New this build: runtime improvements, a smaller download due to unbundling node-webkit support to a separate installer, several bug fixes, and more!

Separate project data file

Construct 2 has always bundled everything in to a single « c2runtime.js » file: all the engine code, as well as all the project data. This works well for small and medium sized projects, but has started to cause problems with some large scale projects. The c2runtime.js file can end up megabytes in size, and all of that has to be parsed and executed by a full blown Javascript engine. This can use lots of memory and slow down startup times.

To resolve this, a fairly significant runtime change has been made: the project data is now split out in to a separate « data.js » file, and is now in a strict JSON format. For large projects this can significantly reduce the size of c2runtime.js. The data.js file is requested separately and parsed as JSON, which is a simple data-only format and much more efficient to read. This should help large projects to load faster and use less memory.

This is a pretty fundamental change, so it could have introduced bugs or broken compatibility with some older or quirky platforms. Please test it carefully on a range of devices and let us know if you run in to any problems.

Please note unfortunately this change has broken compatibility with the Scirra Arcade. The Arcade has long been in need of an update and we are planning to release a new version of it soon. When the new version is released Construct 2 will be updated to enable the Scirra Arcade exporter again, but unfortunately until then new submissions cannot be made from any version other than r168.2.

Node-webkit unbundled

Node-webkit is adding support for 64-bit OS X apps (now also supported in this beta), and 64-bit Windows support is coming soon as well. We want to support all the platforms node-webkit does, but these latest additions would bloat the installer even more and end up making node-webkit take the vast majority of the

download size. It also ends up using loads of our server’s bandwidth and makes everyone have to re-download all the node-webkit platforms every release, even if you don’t use them or they haven’t changed!

To solve this node-webkit has been removed from the Construct 2 installer, reducing the download to about half the size. Instead there’s now a separate installer for node-webkit support. It’s free and you only need to install it once, then any version of Construct 2 from r187+ will be able to use it. It also means that node-webkit can be updated separately from C2, allowing you to use new versions right away without having to wait for a Construct 2 update with the new version bundled to come around.

To install node-webkit support visit our new node-webkit page at scirra.com/node-webkit. If you don’t have node-webkit installed and you try to preview or export with node-webkit, you’ll be prompted to visit that page to get the installer. We’ll also be keeping the version available from there up-to-date as new node-webkit versions are released.

One more bonus: we’ve found a version of dxwebsetup.exe that doesn’t try to bundle in the Bing bar, and that is now the version included with the node-webkit installer.