Construct vs. Multimedia Fusion

Hi,

I'm using MMF now for a long time.

I made some nice games with it.

Now I saw Construct and I think it's time to try something new...

Now I've a few questions...

Is it possible to import MMF Projects? (mfa files...)

As I work already a long time with MMF, how difficult is it to switch to Construct?

There's also an Event Edtior etc...?

Widescreen Monitors...

When I create a new Game on a 4:3 LCD, how will it look on a Widescreen LCD (16:9)?

Will it look "fat" stretched or is it possible to keep the screen ratio?

Here you can see an old project from me

The performance problems came from... MMF, the capture software and my PC...

Thanks for the info

Arcade80

Welcome

Is it possible to import MMF Projects? (mfa files...)

Nope.

As I work already a long time with MMF, how difficult is it to switch to Construct?

That depends... some people seem to think the switch is easy, some people have a hard time of letting go of old klik habits (like spread values, which are totally not necessary in Construct). I found it to be pretty easy to switch over, personally.

There's also an Event Edtior etc...?

Yes, and it doesn't have any checkboxes! It reads top to bottom, like regular code, instead of like a spreadsheet in MMF, but you still click to create events in a similar manner. You can also reuse your event sheets on any layout (or frame... I believe that is the MMF term, it's been a while since I used it) so you don't have to copy/paste entire event sheets around.

You can also use more advanced eventing features like sub-events, many kinds of loops, and "real" programming type logic stuff like Or, Else, and functions. Or you could program parts of your game in Python if you want, and uh, if you know Python. But that's totally optional.

Widescreen Monitors...

When I create a new Game on a 4:3 LCD, how will it look on a Widescreen LCD (16:9)?

Will it look "fat" stretched or is it possible to keep the screen ratio?

It will keep the screen ratio.

Hm, sounds good so far.

So, tonight I will start my first little "project".

Sad... no import of my mfa files.

It keeps the screenratio? That's good.

What about the speed/performance, compared to MMF? Better, faster...?

With MMF I had always some performance problems (scrolling), it was never really smooth only with some tricks.

You still using MMF, or switched now complete to Construct?

Thanks for the replies and help

Kai

I haven't used MMF since Sunday, Nov. 11th, 2007 at 10:44am.

<-------- See?

I did open one of my old projects a while ago and I couldn't make heads or tails of it. I've almost forgotten everything I knew about MMF.

Anyway, I quit MMF before they had hardware acceleration, so yeah, my projects had really bad slowdown as well, even for small stuff. Construct runs at light speed in comparison. I don't really know how well their new hardware acceleration stacks up to Construct's though. Perhaps someone who has used MMF more recently can tell you.

Anyway, just keep in mind that Construct is still in beta, so there are still some bugs you may encounter. My advice is to just play with it a while before starting a project. And read the wiki and the help forum.

Beta? Yes I know... MMF has bugs too... (BETAbeta)...

What about Anti Aliasing, is Fullscreen AA possible?

Yeah, in fact it's the default setting. You have to choose Point rendering in the properties if you want no antialiasing.

Anyway, check out the wiki... there's a lot of good info on there.

There is often confusion over the term "antialiasing". Multisampling is the only form of true anti-aliasing in Construct, but it degrades performance quite a lot since it gives the graphics card several times more work to do, so I wouldn't recommend it. This effectively draws the screen at several times higher resolution (eg. 4x multisampling draws the display at 4x the resolution, and hence runs 4x slower), then does a high quality resize down to the window size (that's not exactly how it works, but the end result is the same). This is what is meant by "antialiasing".

You can achieve nearly the same with linear sampling (the default in Construct). This makes rotations and scaling look "smooth" and high quality and runs just as fast, but it is not antialiasing, it's just a different way of deciding which pixels to draw. This is incorrectly sometimes referred to as antialiasing, but it is actually a texture sampling mode. It looks similar, but is much faster and the algorithm behind it is completely different!

If you get sharp edges on sprites with linear sampling, try adding a one-pixel transparent border around them, which allows linear filtering to blend the edges with the background. This works in both fullscreen and windowed mode - no features in Construct are specific to fullscreen mode.

I used to work with TGF/MMF/MMF2 before moving on to Construct. I say the change was pretty easy to make, though unlearning some bad click habits might take a few moments here and there.

Also, Construct's Event sheet editor >>>>>>> MMF's spreadsheets. The code in Construct is billion times more readable and the event editor in general is great, save for few usability issues here and there (why can't I still press Enter as a shortcut for Finish?) but they're pretty minor.

I haven't used MMF since 1.5, Construct has some serious advantages over MMF including but not limited to:

Open source :: Anyone can jump in and help.

Free :: Don't waste your money on "click" products.

Directx :: For MMF you have to use a new plugin.

And many more, i also find Construct a lot easier to use, the event editor is simple and to the point...and it makes sense!

In my Video you can see a bird.

The bird follows a simple path.

Is path movement already inclued in Construct?

It' is a easy way to move "stupid" enemys in Vertical Shooters etc...

You can achieve nearly the same with linear sampling (the default in Construct). This makes rotations and scaling look "smooth" and high quality and runs just as fast, but it is not antialiasing, it's just a different way of deciding which pixels to draw. This is incorrectly sometimes referred to as antialiasing,

Then that is what I was incorrectly referring to

In my Video you can see a bird.

The bird follows a simple path.

Is path movement already inclued in Construct?

It' is a easy way to move "stupid" enemys in Vertical Shooters etc...

No, there is no Path object or behavior. It has been requested before, I believe. I don't know what ever came of that idea, but it might be a nice addition.

If you want simple back and forth stuff, then you don't really need paths. There's a Sine behavior that you can use to make things move back and forth, or up and down repeatedly. If you want more complicated movement then you can fake paths by telling objects to move to certain coordinates, and when they reach those coordinates to start moving to new coordinates, etc.

With the exception of the occasional bug or crash, construct is many, many times more elegant than MMF (coding wise, graphically and the interface).

Construct is also a good investment as it keeps getting considerably better, whereas MMF development moves kind of sideways, rather than forward (MMF 1.5 to MMF2 was a really strange update with very few new features).

Don't get me wrong, I still think MMF is good, and respect to the developers for creating it, but its almost un-usable from a developer point of view due to the backwards way you have to make stuff.

If you want simple back and forth stuff, then you don't really need paths. There's a Sine behavior that you can use to make things move back and forth, or up and down repeatedly. If you want more complicated movement then you can fake paths by telling objects to move to certain coordinates, and when they reach those coordinates to start moving to new coordinates, etc.

More complex enemy behaviour can be achieved with the timeline object, or with timers and other conditions. It can be a little tricky to get down, but with a bit of work, you can get some quite dynamic and interesting behaviour. It's obviously not quite as easy as drawing the enemy walk path like in KnP (haven't used MMF, maybe it's similar?).