Sorry for the lack of updates. Had about 2 1/2 weeks of unforeseen delays. Back on track, and things are progressing steadily again. I'll report back soon with a more complete status report and some screenshots. Thanks for your patience. I'll try my best to make sure this update is worth the wait.

is there anything specific anyone knows about when the crash happens? are there a specific set of circumstances that cause it to crash? is it only with transitions, etc. I'm not sure if I'll be able to figure out what's wrong with it, but I'll definitely take a look when I get a chance. Also, if someone could make a barebones cap that causes the crash, even if it's just a few events, it would be helpful.

hmmm... no, those are about the same results I'm getting now regardless of the texture, must've made a mistake somewhere. I definitely was using 640x480 in my original which runs at just under 40fps for me now. Same here as well, not making a difference with or without sine behavior not sure what I did. either way. moot point with all the rest discussed.

On a side note, I'm running AMD as well, 3.4 phenom2 x4 965 deneb BE. Sometimes when testing caps, repeated runs get 40 fps less than the usual run, maybe I got lucky and had it work backwards that time?

more likely I forgot a 0 at the end of something <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/forumhelp/twiembarassed.jpg" border="0" /> on my first test

Lucid, can you give any sort of feature/fix previews? Since I'm deep in a project right now, knowing what changes might concern or benefit me would be nice so I can plan accordingly.omething seems weird/premature about posting the actual changelog before the release, but I'll give a general overview. a few runtime/plugin performance/memory-leak fixes, some nonperformance related fixes to several plugins like shadowcaster, drag-and-drop, panel, xbox360controls, platform behavior(i think that's all of them), a few system expression/plugin expression fixes. one addition/one fix to the sdk, and a handful of new additions to various plugins and the runtime - one or two of which may be a big deal to some users, as they've been requested for a couple of years. personally, these last ones are the ones I'm most eager to see released, having been one of those who requested them. :)

lso unrelatedly but since we're posting about bugs in CC, what steps can I take to prevent crashes when switching layouts? I remember reading a lot on the topic but can't quite find any. Those are a set of problems I'd like to stamp out.this I can't comment on. all the projects I've ever worked on used a single layout. but I have heard a reoccurring theme with regards to not crashing while switching layouts, which is : don't use transitions.

> interesting. I'm getting about 15fps with the sine behavior on all of them, and about 30 without it. I have no idea why one png would render slower than another, especially that much slower, but perhaps one of the more knowledgeable folk around here can enlighten us.I'm getting 15 fps, too. It's not a matter of png rendering (the textures are on the graphic card's VRAM in a simple RGBA format, no png/jpg/etc anymore), it's a matter of different test settings. A graphic card has much more work to do if the viewport is larger. If you just half the width of the window from 1280 to 640, you will see that the framerate will instantly go up. Also, the hardware may differ. While my GTX460 Hawk is relatively powerful, a GT7600 is not. This will also result in different framerates.

oh right, I meant because I had done a test with a different png of the same size, and got a much higher framerate. not sure if there's some optimization done for unvaried textures on my card(hd6970), but in the faster test I was using a solid red square of 4096x4096. I even tried lowering the resolution of qwary's test, but it didn't come close to matching my original test

> I tested again with 1000 4096x4096 sprites, again all moving and rotating, which you presumably wouldn't need for backgrounds, but, still running at well over 100fps.url=https://rapidshare.com/files/2137031696/huge_texture.cap]Here is a link to download my .cap

I have no more than 4 fps. What am I doing wrong?nteresting. I'm getting about 15fps with the sine behavior on all of them, and about 30 without it. I have no idea why one png would render slower than another, especially that much slower, but perhaps one of the more knowledgeable folk around here can enlighten us. In any case, even 30 fps with a workload that insanely exaggerated proves the point that there's more than enough power if you take the time to learn how to use it. You should never design a game that way with 1000 4096x4096 sprites on screen, this isn't just in construct. but if you post something along the lines of "My big background texture causes too much slowdown? How can I make a detailed background?" in help/tech support, someone would explain to you why it doesn't work, and how you can work around it. I fact, I believe I asked a very similar question when I was first starting out here.

As far as 5 shaders and it's contribution to slowdown, I don't know much about them, but I suspect the games that look great use more complex shaders, not necessarily more shaders. CC is limited to PS2.0, perhaps this isn't what you'd want, but I'd suspect most 2d titles, including AAA titles don't have multiple shaders running at all times.

> and you want CC to have an Idea Plugin that uses AI to think of ideas for you? ou just do not want to understand what I'm trying to say. You are just trying to catch me in the incompetence of some technical issues. And that's all.

perhaps, and perhaps my sarcasm was unfounded, but this is the conversation I've been following:

quote]

loot pursuit, yokai, my mantis demo, zotged/daiz's unnamed(?) title, minitroid, towerclimbquote]

I've seen it all. It did not impress me. Too corny.quote]

Harsh Qwary, some of those games are absolutely impressive!quote]

I don?t think so. It may be impressive for showing the Construct's features, but not for major indie projects.quote]

...I wonder what you expect of a 2D game?quote]

Innovative, intelligent and exciting gameplay./quote]I really don't know what you're trying to say. My point is that CC has the power to create any type of 2d title you want. You say not for major indie projects, but you've still yet to specify what it is that CC lacks that you need.

If you have some specific suggestion of what can make it easier, then suggest it, and maybe it can go in a future version.

I could write a list of changes that should be done. But I doubt that my suggestions are necessary to someone.

well, if you don't make the suggestion, it definitely won't make it's way into construct. so what was the point of this thread? I thought you were complaining that development isn't fast enough, but somehow it's changed into a convo that construct just isn't useful enough, and never can be? also, if the feature wouldn't be useful to anyone, why would it be included? if it's useful to you, and only you, that's where you have to use your own creating skills to make construct do it. I guess I may be feeding a parasprite here, but seriously, what are these major missing features you keep alluding to?

so did telling it to play the animation work?

also, make sure you're telling it to play the animation only once, if you do it in an event like 'always' that triggers every tick, your player will be stuck restarting and playing only the first frame over and over

edit: also, on a side note, try to name your topics more meaningfully. most people in the help forum need help :). if you specify the problem, like "animation stuck on first frame" or "several animation problems", people browsing the forum might recognize a problem they've solved before, and be more likely to click on your topic and respond

well as long as you have enough icons to reach the numbers you need

if you don't have em, and you still want to limit to 6, you can either put all of the icons in a family, let's say Red

then before each of the spawning actions, insert a condition like

System - Compare - Red.count < 6

----do all the spawning conditions and actions

and you can also clamp the values to keep them from reaching a high enough number that it spawns too many:

global('nuisancelevel')=clamp(global('nuisancelevel'),0,global('maxamount'))

also, if there's a pattern the numbers like there's 6 then 30, there would probably be a way to put all of the icon pictures as frames on the same sprite, and use one event, with correct conditions and expressions do do everything. this would require you to be fairly comfortable with math, and also that there be a useful pattern to the amounts each picture represents.

heavily commented

only 13 events

loading/saving

tile 'painting' leftclick-drag to draw tiles/rightclick-drag to erase

bare bones example

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/forumhelp/leveleditor.PNG" border="0">

<font color="blue">download here</font>

you still have yet to point out a 2d game that has some feature or graphics that construct can't handle.

> I would really like to know, what you use that huge textures for?or example, to create a very detailed background on one large texture.When creating huge levels that would be very helpful. tested again with 1000 4096x4096 sprites, again all moving and rotating, which you presumably wouldn't need for backgrounds, but, still running at well over 100fps.   

Just for reference, Unreal Engine 3 doesn't accept textures larger than 4096x4096.

There are many libraries and other 2D engines. Another thing is that there are people who cannot use them properly. You know, sometimes code optimization can do wonders. More sophisticated algorithms are used for this purpose. sing one insanely large texture for a background is the opposite of optimization. That's not the way people make games, that's not what gfx cards are made to do well. Large detailed backgrounds are made from smaller reusable parts. In the best looking games, these parts are cleverly constructed to be able to blend together in an organic looking way, and mask their repeated use.

CC's graphics and collision code is very fast - once again, it's the fastest 2d engine I've come across. When you go about spouting negative criticisms about things you don't understand, it only exposes your ignorance on the subject - in spite of your attempts to sounds like an expert to aid in your condescending tone.

> what you expect of a 2D game?nnovative, intelligent and exciting gameplay.quote]

it sounds like what you need is a 'make my game for me' button mean need more plugins, behaviors, objects, context menus, a more comfortable level editor, etc.nd you want CC to have an Idea Plugin that uses AI to think of ideas for you? CC gives you all the power you need to implement any ideas you think of. If they are truly innovative, then why would there be built in features that have them ready made for you?

learning how to use the software, asking questions, and making specific requests and suggestions will get you further than continually trying to prove your original point. You may have realized that most of the people in this thread who have attempted to help you understand that you've stumbled upon a powerful, easy to use, free product(and most of whom have work you've insulted), have been here a long time, and probably have alot of experience using it. Scirra also happens to be one of the friendliest, most helpful communities you'll find. If you need something simpler, look to microsoft's toy kodu, or maybe as someone else mentioned, rpg maker, or fighting game maker, also, LittleBigPlanet 2 for ps3 is particularly fun/easy, and surprisingly powerful. But if you want real power and the flexibility to make something truly unique, this is about as simple as it gets. If you have some specific suggestion of what can make it easier, then suggest it, and maybe it can go in a future version. Vague suggestions like "make it easier" or "make it better", are pointless.

here's an example.

type values in the editbox to see the chart updated in realtime

please ask specific questions if there's any part of it you don't understand:

stocklikechart

> ...let alone when the c2 plugin comes out, and people can create assets that load in html5 and cc exe's, opening the possibility to have an experience shared between the web and desktop.

Wow... for real? That sounds awesome!

yes, I meant spriter assets in particular, and an eventual level editor, but that's even further down the line. I think a good usage would be to allow people to create characters and play mini games with them online, and link them to the full paid exe game where they can download those same characters and use them in a full game

In regards to the op, more for the sake of any other new users that stumble upon this thread, since op's most recent post is beginning to sound a bit trollish in tone. Right, I said 2d games. I've never seen a 2d game with 5 shaders and thousands of 512x512 objects on the screen. Just for the sake of expirementing I just made a cap with 1000 objects randomly selected from a pool of 256 different 512x512 textures all rotating moving and detecting collisions, and all on screen at the same time, and it was still running at well over 100 fps.   Granted it didn't have shaders, but seeing as how you can only actually fit 8 or 9 on a very hi res screen, not to mention how quick you'll run out of vram doing frame by frame animation at that size(not because it's cc, but because of how vram and frame based animation works), I don't see what you'd need more power than that for, and we're talking 2d games here. That amount of power is beyond overkill, and well into ridiculous.   That means you have more than enough power to make something like castle crashers but where you could zoom in until individual characters are half a screen tall with no pixellation or blurriness. I've never seen anything even close to this in a 2d game.

And regardless of what you call corny, the aforementioned games taken as a whole all demonstrate that it's possible to use construct to create hi quality games, including games with features well outside cc's core feature set, using no scripting at all. It sounds like what you need is a 'make my game for me' button, and unfortunately for you, cc is probably the closest thing you're going to get to that, at least as far as anything that has any real power or flexibility.

Also, if you have any links to any of your own noncorny creations, im curious to see some of the awesome work you've done.