New Developer..."Main" Loop & Some Other Questions?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi,

This is my very first post in the Corona SDK forums!

I’ve never used Corona SDK or Lua before but have experience with C++, JavaScript, & GameMaker:Studio.

I have everything setup on my Windows 10 development computer and bought the Sublime Text 3.

Have some questions:

(1) Is there a “main” loop in the Lua code I am going to write?

(similar to C++)

(2) I plan on targeting both Android & iOS devices but don’t have a Mac OS computer or iOS device…

is:  www.macincloud.com  all I need to support iOS devices (testing and building)?

(3) Any plans to support HTML5 as an export platform in the near future?

(4) Any plans on Linux support(Ubuntu) for the Corona Simulator?  Sublime Text 3 DOES run natively on Ubuntu…

Running Linux Mint 18 MATE 64Bit (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) with a Win 10 Pro 64Bit VMware virtual machine…

Thanks!

JeZxLee

16BitSoft Inc.

Video game Design Studio

www.16BitSoft.com

#2

Hi JeZxLee and welcome to the Corona Labs community forums.

  1. Corona SDK is an event driven system. There is no “main loop”. Instead you setup handlers to process events that happen. Take a button for instance, you don’t need to poll for input to see if the button was pressed, instead you will get an event triggered that will call a function you designated to handle that event. “game loops” are setup using events. There is a special event called “enterFrame” that is part of the Corona Runtime object that will trigger X times per second (30 or 60 depending on your configuration). This can be used to loop over your enemies and have them do things and many people do this. But if you’re using physics, a lot of the game can be done without needing a “loop” since detecting collisions generates actionable events. Using transitions or physics to move things happens for you

  2. Many people successfully use macincloud.com. Others will pick up a Mac Mini to do their iOS builds on.

  3. HTML5 support has been put on the back burner. We will not be getting to it any time soon.

  4. Linux on the other hand is being evaluated as a possible developer platform. We doubt we would have Linux as a target output. No ETA on it, but we are investigating it.

Rob

#3

Hi,

Ok, thank you for answering my initial questions…

(Ubuntu Linux support for the Corona Simulator would be really nice, but will use Windows in a VM for now)

JeZxLee

#4

But you are on the main page is written what will happen in the near future ?

#5

Can you provide the URL for that?

Thanks

Rob

#6

Hi,

I think they got confused with Corona SDK’s main competitor:

http://giderosmobile.com

We hope HTML5 export comes eventually!

JeZxLee

#7

Hi JeZxLee and welcome to the Corona Labs community forums.

  1. Corona SDK is an event driven system. There is no “main loop”. Instead you setup handlers to process events that happen. Take a button for instance, you don’t need to poll for input to see if the button was pressed, instead you will get an event triggered that will call a function you designated to handle that event. “game loops” are setup using events. There is a special event called “enterFrame” that is part of the Corona Runtime object that will trigger X times per second (30 or 60 depending on your configuration). This can be used to loop over your enemies and have them do things and many people do this. But if you’re using physics, a lot of the game can be done without needing a “loop” since detecting collisions generates actionable events. Using transitions or physics to move things happens for you

  2. Many people successfully use macincloud.com. Others will pick up a Mac Mini to do their iOS builds on.

  3. HTML5 support has been put on the back burner. We will not be getting to it any time soon.

  4. Linux on the other hand is being evaluated as a possible developer platform. We doubt we would have Linux as a target output. No ETA on it, but we are investigating it.

Rob

#8

Hi,

Ok, thank you for answering my initial questions…

(Ubuntu Linux support for the Corona Simulator would be really nice, but will use Windows in a VM for now)

JeZxLee

#9

But you are on the main page is written what will happen in the near future ?

#10

Can you provide the URL for that?

Thanks

Rob

#11

Hi,

I think they got confused with Corona SDK’s main competitor:

http://giderosmobile.com

We hope HTML5 export comes eventually!

JeZxLee