Graphics 2.0, Public Builds, and My Expectations

General (non-technical) Off-Topic
#1

I don’t want this to sound pushy or selfish in any way, so… Just so you know. I would, however, like a staff comment on this, if it’s not too much to ask :slight_smile:

I love Corona. The engine is great, the API is great, the community is great - everything’s great. I like the way Corona does the free version, and above all, I LOVE the ease of use.

However.

There are a number of things I’ll need from Corona in order for me to stay. I say this because it appears Graphics 2.0 is only going to be available to subscribers. That’s fine - the Corona team has got to make money somehow, and they’ve done a great thing with giving much of the engine away free. But there are some requirements that I’ll need in non-subscriber version (not being in the position to pay $350 per year for a subscription) that will be the basic upgrades. Here they are:

Corner positioning of images

Get pixel color

Basic shaders (blur, etc.)

Polygons

These are some things that I feel are required if Corona still wants free-version subscribers (who might someday become pro users) - like me. If these aren’t added, what does Corona have over LÖVE? It’s completely free, opensource, and has most of these (if not all, I’ve not looked into LÖVE much) already. Sure, there are some usability issues, but those can easily be remedied with a wrapper library. Then, if you’ve got a good wrapper, you get a game engine (with no pro-tier vs. free-tier drawbacks) with the same usability as Corona and the same functionality - that’s also completely free and open-source.

Right ho, just thought I’d put my two cents in.

  • Caleb :slight_smile:
#2

Hi Caleb.  Where you get the impression that Graphics 2.0 will be a Pro feature only.  Walter has stated many times that last public build 1202 is the last one with the old graphics engine.  The next public build will be with the Graphics 2.0 engine. The beta is only open to Pro and Enterprise subscribers because they are daily builds, not a public build.  

Graphics 2.0 support anchors instead of reference points.  This will be a big change for people to get used to.  In G1.0, some display objects, if you passed an X, Y parameter in, like display.newRect(), it would draw with X, Y being Top, Left. (well left, top), but upon return, if you looked at .x and .y they would be relative to the center of the object.  Some things, like display.newCircle were centered in the X, Y point and of course for display.newImageRect() you don’t pass in an X, Y at all and had to explicitly state the .x and .y to position it.

With G2.0, this happens using anchor points.  All passed in X, Y’s are now the center of the object and when it’s done, the X, Y will be the center too.  Unlike G1.0 which used preference points to position things at the corners, edges, or center, anchors can position anywhere in the bounding box.  0, 0 would anchor it to the top left, 1, 1 to the bottom right, 0.5, 0.5 to the center or anywhere in between.   Objects should stay anchored when they are done.  I’m still learning all of this, so I need to make sure on the last one.

Basic shaders, well all shaders are part of the engine and we fully support polygons in G2.0.  This leaves getting the pixel color and just about every Corona subscriber wants that and Walter and team are very very aware of that desire.  If they can produce that feature they will, I just don’t know yet.

#3

*faint with joy*

Thanks for answering!

I must have misunderstood. A blog post a few months ago mentioned the new graphics engine abilities, then concluded with:

“These features will come standard with Pro developers. What about Starter? Well, unfortunately, we can’t make these free.”

I’m not much of a blog follower, but in the posts I read, they were mostly about the features of the graphics engine - not who they’d be shipping it to. Then, in the recent 12.202 public build:

“The next public release is going to be based off this new engine”

“It means we’ll be replacing the 1.0 graphics engine with our cutting-edge 2.0 graphics engine so subscribers can start doing some amazing things.”

Then, a final comment that didn’t get answered:
 

“To clarify, is the next public starter including graphics 2?”

Which kind of left me hanging on edge… Either way, though, I’m glad it was a misunderstanding :slight_smile:

Anyway… the graphics engine is just about everything I needed that wasn’t already supported :slight_smile:

So just to catch up…

  1. When someone speaks of a public release, that means “available to Starter and Pro”?

  2. “Subscribers” include Starter users?

  • C
#4

I can see where that blog post would be confusing, but I’m pretty sure they were talking about some of the plugins, but I will get a 100% clarification on this.

#5

The 2.0 features that you’ll get for free in Starter will be the corresponding equivalents to what you have in the 1.0 engine today. 

Most of the *new* Graphics 2.0 features will require a Pro subscription (or higher) for now, but we’ll evaluate moving things down over time.

#6

Hi Caleb.  Where you get the impression that Graphics 2.0 will be a Pro feature only.  Walter has stated many times that last public build 1202 is the last one with the old graphics engine.  The next public build will be with the Graphics 2.0 engine. The beta is only open to Pro and Enterprise subscribers because they are daily builds, not a public build.  

Graphics 2.0 support anchors instead of reference points.  This will be a big change for people to get used to.  In G1.0, some display objects, if you passed an X, Y parameter in, like display.newRect(), it would draw with X, Y being Top, Left. (well left, top), but upon return, if you looked at .x and .y they would be relative to the center of the object.  Some things, like display.newCircle were centered in the X, Y point and of course for display.newImageRect() you don’t pass in an X, Y at all and had to explicitly state the .x and .y to position it.

With G2.0, this happens using anchor points.  All passed in X, Y’s are now the center of the object and when it’s done, the X, Y will be the center too.  Unlike G1.0 which used preference points to position things at the corners, edges, or center, anchors can position anywhere in the bounding box.  0, 0 would anchor it to the top left, 1, 1 to the bottom right, 0.5, 0.5 to the center or anywhere in between.   Objects should stay anchored when they are done.  I’m still learning all of this, so I need to make sure on the last one.

Basic shaders, well all shaders are part of the engine and we fully support polygons in G2.0.  This leaves getting the pixel color and just about every Corona subscriber wants that and Walter and team are very very aware of that desire.  If they can produce that feature they will, I just don’t know yet.

#7

*faint with joy*

Thanks for answering!

I must have misunderstood. A blog post a few months ago mentioned the new graphics engine abilities, then concluded with:

“These features will come standard with Pro developers. What about Starter? Well, unfortunately, we can’t make these free.”

I’m not much of a blog follower, but in the posts I read, they were mostly about the features of the graphics engine - not who they’d be shipping it to. Then, in the recent 12.202 public build:

“The next public release is going to be based off this new engine”

“It means we’ll be replacing the 1.0 graphics engine with our cutting-edge 2.0 graphics engine so subscribers can start doing some amazing things.”

Then, a final comment that didn’t get answered:
 

“To clarify, is the next public starter including graphics 2?”

Which kind of left me hanging on edge… Either way, though, I’m glad it was a misunderstanding :slight_smile:

Anyway… the graphics engine is just about everything I needed that wasn’t already supported :slight_smile:

So just to catch up…

  1. When someone speaks of a public release, that means “available to Starter and Pro”?

  2. “Subscribers” include Starter users?

  • C
#8

I can see where that blog post would be confusing, but I’m pretty sure they were talking about some of the plugins, but I will get a 100% clarification on this.

#9

The 2.0 features that you’ll get for free in Starter will be the corresponding equivalents to what you have in the 1.0 engine today. 

Most of the *new* Graphics 2.0 features will require a Pro subscription (or higher) for now, but we’ll evaluate moving things down over time.