Alon's Forum Posts

  • Thanks for the replies guys,

    I guess I will have to find out by myself but I'll better test on other computers since in my I get 140+ fps, while in the other PC I get around 27-38fps (a brand new i3 PC) I will also try to test it on a total different machine but... this is confusing, the difference is HUGE.

    I'm guessing something may be wrong in my project even that it's pretty much not complicated (yet) but still I get 140+ fps every time on my machine, I'm guessing it's an old i7 (from around 4-5 years ago).

    I'm curious what will it act once I'll design my levels with animated Sprites as the tiles...

    can't get any better I guess.

  • Thanks for the reply guys,

    Originally I came from a an other game engine called Fusion, and the reason was it didn't have many features I was looking for and Construct 2 have it, also Construct have MUCH better interface and easier event sheet (consider I'm still learning it).

    After few months with Game Maker Studio 2, I tried the DnD (Drag & Drop) and of course the GML script which only made my brain got much more confused after few tutorials... then I moved to Construct!

    I tried Unity, I tried Unreal Engine and many others during the years...

    There is no doubt, Construct so far is my FAVORITE game engine even that I have much more to learn.

    After watching the video, which is really nice to see Ashley speaks about the history and the tech behind it, I wish Scirra would upload more of these to the official YouTube channel so all of us can enjoy. :)

    Anyway, back to the original subject / question:

    From your replys and from Ashley's video I understand that there is a focus only on HTML5 I'm getting the impression that this is what Consrtuct 3 will stay with and... I'm starting to think over maybe I do need to move to another game engine after I'll prototype my game since I feel more "At home" in Construct then in any other game engine I tried.

    Still, maybe there is a chance for an official answer from Ashley, Tom or any of the official Scirra members about the future plans for some good news about Nintendo / Sony / and of course: Native .EXE for desktop instead of everything based on Browser.

    I'm guessing the goal is stay with HTML5... but again, an official answer will be most appreciated

    Thanks ahead! :)

  • Hey All,

    First of all sorry about my bad English, second I apologies ahead but I cannot share names or extra details because these are my colleagues, this is my work and I cannot risk it. but I think that this information need to be asked here or shared by Scirra with us clients and community.

    Another thing, I'm NEW to construct and don't know a lot of things about it or the future of it, I may missed some news about the future of C3, please forgive me if I did.

    The reason I'm asking about it is because I just had an interesting conversation with some of my colleagues who are programmers and executive manager works for a game publisher, I'm a professional animator who works with them on projects from time to time.

    So I had to ask this because the conversation lead to the subject of how Nintendo and Sony are looking at HTML5 as a very amature and not taking it seriously. which I didn't know or realize.

    Do we have bright future with Construct 3 or should I be really sad and start looking for an alternative game engine? :(

    I must mention that I'm new to Construct 3, I'm learning it thanks to working on my first game, thanks to the AMAZING community and help on the forums and I enjoy so much using it... but I just realize that I'm limited to PC-Browser compiles and PC and probably Xbox if I'm not mistaken it works great with C3? right? I'm clueless...

    For now as I'm working on my first Game, I stay with Construct 3 but these questions about future compile options can sure encourage me and many others to stay with C3 as I didn't realize HTML5 is that "bad" to the big sharks out there, again.. I'm just an animator not a programmer or publisher and my colleagues, they know what they're saying as they are in the games industry for many years. they just opened my eyes to these questions.

    I hope to hear some good news about this from Scirra's team, for now... I'll keep practice Construct 3 and fall in love with it even more! (how can I not? it's so cool!) :)

  • Hey All,

    While working on my game, I used tile map and collision layer with sprites which are invisible.

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    I wonder what will be more efficient for other machines, or maybe it's not that critical at all:

    I'm guessing that tiled background are lighter because they are not animated and stretched seamlessly.

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    But I realize that I may need to use almost all the stage with Sprites (yes, even walls, floor etc) as animated and more "living" like environment for the level design.

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    Basically, What if most of the tiles are animated, many instances of 32x32 Sprites (animated loop) one next to each other. Is it critical compare to how much CPU or RAM it will cost?

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    Or maybe it's so minor that I can freely do that with no worries, even many animated layers?

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    I wonder if it's something I shouldn't do at all and stay "primitive" static tile backgrounds as possible or if I can do this without worry because the CPU and RAM are not critical on that department.

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    I'm guessing it's also related to GPU as it will draw the pixels, but I'm wondering generally so feel free to let me know, if you did some tests and saw a HUGE or LITTLE differences, I'm curious to know as I'm still learning Construct 3 as I work on my game.

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    Thanks ahead and sorry about my bad English.

  • Thanks for the reply and example dop2000

    Since I found Array and Json and Ajax and all these are over complicated and confusing to me, for now I'm giving up on Arrays on my game and everything looks much more simple with groups and variables, easy for me to follow, organize and manage individual in each group.

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    Is there a simple way to do this with local variables?

    or should I use global for this since it's supposed to save the status of what item unlocked last time before the player quit the game.

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    In any case I don't know exactly how to approach this yet, but I'm curious to read for different ways than using Arrays.

    Thanks ahead, I appreciate your kind help.

  • In my game I will have many items.

    For now I'm not using Arrays + Array Editor as I tried and find it organized but very confusing with the Ajax and Json codes in the event editor.

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    All the items will sit on a dedicated Event Sheet and Layout, and will be added to the game levels from there. Every Item will have it's own dedicated GROUP with the conditions needed for different affect.

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    I would like to know how can I make specific ITEMS that I choose to be LOCKED (not appear in the game by default) and only when the player will find them in the game, they will be UNLOCKED and from now on they will appear not only for the specific "RUN" but also for future games.

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    Basically, the more the player will play and found items, the more NEW Items he will find and be able to see in the game.

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    I didn't mess with SAVE SLOTS yet because I don't know how to approach it so ever single save slot will save the UNLOCKED Items as well and all the status and progress of a player.

    Any advice, help, guide, c3p file or even video-tutorial will be very appreciated as I'm still learning Construct 3 and best way for me is visual examples. Thanks ahead!

  • Thanks again dop2000 I'm learning a lot from your explanations and tips!

    Your examples are great and to the point, I appreciate it. :)

  • You should add objects to a container when they should be logically linked together (when they all combined make one big complex object). PlayerBox+PlayerSkin+PlayerAttackAnimation+PlayerWearable+PlayerHealthBar=make one Player <

    To be honest I'm still confused, probably because of my specific game mechanics "engine".

    It will not work for me to put all these you've mentioned as one container because each one of these items affect something else, and must be independent because of that.

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    For example if I will destroy the wearable, the Player and other stuff will get destroyed as well (that's from what I've tested for container instead of families).

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    Or when my Player's Sprite is flashing for few seconds, all the other sprites will be invincible for few seconds but that's not what I may want for some of the items.

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    What I'm saying is, it is much more complicated for me because I probably built everything wrong but it is working now and I just need to find a good way to build over it, that's probably a stupid way but I can't just duplicate my players with Families and of course not with Containers.

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    The only solution I can think of is maybe to make Families inside Families to control general groups that needs the exact same control or share the same properties / variables. but it's getting too complex so I'm still testing options.

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    It's like when I tried to use the Arrays, I found out that it is sooo hard to manage even with the Array Editor the code with the Ajax, Json, etc... is sooo confusing to me, so I decided to go for the most simple way: Groups and variables.

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    I bet you read this and you're thinking: "How stupid is he, why he's doing this in the wrong way?"

    The thing is that, I'm still learning and while I look at the event sheet, I guess the old fashion way make sense to me visually, my "brain" can understand things better.

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    Like you've said before, there are many ways to do the same thing but I really feel bad knowing that I'm already doing these stuff in the wrong way and I may regret it as the game gets even more complex with more events and rules to the game.

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    I'm just sharing my mind here, I can only blame myself but I will read your advice on this thread (and the others) as they may make more sense to me compare to this specific game I'm working on of course, because in general it is 100% making sense to me.

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    Thanks again and sorry about my bad English.

  • Thank you for your advices — and — I appreciate it.

    The reason the containers didn't work for me is because of all the other sprites that connected to the main character react to each once code, for example destroy and others so unfortunately I cannot use containers from what I tested.

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    As for Family variables, they will assign each instance of that family member its own instance variable, they are not global so that won't be an issue, they simply automatically assign the variable which you can then access through the object itself.<

    Oh! I didn't know that, so I should do some test and see how it works exactly on my complex case of so many "parts" for each player.

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    To identify the players you can have a family instance variable for 'player number' and pick based on playerNum=1 etc I am player 1 = family.playernum=1 For family, where playernum=1, set my P1 stuff. I am player 2 = family.playernum=2 For family, where playernum=2, set my P2 stuff.

    I'm not sure if I'll know how to make your example works since I'm still learning Construct as I go, but it sounds like FAMILIES ARE the answer after all!

    Thanks again for your suggestions, I should do some tests and see if anything will work or not.

  • Hey All,

    As I keep learning while working on my game, For start I have Player 1 which have it's own Mask for collisions called: "Player_1" and another Sprite for the Character's Main Graphics, Sprite for Different Animated Attacks and another Sprite for Wearable Items.

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    So I did make a Family for "Player_1" and included most of the above just for the Flashing animation when my player is damaged (temporary invincibility mode) but not for all the variables.

    The thing is that I can't put all the elements in it because of the different mechanics of the game that affected by the Sprite for Attacking, and the Sprites for each item that will Pinned to the Player's sprite who pinned to the Mask.

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    I NEED YOUR ADVICE:

    Once I will finish with Player 1 mechanics, I would LOVE to add Player 2, Player 3, Player 4 to the game. but I'm not sure how to do that with minimum manual changes after duplicating Player 1's dedicated event sheet.

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    My first thought is to duplicate ALL the sprites and what not, Rename them of course and make another Dedicated Event Sheet for each one of the players.

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    I thought about Family for all the Players where I can share their properties, but as I described above it's more than just Mask + Sprite connected, there are other elements so it's more complex.

    Also, If I will make a Family for all the Players for their instance variables such as Hit Points, Damage, Jump Strength, etc..

    Whenever Player 2 or Player 3 be affected, it will change ALL THE PLAYERS right?

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    What is your advice for a safe, clean, better way to make my game from 1 Player to 4 ?

    I'm not sure if it helps, but I'm planning to make an extra mode to play with friends, while the main mode will be single player, different game-style / rules.

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    The reason I'm asking this now is because I'm still working on the base mechanics and I don't want to code the other elements wrong so it will be much more work to control later on.

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    Sorry about my bad English and Thanks ahead! :)

  • Thank you so much dop2000 this information is VERY helpful! :)

    I will try to re-manage the game and see what should I put in families and what not.

  • Thank you! kriand :)

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  • Hey All,

    For the first time I'm trying to learn how to use Arrays with the Array Editor.

    I'm not sure how it's done, but I think I understand the basics.

    Instead of setting each value x1, x2, x3, etc... I can just LOAD the Json file from the Array Editor.

    I tried with and without .json and as you can see in the image it's not loading.

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    Can you please guide me how to make this works? what am I missing?

    Thanks ahead!

    i.imgur.com/Pvscz6v.png [/img]

    I also tried this:

    i.imgur.com/dahZqT3.png [/img]

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  • Thank you for your advice and explanation dop2000

    Sorry for all the questions, but I have more and I didn't want to split it to new threads as it's somehow related to my confusion, some are a bit off-topic but connected to each other.

    I hope that you'll donate your time as your advice is VERY appreciated and valuable to future confused users. THANKS AHEAD! :)

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    First of all, the way you described the (non-array) makes much more sense to me.

    But your last note about so many global variables makes me re-think about arrays.

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    First question this is a bit Off-Topic came to my mind once again:

    You've mentioned GLOBAL variables for each item, and I may already start with a BIG mistake here.

    For my Player, I didn't use GLOBAL variables, but instance for it's HP or any other future variables that I will add.

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    Is this a BAD thing, will this cause me future issues? when the Player moves to the NEXT stage and such will the variables reset because I'm not using Global? (for all the events) or it's fine and I can preserve them somehow.

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    I'm wondering about this, BEFORE I'll start add more and more items and "skills" to my PLAYER character.

    I'm thinking about the option for 2-4 Players in the future, that is why I named it Player 1 (as seen on the example GIF). I'm not focus this right now as I want to complete the base conditions for Player 1.

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    Without even the "ITEMS" issue, Should I make a dedicated GLOBAL-VARIABLES event so I can organize them and have better access for basic future game stuff such as: menus, options, Player_1, Player_2 etc.. ?

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    I made 3 different Items for the Player to have from the "Randomizer" item for now, so I can start make either a simple Array + Probably Array Editor (still not sure about it).

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    The Arrays v.s. Variable decision:

    One problem I noticed in the Array / Array Editor which is more visual to me when it comes to organize:

    Unlike Excel / Google Sheets, I cannot just Drag-N-Drop to change order to re-organize my items later on when I will have hundreds of them. True, it make sense because the code is very precise X 1, X 2, X 3 so if I change some strings or values later on... I'll make a mess and it will take so much time to change manually anyway.

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    While as you said, too many Global Variables for the items:

    A HUGE list to play with, but each will have it's own group and I can always Re-Organize the order, put in specific groups add comments and so on.

    Of course in both ways I can use the Ctrl+F to find what I need.

    You've made a good point it is my game, but YOUR advice makes much more sense and helps me to run away from future mistakes so I won't need to Re-Code the all thing or just have hard time to play with the database.

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    BEFORE I EVEN BEGIN with the Array / Variables for my Items, The last issue I hope you can help me with:

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    As you already understand I would like to make different Items, each time my Player will move to the next stage I want him to KEEP the last item he had (that's probably why I should use Global variables?)

    But then came to my mind another PROBLEM I may need to solve early:

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    I want to UNLOCK most of the Items I will add to the game, and I want to make sure that whenever the player UNLOCKED (found) a NEW Item it will be available to him in the future, even in a NEW GAME.

    so I'm guessing, I should make a Global Variable Boolean "LOCK / UNLOCK" (correct me if I'm wrong).

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    But what if I want to make 3 SAVE SLOTS for the game? now I lost tracking:

    So what happens to the GLOBAL VARIABLES of the unlocked variables that saved on SLOT 1 ?

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    Once again, BIG THANKS to any of the questions you can answer or give me advice as long as I'm still on the early stages of the game, this will help a lot to run away from a bad project management.

    * Sorry about my bad English.