Nice to have / Quality of Life / Small Issues

Dont get me wrong, I love working in C3, (a lot more than I expected to be honest). But just some minor things that bug me now that I am using C3 for real.

* It is annoying that groups/anything always open up after drag dropped or copy pasted

* It would be good to have a full screen toggle on the top bar somewhere (maybe on the top right, seems to be a bit of dead space there next to the profile login), as it is uncommonly nice to work full screen with C3

* The find/search box stays open on top of the events you are trying to look through. Would be better to have search box neatly integrated into the search results, at least when docked. Or hide the search box after results with a button somewhere on the results to open again.

* Definitely need to see complete size of sprite font boxes in the editor , currently they are invisible (bar the default text)! maybe like semi transparent like when they are selected. eg vid

* Always need a "sure you want to close" prompt if closing, even if just opened, recently saved / there are no changes. As it is quite easy to close browser or tab without thinking.

* The open from browser lists projects in alphabetical order and it cannot be changed, it would be better if the default was by modified date time order and even better if option to change listing format

added 07/12/2017

* In many cases I can't use the expand/collapse black arrows when I hover over them because the curser is still in the resize column state. eg vid (update well that is interesting when review the video the curser is in a different place, (looks like it is in proper place in the video. but in reality it is over the black triangle) than when I am actually using and recording !!! WTF how does that work???!. So there is definitely an issue where the curser is not where it appears to be !!!) (Just for my own sanity ! this is real world real world

* Load from json text fields , can be massive but are displayed in their entirety in the text field . didn't seem to have this issue in C2 if I recall the field just displayed a small bit of the first line of text I have solved by putting them within a blank sub event to collapse them but meh. also it scrolls to the centre when click on which is really annoying. eg video

added 08/12/2017

*Adding the family name onto the instance variables in the left properties box makes very hard to identify and read the variables, makes it cluttered and unnecessarily long, forces the text to wrap, forces the user to increase the window size to avoid the wrap, reducing main editor space. I get why you have done it because objects can belong to multiple families but it is kind of unnecessary, please consider removing this, or if it is a requested feature please put in a separate column right at the end after the variable value and allow us to set the column width for it.

*In some cases changes to variables are not reflected in the editor action bars. but are there when action is opened

see video

For me it's 1, 5 and 6.

Added two more see list on first post

added another 2 to the list above

* It is annoying that groups/anything always open up after drag dropped or copy pasted

Please file a bug for that!

[quote:2iq3zxij]* It would be good to have a full screen toggle on the top bar somewhere (maybe on the top right, seems to be a bit of dead space there next to the profile login), as it is uncommonly nice to work full screen with C3

It's there on mobile, but on desktop it takes over the whole UI and basically rules out multitasking until you exit fullscreen. Do you still want that?

[quote:2iq3zxij]* The find/search box stays open on top of the events you are trying to look through. Would be better to have search box neatly integrated into the search results, at least when docked. Or hide the search box after results with a button somewhere on the results to open again.

This and some of the others are good ideas, maybe file on https://construct3.ideas.aha.io/ so it doesn't get lost

[quote:2iq3zxij]* Load from json text fields , can be massive but are displayed in their entirety in the text field .

This is what project files are for. You shouldn't paste large amounts of data in to event sheets. It's also less efficient at runtime.

[quote:2iq3zxij]*In some cases changes to variables are not reflected in the editor action bars. but are there when action is opened

see video

Please also file a bug for that.

In general if something isn't working right, file an issue for it, and if it's a suggestion, post it at https://construct3.ideas.aha.io/. These are better systems for tracking bugs and features, since the forum is high-volume and it's easy for posts to get lost or forgotten about.

> * It is annoying that groups/anything always open up after drag dropped or copy pasted

>

Please file a bug for that!

OK Will do ......

[quote:3sfrc66c][quote:3sfrc66c]* It would be good to have a full screen toggle on the top bar somewhere (maybe on the top right, seems to be a bit of dead space there next to the profile login), as it is uncommonly nice to work full screen with C3

It's there on mobile, but on desktop it takes over the whole UI and basically rules out multitasking until you exit fullscreen. Do you still want that?

Yes I think so. As most of the time im buried in events sheets. I know we can just press F11 but having a dedicated button would make it even easier....(especially if wanting to multitask) and maybe usefull on tablet if touvh stylus becomes viable.

[quote:3sfrc66c] This and some of the others are good ideas, maybe file on https://construct3.ideas.aha.io/ so it doesn't get lost

Will do.

[quote:3sfrc66c][quote:3sfrc66c]*In some cases changes to variables are not reflected in the editor action bars. but are there when action is opened

see video

Please also file a bug for that.

will do

[quote:3sfrc66c] In general if something isn't working right, file an issue for it, and if it's a suggestion, post it at https://construct3.ideas.aha.io/. These are better systems for tracking bugs and features, since the forum is high-volume and it's easy for posts to get lost or forgotten about.

ok yea willl do . was just chucking in here as I came across them

[quote:3sfrc66c][quote:3sfrc66c]* Load from json text fields , can be massive but are displayed in their entirety in the text field .

This is what project files are for. You shouldn't paste large amounts of data in to event sheets. It's also less efficient at runtime.

Right..... yes ...... lolz .....those project file things that I know all about ...... yea.. ive been here for over a year and Im 350 posts in of course I know all about project files.. .... . use them bad boys all the time ... dosent everyone ?? ... couldn't live without them ......lolz

<img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

.... backs away slowly and clicks on the link for the Manual ....

<img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt=":oops:" title="Embarrassed"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt=":oops:" title="Embarrassed"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt=":oops:" title="Embarrassed"> <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt=":oops:" title="Embarrassed">

Right so I have been playing around with project files, very neat,

it's also really cool to be able to see and edit the arrays like spreadsheets.

But....

Ashley (and im sorry to keep tagging you)

you said that it would be better to use json array project files rather than big lumps of json text in my events

so I have swapped out all the text files and instead am now calling the project files with ajax

a problem has arisen though that the project files arrays take about 1 second each to load into the game arrays and appear to load one after the other

where as when I just dumped the same text into the events, when called, it loads into the game arrays pretty much instantaneously (as far as I can see)

it is important for me to get this bit right as this is the basis of my level change.

basically when the level changes a function clears the game arrays (currently 5 different arrays some 3D and very big) and repopulates them with new data from the various json texts for each level

so the difference between instantaneously populating them with the text in events or having to wait up to 4 seconds for project files data to load

really changes the way I would approach level transition.

* * * could you possibly elaborate on the pros and cons...of using either method ??? * * *

.. as i am tempted to return to using text in the events (i fancy really fast level transitions in my game)

Edit. Surprisingly, in edge, the same files are all finished loading in about half a second. That is a big difference between browsers.

Project files should take <100ms to fetch in preview, and whatever the latency is of your server after publishing - but even then it will be added to the offline cache and should fetch semi-instantly.

Even if the latency is a problem, you can just fetch everything on startup so you don't have to wait when you need it. That is entirely better than pasting data in to events. There is no tradeoff here, it's pretty much entirely superior.

Just to close this subject for other readers.

I can confirm Ashley was correct in stating the project files load in milliseconds.

I had my files populating a text field when finished loading so I could see that they were loaded

It was this operation that was taking a couple of seconds.

In reality the project files are loaded and accessible by the game engine in milliseconds.