Construct 0.96.3 released

Download 0.96.3 now

This build introduces full support for layer and display rotation, and a new physics engine. Also, there is new code to prevent the corruption of your .cap files; unfortunately, the bugs that cause saving to fail are not fixed, but Construct now verifies the data it generates is valid before writing it to disk. In theory, this means your .cap files will never be corrupted or lost, even if you lose the changes in one session. Save frequently to protect yourself from this and also make it easier to identify when the bug appears.

Note: Save verification does not apply to autosaves in this build! I recommend you turn off autosaves to avoid any corruption.

Here's the full log as usual:

Behaviors

• [FIX] Car movement: problems with turning at high framerates
• [FIX] Tiled background: rendering when display rotated
• [FIX] Mouse movement, selection box: positioning when display rotated
• [FIX] Jitter in platform movement
• [FIX] Crash in RTS movement when using layout object
• [FIX] 'On drop' triggering incorrectly for Drag & Drop
• [CHANGE] Physics now uses the 'Box2D' engine, which unlike Newton is optimized for 2D. Preliminary tests show speed increases of up to 1000%, as well as the possibility of new features (such as custom shaped collision masks). This also fixes many previously reported physics bugs (spawning immovables, timescaling etc)

Event Sheet Editor

• [ADD] Cut (long overdue)
• [ADD] Set/get layer angles in system object
• [FIX] Ribbon icons for cut/copy/paste weren't working properly
• [FIX] Problems copying and pasting actions/conditions (went to wrong events ocassionally)
• [FIX] Crash editing actions which modify effects
• [CHANGE] Overhauled the right click menu, adding numerous options and fixing old ones

General

• [ADD] New 'object bar', docked to the left of the editor. Shows all objects in the current layout. Double click in the event sheet editor to insert a condition for an object
• [ADD] 'Family overview', a dialog to view, remove and add objects to families in an application. Located in the 'Project' tab
• [FIX] Family bug causing crashes on export
• [FIX] Family behavior expressions (Family[Movement].blah...) now validate and work correctly
• [FIX] Memory leaks when closing applications in IDE
• [FIX] Frame times for animations are now treated as floats (e.g. 0.5 = half the normal time of a frame)
• [FIX] Scrollbar on property grid now always scrolled to top
• [FIX] Resources not being exported correctly (caused DirectSound to always play the last one)
• [CHANGE] Added some new options to the right click menus on the Project Bar
• [CHANGE] Set Animation now has no effect if the current animation is the same as the one about to be set
• [CHANGE] Whenever you save your application, Construct now verifies the file format saved to disk is valid. This should prevent Construct from silently saving corrupt backups during a session: if a problem occurred, you are prompted and the changes are NOT saved to disk, so your CAP file is at least not corrupted. The save bugs are extremely difficult to track down, so it is important as soon as this happens, you make a note of what you were doing in Construct, and let us know on the forums.

Plugins

• [ADD] New common actions, conditions and expressions: Set position, move at angle, pick by comparison, pick by evaluate, get Z index, pick topmost/bottommost
• [FIX] Crash in IDE when using 3D Box in fullscreen preview
• [FIX] Canvas: size in layout editor not taking effect at runtime
• [FIX] Canvas: sometimes turning invisible in scrolling applications
• [FIX] Crash in Array using quicksave/quickload

Runtime

• [FIX] 'Set display angle': Effects were not displaying, and issues with bounded-scrolling layouts
• [FIX] "Error unpacking resources" in Application-runtime EXEs on Vista
• [FIX] Crash with multiple families with movements
• [FIX] Crash using OR with behavior conditions
• [FIX] Debugger crash using right-click/add to watch on a global variable
• [FIX] Z order now preserved by quicksave/quickload; other save/load crash fixes
• [FIX] Crash using 'For Each' with a family with behaviors
• [FIX] Runtime crash with families after objects deleted

Ashley - I love you

PS. Why you're zipping setup?

I don't know. I just do

Behaviors

- [CHANGE] Physics now uses the 'Box2D' engine, which unlike Newton is optimized for 2D. Preliminary tests show speed increases of up to 1000%, as well as the possibility of new features (such as custom shaped collision masks). This also fixes many previously reported physics bugs (spawning immovables, timescaling etc)

Very nice but why there is at Behaviours "Box2D"? It doesnt work either, missing plugin. I assume you replaced the Newton with Box2D.

This is awesome

EDIT: err save as doesnt work as far as i can tell, just does save

You work at amazing speeds Ashley & Scirra, thanks for update, going to try it right now ^-^

Lol every time I get bored at home with nothing to do, a new Construct version comes out

Keep up the good work guys

Edit: Ok tested it, i'm glad that the Newton physics are still included for people who have used it, but Doppel is right, Box 2D doesn't work. I also think that the old Physics behaviour should be renamed to Newton Physics (and Box2D to Box2D Physics as well) so that people can understand they are both physics behaviours and are not the same (eg: events that work with Box2D don't work with Newton)

Note:

This build only saves .tmp files currently, as some late code slipped in without testing which forgets to rename the .tmp to a normal file. This will be fixed in a few hours, when Ashley is back.

You can test the rest of the features though; the new physics has incredible performance and removed limits

Argh, the save thing made me shred some code to make an example file for a bug. hopefully it wasn't that much work. Oh well, such is the way of using beta software!

edit: Okay woo, I lost next to nothing. Good thing I make a bazillion redundant saves -- and 3d bug submitted.

Woops. Going to patch this one up quickly, watch this space.

Oh, and there is no old Newton physics engine. The 'Physics' behavior uses the Box2D engine and its designed to be backwards compatible - I'm not sure where the Box2D behavior came from!

OK folks - download it again if you have downloaded it before reading this. Same link as before. That'll teach me to fiddle with important things The behavior named 'Box2D' is also removed in this update: to reiterate, the 'Physics' behavior now uses the Box2D engine instead of Newton physics. There is no longer a Newton powered Physics engine in Construct.

Box2d ! Thats awsome Ashley, and a very important step forward. Now i am attempted to start writing again.

it doesnt seem to verify saves made with the autosave feature (it just corrupted my save file, all i did was load up a game and run it) when it autosaved it crashed and corrupted it

Holy smokes, new physics

Looks like I picked a good time to come back! Thanks Ashley!

ASHLEY! I PROMISE THAT IF I EVER MEET YOU IN REAL LIFE IN SOME "CONSTRUCT CONVENTION 2010" I'LL GIVE YOU A BIG KISS!

Custom shaped collision masks!!!

And the corruption protection is awsome! Great great build!

This update sounds awesome again. Have to try it right now.