoting to help keep order, with quotes being in bold:

WOW! I never knew you could rename sprites in the z-order palette, BUT don't understand any reason to do it,as it does not rename the file itself. I think the very ability to rename it there is a bug and not a feature. I suggest you avoid renaming images in the z-order palette. However in the Hierarchy palette I can see how renaming bones is useful.

• Huh, really? Interesting. I actually vaguely remember being told to do this, though it may have been elsewhere. I renamed them because it's useful to me to give the objects names that mean something to me and are consistent with my general naming schemes (and thus predictable and easy to recognize). These names are used by Construct 2 as well, making them all the more important. (I'm not using bones for this project though.)

Could you possible make a screen recording of this happening. it might be user error and might be a bug, and either way, footage of it happening will help us resolve it.

Yup, no problem. Will do shortly.

"We'll certainly do our best to help you resolve all these issues. Again, privately sending us your project is the fastest way to get concrete help."

Thank you for the reassurance. As said, I shall send it again shortly.

I've had both features work for me perfectly in Spriter and in C2, so we really need to see exactly what you're doing and whats happening to figure out the problem. It certainly could be a bug or bugs we just managed to accidentally avoid through different work flow etc. Hopefully we can find out together and quickly resolve it.

Haha, I kind of figured posting nothing but text wouldn't be useful but you were the one who told me to post on forums (though you did mean the other ones, but same diff). Perhaps you didn't make the connection between the two identities though—regardless, it's all good and I'll email shortly.

lucid Thanks for the update.

I've been doing almost nothing but trying to fix this since, here's my end:

I managed to get shadows working by adding the shadow caster object to the sprite objects, having it disabled by default, and then enabling it when an animation was active (I used a "IsVisible" check for this to keep things super simple; I'm not sure how well this would have worked in the long-run). However, I ultimately didn't like the result and opted for a very different (and less costly) implementation of shadows.

EDIT: I originally said I got the solid behavior working but I spoke too soon and was wrong about getting a solution to the solid behavior functionality. It's actually still not working. Worst-case scenario it's super glitchy and the main character goes flying around, lol. I guess the next paragraph doesn't apply as much since said solution doesn't work but.....

The downside to this solution is that A) it's time-consuming to make sure everything is set up and functioning correctly and B) it'd probably be more efficient and less prone to glitching if the SCML objects inherently used the collision or hurt boxes of the animations its loading, so if you have any suggestions or anything, I'd appreciate it.

Also, quick question: what does changing the .scml extension to .scon for the SCML object actually do? I've forgotten to do it a few times but haven't noticed anything. Thought it might be the cause of some issues but after going and back and double-checking I didn't see any differences.

As a note, I still couldn't get tags to work in C2 and gave up for a while—I did eventually look into it but couldn't find an issue in the plugin's runtime code. Then again, I didn't understand the code super well or anything, so I'll leave it to the pros... especially since the Spriter issue with the disappearing key tags isn't really work-aroundable

EDIT2: Got around to testing triggers and they work perfectly and it felt great. I just used those as a substitute for tags since they can basically do the same things, they're just maybe slightly less convenient or efficient.

Thanks for the earlier response, I've been playing around and got a lot of things to work, and it's great so far. Unfortunately I have run into some concerns.

f?i?r?s?t?,? ?n?o?t?e? ?t?h?a?t? ?I? ?s?e?n?t? ?a?n? ?e?-?m?a?i?l? ?a?b?o?u?t? ?t?h?i?s? ?t?o? ?s?u?p?p?o?r?t? ?a?l?r?e?a?d?y?,? ?j?u?s?t? ?p?o?s?t?i?n?g? ?a? ?b?i?t? ?i?n? ?a? ?p?u?b?l?i?c? ?m?a?n?n?e?r?.? ?T?h?e? ?p?l?u?s?-?s?i?d?e? ?i?s? ?t?h?i?s? ?c?o?u?l?d? ?h?e?l?p? ?o?t?h?e?r?s? ?o?r? ?I? ?c?o?u?l?d? ?g?e?t? ?o?t?h?e?r? ?p?e?o?p?l?e?'?s? ?f?e?e?d?b?a?c?k?,? ?t?h?e? ?d?o?w?n?-?s?i?d?e? ?i?s? ?t?h?a?t? ?i?t?'?s? ?a? ?p?r?i?v?a?t?e? ?p?r?o?j?e?c?t? ?w?i?t?h? ?c?o?n?f?i?d?e?n?t?i?a?l? ?i?n?f?o? ?a?n?d? ?a?r?t? ?s?o? ?I? ?c?a?n?'?t? ?s?h?a?r?e? ?t?h?e? ?C?A?P?X?.? OK, apparently I can't get help through private channels, so I have to go off messy explanations since I cannot publicly share screenshots or the CAPX or anything.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to set up enemies in my 2D action game. In it, you can attack with one character and hit an enemy. I figured having a family for all enemies with common instance variables and behaviors would be a good idea, so I did that. For the object, I set it to the SCML one. Probably I'll do it so that each enemy has its own scml file, for about 20 different enemy types (including bosses).

The issue is that the SCML objects have their own collision box and this is used by Construct 2 for:

• general collision detection, of course
• shadows (shadow light object + shadow caster behavior)
• interactions between solid objects

When checking interactions between two objects with the "solid" behavior, C2 uses the collision mask of the object with the behavior. I can adjust this slightly by linking the scml to another object and changing said object, but in the end its collision mask is not going to match every frame of every animation--it's just going to be something static. So... what am I supposed to do if an enemy is say, lying down on the ground or in some other pose where their shape changes dramatically and a single rough & static collision mask won't fit the object?

Shadow issue is basically the same thing from what I can see, just a different application. It's using the SCML object (or in the player character's case, the sprite object that is pinned to the SCML object) and using that to draw shadows.

I tried maaaaany different things and did hours of researching or I wouldn't bother rambling about my problem here. There were issues with putting the shadow caster behaviors on many different places (such as the sprites) and I think it's just going to be difficult to handle this when it's not integrated into the Spriter object behavior and I don't fully understand how exactly the Spriter object does what it does.

I could do without shadows, but objects not having solid behaviors would just look and function oddly. As for the collisions, it's extremely confusing and I'm not sure what to do but at least I have control over the interactions, unlike the Solid behavior.

Thanks for any advice/help anyone can offer.

UPDATE: After a ton of thinking, research, and coding, I managed to work around the collision boxes issue by using families, containers, and some crazy code and as of right now I think I've got everything working, though it needs more testing. I still haven't fixed the issue with the solid or shadow caster behaviors though.

I also have some issues with Spriter I'd like report... hopefully it's just me being bad, which it usually is.

Spriter Issues

Sometimes renaming files at the top-left doesn't work, if I try to like, rename something and then rename another thing. I haven't been able to figure out what exactly causes or fixes the issue but it can be somewhat inconvenient when I keep double-clicking and it won't rename. Maybe there is some trick to it I'm missing or maybe it's a bug, I don't know.

Meta data: when I adjust basically anything in the timeline, the existing meta data I have (just tags for now, but I want to try out variables in C2 as well, since I haven't found anything on how they work) just disappears. The key frames for them or whatever disappear and I have to re-add them, which is... well, obviously not cool.

I feel like I'm doing something wrong in adjusting the tags, but I can't figure out what. :

As always, thanks for any help.

Update 2: Meta tags just... aren't working for me. Aside from being glitchy in Spriter, after several hours and various code tests I cannot get the different tags to function correctly in C2 either. I checked the JSON file and it seems like it's right (though I couldn't tell you confidently without a little more info about the format) but I'm just having no luck.

Hello,

Just wanted some clarification—Spriter supports animated hitboxes, sound effects, and most if not all other features when importing into C2? Meaning I don't have to manually add in sound effect timing etc. in Construct? (Sorry if this has been answered before—couldn't find a clear answer after 20 minutes or so and I figured asking would be easier than searching this entire thread...)

Thank you~

I'm also curious about this. Maybe... keep everything in one family and set their timescale to 0? And then have the UI elements not be affected by that? I'm not sure, would also appreciate a solution

Sweet; would you mind hitting me up on Skype ("ballin1337") so we could discuss a little further, or does that not work for you? I'll try not to take up too much of your time.

[quote:1eliogu0]"Create an animation scripting system where sound effects and other effects can easily be applied to certain points of an animation"

Spriter just added support for that.

Seems very helpful, I'll probably try it out myself a bit before asking for help, thanks for the tip!

[quote:1eliogu0]I am willing to lend advice where I can on the logic and programing fronts, but on a question by question basis for free. I can't take you up on the position itself mainly due to time issues (I work full time and have 6 hours a day of commuting on top of my side game development business). You may also want to look at raising your prices a bit. I don't know what the going rate is for experienced game developers but personally I average about $65+ dollars an hour for my non gaming development work which is a rough break down since I am salary, but most contract folks tend to charge even higher for hourly work. I could be biased though as I work in the silicon valley... If you don't get anyone taking you up, you may need to raise your compensation a bit.

That's too inefficient and not what I'm looking for, not to mention that due to the nature of the project information about it needs to be kept private, and I'd also need actual thorough explanations and help, not the (no offense) "quick and dirty" help provided on forums that just gives a general vague idea of what might be involved to solve a problem.

Construct 2 and by extension this is not a high-level programming job or such. They are not being asked to code major parts of a game from scratch. I actually think you're forgetting to factor in a lot of elements. $10 an hour isn't generous but the job isn't actually particularly demanding. It's essentially a side-helper job. I work a job myself and $10 seems reasonably fair; I'm not asking people to commute, gain new skills, work during specific times of the day or for long periods of time, etc., if it were a higher-level programming language job then yes one might expect more but that's not really the case.

That's my take on it, the numbers are always negotiable, that's sort of a given, depending on the quality of a candidate I'd be willing to go for $15-20, but at the same time I have a budget to keep in mind and it's no good if I'm spending money I don't have etc. XP

EDIT: In retrospect I think I may have come off a bit unwilling to take advice, ungrateful, etc., sorry, that wasn't my intention, I only meant to imply that I didn't feel exactly how you did and that I did think about what I need and what I am asking for a bit. I do see where you're coming from and have adjusted accordingly (though of course people are almost always going to want more than what they're offered...), I just like to think for myself a bit and try to reason out things.

Hi,

I'm the founder of a U.S. based company looking for help in game development.

We're currently working on three games, with one deep in development, one with less progress, and one in the planning stages. We need someone to help advance our skills as programmers by essentially babying us by tutoring us and writing code for us at times (i.e. giving us solutions and then explaining those solutions).

This one-on-one tutoring is designed to enhance our skills quickly by explaining things extremely and coming up with solutions to our problems relatively quickly. You must be great at communication as well as have plenty of patience and act in a professional matter. Naturally, the subject matter is Construct 2 (with a focus on elements that would appear in RPG games), especially slightly more advanced topics such as:

• Creating a very organized and efficient save data system capable of: storing and loading data such as parameters for sets of characters, storing/loading multiple independent save files for the same game but at different stages, storing/loading temporary save files at certain points in the game

• Efficiently loading text through a custom, external script format which is then rendered by Construct 2 to render dialog text. In other words, we should be able to easily write scripts in an external format, code Construct 2 to handle that format, and then just tell it to load that file everytime we need to load dialog.

• Similar to above, but instead of loading text, we need a set of specific coordinated actions, i.e. an event scripting system that essentially moves the process from Construct 2 to an external script, making it easier and more efficient on several levels.

• Create an animation scripting system where sound effects and other effects can easily be applied to certain points of an animation

Obviously one might not instantly have all the answers to these, but the idea is that you not only have the skills to come up with the solutions without struggling greatly yourself, but also have the experience and teaching ability to aptly communicate what you did, what it encompasses, etc. to us.

This paid position can be compensated on a task-per-task basis or on a timed ($15-20/hour) basis.

You can assume we have a basic understanding of Construct 2 but not a higher-level understanding of elements such as XML, JSON, and Dictionaries.

For privacy and other reasons, I am not disclosing the name of our company or any of our projects on this forum. However, if you are interested, please PM me or contact me on Skype ("ballin1337") and I will gladly link you to them and answer any questions you might have. You may also ask questions here and I will try to answer them.

If you're interested in a greater programming position (such as actually working on the game development with is), we cannot pay by the hour due to a lack of funding, but we can certainly negotiate profit share or other terms, and would potentially welcome new team members with open arms.

[quote:37gxlfz4]No offense, this game contains "Pokemon" word in screenshot, they would definetly refuse due to copyright, you need to learn about legal.

Nintendo, is like dealing with a devil. I suggest you need to learn the advices from other developers who were accepted by Nintendo.

As a developer who was accepted by Nintendo, I can confirm that dealing with Nintendo is not like dealing with a devil.

Also to publish games you're going to need to be over 18 years old and probably have your own company, you also have to make everything yourself (it has to be all your property, both the assets and the IP). Just saying.

Well I fixed it using a sprite object instead, but what I did was:

• For "layout 1", I created a layer at the top of the layer list called "BlackFade" that was a layer consisting of a black background with an opacity of 0
• Ran a code that increased the opacity over time from 0 to 100, giving a fade-to-black effect

This part worked fine.

• I then went to the next layout, which we can call "layout 2"
• On that layout, I pressed a button to go BACK to the original layout
• Upon doing so, the layer was still black as if though it had never restored the original opacity value of the layer, which after some testing, seems to have actually been the case.

I can't reset the opacity to 0 at the end of the fade or it will show the original screen for a split-second, and I can't reset a layer on layout 1 while I'm currently on layout 2

My solution was to use a sprite object instead of a layer, which fixed it, but the entire event still represents an issue where the status/values/whatever for layers are being saved from one layout to another, giving potential to various other problems in the future.

As far as what I quoted, you said "try using the effect on layout instead of the layout. Layout, layout? Was that intended and I'm missing something? Entirely possible given my general lack of knowledge/experience, but it threw me off regardless.

Sorry, no, I'm not using any real effects (using canvas2d renderer, not WebGL).

[quote:192l6tls]Also try using the effect on layout instead of the layout.

What do you mean by this?

Sorry for the lack of information/explanation, due to the nature of the project I also can't post any files but I'll try to elaborate more in the future.