AmpedRobot's Forum Posts

  • AmpedRobot There are a lot of posts on Xbox here in the Scirra forums, you should do a search for "xbox".

    1) VS2017 Community with the latest update works, I use it. Sounds like you need to edit the .jsproj file, like I wrote here:

    xbox-one-uwp-performance_p1147037?#p1147037

    2) Does the solution open in VS2015 without editing the .jsproj? That's surprising, but good to know if so.

    5) For Xbox One UWP html5 games, Microsoft uses the Edge engine, there's no choice here, you can't use Chrome with UWP.

    6) You can use the latest 16299 SDK, I do.

    Thanks, Studio.

    That's very helpful.

    I'll give all this stuff a try today.

    As far as point 5, VS does play the file fine w/ Chrome export. Have you tried submitting through Microsoft certification as a Chrome export? I only mention because for my game at least, and the music part, Edge has serious issues. No idea how to fix. And first time I switched preview browser to Edge. No point submitting bug as it's just simple code that's supposed to be working and I have Windows 10, all the latest updates, and the latest Edge as far as I know and DirectX, but I will check.

    7) As far as 6), the newer the SDK I target, the worse the game plays in VS 15 on local machine AND as a release configuration. Basically it's sluggish and keyboard controls become sporadically responsive. It's a very noticeable difference. The oldest SDK my current VS 2015 install allows me to target is 10.0.14393.0.

    The others I tried which are progressively more sluggish are:

    15063

    and 16299.

    So something is definitely going on.

    I Googled and tried to download, but couldn't find:

    Windows 10 SDK version 10.0.10240.0

    as this post at least https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/9540/u ... n-uwp-apps suggests that's what C2 was originally designed to work with, even though it also mentions retargeting, but perhaps without extensive testing.

    10.0.14393.0 with VS 2015 plays almost like the C2 preview in the browser.

    So something is definitely going on.

    ---

    As far as lots of Xbox posts, I don't know about that. If there are issues with VS 2017, then the Scirra tutorials should be updated as a simple curtesy because that's the first place people look and they expect them to be accurate and on point.

    But from a cursory search now, it appears people are seeing performance issues before publishing even on very simple games?

    Is this also true on final games released on Xbox?

    I know it's a very broad question, applying to many different games, and that coding is sometimes an issue, but still any data would be helpful.

    And it also looks like almost everyone is going Xbox One as opposed to Xbox Live. Any reasoning behind it? Xbox Live audience is much bigger like 48 million and Xbox One is still very new.

  • AmpedRobot I googled for that error and got these, do they help?

    how-do-i-fix-windows-10-manifest_t161334

    https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forum ... in-the-app

    Thank you.

    I ended up installing the latest Windows 10 SDK, as recommended from Quora, but that did nothing, probably because it did not install in the right directory or it may not be compatible with this version of VS?

    What worked was adding 0.0.0 to the version (after right clicking and opening the manifest file in VS 2015) and then installing Windows Tools and Windows 10 SDK (an older one).

    So the project now opens and plays on local machine.

    That being said, I do have some questions/concerns to make sure I don't have to do this a zillion times because it is very time consuming.

    Ashley

    1) Why won't UWP exports open in Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2017?

    This post dated June 27, 2017 by Scirra states they should:

    https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/9540/u ... n-uwp-apps

    “Currently Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 are supported - older versions of Visual Studio won't work.”

    Initially, I installed VS Studio 2017 Community (I believe with Window Tools and the Windows 10 SDK) and when you open up the project in VS, it does not open up as a full solution, just states “incompatible” right next to the name.

    Ashley, could you test this to make sure it works now as intended?

    I ended up installing and reinstalling VS 2017 three times just to confirm. Same result.

    (Some people claim reinstalls fix everything).

    2) So are we stuck using VS Studio Community 2015 for now?

    3) I installed a student version of Vs Studio Community 2015. It comes as an iso image with all the updates supposedly and everything needed (base software). But it comes with Update 3.

    This post by Scirra, about a year old (I could not find anything more recent with specs), states you need Update 2 with Vs Studio 2015.

    https://www.scirra.com/blog/ashley/26/r ... x-one-apps

    Has Scirra tested C2 for Xbox Live publishing with Update 3 since then?

    4) If we are indeed stuck with Vs Studio 2015, the iso I downloaded from a Microsoft web site installed with errors:

    The KB3165756 Microsoft C++ Redistributable was apparently newer on my system, so it would not install the old one.

    Is this an issue?

    Should I install the new redistributable and let it install the old one?

    5) This post by Scirra states we should be using Edge to export UWP apps.

    https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/993/ho ... store-apps

    I’ve encountered significant issues with Edge. First obvious one is the music, sporadically upon loads and quite often cuts out for the main game. Nothing fancy there. Just standard play code on start of layout. This NEVER happened with Chrome, so I exported using Chrome as preview browser. Is this an issue?

    The exported UWP opens in VS Studio 2015 fine and plays on local machine (haven’t been able to get it to play on the simulator yet).

    But it plays with issues. **Keyboard controls are slow and sometimes weirdly unresponsive.** Not sure if this is representative of the final product, but things like that were NEVER in the Android build in the XDK Intel simulator. Now, this NEVER happened in the zillion times I played the game via C2 using preview/Chrome, so I’m hoping this won’t end up playing like that in the final product. VS is supposed to do all sorts of code optimizations on the back end before packaging, so I’m hoping this won’t be an issue, but if anyone can chime in, or if this is a real concern and why, please let me know.

    Also, portions of the credit sequence sporadically cut out (just the front portion). This happened in the Intel XDK simulator also, so I ended up cutting the credit sequence for the Android build, but I want it in this time around (because it’s cool and has a cool track and adds to the game experience). Now why would it cut out in both simulators (and the final builds, which I so far only tested for Android), but NEVER a single time in the browser/C2 preview?

    My guess is corrupt code, which is a real issue in C2, but it’s a lot of code to rebuild from scratch. I would never recommend copying and pasting code from one capx to another, as recommended by some You Tube videos, because that has almost a 100% chance of creating corrupt code in my experience.

    Also, we could really use sequential saves in C2/C3 to avoid corruptions. I had one layout go corrupt when combining via another method (not copy and paste), but it was fixable as I had many backup copies and many different versions.

    Corruptions are nothing new. Both Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max have sequential saves to avoid these very issues.

    I got criticized once for using many subfolders by some crazy/angry devs here, but again they had no idea what they were talking about (so know before you open your mouth).

    And the simulators are often right on as far as the final build/product.

    6) Windows Tools and the Window 10 SDK for this version of Vs Studio 2015 (Update 3, not 2) installs with this SDK:

    10.0.15063.0

    This is the most current one:

    QFE Build: 10.0.16299.91 - Released November 2017 (which I don’t have the option to retarget, even though I installed it from this site:

    https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/w ... ows-10-sdk)

    I do have the option to set this one as target via Project/Properties in VS:

    10.0.14393.0

    Which one should I be using and how do I retarget if it’s the latest one, even though I’m using VS Studio 2015?

    I don’t have the option to retarget by right clicking on the project in the Solution Explorer as I should per this post:

    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt186161.aspx

    Why?

    6) How often is testing done by Scirra with new updates/releases since the posted recommendations to make sure everything plays well together? The posts are often dated and they make one recommendation, but they never state this version or this update *and above*.

  • I got an update.

    I was able to install the Xbox Live package successfully via NuGet.

    But when I try to associate the project with the store I get this error:

    "Unable to associate project with store because the app manifest is invalid."

  • Has anybody published an Xbox Live game recently?

    I'm having trouble with incompatibility errors when opening up the UWP export in Visual Studio 2017.

    There's some confusing write ups out there.

    One recent Scirra tutorial claims C2 should be compatible with MS Visual Studio 2017, yet the recent write up on Xbox One publishing suggest Ms Studio 2015 Update 2, unless the write up hasn't been updated?

    In general, I think it's a good idea to go with the most recent version of a software, if it's compatible.

    Also, no idea how to do the SDK switching/targeting because C2 is supposed to target one SDK, but you get a different one installed with MS Studio 2017.

    A Scirra write up states C3 helps you with this, but is pretty silent on C2. I haven't been able to find anything from third party sources on this yet.

    When I tried downloading Ms Studio 2015 from Microsoft, they wanted me to pay for a pretty pricey subscription? And not sure how safe third party download sites are.

    Anyway, this is a smorgas board of information to navigate through on your own and I went through a similar nightmare with Android publishing (which I did eventually figure out from third party sources), so if anyone did this recently or knows how to do this to cut down my experimentation time, I would really appreciate it.

    Otherwise, I'll have to go through a zillion possibilities, which is pretty time consuming.

    --

    Update, there is a "free" version of VS Studio Community 2015 apparently which does install and access the project, but it does not install 2 redistributables because apparently I have more recent versions. These are things which do not make you feel warm and fuzzy when doing a build since I'm using some older software with some newer redistributables?

    I'm wondering why 2017 is incompatible even though a Scirra write up states it should work.

  • This turned out not to be necessary.

    I found a workaround.

    Actually made for more dynamic game play.

  • Thank you.

    That's very interesting.

  • Hello, all.

    I'm looking for a C2 algorithm for 1 condition on key press that could check 4 things.

    I have 4 elements/sprites.

    "story so far"

    "continue"

    "start a new game"

    "controls"

    They blink on auto in sequence as selections.

    Currently I have this setup:

    if button is pressed (say XPAD D-pad up):

    if anim "blink" in "story so far" is playing:

    <-- set anim "default" in "story so far"

    <--set anim "blink" in controls

    2 other conditions for the other elements

    if anim "blink" in "controls" is playing:

    <-- set anim "default" in "controls"

    <--set anim "blink" in "story so far"

    **This ends up executing 2 conditions because of the resets as opposed to 1**, (1 exclusive condition check is what I need), so the list never goes to the last element.

    I'm guessing this is a pretty common problem in programming, so the solution is just having 1 condition check on key press which checks 4 things?

    No idea how to program this.

    I'm guessing something with pushback array, etc.?

  • Doh! Ugly jump it is then.

    I suppose I could do exclusive control systems at start, but that takes all the fun out of it (can't switch to keyboard in middle of game if you want to).

    Thanks.

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  • Ashley

    lucid

    I mean this.

    Lucid seems to have done it. I just need the capx.

    Basically I need to position the mouse/touch cursor once on key press at specific coordinates in game, say sprite.x, sprite.y.

    After that, business as usual, player input controls the mouse cursor.

    I need this because I have an ugly jump when switching between control systems, from keyboard/touch to XPAD.

    Because in XPAD 360 Controller mode (as opposed to keyboard/touch modes, which are mouse based), the analog stick steers the cursor, so when player switches the control modes, cursor position is different and I need the mouse cursor to jump to that position.

  • How would I set the position of the mouse cursor/touch position to a sprite in C2?

    Found an old post by the Spriter Dev on it, but expired link.

    If the two aren't separated by events, can I safely assume that mouse cursor position = touch position by default?

  • I figured it out.

    You can add an "or" condition Player_Ship1 is within 0 degrees of 270 degrees, but again that's a weird patch.

    And none of you so called programming types could even suggest it.

    Hah.

    Well, that's that, but again it's super weird.

  • Ok, I have one last thing to say.

    Changing 270 to 271 does work and the ship won't technically go off screen even though it does drift down slightly, but why would you even need to do that?

    I completely don't understand this style of programming and yes the manual is very confusing. We shouldn't have to test every little thing.

    Basically the way the in between function is coded is ridiculous because it forces you to use an extra number and behavior I didn't want (it should work at just 270 without having to go into 270.353535 or whatever).

    And when one states in the manual something is in a 45 degree quadrant, that should mean 0 to 45 degrees.

    So I think this is sloppy software design.

    And this is the only bug I found in my game, which seems to be unfixable because of C2 design.

  • —

    Try creating "System->Is between values" event in C2.

    You'll see that it's inclusive of lower an upper bounds:

    lowbound <= num <=highbound

    I'm a bit late to the party, but I agree with Bruno and others.

    OP's attitude is terrible and the project is a complete mess. You can tell by simply looking at the file he posted - project is buried inside multiple sub-folders (\VARIABE_CLEANING\_NEWONE_USETHIS\windows splice in - Copy (10)) and includes a 4.5Mb backup file!

    And instead of creating a small capx to demonstrate the problem, he demanded Ashley to look for a potential bug in that pile of garbage?!

    Again, no need to be an asshole and you didn't help at all.

    I frequently make backup copies cause C2 files go corrupt often, so a couple extra folders is no big deal.

  • The angle is checked whenever you touch R_Control. From looking at the code, the ship is meant to move in a certain way when beyond the Y bottom boundary as seen in event 140. This works for when he uses L_Control, as seen in event 149. If you set up triggers in the events you can see it gets all the way down to 140 but then he can't move right. He mentions this in OP :

    "But to make this even simpler, because our founder appears to be really overburdened, what appears not to be working is in Line 140.

    Basically make ship go down to lower boundary and once at lower screen boundary it won't go right at the default angle of 270, even though it should."

    As I mentioned earlier the condition for 140 is never satisfied, but everything up until that point is working fine. Y < Player Y Bottom Boundary is a separate check to Y > Player Y Bottom Boundary. I agree that the controls are ridiculous though and the investigation took a while, Ashley would've been wasting time.

    "I agree that the controls are ridiculous"

    No need to be an asshole and you didn't offer any solution.

    Keep that sort of **** to yourself.

  • Hi AmpedRobot!

    The problem has nothing to do with angles. Actually, they're not even being checked at that moment. It's just that, when you go backward you can actually go beyond your PlayerYBottomBoundary variable. Because of that, the condition before the angles (Y < PlayerYBottomBoundary) prevents the movement.

    That happens because when you move forward or backward you check for the boundary BEFORE moving the ship but without taking in consideration that the movement itself may take the ship over that boundary. In order to correct this you should create a cap that makes Y equal to the boundary whenever it goes beyond it or consider the distance moved when checking the boundary. Both solutions would work fine.

    That said, I would strongly recommend that you do 3 things:

    1. Review your code, because it's very dirty and very confusing and this will probably bring you more trouble in the future. Also, a lot of the stuff you're trying to do could be done in better, simpler ways.

    2. Reconsider the controls for your game. From a game design standpoint they are terrible.

    3. Be a little more friendly in these forums. People are here to help because they want to. They don't receive anything to do that, so, a little more politeness might make people more inclined to help.

    Here's a screenshot showing my position and the boundaries. Ignore the position of the buttons. I just moved them to make it easier for me to control the ship.

    Hope this helps. Cheers!

    This is not helpful at all.

    Very rude and totally useless.

    You wanna fight, I'd suggest another forum.