Switching from GM - big projects in construct?

[quote:xtltchs8]Because it takes a lot time, and i dont have much of that resource. Not to mention i have absolutely no experience with DirectX, and very little with Opengl

OK, well, you could probably learn these in a reasonable amount of time, and it's cool because you're dealing with the nuts and bolts of the GPU.

[quote:xtltchs8]So why am i using GM, if its so slow and doesnt have advanced graphical features like shaders? Because GM is even higher level than those libraries.

Well, I would describe the event system as even higher-level than using languages. Hence as you say, faster, quicker, easier, not having to do the messy work yourself.

[quote:xtltchs8]Instead, it 'forces' me to use this event system akin to GMs action drag and drop system, which i always abhorred. This is why am i so... well, disappointed, i guess, although thats a bit too strong of a word.

I've heard bad things about the Game Maker event system. I don't think it really has much in common with Construct's event system. I hope you don't assume the Construct event system is as sucky as Game Maker, because the Construct event system is a lot more sophisticated than in any other product. You really can make fairly complex games in it with just events, once you're familiar with the paradigm.

[quote:xtltchs8]does the SDK allow access to Construct functions (actions, basically), properties and event/condition triggering?

Basically you have full access to the engine, because every single plugin and behavior is implemented through the SDK (nothing is built in, except things like the rendering engine, events engine etc). You can trigger events, and modify the common properties of all objects (the RunObjectHeaderInfo struct in rundefs.h, which includes x, y, width, height, angle, etc). If you're thinking about implementing the entire game by a custom written plugin, you'll probably have a hard time. However, you could do a lot of it I guess, but you'd be reinventing things easily possible by events.

Have a shot at the Ghost Shooter tutorial, and see what you think of the events system then. Please, don't think of it in the same terms as you do Game Maker

OK, well, you could probably learn these in a reasonable amount of time, and it's cool because you're dealing with the nuts and bolts of the GPU.

But the whole point is - i dont want to!

Well, I would describe the event system as even higher-level than using languages. Hence as you say, faster, quicker, easier, not having to do the messy work yourself.

Yes, but i meant the library functions, not the user interface. GMs drag and drop or Construct event system is just a replacement for typing down commands/functions/etc.

I've heard bad things about the Game Maker event system. I don't think it really has much in common with Construct's event system. I hope you don't assume the Construct event system is as sucky as Game Maker, because the Construct event system is a lot more sophisticated than in any other product. You really can make fairly complex games in it with just events, once you're familiar with the paradigm.

Of course, but its really not about the level of sophistication (i am sure i could port big parts of my projects to construct), its about the idea of dragging/picking from dialogs vs typing it out.

You can trigger events, and modify the common properties of all objects (the RunObjectHeaderInfo struct in rundefs.h, which includes x, y, width, height, angle, etc).

Ah, so you cant modify the properties/variables you add to objects inside IDE, that pretty much rules the idea out. And the fact that it would be really awkward and time consuming to debug games made like that.

If you're thinking about implementing the entire game by a custom written plugin, you'll probably have a hard time.

Oh no, i was just thinking about doing events (or rather, actions that happen when a certain event is triggered) through plugins.

Have a shot at the Ghost Shooter tutorial, and see what you think of the events system then. Please, don't think of it in the same terms as you do Game Maker

As i said, i already did that. And no, i dont think Construct event system is as nearl as bad as D&D actions from Game Maker. It all really boils down to me wanting to script my events instead of putting them together from predefined blocks.

Well, when Python comes back online there's nothing saying you can't script your game with that. Yes, you'd still have to use the event editor to insert your code snippets, but as far as I know there's nothing hindering the length of those snippets so, theoretically, you could create your entire game using just one big Python script.

Unless I'm missing something fundamental here... I admit I don't have much experience with using Python in Construct. Or at all, really.

I'm with Kaelis. I'm not a programmer though that can code pong in C++, not much experience but I have concept about those stuff(pointers, functions, objects, etc..)

Construct I think is right in making it newbie-friendly for those not too literate in programming but I think that it should also be flexible to be able to be used by advanced people who like to make huge projects as well. Just like GM, it's easy to make a pong game there but there are also games made by advanced users that are 3d, online, full rgps, and the likes.

Well, Kaelis, maybe Construct just isn't for you. Maybe one day in future there'll be a full scripting engine, but I don't think it's going to go much further than an extension to the event sheet editor for some time. I don't really want to spend time making a scripting tool, as I've said before - it's been done to death and I think if you want to program a game, you'll get a lot more out of something like C++ with a good game library anyway.

Thanks for the feedback, but I think we're looking for different things here

Maybe one day in future there'll be a full scripting engine, but I don't think it's going to go much further than an extension to the event sheet editor for some time.

I wouldnt really need such 'advanced' scripting - just a way to write actions for events with actual code instead of putting them together with dialogs.

Thanks for the feedback, but I think we're looking for different things here

Well, this wasnt really feedback per se, just me desperately trying to find a solution to my woes I am aware that full scripting engine would be too much to ask for.

I guess ill just lurk around, following Constructs development, especially since it looks like the current model of Python scripting should provide a lot of what i need, providing that all actions normally available through the event system are exposed to python as well (plus the ability to refer to specific instances).

In any case, thank you for your responses, and i wish you luck with the development of Construct.

give the event sheet a chance, its not really blocky, and although it reminds you of game maker's shitty event editor, you'll find its much more develloped. you can do alot more than you think once you get the hang of it, heck i can't think of one complex thing that ive though about that i couldnt do using the event editor. before saying construct isnt the tool for you, give it a good try.

game maker is absolutley horrible from when i tryed it, i actually prefer klik and play to it. ive never really scripted, but from what ive read and seen, its alot more mork to set up all those brackets and variables, than it is to simply create a new event, and create an action. dont think of the event editor as a limiting feature it really isnt, it'll save you alot of time, you just have to learn to use it properly.

oh yah, the sprite editing and importing sucks in GM, its sooo slow.

I'd agree with the above; give it a shot first. Note that you can do things like for/while loops, OR, ELSE, sub-events (representing scope), functions (using the function object), private variables, global variables, etc.