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System conditions

This section describes all the conditions in the built-in System object in Construct 2. They are listed in the order they appear in the Add Condition dialog.

Angles

Note angles in Construct 2 start with 0 degrees facing right and increment clockwise.

Is between angles
True if a given angle is between the two other angles in degrees. The first and second angles must be in clockwise order. That is, X is between 0 and 45 degrees is true if the angle X is in a 45 degree area, but X is between 45 and 0 degrees is true if X is in the 315 degree area from 45 degrees through 0 degrees. The first angle is inclusive, but the second angle is exclusive, to ensure adjacent ranges are handled correctly.
Is clockwise from
True if a given angle is clockwise from another angle in degrees, or in other words, if it is 180 degrees or less in a clockwise direction from Angle 2 to Angle 1. Invert to test if anticlockwise instead. For example, 45 degrees is clockwise from 0 degrees, but 0 degrees is anticlockwise from 45 degrees. Angle 1 is the angle to test, and Angle 2 is the reference angle to test whether Angle 1 is clockwise from.
Is within angle
True if an angle is within a number of degrees of another angle. This is more reliable than testing if an angle exactly equals an angle, e.g. X within 0.5 degrees of 90 degrees is probably better than X equals 90 degrees, since there are many cases an angle can be very close to, but not exactly, 90 degrees.

General

Compare two values
Compare any two expressions (which can either numbers or text) with each other. They can be compared as Equal, Not equal, Less, Less or equal, Greater or Greater or equal.
Every tick
A condition which is always true. Used on its own, this has the same effect as running every time it is checked, which is once per tick, hence the name "Every tick". This is about 60 times a second on most computers; see how events work for more information. Adding Every tick to an event with other conditions is redundant and has no effect at all.
Is between values
Test if a number is between two values (greater or equal to a lower value and less or equal to a higher value).
Is group active
Test if a group of events is active or inactive. The name of the group is used to identify it.
Is number NaN
Test if a number is equal to NaN (Not A Number), a special value returned by calculations which cannot be represented as a real number, such as the square root of -1.
Is value type
Check if a value is a number or a string.
Object UID exists
Test if an object exists with the given Unique ID (UID). For more information on UIDs, see common features.
Test regex
Test if a given string matches a regular expression with flags. This only returns a true or false result, so to make more advanced use of regular expressions, see the Regex... system expressions.

Global & local variables

Compare variable
Compare the value of a event variable (a global variable or local variable in scope). Event variables can store both numbers and text. The comparison can be made Equal, Not equal, Less, Less or equal, Greater or Greater or equal.

Layers & Layout

Compare opacity
Compare the opacity (or semitransparency) of a layer, from 0 (transparent) to 100 (opaque). A layer's opacity cannot be outside this range.
Effects are supported
True if WebGL support is available so effects can be displayed. For more information, see Effects.
Layer is empty
Test if a layer currently has zero instances on it. This counts any objects anywhere at all on the layer, so even one instance far outside the viewport will make this condition false.
Layer is visible
Test if a layer is currently visible or not.
On canvas snapshot
Triggered after the Snapshot canvas system action, when the snapshot is ready. It can then be accessed with the CanvasSnapshot system expression.

Loops

Loops can be stopped with the Stop Loop system action.

For
Repeat the event a number of times, using an index variable over a range of values. The index can be retrieved with the LoopIndex system expression and passing the name of the loop.
For Each
For Each (ordered)
Repeat the event once per picked instance. This only repeats for instances that have been picked by prior conditions. See how events work for more information on picking. For Each is commonly mis-used or used redundantly - actions already apply for each instance picked by conditions, so it often is simply not needed. However, if you fully understand how the event system works, it can be used to force the event to apply once per instance where the event system would not normally do that. The 'ordered' variant allows the order that the instances are iterated in to be defined by an expression. For example, ordering by Sprite.Y ascending will iterate the top instances on the screen first, moving downwards.
Repeat
Simply repeat the event a given number of times. This tests any conditions following it on every repeat, and if those conditions are met also runs the actions and any sub-events on every repeat.
While
Repeat the event until one of the other conditions in the event becomes false or a Stop loop action is used. Be careful not to create infinite loops which will cause the game to hang.

Pick instances

Pick all
Reset the picked objects back to all of them. Subsequent conditions will pick from all instances again instead of filtering from only those meeting all the conditions so far. See How events work for more information on how instances are picked in events. Useful in subevents to start affecting different instances again.
Pick by comparison
Pick the individual instances of an object type that meet a comparison. For example, it is possible to pick all instances where Object.X [] 2 is less than Object.Y + 100, which is not possible with either the Compare X or Compare Y* conditions.
Pick by evaluate
Pick the individual instances of an object type where the expression evaluates to a nonzero value. In other words, for each instance if the expression is 0, it is not picked, else it is picked. This is most useful with the comparison and logical operators (see Expressions). For example, it's possible to pick instances using the following expression (where & means "and" and | means "or"): (Object.X > 100 & Object.Y > 100) | (Object.X < -100 & Object.Y < -100)
Pick Nth instance
Pick the instance at a given place in the internal list of picked objects. This is most useful used in sub-events to act on separate instances. For example, in a "Sprite collided with Sprite" event, Pick 0th instance and Pick 1st instance can be used to act on each instance involved in the collision separately. If all objects are currently picked, this condition can also be used to pick an object by its index ID (IID). For more information, see common features.
Pick overlapping point
Pick all instances of a given object type that are overlapping a point in the layout. The given X and Y position in the layout will be tested against the instance's collision polygons.
Pick random instance
Pick a random instance from the currently picked objects. In other words, if Pick random instance follows another condition, it will pick a random instance from the instances meeting the prior condition. Otherwise it picks a random instance from all the instances.

Special conditions

Else
Run if the previous event did not run. Note that this condition does not pick any objects: if it follows an event that picks objects, in the Else event all instances revert to picked again. Else can only follow normal (non-triggered) events. It can also follow another Else event with other conditions to make an "if - else if - else" chain.
Is in preview
True when running the project from a preview in Construct 2, and false when running after being exported. Useful to add debug or diagnostic features for previewing only.
Is on mobile device
Tries to detect whether the current device viewing the project is a mobile (e.g. phone or tablet). It is difficult to accurately detect this so detection may not be perfect: there may be some mobile systems for which Is on mobile is not true, and (although less likely) desktop systems for which Is on mobile returns true. The condition always returns true when packaged via the PhoneGap/Intel XDK/CocoonJS containers, and always returns true for iOS, Android, Blackberry 10, Windows Phone and Tizen based devices. Beyond that Construct 2 will test a few other common mobile manufacturers. Otherwise, it will return true if the current system is not a desktop system, since there are relatively few desktop OSs; the desktop systems it checks for are Windows, Linux, OS 9, OS X, Solaris and BSD.
Is on platform
Test if currently running on a given platform, such as Android or as a Windows 8 app. Note it's possible multiple options can be true simultaneously. For example, if running in a browser on Android, both Is on platform Android and Is on platform HTML5 website will be true.
Trigger once while true
Turn an ordinary event (which is tested every tick) in to a trigger. For example, if an event plays a sound when lives equals 0, normally this event runs every tick. This plays about 60 sounds a second and would sound pretty bad. Adding Trigger once while true after the other conditions makes the event run just once when it first becomes true. This makes the previous example only play a sound once the first time your lives reaches 0. It must be the last condition in an event.

Save & Load

On load complete
Triggered after the Load system action successfully completes. For more information, see How to make savegames.
On load failed
Triggered after the Load system action fails to complete, usually because the slot has not been saved to yet. For more information, see How to make savegames.
On save complete
Triggered after the Save system action successfully completes. For more information, see How to make savegames.
On save failed
Triggered if the Save system action fails to complete. This can occur if the browser has reached the limit of its storage quota, or the user has withdrawn permission for the page or app to write to storage.

Start & end

On end of layout
Triggered when the layout is ending. This can happen when the project goes to a different layout or when the project closes.
On start of layout
Triggered when the layout begins.
On loader layout complete
Triggered on a loader layout when the progress reaches 100%. For more information see How to use loader layouts to make custom loading screens.

Time

Compare time
Compare the time, in seconds, since the game began. For example, events can be set up to run when the time reaches (equals) 10 seconds.
Every X seconds
Run the event regularly at a given time interval in seconds. This can also be used beneath other conditions to only run the event at a given time interval while the other conditions are true, e.g. "Player is holding spacebar AND every 0.5 seconds: fire laser".
Construct 2 Manual 2020-06-11