one month after the initial release of
jLevelBuilder, here comes the version "
beta 1.61", and a lot of work have been done on it!
new features:- improved overall speed of the editor when manipulating items
- added "Enable/Disable Real-Time Refresh of Entity List" option (when disabled, spares some CPU resources)
- added "Freeze" option
- added "Selection Mode", "Layer Mode", "Map Mode" options in top menubar
- added new options in "Command Menu"
- added the possibility to load custom tilesets when designing Lemmini's levels (.ini files)
1) the overall speed of the editor has been improved.
However if you still want to gain more speed, go to "Options > Enable/Disable Real-Time Refresh of Entity List", and uncheck the checkbox (or also uncheck the checkbox just below the actual list: it's the same thing).
And if you know your keyboard shortcuts, then you can really maximize the speed improvement by closing the GUI's bottom panel (keyboard shortcut = "NUMPAD_0", or press "SPACE > Edition Tools Panel") => doing this disables stuff that is auto-refreshed, and therefore it spares CPU resources.
2) If you ever experienced clicking and manipulating wrong items instead of the ones you actually wanted to move (hard-to-see eraser pieces, for example?), then you'll be pleased to welcome the new "
Freeze" feature!
When you're done with designing some parts of your level because things are exactly where they have to be, then you'll be able to "freeze" the relevant entities in order to prevent them from any unwanted modifications (position or attributes)!
Frozen entities have a light-blue border and a "F" (for "Frozen") next to their ID.
In the "Options" menu, you also find a checkbox to fully fill frozen entities with a blue color (nice to instantly see where they're, as seen on the screenshot below).
- "Lock Selection" had the "l" shortcut.
- Since, freezing is kinda locking, then the keyboard shortcut for freezing also uses "l": it is "l+SHIFT" ("f" is for making Favorites)
- And "l+CTRL" is used to switch between the visual displays of frozen entities (fully filled or not)
When there's at least 1 frozen entity in your current selection, all the options that allow entity changes are disabled (except "Freeze/Unfreeze", of course)
One last thing, feel free to use the "All but Frozen" selection-mode to perform selections ignoring the frozen entities
(see point #3, below)
3) Convenient options such as "
(de)Selection Mode", "
Layer Mode" and "
Map Mode" that were previously available through keyboard shortcuts only (and hence might be a little tricky to find) have now their dedicated entry in the top menu bar.
Use these options to apply a filter on what's displayed on screen (
Layer Mode) or on what you can select/deselect (
(de)Selection Mode).
If you don't know these options, well, check'em out because they are very handy to perform precise/complicated selections!
- in the screenshot below, layer mode = "Terrains", so everything which isn't a Terrain isn't displayed (do you see the doors or the 1-way arrows around?)4) The
command menu (which appears by hitting "
SPACE", or by clicking "Command Menu" in the "Edit" top menu) has gained new options.
You just have more options right under your mouse's cursor! (including the new "Freeze" option)
5) Create your custom graphics/tileset, place your tileset in the "
resources/tilesets/Lemmings/" dir, and use it as any classic Lemmings's tileset for your Lemmini's levels (.ini files only).
I guess that's all for today!!!
As usual, you can download jLevelBuilder on my website:
http://www.lesjeuxlesplusmieux.com/jlevelbuilder.html... and why not try my reflexion game, too?
http://www.lesjeuxlesplusmieux.com/powablox.html