Gamesalad for windows...

mystic 2628

(Possible rant incoming)

I simply want to know why GameSalad for windows is so downgraded? There's a ton of times, where I look at a Mac user and say "God, this looks smooth and intuitive." Then I go back to GS for windows and say "Not like this..."

So far, GS for windows has held me back in my development. From writing out a ton of tables to dictate where random islands will spawn for hours, then realising that it won't work because I can't use Indexes like the man on Mac could and leaving my game completely void of any type of random generation because I don't have an index, to things like being afraid of going onto any actor that has more than five rules because accessing the actor backstage causes terrible lag that makes me cringe when I try to scroll through his rules.

It just feels like the whole engine is really slow and clumsy. Why can't we have the nice UI that Mac users have?

mystic 2628

Also, while I'm here, I might as well tell you guys the kind of things that annoy me.

1. If you open the expression editor, it appears about half the screen away from where you clicked the drop down to open it, meaning that it usually can be seen in the background of the taskbar, where you can see it, but can't interact with it. I always have to undock backstage and move that backstage window to the top of my screen to access the expression editor properly.

2. In the expression editor, after creating a lot of attributes, any new attribute you create won't appear in the editor unless you create another, completely useless, attribute after it. For example, if I have a Boolean called game.playerAlive and I try to use it in the editor, I can't see it unless I create another Boolean after it that serves no purpose.

3. The big lag spikes every time I switch scene or actor.

4. When you are trying to move an actor from one layer to another, but his current layer is too full of actors to see the next layer in the layer menu, you can't drag him down to the next layer, because the layers menu doesn't scroll down when you drag an actor to the bottom of it. Although you can right click on an actor to send them down or up a layer, this gets really annoying when your actor is spawned in during the game rather than before you start it.

That's pretty much all I can think of for now. Sorry if this sounds like I'm pissed, but GS for windows is gradually killing my will to develop a game.

jigglybean

maybe the fact its called beta is a bit of a give-a-way....

mystic 2628

I didn't know this was in beta...

CodeMonster

Yh I to use the PC gamesalad and it's terrible lol. I know it's in beta but it makes it really hard to work on my game. It crashes all the time and lags a lot! Where on the mac my project is smooth and clean. Shame

mystic 2628

What annoys me most is that I've worked for about 2 hours writing out tables to dictate random spawn points for islands, and then realised that it won't work without an index attribute. 2 hours work wasted because of something so small as not being able to use an attribute with no negative values.

CodeMonster

If you copy off a tutorial with a person using an index then it's not going to work if you replace it with an integer. You need to think and use your imagination and work around things. I have done this and it's works like a charm.

An integer can be used as an idex like a charm if you use your imagination and think outside the box.

colander

I never use index in mac creator for my tables and they work fine.

CaptFinn

Gamesalad was about to look into this. Then they wiped the sweat from their forehead. and said............ "oh ok... we're good....... someone has a "work around"......... Back to researching new ad services that will fail"

mystic 2628

If you copy off a tutorial with a person using an index then it's not going to work if you replace it with an integer. You need to think and use your imagination and work around things. I have done this and it's works like a charm.

An integer can be used as an idex like a charm if you use your imagination and think outside the box.

Unfortunatly, It's not like that with these tables. When you remove a row, you get three options. To remove it from the beginning, the end or the index. There's no option for an to remove a row at an integer, only an index. I've already tried doing it with an integer, but it needs an index to work.

Also, I would try to find a work around for this, but I'm not prepared to go trying things that I have no idea how to use for hours, while dealing with the lag scrolling through a backstage tab that can't seem to scroll using the scrollwheel for some reason.

Hopscotch

Unfortunatly, It's not like that with these tables. When you remove a row, you get three options. To remove it from the beginning, the end or the index. There's no option for an to remove a row at an integer, only an index. I've already tried doing it with an integer, but it needs an index to work.

"Index" in this context refers the Table Row, not the type of Attribute. As @CodeMonster and @colander said, use an Integer Attribute. I also never use the Index type.

met

Sadly i have experienced similar issues such as you, mystic. I use Gamesalad on Windows 7 and it runs terribly, backstage editor lags really hard even after a few expressions, and the performance in the editor feels jerky in general.
It´s really annoying because me and a friend, who has a mac, want to create a game together, but at the moment it´s really frustrating to even learn this Programm because of the poor performance
At least now i know i´m not the only one having these issues on windows.

GSGURU

I use GameSalad on Windows7 and it does seem a bit different than Mac. My dad has a two Macs, one for his work, and one just as his. I asked if I could use his Mac because it seems everyone is using it and it looks simpler and then I could follow Mac users easier. He said GameSalad on Windows7 is fine. But WIndows7 GameSalad never lags out or crashes or messes up.

RedRobo

Sorry but I'm going to go against the grain here...
I actually would prefer to use the Windows version but the only reason I don't is because of the missing functionality. I prefer the layout and absolutely love the fact that I can detach the backstage window to a second monitor...something not possible on Mac version.