Construct has been in development for many years. Over time new features are occasionally introduced that supersede older features and essentially make them redundant. Sometimes in this case the older features are phased out and ultimately removed from Construct. However in some cases these features are left in Construct for backwards compatibility reasons. For example the newer feature may not have exactly the same capabilities as the older feature and so cannot fully replace it in every possible usage scenario. Alternatively the older feature may have been around for such a long time that removing it would require updating vast amounts of documentation, including printed books, third-party tutorials, lesson plans used in educational institutions, and so on, which is on the whole infeasible and so it's better to leave the older feature in.
Where older superseded features are left in, it's perfectly acceptable for existing projects, guides and so on to keep using them. However new projects should avoid using them in favor of the newer feature that supersedes them. Further, usually the older feature will not be supported to the same extent as the newer feature, such as fixing possible issues or adding new requested features, as we would instead recommend using the feature that supersedes it. In order to help Construct users know which features to prefer and avoid, this guide lists the features we consider superseded.
Pin behavior
The Pin behavior was widely used for many years, but it is almost completely superseded by the Hierarchies feature. The 'Add child' hierarchy action is similar to pinning the child on to the parent, but works more reliably when chains of objects are connected. Hierarchies can also be set up in the Layout View.
Fade behavior
The Fade behavior was widely used for many years, but is superseded by the Tween behavior. The Fade behavior essentially runs a pre-defined series of opacity tweens, which is now better done in a more general way with the Tween behavior.
NW.js file pickers
The NW.js plugin has features that allow reading and writing files and folders from pickers. This aspect of file system access has been superseded by the File System plugin which can work in browsers and other platforms like Windows WebView2, so should be preferred over the NW.js plugin features where possible. However the permissions model and use of file paths in the NW.js plugin differs from the permissions model and paths used by the File System plugin, and so the older NW.js plugin features are left in mainly for backwards compatibility.
Greenworks
Although not built-in to Construct, the Greenworks plugin for Steam support has now been superseded by the Steamworks for WebView2 plugin. Note however that Steamworks for WebView2 currently only supports Windows, and so the older Greenworks plugin is the only option for Steam integration on macOS and Linux.
Project settings
Similarly some project settings are provided solely for backwards compatibility reasons and should not be used in any new projects. These settings are in the Compatibility settings group in Project Properties.
Cordova iOS/Android scheme
Modern projects should run on the app: or https: scheme, which is the default for new projects. Older projects may still use the file: scheme which is slower and has limited features, and should be considered deprecated.
Export file structure
Historically Construct exported projects with all project files in the root folder and with lowercased filenames, referred to as flat mode. Construct was subsequently updated to preserve the folder structure and filename case of project files, referred to as folders mode. However this change could break some existing projects, as it changes where some project files are found, such as when requesting project files by URL.
Folders mode is the default for new projects, and supersedes flat mode which should be considered deprecated. Some old projects may be left using flat mode for backwards compatibility. These can be updated to folders mode, but then the project may need updating in various places to ensure it continues to work as before, such as to refer to project files by an updated URL including the full folder path.