Ashley's Forum Posts

  • I think I missed a few posts that might help explain what's going on, but I don't see this going anywhere productive, so I'm going to lock it. I've not had much time to check the forum recently - if you think there is an issue that needs admin attention please PM me.

  • Um... what?

  • The problem with videos is it could have been rendering on a farm for a week. There need to be playable demos to show it's practical, otherwise there's not a chance we'd switch engine!

  • Oops, sorry, missed that somehow. You should be editor now.

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  • Download Construct 0.99.91

    Link to previous build (0.99.90) changelog

    Thanks to Davo for this build again Hopefully this one can go up as a stable to replace the aging 0.99.62.

    Update 27th July 2010: Marking stable. Old versions will shortly be prompting with updates.

    Changelog

    3d Object

    [FIX] - No longer limited to 10,000 polygons, should be able to handle an unlimited number

    [CHANGE] - Should be a lot faster, rewritten to use vertex buffers and transformation matrices

    [ADD] - Now uses assimp library to do its loading, so it can support obj, 3ds, ase, ply, dxf, ac, ms3d, etc. Loading is also a hell of a lot faster!

    [FIX] - Editor now matches runtime. Originally the yaw, pitch, roll etc didn't match up.

    Light and Shadow Caster

    [FIX] - No longer crash - this was a compilation mistake regarding code generation libraries

    Custom Movement

    [FIX] - Object wouldn't move at low speeds when stepping was enabled

    Layout Editor

    [ADD] - New option in layers for 'Clear depth buffer'. When ticked, it means the depth buffer is cleared when that layer is rendered, preventing any 3d elements 'below' it to 'pop through' the layer.

    Layer Bar

    [CHANGE] - Clicking the lock or the hide icon on the layer no longer selects that layer

    [CHANGE] - The clickable area of the lock/hide icons are bigger so they are easier to click

    [FIX] - Adding or deleting a layer now updates the property bar to the new selected layer

    Runtime

    [FIX] - Nested else events now work (was a bug with forgetting to scope a pointer somewhere)

  • Hey everyone,

    I've created a new official Scirra Facebook page instead of the old one so I can be admin and post official updates and that. The site now links to the new one.

    If you could become fans of the new page (click 'Like') that would be cool - and as a plus, click the Share button in the bottom left and tell your friends about it

  • How's this looking for a new stable release folks?

  • Download Construct 0.99.9 (unstable)

    This is an

    unstable build. You can help Construct's development by downloading it, trying it out, testing and reporting bugs. If you have projects you want to work on without possible bugs getting in the way, stick to stable builds.

    Link to previous build (0.99.85) changelog

    Thanks to Davo for most of the changes this build - he's really worked hard and done some cool fixes and additions We're back on track for a 1.0 release as next major version - the following 0.99.9x builds should be becoming more stable ready for release candidacy.

    Changelog

    Platform Movement

    [FIX] - Fixed but where 0 deceleration meant you shouldn't turn to the right once you'd reached the max speed

    [FIX] - Collision detection errors where sometimes you might be 0.4 pixels into a wall, fixing this also fixed the jumping up a wall bug

    [FIX] - Running down a slope and jumping now produces the same jump strength as a regular jump

    [FIX] - Jumping sometimes getting stuck in the ceiling

    [FIX] - Jumping upwards onto a slope didn't reset the Y velocity to 0... making it seem like you were jumping up a slope

    Object Bar

    [ADD] - In the ribbon you can now hide and show the bar by clicking the 'Object Bar' button above Animation Bar. Finally you can hide and show that 'pesky little bar'

    Animation Bar

    [FIX] - Holding control now successfully duplicates the animation and its frames

    Event Sheet Editor

    [FIX] - Fixed some memory leaks with icons in the event wizard

    [FIX] - "hello" no longer becomes "hello^. It was caused by clipping of drawtext

    Panel Object

    [FIX] - Panel object didn't rotate property

    Shadow Caster & Light

    [ADD] - You can now create a polygon shape for your shadow

    [FIX] - Can now set, add, subtract private variables and it works

    Custom Movement

    [FIX] - Can now change movement speed and movement angle during the stepping stage. This should make it easy to do sonic style movements where you need to 'trace' along the walls as you move

    Window Object

    [ADD] - You can now use 'ClientWidth' and 'ClientHeight' to get the width and height of the client area of the window.

    [ADD] - 'Restore' - So you can restore the window if its maximized or minimized

    Sprite Object

    [FIX] - Distortion problems with sprites whose images and object sizes didn't match

    [FIX] - Absolute distortion point now works even when the object is rotated

    Misc

    [ADD] - Added new '3d object' just to annoy Quazi

    [ADD] - Added new 'Portal Maths' object - helps with doing the maths for portals

    [ADD] - Added new 'Sprite Ribbon' object that makes creating ribbons and trails easier

    [FIX] - Missing fixes from last build compiled in to this build

    [FIX] - Fixed the control system. Control states are reset between behaviors onFrame and the event cycle. 360 Controller updates the states in OnFrame2. Allows events to change the control states.

  • I'd go for learning C# or Java first - they are simpler in a lot of ways and easier for beginners (unless your college requires C++ or something else). After that, a specific programming language should not be important to an experienced programmer, since they share a lot of concepts in common and each should be treated as a tool suitable for certain jobs.

    So I'd be more concerned with career path, the university course itself, your lecturers, etc.

  • The web installer is ideal for downloaded games, since it's so much smaller. You can also choose the most recent DirectX version - all of the DirectX setups include everything that was in the previous releases, including the August 2008 files.

  • L5j is right, the little X only closes the current editor. It never closes the project. It's possible to have no editor windows open but the project bar still shows the project, because it is still open. When you close Construct itself, it then prompts you to save!

  • Rendering can look wrong if the graphics card drivers are old or buggy. Try updating the drivers on your friend's machine.

  • Seems reasonable to me - if they don't know or aren't sure, they'll say no, since it's safest for them. If you also say you're starting a company, they'll assume you have money to spend, will hire a lawyer, and have the issue checked out professionally.

    Is it that important to the game? Perhaps the easiest thing to do is just to not use the material then, especially if it's just a "this technique runs 10% faster than the usual" type thing.

  • Thanks for spending the time to post your experiences. This reads pretty critically of Construct, but I have a feeling a lot of it is justified. There are some serious problems in Construct that are really important to fix ASAP; we just don't always have the resources to fix them quickly, given our commitments to university, jobs, etc. I might also add Construct is officially still in beta, not yet 1.0, so bugs would be expected (was your tutor aware of this?).

    One point about the UI - you know you can collapse/auto-hide all the bars - and the Ribbon - so that they only appear when you mouse over tabs at the edge of the screen. This can give you a near-fullscreen editing.

    I'm going to take most of these points as suggestions for Construct 2, particularly:

    • Implement a smaller, leaner set of features, and test them better
    • Aim for solid reliability of all core features
    • Support for collaboration (we're planning a system that works with source control systems like SVN, so existing collaboration systems can be used to allow multiple developers to commit changes in parallel, use the existing source control conflict resolution, and so on).

  • Yeah, try the 'play sound at position' group of actions in XAudio2.