My actors aren't showing up.

Ninjarate

I'm making a game, and I made an actor as an arrow, but it wouldn't show up. I made a new actor with a different arrow image, but it wouldn't show up either. They show up in the area where you control what happens, but when I hit the button to play and test the game, the arrows aren't there. What should I do?

gingagaming

Are you dragging the actor on to the scene?

Either upload a screen shot or type the exact steps you are taking.

Ninjarate

Ok, I set gravity so the arrows would fall to the left. then, I made an actor with an arrow as its image. I dragged it into the scene in the center-right side, and hit the button to test the level. The arrow didn't show up, so I tried again. After that didn't work, I made a new actor with a different arrow image to represent it. That didn't show up either. Does this help?

gingagaming

How are you loading your image into your actor? From the image tab inside the project or from another destination?

Ninjarate

@gingagaming When I uploaded the image I clicked the actor in the actors tab and dragged in an image from my downloads libraray. This is how I upload images for all of my actors, and they usually show up.

gingagaming

That's your issue. You should import your image into your project first (just drag your image from your destination and drop it in the images window/tab next to the behaviours tab. Then drag the same image out of this tab in to your project.

Ninjarate

@gingagaming I tried that too, but it didn't work either. I put the picture in the media tab, then put it as an actor from there, then it didn't work. Next I dragged into the scene directly from the media tab, but it still didn't show up.

gingagaming

I've just noticed you are using the PC version which I'm not familiar with. Can anybody else out here help? @jigglybean‌

jigglybean

Hey Ninjarate - can you post a screen shot of your problem? I've never encountered this in GS before.

Firstly, check to make sure that your image is .PNG ONLY - anything else, GS won't like it and it will create issues. Try saving your image as a .png but also deleting the old image from your images file in GS.

Then simply drag the actor in to the media folder, or create a blank actor, drag the arrow on to it, then rename it to what you need. Then, drag the arrow just on to your scene to see if you can actually see it in the viewer

Can you explain if your arrow is for movement or just direction? If you are placing your arrow at the corner somewhere, it could be a resolution problem on the viewer.

Ninjarate

The image is a PNG file. And here are the screenshots-

Here the arrow is clearly in the scene:

And here it's gone:

jamie_c

Have you seen this thread?

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/59247/windows-creator-first-stop-if-you-experience-unexpected-behaviours

Ninjarate

Ok I tried that, but I have windows 8, and there is no "thousands separator" option in my region options.

jigglybean

theres no screenshots attached. Did you follow what I said about creating a new actor and dropping it on there? Does the arrow only vanish in Viewer mode or actually on the scene?

Ninjarate

1) I'm not sure why the screenshots aren't there, I attached them.
2) Yes, several times I have created new actors with new images and none of them show
up.
3) The arrows appear fine when I am editing the scene and in backstage, but when I hit the green play button and test out the level, they aren't there. When I go back to editing however, the actor is in it's place again.

jigglybean

You may want to check your camera area. So if you have changed the size of your scene - say 1024x1024, you will need to set the camera area under SCENE - CAMERA - SIZE - and set the width and height to match the screen size. You can shave off a few pixels so you can go 1000x1000 for example

Or this is a resolution thing. You will need to set the location using a change attribute or constraint, not sure which is easier.

Example - self.position X = location of X for arrow

• and a second one for self.position Y

Ninjarate

Ok, I just constrained it's Y coordinate (It needs to move side to side, so I didn't constrain it's X) and it still doesn't show up when I test the game. Also, whenever I try to change the camera size, it goes back to the original settings when I hit enter.

jigglybean

You have to drag the camera to the bottom left corner, then enter the new size settings. its a bug in windows version and an annoying one. But this sounds more like the camera is causing your arrows not to appear.

Just to be sure, drag your arrows to the dead centre of your game then view - to see if they at least appear.

Ive made a quick video showing you

Ninjarate

I resized my cameras, game, and scenes to be larger, then dragged the arrow onto the very center of the scene. When I tested it, the graphics were sorta better because of the resolution, but the arrow was still nowhere to be found. Thanks for taking the time to make that video, by the way.

jigglybean

So the arrow is still missing? Ok, the only other thing I can think of are the layers

Is your arrow behind your background images? Create a new layer and call it HUD, then drag your arrow(s) in to this layer. Make sure on the scene, your layer is ABOVE your background.

If you can post a screenshot and use tiny url or something, it would help, because it really could be anything. Post a screenshot of the arrow, the rules etc - as much info as possible. Otherwise, you will end up going around in circles

Ninjarate

Here were the screen shots:

jigglybean

Its not difficult to copy and paste a link. Stop embedding the screenshot. Just use tinypic (google it) and paste the URL

www.tinypic.com/laslslskdsderereefeeIMAGE.png

as an example. But have you tried what I said above?

Ninjarate

I tried the new layer HUD.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=ruu32w&s=8#.U5hmTvldWSo

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2l8ydtd&s=8#.U5hm0vldWSo

jigglybean

Can you zip up the game files and upload to google drive? I can down load tonight and have a look. It all seems very odd.