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

[Wafflem]

Will you add support for DOS sounds and music in the Traditional and Neo Flexi players (unless you have already)?

[namida]

DOS sounds, not in Neo, while traditional should already have them. However, I should indeed add support for custom sounds - in fact, all I'd need to do is add the option to compile them to LemResourceBuilder. (They can then be inserted into the EXE via Resource Hacker in the same way.)

Music packs are supported for Flexi in both versions, and OGG musics can also be used internally (though it's not recommended as the resulting EXE will be very large). To create a music pack, just compile the music resource as normal with LemResourceBuilder, and the arc file is your music pack - just rename it to (player EXE name)_Music.dat to use it. If this doesn't work, I've forgotten to enable the option - I'll double-check this before the next update.

By the way, as far as testing goes for V1.24n, the major testing is done for all except Cust and Flexi. The only ones that need further attention are LPDOS, LPII Bonus and LPIII. The needed attention on LPDOS is very minor - there's just a couple of levels in Pre-V7 where the music track was previously hardcoded, and I'm going to change it to have the reference in the LVL file as usual. LPII Bonus and LPIII have the stripped gimmicks problem when I updated the levels to be in the most up-to-date format (NeoLemmix has no problem loading older formats; it's just being done for tidiness).

Once those issues are fixed up, and a bit more small-scale testing is done, the only thing left to do is the expansions to the default styles. I'd rather get that out of the way for the next update instead of waiting longer. Once they're done, I'll include the expanded styles in all players instead of just Cust and Flexi (though I won't be making additions to the Genesis styles).


By the way - with what you were mentioning about trying various levels with VGASPECs to see their recoloring - try the Nyancat level with styles, that one gives REALLY interesting results.

[Wafflem]

Trying it out, and the results are indeed really interesting so far. Some examples:

In the Crystal style, the water turns red.
And of course, we already know what the Nyancat level looks like in the Sky style (as Rough 10).
As usual, the Martian style's colors aren't affected by the VGASPEC.
The Lab style looks much more retro now in the Nyancat style.

Check out the radiation object for the Lab style in the Apple Computer Level. This one also produces interesting results, and is something that would have worked in the regular Psychedelic style (but I know you won't change it anymore).

Suggestion for NeoLemmix editor: the object should already be in their VGASPEC colors instead of the normal colors, much like how it was in NeoLemEdit.

Found a memory leak source: if I get an error like "List index out of bounds (15)" while changing the style, then close the editor, I am likely to get the error.  The memory leak errors I get are either 52 or 219012.

[namida]

Unfortunately, due to the way NeoLemmix Editor handles styles, it's almost impossible to do that. The images of pieces are decoded when compiling the styles; therefore, they're already in correct (unaltered) colors. The traditional Lemmix editor was able to do this because standard graphic sets and VGASPECs weren't independant; a specific style option would refer not to one graphic set or one VGASPEC, but to a specific combination of a graphic set and a VGASPEC (yeah, of course you could have a graphic set without a VGASPEC, but in a way this is still a specific combination - the graphic set + no vgaspec; not like with NeoLemmix Editor where you can then choose a VGASPEC seperately); therefore when compiling, it could apply the VGASPEC palette. Because the two are independant in the NeoLemmix editor, this same approach would not work. I would like at some point to eliminate the need for compiling the styles altogether; once that's done, this feature may be more likely to be implementable.

Indeed, even in NeoLemEdit, the way this was implemented was by literally re-loading the style using the altered palette when the VGASPEC was changed. On the other hand, the NeoLemmix player checks for a VGASPEC (and changes the palette accordingly) before it even loads the standard graphic set, which is why it can be altered without problems there.



The Martian style won't be affected by any VGASPEC because its palette is specifically constructed to not be affected. This should even apply to the terrain pieces too. None of the other styles are constructed as such, so all others will most likely be affected.


I'll look into that memory leak. I know that error itself happens when switching to a style that results in the level having an object that doesn't exist (for example, create a Metal level containing a splitter (the last object in the style), then switch to a style that has empty object slots); improving the handling of this is on my todo list.


Here's a shot of the Lab style, with Nyancat VGASPEC, including some terrain. Notice how some colors are unaffected - this is because a palette-based VGASPEC won't touch colors beyond #15.

I find in general, Lab goes very well with a lot of VGASPECs - for example, aside from the window, most objects and terrain don't even look at all out-of-place in all the official VGASPECs (except Prima and Covox, but it does work nicely in the Sunsoft one) combined with Lab; even the window looks pretty good in the two Beast ones. It also goes quite nicely with Duck, Rickroll and RickrollII; not so well with Troll.

[Wafflem]

Nice job with the terrain changes; I can't wait to see how this will affect the other styles. Though it's too bad that there is no terrain/object color change beyond #15 (unless there is a workaround for that?). It would have been interesting to see the terrain color changes for the letters in the Fire set.

Will you also adjust the level sizes for all the other levels, or will this be only for the Genesis levels?

[namida]

Genesis levels only. It's too much work to go through and adjust sizes on each level individually (just doing so on the already-made-at-that-point LPZ levels when I first implemented the adjustable sizes feature was tiring); the Genesis ones could be done with a constant formula (shift everything left by X pixels) which is why it wasn't a problem there.

Workaround... the only real option is to create a customized version of the style with a different palette.
One more interesting thing that can be done is that, due to the custom positioning, you can place the VGASPEC image outside the level (eg: put it's Y coordinate as -160). As long as it's a palette-based VGASPEC and not an RGB-based one, it'll still alter the graphic set's palette. There are probably some creative uses for this.

None of the official styles use colors beyond #16, so the fire set letters will be easily avaiable to check once the update is here. A few shots from some of the nicer results (Nyancat just looked kind of glitchy more than anything else) are attached here.


EDIT: Done something I should've really done as soon as full-color VGASPECs were implemented. The VGASPEC for The Troll Level has been rebuilt from the source image, which makes it look much neater. (The NyanCat Level could probably also benefit from such a thing, except that the *source* image also is reduced to 8 colors; whereas for The Troll Level the source image has more than 8 colors and the reduction was done by the VGASPEC creation tool used. Thus, doing it for The Nyancat Level would be a lot more work.)

[namida]

I've started work on the expanded styles. So far, I've done Sega and Marble - not all the slots in Sega are used up, but I feel this gives it enough.

I've added:

Marble: Teleporter, Receiver
Sega: One-way arrows (all 3 directions), Locked exit, Unlock button

Thanks to Proxima for the graphic used for the Marble style teleporter (I'm fairly sure he originally intended it as a trap, though).



My plans are, though any that haven't been implemented yet are not definite. If the style name is crossed out, it's been done.

Dirt: not going to add anything
Fire: Updraft
Marble: Teleporter, Receiver
Pillar: Fire trap (Flamethrower), for L2 Classic remake reasons
Crystal: Slowfreeze
Brick: Splitter
Rock: can't add anything as there are no remaining slots
Snow: Slowfreeze
Bubble: Splitter
Sega: One-way arrows, Locked exit, Unlock button

[Wafflem]

Nice job  . I thought you meant "terrain/object pieces after index 15". I also think the idea of hiding a VGASPEC level to change the terrain color of the level is interesting. Also, great choices for the objects for Sega style, especially the locked exit/buttons.
 
Two more glitches in the NeoLemmix Editor:

• If you play a level with the Cloner in the skillset using NeoCustLemmix Test Mode, the skill displays as a digger and not a cloner. Here are two pictures to illustrate this, one showing that the Cloner will be in the skillset, the second one displaying a digger in place of the cloner; however, it still functions as a cloner.
• Sometimes, if you click on a piece, the piece is selected, but the yellow squares that show it was selected don't appear.

NeoLemmix:
For the in-game configuration menu, will the menus for ForceGimmick and ForceSkillset be similar to the ones in the NeoLemmix Editor?

Lemmini / SuperLemmini
This is low-priority, but do you plan to make a Lemmini / SuperLemmini version of the Sega style? This could also be helpful for möbius's Lemmings project if he plans to include them.

Do you also plan to make LPII and LPIII styles for Lemmini / SuperLemmini?

[namida]

Cloner glitch: I just checked and this does NOT happen for me. Can you please double-check that there is no MAIN.DAT file in the same folder as the NeoLemmix Editor? What is likely happening is that there *is* one, so NeoCustLemmix uses that instead of its internal one; and this MAIN.DAT is from before that was fixed. I have tested this with both V1.23n-C and V1.24n and the issue does not occur for me on either.

Yellow square glitch: I haven't encountered this. Do you know any specific way to trigger it / make it likely to happen, or does it just seem random?


In-game config menu: No idea yet. Beyond the basic idea of having one, I haven't decided on much to do with this yet - suggestions are welcome.


Lemmini / SuperLemmini styles: It would be nice to have the Sega style there, I might look into it eventually. As for LPII and LPIII, the new object types would need to be stripped out. This isn't a huge matter for LPII (pretty much just secret area triggers; and the one-way fields if Lemmini doesn't support them), but would be half the objects in the LPIII style.

[namida]

Alright, all the style upgrades are now done.

The graphics are mostly re-used from other styles, except the Marble teleporter/receiver, the one-way arrows and unlock button in Sega, and the splitter in Brick. The Marble ones come from the graphics Proxima provided a few pages back; the rest of these are completely original.

Remaining todos before next version:
- Editor upgrades. Window order probably won't be editable right away (it will be preserved, though) as that'll be a lot of work; but I do need to implement VGASPEC positioning which will be simple enough.
- Actually putting the upgraded styles into the players. As I mentioned before, I plan to add them to *all* players, not just Cust and Flexi (for LookForLVLFiles purposes).

[Wafflem]

Thanks for adding the new objects to the styles, especially the locked exit and buttons in the Sega style.

Cloner glitch: I just checked and this does NOT happen for me. Can you please double-check that there is no MAIN.DAT file in the same folder as the NeoLemmix Editor? What is likely happening is that there *is* one, so NeoCustLemmix uses that instead of its internal one; and this MAIN.DAT is from before that was fixed. I have tested this with both V1.23n-C and V1.24n and the issue does not occur for me on either.

Yellow square glitch: I haven't encountered this. Do you know any specific way to trigger it / make it likely to happen, or does it just seem random?

Yep, it was indeed a MAIN.DAT issue that I now took out. Thanks.

For the yellow square glitch, it seems to happen at random times.

[namida]

Identified yet another gliders-moving-through-terrain issue, this time involving updrafts. >_> I'll have to fix that too before the next update.

EDIT: Tracked it down and fixed it.

[namida]

Okay, Player update is here! Editor update will be later on today, I'm waiting to hear back about something SuperLemmini-related first so I can implement it in this update if possible (but if I don't hear back soon, I'll just release the update without it and add that in the following update).

NeoLemmix V1.24n
---------------------------
*  Lemmings Plus III Bonus Pack is now included in the NeoLemmix update stream.
*  Some of the new objects have been added to the official styles; one-way arrows have also
   been added to the Sega style. These updates are applied to *all* players, not just Cust
   and Flexi. (However, they are not applied to the Genesis styles in Extra)
*  Custom entrance orders can now be specified.
*  Up to 128 objects in a single level is now supported. Note that there is still a limit
   of 32 non-fake entrances (whether using custom orders or not); any beyond this will be
   treated as fake.
*  A VGASPEC level can now also contain standard terrain.
*  VGASPEC positioning can now be adjusted.
*  Added support for name-based instead of number-based style references; these take priority
   if both are present in a level file. This is not yet supported in Flexi.
*  Improved looping on OGG musics.
*  Fixed the error where NeoCustLemmix may crash when trying to save a replay on a
   level with certain characters in the level name.
*  Fixed a bug where replays could assign skills that aren't in the level's skillset.
*  Fixed a bug involving blockers placed in front of locked exits.
*  Fixed a bug involving the glider-updraft interaction.
*  Fixed a bug where some level codes may repeat (and thus, the latter levels become inaccessible
   with non-cheat codes) if a rank other than the final one has more than 98 levels.
*  Fixed some of the palette colors.
*  Fixed Wicked 2 in ONML; the SuperLemming had been accidentally disabled in a previous update.
*  Fierce 9 in LPIII has had the VGASPEC recreated from the source image, the result is much smoother
   in appearance. It should have little if any impact on playing the level.
*  Post-secret level redirects in LPII, LPII Bonus and LPIII now use in-LVL specification of the target
   level instead of hardcoded values.
*  The Genesis levels in Extra now use the Genesis level width.
*  Support for DOS-style oddtabling has been removed; use NeoLemmix-style oddtabling instead as
   this is more versatile. (This is only relevant to those building custom players from source
   code, as Flexi has never supported DOS-style oddtabling.)
*  Level dumping in NeoCustLemmix has been improved. While it will still give an error if there are
   secret level slots that aren't filled with dummy levels, it will dump all the non-secret levels
   first, meaning that the error doesn't prevent proper dumping of all levels that *are* present.
   This also applies to saving level images.

Downloads are here (DropBox) or here (my website; note that Cust and Flexi have their own seperate pages there).

You can get the updated styles here if you want them; they'll be included with the editor in the next update:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4aekv1exsodx2t/NeoLemmix%20Styles.zip


Please note that V1.23n-A of the editor cannot properly handle level files dumped from the V1.24n players. However, the V1.24n players have no problem handling levels made with the V1.23n-A editor (you just can't use the new features, except for VGASPEC levels with normal terrain in them which works in any level format; even non-extended. Obviously, you can use the new objects too, if you put the updated styles into the existing editor version). This is also true of the copy of LEVELPAK.DAT included with NeoCustLemmix V1.24n; the older editor versions won't be able to open the levels properly.

(Just to clarify - yes, you absolutely can use V1.24n NeoCustLemmix for playtest mode with NeoLemmix Editor V1.23n-A; this will work fine.)



Due to the large number of changes, as well as the fact that I've upgraded all internal level files to the latest NeoLemmix level format specification (previously, a lot of players used the V1.17n NeoLemmix format or even non-extended format), it's quite possible there may be some bugs/issues I've missed, so please let me know if you find any, preferably by posting them in this topic. Especially, look out for them on Orig, Extra, LPII, LPII Bonus, LPIII and Flexi - those are probably where issues are most likely to occur.

[Wafflem]

Thanks for this update. I'll look into these players later and see if I find any glitches.

Flexi option suggestion: a Secret rank very much like the one in LPIII Bonus, in that once you press down in the main menu, you can't go back to that rank. Unless you've implemented that already?

[namida]

Thanks for this update. I'll look into these players later and see if I find any glitches.

Flexi option suggestion: a Secret rank very much like the one in LPIII Bonus, in that once you press down in the main menu, you can't go back to that rank. Unless you've implemented that already?

Not yet, but it's something I was planning to do (but forgot to actually add to my todo list).