corlenbelspar's Forum Posts

  • Hey do you think you could make a "(don't) create object at start of layout" option like Multimedia Fusion 2 has so we don't have to make needless code to destroy various objects outside of the layout in the margins? This feature might seem pretty useless, but it was actually very handy in MMF2. Hope you can do it and that you want to do it now that it's been brought to your attention.

  • I didn't know where to post this so I figured general discussion was as good a place as any.

    As the subject says, we've optimized our game finally where it can handle 250 enemies on screen with the game still running around 50fps in node-webkit preview. The problem is, when I export the game to node-webkit to be ran independently, I only get around 40fps in that. What is the issue here? My friend who is the other programmer doesn't have this issue.

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  • Even though he is very talented at what he does, the other programmer can't handle that kind of pressure that would be put on us if we did crowd funding at the very start. It WOULD be used to fund the development period, but retroactively and also enable us to do more with the game that we have to skip for now. It would be 95% per se, but probably lower literally from additional features being added after.

  • Thanks Whiteclaws although I already posted there and I'm waiting for a reply. :p

  • Looks like you could serve us well with our project. I don't know if you saw my post about how we need a 2D graphics artist or not.

  • dhondon - Yes. Although we may do a crowd funding when it gets to 95% completion to make up for the costs associated with producing it and to give us all money for our time and effort, but this isn't guaranteed at the moment, which is why I put (unpaid).

  • We are in need of a 2D pixel artist. The standard for the graphics isn't that high. Just use as many colors as you want, but only 3 hues per color. Resolution is also 640x480 and the base tile size is 32x32.

    What kind of game is it? Its what you get when you combine elements of Zelda, Mario, Mega Man and Kirby. Here are some screenshots of the project in question, to start off.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/504u1qk0h5irroj/screenshot.png

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/9mkp15zdh3kmcg1/screenshot2.png

    This is being developed into an action RPG with some unique features here and there to its systems that make it more fun. Here is a list of some of the features it is going to ultimately have:

    • Reallocating stat points you already placed into stats.
    • Combating enemies similar to the way Kirby does.
    • Lots of original combat abilities which can be stolen from enemies via assimilation.
    • Robust enemies that challenge your skills.
    • Intricate boss battles, usually at the end of each world.
    • A free roaming, evolving map screen, with more detailed world maps where you enter stages.
    • Stage by stage format.
    • Lots of interaction with the environment.
    • Creative status ailments specifically for robots so it's not just the old "poisoned" or what have you.
    • Extra play modes like boss endurance which unlock after completing the game.
    • Unique minibosses at the end of almost every stage.

    If I've piqued your interest and you have some questions about the project, by all means ask away!   <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle">

  • So we've managed to get rid of all background collision testing by storing an obstacle map on an array and checking actor positions based on it. We did have over a million collision checks per second with enemies testing for obstacles the conventional way. Now we're down to something like 10,000 collision checks a second. I was wondering, with this implement in place, what would be the best we could hope for with framerate (if everything is optimized as much as possible) on an average computer in a resolution of 640x480 with 250 32x32 enemies on screen moving around and such at once. I only get around 20FPS when all these enemies are on screen and my hardware on my computer isn't really weak to say the least. I tested it on my netbook and it was a solid 1 FPS constantly, and thus, unplayable.

    Just an update, I tried installing the newest beta driver and my FPS shot up by roughly 10 but I still think it could increase more somehow and I'm still worried about average computers trying to run it.

  • Oh yeah, it appears r144 was broken in that way. I just got notified of r144.2 and it fixed this issue. Thanks.

  • Link to .capx file (required!):

    megamanrevolution.com/other/bugged.capx

    Steps to reproduce:

    1. Open the CAPX.

    2. Build a Node-webkit export.

    3. Try running the EXE export.

    Observed result:

    The game in question does not open at all aside from running in the background and it just stays there forever. This CAPX example worked before beta r144 and now that it's opened in r144 and exported, it refuses to function.

    I don't know if this is coincidence but when I tried building this example CAPX to EXE in an old copy our actual project's node-webkit export, the old game played instead of this, almost as if Construct 2 didn't even include the game's files whatsoever.

    In our actual project, I did manage to get the EXE to work, but only after deleting every single event sheet, which is obviously not a viable option.

    Expected result:

    The game was supposed to run as an EXE.

    Browsers affected:

    Chrome: N/A

    Firefox: N/A

    Internet Explorer: N/A

    Operating system & service pack:

    This has been tested on Windows 8 64-bit, Windows XP SP2 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit.

    Construct 2 version:

    r144 64-bit with that patch Ashley released to fix OR blocks since they didn't work without it.

  • Thank you, Ashley for your fine work. C2 continues to amaze me at the raw power and flexibility it has and this allows me to use the beta you released without having to worry about my OR events being totally broken.

  • I was searching through the forums out of curiosity and I came across hardly any results on the matter. We have implemented an array obstacle detection system for static objects. Why has no one else thought of this? It handles hundreds of moving enemies checking hundreds of static obstacles at 45-55 FPS and I'm sure it can still be improved because my array checks are quite plentiful at the moment and could stand to be cut down a bit. With using collisions in this same setting, we were over one million collision checks per second for enemies and obstacles alone, even with disabling collisions for things off screen and such, which of course slowed the game down to 14fps or worse even on my computer that isn't a weak computer.

    I just wonder why this alternative to collision checks hasn't been brought up before much. It works quite well after we set up the image points to handle "collisions" on the array.

  • Well I added for it to only check collisions when on step and that improved things back to 60FPS. Now it seems the game is slowing down immensely from the set custom movement speed action no matter what I do once that mass of enemies come on screen because of all the collision checks I take it.

    What's an effective way to reduce collision checks?

  • Oh sorry, I forgot to remove the plugins so it can be opened. I tried doing that, if it still gives you the same error, which plugins is it saying are being used?

    The debugger says the player controls group and some other groups are using up a lot of the CPU, but it doesn't specify which part of them are using the CPU.

    EDIT: It appears the engine is using up 72~% of the CPU.

  • Here is a link to our CAPX to show we actually have tried with this issue. The enemies used to use tile by tile movement the player has still, which was faster than this, but we're transitioning to pixel by pixel.

    dropbox.com/s/q996hnxmcp4ccan/game.capx

    We had an experimental CAPX where we were able to have 800 enemies on screen without slow down, complete with dynamic shadows for each enemy... but for some reason, even the enemies being on screen with no code is a major slow down. Go directly downward to witness the 250 enemies slowing the game down a huge amount. This happens to me where it drops to around 7 FPS and I have a quad core computer with 8GB of RAM and a decent video card, so my computer is not the issue, especially since we had that experiment with 800 enemies. I left all the event sheets open in the CAPX that I believe are the problem. Gnashers are the enemy that is slowing it down badly.

    Also the Gnashers are extremely glitchy in their movement, and once they are on screen, the game never recovers from the FPS drop even when they're all off screen. How do we fix that as well?