NeoLemmix (Player: V1.26n-C | Editor: V1.26n-B)

[namida]

Alright, it's done!

NeoLemmix Editor V1.21n-C
---------------------------------------
> Improved directly loading Lemmini levels into a Lemmix style and vice versa. Note that
  this is still not recommended (especially when loading into traditional styles rather
  than NeoLemmix / SuperLemmini), but it should work better than before.
> Supports horizontal flipping in SuperLemmini styles.
> Supports the MainLevel setting in SuperLemmini levels - this performs an equivalent
  function to NeoLemmix oddtabling, but uses a filename instead of a rank and level
  number.
> If a MainLevel is set in a SuperLemmini level, and the starting screen position is
  set to zero, no screen position will be saved to the output level file.
> Edit boxes in the level properties window are greyed out when not applicable to the
  current format.
> The S Value and L Value captions are now greyed out when the respective values cannot
  be edited for any reason (such as a non-NeoLemmix level or no objects selected).
> Added an option to set the screen start position to the right-click context menu.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/eihh7ybbolqvzgz/NeoLemmixEditor_V1.21n-C.zip

[Minim]

One slight problem about the editor that hopefully can be fixed easily. On the NeoStyles ini file there are only four style categories: NeoCustLemmix, Custom Lemmings, SuperLemmini and Lemmini. The problem is, if I load up an ONML level it always appears with the wrong graphic set. Could you extend the number of categories so that it suits OhNo graphic sets? If that can  be done could you also include the Holiday, LPII and LPIII sets too? (For example Tree being set 0 and Purple on set 1 for LPII)

I hope I explained this clearly enough. I'm only asking this because I don't use NeoCustLemmix. Thanks.

[Wafflem]

I have some more object ideas:
1. Crumbling terrain - if a lemming walks over the terrain, that terrain will crumble as soon as the lemming steps on it. If a destructive skill is used on that terrain, the terrain will immediately crumble. I believe this appears in the official games, and I thought it's a cool idea for NeoLemmix.
2. Forbidden skill zone - if a lemming steps into this zone, they will not be allowed to use a specific skill. For example, if they step into a zone that says that builders cannot be used, a lemming cannot be assigned a builder (but can be assigned any other skill) until they step out of the zone. The zone can be changed the same way pickup skills are.
3. Locked trapdoor - like locked exits, all buttons need to be stepped on in order to get the locked trapdoor to open.
4. Gimmick off switch - when a lemming steps on the switch, all gimmicks in play turn off.
5. Gimmick on switch - when a lemming steps on this switch, the gimmick turns on. Note that the switch must be set to a specific gimmick. For example, in a level of lemmings that are falling into the water from the trapdoor, if a lemming steps on a gimmick switch that is set to No Gravity, the gimmick will be in play, and the lemmings will stop falling into the water.
6. A one-time trap: if a lemming steps on the trap, both the lemming and the trap will disappear, allowing for the others to walk past without problems.
7. Mirage - if a lemming walks to an object, that object will disappear, but when the lemmings walks away, the object will reappear. This will work very well in the Desert style.

More gimmick ideas:
1. This one is similar to the overflow gimmick: the player will be able to go lower than the set release rate. For example, if you set the release rate at 85, and you attempt to go lower than that, the release rate will then go lower than 85.
2. If you use a skill on a lemming, the release rate will automatically spike up to 99. If you use a skill on another lemming, the release rate will go back to the inital release rate. You cannot change the release rate at any time; attempting to do so will give you the "Oh No" sound, similar to Frenzy.
3. When a lemming falls to the bottom, he does not die, but instead reappears at the top of the screen. The same is true for the sides of the level; if a lemming walks off the right side of the level, they will appear on the left side.

I'm not sure if you have time, but for me, the new NeoLemmix objects in the LPII styles could use some more recoloring:
1. The updrafts should match the color of the style (light brown for Desert, dark brown for Tree). For Desert, this will give the impression of a sandstorm.
2. The radiation object in the Psychedelic style should radiate in different colors instead of just blue.
3. Remove the stars in the teleporter/receiver of the Purple style and change the background to purple.
4. Recolor the button of the Metal style to metallic colors, and change the green color (when the button is stepped on) to yellow.

Extra:
1. I found more levels on YouTube that can be added to the Extra player if the level files are found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WivO9yJLrzg . If they are found (or remade by someone), they can be added to the Other rank.
2. I can suggest a traditional Extra Player, Part 2 for other levels that don't appear in the Neo versions of Lemmings - specifically, the Orig/Oh No 2P levels, Luis's PSP remakes and Ohayo Lemming-san.
3. I suggested sometime ago that the L2 Classic levels can also be remade. I don't think that's possible now because some of the column tiles in L2 have different sizes from the Orig ones. Unless you can VGASPEC them the same way you did with Sixes Not? (but there is the issue with the flamethrower).

[namida]

1) Objects acting as terrain would be quite complicated... I could maybe consider this if there's a lot of demand for it.
2) That's an interesting idea, though I don't know how much use it would have outside of backroute-blocking. Still, it won't be overly hard to implement, so I can probably do this one.
3) How would this interact with other (non-locked) trapdoors though? Or would it just be used together with pre-placed lemmings? Anyway, since no new animations are required (the trapdoors already have closed and opening animations) it wouldn't need a new object type, just some adjustment to how existing trapdoors work and a way to set them (presumably through an S/L value setting).
4/5) Now, this is a pretty interesting idea!
6) That could probably be set as a property of existing traps, rather than a new object.
7) This would be purely decorative (but appear/disappear based on the presence of lemmings), right?

With that being said, are you planning to make graphic sets using these objects? Apart from additions to the official styles (and let's face it, we've got plenty to choose from already ), I don't plan to make any more new graphic sets or modifications any time soon, so unless someone's actually planning to use an object type, I'm probably not going to add it.

Gimmicks:
1) RR overflow: It would make more sense to me to just add the release rate to the existing Overflow gimmick.
2) RR 99/norm on skill: That one could be interesting.
3) Wrap-around: This one's a great idea!

New objects - in general, I decided against further recoloring so they're clearly identifiable for what they do.

Extra:
1) Once again - if either the level files or info on how to extract them comes out, I can definitely look into it.
2) That's a good idea, though I might wait until these levels have had a chance to show up.
3) Yes, they can be VGASPEC'd (as long as they aren't more than 960 pixels wide) and I could put together a sort of "hybrid" style that contains the flamethrower and other objects from the pillar style - it'd be especially easy to do now that LemSet can decompile styles. Alternatively, I could just create a modified version of the pillar style itself with the differently-sized pieces.

[Tsyu]

1) Once again - if either the level files or info on how to extract them comes out, I can definitely look into it.

Here you go. That's all of the levels from the Genesis version, including the 2-player levels, all of which I ripped myself. The levels that DynaLem is referring to are fun31 and fun32.

[namida]

Awesome, thanks for that. I'll be sure to include them in the next update.

[namida]

One slight problem about the editor that hopefully can be fixed easily. On the NeoStyles ini file there are only four style categories: NeoCustLemmix, Custom Lemmings, SuperLemmini and Lemmini. The problem is, if I load up an ONML level it always appears with the wrong graphic set. Could you extend the number of categories so that it suits OhNo graphic sets? If that can  be done could you also include the Holiday, LPII and LPIII sets too? (For example Tree being set 0 and Purple on set 1 for LPII)

I hope I explained this clearly enough. I'm only asking this because I don't use NeoCustLemmix. Thanks.

Here's a modified version of the NeoLemmixStyles.ini file that also includes the following styles:
* Oh No! More Lemmings!
* Covox
* Prima
* Xmas
* Lemmings Plus II
* Lemmings Plus III
* Lemmings Plus III Bonus Pack (needs the LPIII Bonus VGASPECs - will release them in due course)
* Lemmings Plus Z Project (does not need any new files)

There's no Orig or LPDOS option as those are number-compatible with the CustLemm style. Likewise, Lemmings Plus II Bonus Pack is number-compatible with Lemmings Plus II.

To use this:
1) Close NeoLemmix Editor if it's running - this is very important; otherwise it will just overwrite it with a copy of the old one when you close it.
2) Replace NeoLemmixStyles.ini with this one.
3) Start up NeoLemmix Editor.
4) Recompile the styles (you'll need to recompile all, even the ones that already existed).

Note that by default these aren't marked as NeoLemmix styles (except LPIII, LPIIIB and LPZ); if you want to change any style to NeoLemmix, just make the following three changes to its section near the start of the NeoLemmixStyles.ini file:
* CommonPath=.\clstyles\ >>> CommonPath=.\nclstyles\
* NeoLemmix=False >>> NeoLemmix=True
* TestEXE=CustLemmix.exe >>> TestEXE=CustLemmixNeo.exe
If you already compiled the styles before doing this, you'll need to recompile them again afterwards.

Note that you don't really need to make this change for LPII; just use the LPZ style instead (that's number-compatible with LPII and uses the NeoLemmix versions).

[namida]

I'm going to release an update soon with that new INI pre-configured and compiled, but first I'm trying to improve the handling of SuperLemmini special graphics. I actually found out why there's problems with them under normal conditions - it's because the default ones use 4 bits per color instead of 8, and for some reason, that causes problems with the conversion algorithm. Now to fix that.

EDIT: Okay, I can't find any simple way to fix this. I'll look into it more later, but for now, here's an update that just has the expanded range of styles. Note that the only changes are to the included styles and the NeoLemmixStyles.ini file; nothing about the editor itself has changed (except the version number reported on the About screen), so if you don't need the adjusted styles INI, there's no major need to update.

NeoLemmix Editor V1.21n-D
--------------------------------------
> Added the Lemmings Plus III Bonus Pack VGASPECs.
> Added various extra style sets to the default NeoLemmixStyles.ini - Oh No! More Lemmings!,
  Covox Lemmings, Prima Lemmings, Holiday Lemmings, Lemmings Plus II, Lemmings Plus III,
  Lemmings Plus III Bonus pack and Lemmings Plus Z Project. (The last one is just a combination
  of the LPII and LPIII graphic sets, nothing new.)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v3pfk2z8p7idh6g/NeoLemmixEditor_V1.21n-D.zip

To reduce the size of the download, the styles are not pre-compiled (except NeoCustLemmix and CustLemm as usual); just compile them through the Tools -> Compiler option on the menu.

I'll reupload NeoCustLemmix with these three additional VGASPECs soon, I won't give them a new version number though. Same deal for CustLemmix. EDIT: Done, for both.


Just to confirm ahead of time, both "Lemmings Plus H Project" and "Lemmings Plus C Project" (the other two, smaller LP projects I've mentioned around the place) will not need their own entries as both will be compatible with an existing entry (though no mentions yet as to which ones).

[namida]

Known bug in NeoLemmix player: There is potentially a memory leak when saving images. This is only likely to occur if you save an extremely large number of images in a single run of the program, so should never pop up; at any rate it'll be fixed in the next update.

Known bug in NeoLemmix player: If you play a level with infinite time limit, then play a level that has a time limit, you will have infinite time on the latter level too (this doesn't show on the preview screen, only when playing the level). Fixed for the next update.

[Wafflem]

Thanks, Tsyu, for the levels! I'm also going to upload them (along with my remake of Ohayo Lemming-san) in the Level Database at some point.

With that being said, are you planning to make graphic sets using these objects? Apart from additions to the official styles (and let's face it, we've got plenty to choose from already ), I don't plan to make any more new graphic sets or modifications any time soon, so unless someone's actually planning to use an object type, I'm probably not going to add it.

Actually, no. These are just object ideas that would have worked in future Lemmings Plus games. If I end up making a style of my own, I will let you know which object is necessary for what style. Though, as you said, the locked trapdoors should be possible.

[namida]

In general - if it's going to take a lot of effort, I'll only do it if someone plans to use it. If it'll be relatively simple (like the locked trapdoors), I can look at doing it anyway.

By the way - I've made some huge improvements to the preview screen level image in NeoLemmix; for example, pre-placed lemmings are now displayed as part of the preview, and locked exits now actually show up as locked. Because of these changes, an image saved from the preview screen in NeoLemmix will probably be more accurate than an image saved from the editor for NeoLemmix levels (for traditional levels, it shouldn't make a difference either way) - other differences include that the editor won't hide secret triggers, for example (though in the traditional version of the LPII styles, they're invisible anyway).

[namida]

An issue has been identified with the Flexi Toolkit that may make Resource Hacker refuse to allow adding the RES file on certain systems. I've reuploaded the latest version of the toolkit with updates that fix this problem.

It does not affect the non-toolkit version of Flexi or any of the other players.

[namida]

The two "test" maps and the three unique two-player levels from the Genesis version have been NeoLemmix-ised and added to the Extra player for the next update.

(As far as Traditional goes, unlike with NeoLemmix there's a clear need there to maintain support for old-format MAIN.DATs which would make having more than 5 ranks very complicated; so the extra Genesis levels and the PSP levels will most likely be, as was suggested, put in a "Extra Part 2" player at some point.)

Also, as a heads up to anyone making levels using the Stacker skill, there's a few changes to how it works in the next update:
- It's no longer impossible to assign a stacker if there's no ground one pixel to the right of where the lemming is standing. Instead, it just starts the stack one pixel lower (it still has the same number of bricks, so it'll finish one pixel lower too)
- The stacker won't shrug if it hits terrain, and will turn around
- The stacker won't stop stacking if it hits terrain on the first brick (but will on any other brick)
- The stacker + Lazy Lemmings glitch is fixed (try it if you don't know what I mean)

These shouldn't matter for any levels that aren't overly-precision-reliant, but letting you all know just in case.

[Proxima]

Level 17 isn't strictly unique; it's the Genesis version's equivalent of the normal 2-player Level 17, "Graffiti". What with the level being shrunk to fit the Genesis version's maximum size, the graffiti got erased, so the title was changed.

Just for reference, the remaining object slots in each style, if anyone wants to make suggestions (especially relevant for objects that go in pairs, such as teleporters or locked exits, which will thus need two slots). All of these are taking into account the addition of one-way-downs (unless they won't be added to the style in question; I don't plan to add them to styles like Xmas and Sega that don't have one-way arrows at all):

Dirt: 1 remaining slot
Fire: 1 remaining slot
Marble: 2 remaining slots
Pillar: 1 remaining slot
Crystal: 1 remaining slot
Brick: 2 remaining slots
Rock: 0 remaining slots
Snow: 2 remaining slots
Bubble: 1 remaining slot

For some of these, you could perhaps use the objects from my Cheapo styles -- they're not all great, but I've attached them all just in case anything there strikes your fancy. In particular, it would be nice to have the trap in the Fire style (or just to have a triggered trap in this style) and the fire object in the Brick style.

I'm not wild about many of the new objects (I prefer gameplay to be nice and simple) but the teleporters are an obvious and versatile addition to the game -- it would be great to see those added to one of the original styles, perhaps Marble.

[namida]

That Marble-style trap could be a useful base for the teleporter! I don't see much use for the rest - they'd be more suited to if I was expanding it with more objects of existing types, rather than new ones.


UPDATE: So, I think I mentioned (and either way, I've made) a feature on the traditional Lemmix players that dumps all levels to LVL files. I've coded the same thing into NeoLemmix for the next update. This can be useful not only for getting them in the correct order (particularly with OhNo, where the order is about as logical as a polar bear wearing a burqa), but also in the case of levels that are oddtabled (whether NeoLemmix-style oddtabling, or the traditional way as used in Orig and LPDOS), the output file will have the oddtabling pre-applied to it. NeoLemmix will dump levels into the NeoLemmix Extended LVL format, regardless of what format they were originally in.

For now this option is outright disabled in Flexi players; I'll look later into making an option so it's up to the pack's creator whether to enable or disable it.