Current Status/Practical Uses of Construct2

Wrapped JavsScript will always suffer from lower performance -if- the wrapper tries to be a full browser instead of it being a performance optimised game engine. GPU bottleneck might be the cause in some cases, but in my experience a wrapped c2 game will always perform worse than one that was made in another game engine. There are no magic answers - all users of even the top game engines have to consider hardware limitations. It's just that c2 adds a layer of complexity (the browser) that is not optimised for games. Of course, here's the data - try out a simple bunnymark test:

c2 capx

godot engine bunnymark

get godot here

I tested on a desktop (i5 16Gb HD4000, NWjs for c2 export) and mobile (Nexus 5X, Phonegap for c2 export); when the FPS dropped to below 55 I considered the test complete. Results:

Godot desktop: 2200 bunnies

Godot android: 750 bunnies

c2 desktop: 1450 bunnies

c2 android: 420 bunnies

Irbis - I am sorry for your plight. I can only suggest you try cocoon.io and Electron as alternatives for mobile and desktop respectively. I've not tried Electron (I hear good things about it, though) but cocoon.io was impressive the last time I checked.

You're a funny fella aren't ya? Telling newt to stop trolling but then doing it yourself by posting "funny" images.

Anyway I'm not falling for your attempt of starting a "keyboard war" and refrain from doing any personal attacks.

Dude, this is not court. I don't need evidence. I am coming here with a problem. You want me to prove that ?my problem is not real? Really??? If there wouldn't be a problem - I wouldn't be here. I really have things to do you know. Sitting here and proving something I really don't need to prove is not a hobby of mine.

If you've read my previous statement, I have even clearly said that quote:

"I'm not saying that you're wrong but without any evidence to go with your claims, there is no way for Ashley or others to investigate this."

I'm just trying to figure out if you're actually requesting help or just complain for the sakes of complaining.

And here you come - not helping. Not even willing. So yes, please - ignore those posts if you have no good will to actually help anybody. Because sorry - I am not sending an NDA material to a stranger on a internet forum just because he wants it. You are just a user. Yet you act like wannabie moderator or admin. Why the heck you even came to this topic? O.o

Your response surely took your about 5-10 minutes, you could've sent something useful to Ashley (not publicly) during that time, since you're basing your post on some sort of "sample project".

You know what I expected to see? What I hoped for? Someone saying "Irbis, you are wrong. And here's why:"

And then providing me with a nice working tutorial for a mobile export that you know is working (you know something that isn't outdated or unavailable right now).

Or maybe a nice lifehack of how to make Desktop exports work on Linux or/and Mac. I don't know. By maybe some extra .bat file or some other magic I might not be aware of. That'll be help. That would be helpful. But no. You come here to complain about other people complaining (But looking for a fix).

Why should we do the work for you? You are the one complaining and should come up with valuable information to back up your claims.

After that information has been provided, I'm surely willing to help you out with this.

Am I really the only one seeing a problem here? Are you perhaps related to Newt or maybe its an Alt Account of his?

There is a very nasty group on this forum that always attacks but never really helps. A mini-4chan. Guess I have to report your post too and add another name to the blocklist.

Creative but I'm someone that can actually understands the reasoning behind, providing evidence to work with.

By the way, this is a public forum so expect to receive responses that are probably against your narrative or whatever you're trying to accomplish with this.

EDIT: Just do what Colludium did above and we're all willing to help you out.

Wrapped JavsScript will always suffer from lower performance -if- the wrapper tries to be a full browser instead of it being a performance optimised game engine. GPU bottleneck might be the cause in some cases, but in my experience a wrapped c2 game will always perform worse than one that was made in another game engine. There are no magic answers - all users of even the top game engines have to consider hardware limitations. It's just that c2 adds a layer of complexity (the browser) that is not optimised for games. Of course, here's the data - try out a simple bunnymark test:

c2 capx

godot engine bunnymark

get godot here

I tested on a desktop (i5 16Gb HD4000, NWjs for c2 export) and mobile (Nexus 5X, Phonegap for c2 export); when the FPS dropped to below 55 I considered the test complete. Results:

Godot desktop: 2200 bunnies

Godot android: 750 bunnies

c2 desktop: 1450 bunnies

c2 android: 420 bunnies

Irbis - I am sorry for your plight. I can only suggest you try cocoon.io and Electron as alternatives for mobile and desktop respectively. I've not tried Electron (I hear good things about it, though) but cocoon.io was impressive the last time I checked.

Bloody hell! This is both amazing and sad )

The problem is - I am not a true programmer and sadly - I probably will never be so I am kind a stuck with Construct 2 or another "visual programming" framework.

Do you happen to know a tool or a tutorial ("for idiots" version please ) that would convert HTML5/C2 projects to mobiles and/or desktops with all its goodies? On mobiles Ads and IAPs are must-have. On desktop - Steam API.

EDIT:

Also, this is freaking awesome.

And single best feature of this forums

Ads and IAPs are beyond me for c2 (and Godot...!). I only learned how to program (I am still an amateur!) by making plugins for c2 - all of the concepts are translatable to other engines, and I only chose Godot over Unity because it's way easier to learn because the interface is simpler.

I can only recommend you do a forum search for cocoon.io advice - it's almost the same as phonegap (zip up your export and import it into cocoon) but it's been a good while since I experimented there. If your games don't require moving action scenes then phonegap will suffice for mobile for sure.

A cross platform alternative for NWjs can only be Electron (which I have never used and it looks complicated for a non-coder) - so you might be better off waiting for a stable NWjs branch (or use different versions for different platforms?).

Irbis,

I'm sorry to hear about the rough time you are having. I do HTML5 work pretty much exclusively now, and the last time I packaged stuff up was with Cocoon.js two years ago. I have two possible suggestions:

1. Have you tried creating a blank xcode project, dropping in a WKWebView or UIWebView, then loading the game as a resource in the webview? WKWebView should give you close to the same performance as iOS Safari.

2. If you can wait for Scirra, they have promised to get the mobile Build Service working for C2 projects as well. I'm looking forward to trying this with my most recent creation.

Wrapped JavsScript will always suffer from lower performance -if- the wrapper tries to be a full browser instead of it being a performance optimised game engine. GPU bottleneck might be the cause in some cases, but in my experience a wrapped c2 game will always perform worse than one that was made in another game engine. There are no magic answers - all users of even the top game engines have to consider hardware limitations. It's just that c2 adds a layer of complexity (the browser) that is not optimised for games. Of course, here's the data - try out a simple bunnymark test:

c2 capx

godot engine bunnymark

get godot here

I tested on a desktop (i5 16Gb HD4000, NWjs for c2 export) and mobile (Nexus 5X, Phonegap for c2 export); when the FPS dropped to below 55 I considered the test complete. Results:

Godot desktop: 2200 bunnies

Godot android: 750 bunnies

c2 desktop: 1450 bunnies

c2 android: 420 bunnies

Thanks for providing something useful in here. Did Ashley already take a look at this one Colludium?

Here are my results:

Godot desktop: ~2435 bunnies

Godot android: -

C2 desktop: ~1500 bunnies

C2 android: -

Desktop: AMD FX series 3.6ghz, nvidia GTX 670 (4gb vram), latest NW.js release

Ads and IAPs are beyond me for c2 (and Godot...!). I only learned how to program (I am still an amateur!) by making plugins for c2 - all of the concepts are translatable to other engines, and I only chose Godot over Unity because it's way easier to learn because the interface is simpler.

I can only recommend you do a forum search for cocoon.io advice - it's almost the same as phonegap (zip up your export and import it into cocoon) but it's been a good while since I experimented there. If your games don't require moving action scenes then phonegap will suffice for mobile for sure.

A cross platform alternative for NWjs can only be Electron (which I have never used and it looks complicated for a non-coder) - so you might be better off waiting for a stable NWjs branch (or use different versions for different platforms?).

Ahh bummer If I could just time travel and pay that money on native programing... After so many years - even a dumb monkey like me would be able to get the job done. About cocoon - I heard its kind "unsupported" with new C2. MEaning I would have to revert back to some old builds for it to work. and something more but I've forgoten what... shinkan ? Can you correct me here?

Irbis,

I'm sorry to hear about the rough time you are having. I do HTML5 work pretty much exclusively now, and the last time I packaged stuff up was with Cocoon.js two years ago. I have two possible suggestions:

1. Have you tried creating a blank xcode project, dropping in a WKWebView or UIWebView, then loading the game as a resource in the webview? WKWebView should give you close to the same performance as iOS Safari.

2. If you can wait for Scirra, they have promised to get the mobile Build Service working for C2 projects as well. I'm looking forward to trying this with my most recent creation.

Thx for the kind words buddy (one of the first in this thread ).

As of point 1 - sadly I have no idea what those things are. You mean via Intel XDK?

point 2 - if Scirra could estimate the time then maybe yeah. But their "We're working on it!" means anything between a month and a year. And when I maybe (just MAYBE) would be able to stretch the line for one month - I cannot do this for a whole year. And there's also no promises from their side that it'll be working as intended.

As I've said - PhoneGap sounds very nice and project loading is literally instant (when compared to Intel XDK at least) but I have no idea how to setup the settings to fit my game, beside the defaults. Would you be an user of PhoneGap by any chance?

Thx for the kind words buddy (one of the first in this thread ).

As of point 1 - sadly I have no idea what those things are. You mean via Intel XDK?

point 2 - if Scirra could estimate the time then maybe yeah. But their "We're working on it!" means anything between a month and a year. And when I maybe (just MAYBE) would be able to stretch the line for one month - I cannot do this for a whole year. And there's also no promises from their side that it'll be working as intended.

As I've said - PhoneGap sounds very nice and project loading is literally instant (when compared to Intel XDK at least) but I have no idea how to setup the settings to fit my game, beside the defaults. Would you be an user of PhoneGap by any chance?

I haven't used phonegap myself. A few years back it was pretty primitive and ran without webGL, but with the advent of the WKWebView for iOS, it is now hardware-accelerated and a great option. I would definitely give it and Cocoon a shot. Back in the day, Cocoon worked much better than XDK for me.

I was a native iOS programmer before switching to C2. xcode is the tool you would use if you wanted to do things natively on iOS/mac os. It is incredibly powerful, but not very user-friendly. I like C2 because I can get everything done in much less time.

>

>

> Thx for the kind words buddy (one of the first in this thread ).

> As of point 1 - sadly I have no idea what those things are. You mean via Intel XDK?

> point 2 - if Scirra could estimate the time then maybe yeah. But their "We're working on it!" means anything between a month and a year. And when I maybe (just MAYBE) would be able to stretch the line for one month - I cannot do this for a whole year. And there's also no promises from their side that it'll be working as intended.

> As I've said - PhoneGap sounds very nice and project loading is literally instant (when compared to Intel XDK at least) but I have no idea how to setup the settings to fit my game, beside the defaults. Would you be an user of PhoneGap by any chance?

>

I haven't used phonegap myself. A few years back it was pretty primitive and ran without webGL, but with the advent of the WKWebView for iOS, it is now hardware-accelerated and a great option. I would definitely give it and Cocoon a shot. Back in the day, Cocoon worked much better than XDK for me.

I was a native iOS programmer before switching to C2. xcode is the tool you would use if you wanted to do things natively on iOS/mac os. It is incredibly powerful, but not very user-friendly. I like C2 because I can get everything done in much less time.

Well I've heard xmnboy saying that current PhoneGap runs on the same steam as XDK used to. The problem is interface and lack of documentation for non-programmers. For the love of god - I can't figure it out

For desktops - I have to check that thing Colludium mentioned - Electron. Nw.js is just too unreliable

For desktops - I have to check that thing Colludium mentioned - Electron. Nw.js is just too unreliable

Might want to check out Armaldio's recent work with bringing Electron support into C2: https://c2electron.github.io/guide/

Don't ask me for specifics though (I tested it when it came out about a year ago), feel free to tag him or ask him questions in our Discord.

Have you looked at Phonegap Build service?

https://build.phonegap.com

It is paid, but should be pretty painless to use.

Have you looked at Phonegap Build service?

https://build.phonegap.com

It is paid, but should be pretty painless to use.

Oh that's the thing. I tried it yesterday. And at first - it was a blessing!

First you just export your game and pack it all into a zip with 0% compression. Upload up to PhoneGap, wait 30sec and V'la! It'll give you an apk right away! <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> Like a charm! Which is a god send if you ever used Intel XDK. The problem popped up later... I tried renaming my APK. Upon upload it reverted back to default one and I couldn't setup any plugins or permisions (as you would with XDK).

There is a tab "Plugins" but it just tells you that you have none (lol) and there's no UI to add new. Also, upon building an APK - you cannot change the description/name. You have to delete it and build again. But it gives you that defaults >.<

Sadly - googling for past 24h left me with no answears of how to configurate the whole thing. All I could find is that I have to change some bits of the APK manualy to fit my needs. The problem - if I would be smart enough to do this sort of things - I don't think I would need to use C2 at all lol.

So I am hoping for some miracle maker guy who would aid me on it =(

I wish XDK and PhoneGap would hook up and have a baby lol.

XDK customization power + PhoneGap user-friendliness = Win

Irbis no idea bro.

I used cocoon.io once or twice before they came up with their idiotic payment plan... But it was shit, well for me anyways. Long hours of waiting for their system to build my app (imagine like 2-7 hours between uploading a zip file and downloading apk file), and even then stuff never worked properly. I've always had better results and literally no problems with XDK, all plugins always worked, maximum waiting time was less than 5 minutes - for me it was actually lot faster to upload each new game test version to XDK than using dumb "Preview on LAN" which never show true game stats on mobiles... Anyways. XDK is no more from what I heard/read so all you have now is manual process of converting html5 to apk or use Phonegap. Don't know if they are other means and even don't care anymore. Like I wrote in some other post , They abandoned C2 just like they abandoned CC. difference was that we actually paid for stuff in C2 that never came, and from what i can see C3 is no different, so good luck with your stuff mate!

I wouldn't call all those years with Construct wasted just yet. Construct was started as a free open source clone of Clickteam products and their newest one in development looks like its returning the favour (minus the HTML5-only export).

Might be a very viable alternative for you.

Ah. I get it. The last time I packaged for mobile I used XDK for Android because it seemed to work more consistently. For iOS I used Cocoon.

Maybe the best thing to do is to create a separate thread (or three) under the "How do I" section. I would try to tackle the three export problems (iOS, android, and Windows desktop) specifically.

The nuclear option is to create your own web app wrapper with a webview using an Android IDE like Netbeans and the iOS IDE (xcode). Both of these are doable within a month, but it will be a lot of late nights, and you might be better off convincing a programmer friend to do it for you. I believe this is what Ashley ended up doing a few years back with iOS. However, I think you could probably get where you need to go with one of the prebuilt solutions. If not PhoneGap Build, then raw Cordova.