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

[namida]

Same operating system as you, Java 7 Update 45 from Oracle. I'll have to look into this more later on.

In less-technical news, I've fixed the replay glitch with disobedient lemmings, and traced the source of the oddities with the nuclear bomber blast - it turns out it was nothing wrong with my code, but simply that I hadn't realised the original bomber mask wasn't symmetrical. This is something I'm going to fix in the next update - I'll add code that automatically adjusts it to be symmetrical (to avoid having to modify MAIN.DATs), while for those making custom players who actually don't want a symmetrical bomb mask for any reason, I'll add an option to the Flexi player to disable this auto-adjust. Once that is fixed, the nuclear bomber issue will almost certianly correct itself.

One other long-ago-suggested feature I'm trying to get done for the next update: A prompt for what filename to save a replay as. I realise this could get annoying, so the default behaviour will be as-is (except maybe for Cust); while you can specify in the INI file to prompt for a filename instead of automatically picking one.

EDIT: Done. Must be noted though that there's no overwrite prompt if the file already exists, and I don't think there's much I can do about this - I tried making a popup dialog, but the game continues playing in the background.

This means the only remaining features on the suggestions list are making the timer blink when it's low / lemming count blink when there isn't enough left to meet the requirement (which I'll probably look into soon), and a proper readme (which I'll probably do after a final version). I decided against splitting the non-Present/Sunsoft Genesis levels by rank, as there aren't really that many of them.


EDIT: Blinks have been implemented too. The two can be configured independantly of each other; the default is for lemmings blink to be disabled and timer blink to be enabled.

[namida]

A glitch I'm aware of: With the Disobedient Lemmings gimmick, if you've already made one lemming do something, then select a skill you have none of and click a lemming (whether it's the same one or another one), the lemming you assigned the skill to will revert to a shrugger. Already fixed this for the next update.
Another one: Terrain created by stoners is treated as steel. It wasn't initially, but became this way when the Invert Steel gimmick was added (they're only meant to be treated as steel when that gimmick is in effect, but due to an oversight, ended up *always* being treated as such). Fixed this one too.

Another feature; I've added an option to NeoCustLemmix to skip the preview and postview screens when used for playtest mode with the editor (I'll add this feature to traditional CustLemmix at some point, but it'll be more work there - I was able to conveniently reuse some of the code that was used for, of all things, Timid 5's hardcoded special effect in LPIII, to do this). There's three settings available:
0: Show full preview and postview screens
1: Disable preview screen (it'll go straight into the level when playtest mode is started, or when clicking continue from the postview screen)
2: Disable preview and postview screens (when the level finishes, NeoCustLemmix exits)
3: Same as 2, but automatically saves a replay on exit


Also made some improvements to one-way walls. Just like steel areas already have for quite some time, they won't be invisibly applied to mid-air areas; only to where there's actually terrain. And, if you destroy them then later create new terrain where they were, that new terrain will not be one-way.

[namida]

While it's semi-unrelated to NeoLemmix, I figure here is the best place to mention it:

I'm working on adding a "decompile style" option to LemSet. Not only will this make it easier to access samples (as you can just decompile any graphic set and look at the generated LemSet "source" for it), but this will also allow adding of new objects to existing styles much more easily - at the moment doing that is a HUGE hassle, and only the really advanced users would be capable of it.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility - I'd reccomend keeping modified styles to the Flexi player (or custom-built-from-source Lemmix players) only, until I come up with a way to handle them a bit more tidily in CustLemmix / NeoCustLemmix. I'm neither able nor willing to force people to do that, but it's just a suggestion to avoid messiness.

EDIT: It's now extracting palette info and terrain perfectly fine, for both 16-color and 32-color styles. Just got to do objects now, that's the hard part though. xD
EDIT: Extracting object metainfo fine now (like the data about what the object does, etc), all that's left is to extract the object image itself.

[namida]

New version of LemSet is here. Enjoy.

As well as adding the decompiler, it fixes a couple of minor issues, and I also updated the horribly-outdated documentation somewhat.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkzmjzrih2ud3ww/LemSet_V8.zip?dl=0

I'm going to come up with something for the next version of NeoCustLemmix (and following shortly behind, standard CustLemmix) to easily enable use of customized styles without having to have a different style number for every version of a style, or constantly shuffling filenames around. It won't be long (should be sometime today) until release as everything else I want to do for V1.19n is already done. Until that's ready and I have exact instructions on how to use it, I ask that for the sake of keeping things tidy, please don't distribute edited versions of existing styles, except as part of a Flexi setup (whether done with the Flexi tool or just a file set to use with the external-file Flexi player); not that I expect anyone will have any modifications ready by the time that update is.

[namida]

Alright, here we go! Another pretty big update this time. Note that there's no new editor version at this time, as none of the new features require editor support.

NeoLemmix V1.19n
---------------------------
*  Disobedient Lemmings gimmick now works properly in replays.
*  Fixed a glitch with disobedient lemmings where you could make a lemming
   a shrugger by clicking on a different lemming while having zero of a skill.
*  Bomber masks are now automatically adjusted to be symmetrical; this
   can be disabled in custom packs on the Flexi player. Basically; this works
   by ignoring the right half of the mask image from MAIN.DAT, and instead
   duplicating (and flipping) the left half.
*  Made the open replay dialog box a bit tidier.
*  Custom filenames can be selected when saving a replay; by default this
   option is disabled (and the traditional behaviour is used) but it can
   be enabled in the INI file.
*  Added options to make the lemming count blink when too many lemmings
   have been killed to complete the level, and to make the timer blink when
   less than 30 seconds remain. By default, the timer blink is enabled but
   the lemming blink is not.
*  One-way walls no longer are applied to empty space, and once destroyed,
   if a constructive skill is used where they used to be, it will not be
   one-way.
*  Fixed the glitch where stoners always become indestructible (they are
   only meant to if the Invert Steel gimmick is in effect).
*  Added an option in NeoCustLemmix called "QuickTestMode", which affects
   how it behaves when used for test mode with NeoLemmix Editor. Setting
   this to 1 skips the preview screen (but leaves the postview screen as-is;
   clicking continue on it instantly restarts the level), setting it to 2
   removes both (so when the level finishes, NeoCustLemmix exits). Setting
   it to 0 leaves both preview and postview screen intact. Setting it to 3
   performs the same as 2, but also automatically saves a replay on exit.
*  NeoCustLemmix automatically disables certain options that probably should
   be turned off for testing mode, when booted in testing mode. These are
   Challenge Mode, Timer Mode, Forced Gimmick, Forced Skillset, DebugSteel
   and Steel Override.
*  NeoCustLemmix now includes the VGASPECs from the Genesis version and the
   "Apple Computer Level".
*  NeoCustLemmix can now specify a prefix to add when looking for external
   files. For example, if the prefix is set to "lem", then when looking for
   graphic set 0, it will first look for "lem_ground0o.dat"/"lem_vgagr0.dat",
   if those don't exist it will look for "ground0.dat"/"vgagr0.dat", and if
   those don't exist either, it will finally resort to using internal ones.
   This is to simplify playing custom levelpacks with custom resources. This
   applies to GROUND, VGAGR and VGASPEC files, but not to MAIN.DAT.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ksx7lbwic6x2nrd/AAC4uB1snGZ9WMBZ9tCCt1fHa?dl=0

The NeoCustLemmix-specific updates (external file prefixes, quick test mode and adding the extra VGASPECs) will also be added to traditional CustLemmix soon.

Also, just to clear it up - you are more than welcome to make modified versions of the Lemmings Plus styles for use with custom levels.



Also, I uploaded yesterday but forgot to mention, a new version of LemMain. This is just a minor update; it adds support for the option to disable bomber mask auto-adjustment. The option to use traditional-style timed bombers is now documented instead of being a secret option; I also changed the actual option flag to something a bit more logical (timed_bombers) than the previous non-obvious-but-somewhat-amusing flag (goddamn_bombers).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/roybn1s3v410ri0/LemMain_V6.3.zip?dl=0

[namida]

I've noticed that the QuikPack tool in the Flexi Toolkit often gives errors when some/all of the levels it's packing are in the NeoLemmix extended format. These errors are actually harmless - you can just click "continue", the output files will be fine; it actually relates to the style count. The reason is that it wasn't coded to read the correct byte to get the graphic set in extended format levels, so it reads a different byte instead and interprets a completely different number (specifically, the number of Stackers in the skillset) as being the style; then because this number is higher than the total style count, it gives an error when trying to count it.

I've updated the V1.19n Flexi Toolkit's copy of QuikPack to one that fixes this error (and counts graphic sets correctly even in the extended format). If you need to use an older version for any reason (although the V1.19n copy of QuikPack will work just fine with older versions of Flexi Toolkit; all it does is pack LVLs into DATs), you can avoid the error (at the cost of not getting accurate counts of which styles you've used) by simply entering 255 for the number of styles.

A glitch I'm aware of in NeoLemmix - I've actually been aware of this since I first added the gimmick, but keep forgetting to fix it (but I've made sure it's noted on my todo list now; though haven't actually fixed it because been working on the LPIII Bonus Pack rather than NeoLemmix today): In surviving bombers gimmick, if you make a faller into a bomber, his distance fallen starts counting again from zero, essentially meaning you can assign a bomber mid-fall to survive it. Do not create levels relying on this, as I plan to fix it.

[Tsyu]

It looks like NeoCustLemmix 1.19n is ignoring steel sections entirely, including the negative steel. Autosteel works, but that's it.

I've attached two test levels. The "No Autosteel" version has autosteel disabled, a regular steel area (index 0) covering the terrain, and a negative steel area (index 1) covering only the right half of the terrain. The "Autosteel" version is the same except that it has autosteel enabled, and it doesn't have a regular steel area. I'm sure you know what's supposed to happen.

[namida]

I looked at those levels; it appears this glitch occurs exclusively with NeoCustLemmix (not that you said it occurred in anything else)*; so my guess is it's probably something to do with the Steel Override feature causing this. I'll look into that in more depth shortly, and since that's a pretty major bug (combined with that I'm not sure how much I'll be able to come on here over the next week and a half), I'll put a v1.19n-B update out later today to fix it.

* For reference, I tested in 3 other players: LPII Bonus (has negative steel in Flight 7, as a No Overwrite steel block is used to smooth the terrain in the upper-right), Covox (has steel in a VGASPEC level so that must be handled manually), and LPIII Bonus (I specifically made a test level here).

I also tested NeoCustLemmix in normal mode (not testplay mode) and the bug *does* still occur, so it's not related to that.

EDIT: Found the source of the bug, and it's fixed. Specifically, the Steel Override mode, although it was applying the Autosteel and Simple Autosteel flags correctly, it was applying the Ignore Levelsteel flag as the opposite of what it should be.
Before I put out the update, two other small bugs I also want to fix - the aforementioned one with surviving bombers, and a purely graphical one involving brick colors in VGASPEC levels (done).

[namida]

Here we go!

NeoLemmix V1.19n-B
------------------------------
*  Fixes the glitch with non-auto steel not working in NeoCustLemmix.
*  Fixes the brick colors in VGASPEC levels.
*  Fixes the glitch where using a bomber on a faller in the Surviving
   Bombers glitch would reset their fall distance.

KNOWN LEVEL ISSUE: LPDOS Danger 26, the one-way arrow placement could use improvement.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ksx7lbwic6x2nrd/AAC4uB1snGZ9WMBZ9tCCt1fHa


There's also some change I made to LemDosStyles.pas, but I haven't noted what I did here and I can't remember what it was...
(EDIT: I remember now. It was just changing one of the rank names in LPIII Bonus; so nothing that affects any of the released players.)

[namida]

And a NeoLemmix Editor update!

This editor does NOT yet fix the problem with playtesting SuperLemmini levels; I need to look more into this one before attempting a fix. It fixes one minor bug and adds one new minor but useful feature - you can now save an image of the level. As there's no new Neolemmix V1.19n feature that it adds compatibility for (or at all), it's labelled V1.18n-D rather than V1.19n-A.

NeoLemmix Editor V1.18n-D
-------------------------------------
> Fixed the glitch where the memorised filename would not be updated when saving a level.
> Added the option of saving a LVL to an image file. To do this, go to Save As, and select
  "Image File (*.png)" from the format box. Currently, only PNG format is supported.

KNOWN BUG: SuperLemmini test mode does not work in some setups. I need to look more into
           why this happens before releasing a fix.

KNOWN BUG: If a negative steel area completely overlaps a normal steel area, it is not
           visible as being negative steel.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3qxsjwk82vg3omu/NeoLemmixEditor_V1.18n-D.zip

Just to be clear on what is or isn't included in the output image - it's whatever you've currently got set as visible in the editor. So if you've got it set to only display terrain and objects, that's all that will be in the output file. If you've got it set to render trigger areas, trigger areas will show up in the output file, etc.


By the way - just a heads up, I might not be on here much over the next week and a half or so; but feel free to leave bug reports, suggestions, etc here and I will look at them if I get a chance, or when I get back. If any MAJOR issues come up within the next 6 hours or so, I can probably get them patched before I go anywhere. Otherwise, during this time I will have my laptop with me so can work on the code; I should be able to access the forums via my cellphone so I can read any comments and respond to them, but I don't know for sure if I'll be able to upload updates or if they'll have to wait until I'm back.

[namida]

Also - given the way one-way arrows now work, it's possible some levels could use improvements to the placement of these to reflect the new(ish) mechanics. One such level that I'm aware of is Danger 26 of LPDOS, let me know if you're aware of any others. I will go through and check at some point, but it's helpful if I know of any that I specifically need to look out for.

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.93, which has just been released, adds support for autosteel (both methods), negative steel, and infinite skills. Also, the steel section's documentation has been updated:

# Steel
# X position, Y position, width, height, flags (optional)
# Flags: 1 = remove existing steel

[namida]

I'll get onto adding the support for those soon.
I've so far looked through the updated format documentations and made a note of what changes need to be made. I'll need to make some changes to the editor's level properties layout box to account for these.

A question - any plans to add an "ignore level steel" option? It may be useful when converting/updating existing levels - that's why I added the option in NeoLemmix (if you were to examine the converted levels from old packs for example, you'll notice the steel areas aren't removed in most levels, they've simply got the Ignore Level Steel option turned on). If so, let me know how you plan to implement it, and I'll add that in at the same time.

Also, a minor LemMain update (V6.4), which adds an option to save BMPs of the palettes. This saves you having to pick colors out of existing images or look up the RGB values. It will save whichever palette (standard or Xmas) is active at the time of selecting the option.

[Minim]

Hi namida; glad to see you back on the forums again. A few more points to raise about the editor:

Here's a bug that I should've mentioned when I first found the forum, which still hasn't been fixed on the Neo Editor. Whenever I click on the vertical panels below the map, I an unable to move any terrain pieces or objects with the arrow keys. Despite the fact I created so many levels in the past it'd be nice if you could fix this unnessecary issue.

And also, because I prefer to use the arrow keys to move pieces around rather than the mouse I prefer to move them quickly without having to hold Ctrl, and use that button instead to make 1-pixel moves, just like the original Lemmix Editor. Is it possible to add an option in the settings to change this back to normal? Thanks.

[namida]

Here's a bug that I should've mentioned when I first found the forum, which still hasn't been fixed on the Neo Editor. Whenever I click on the vertical panels below the map, I an unable to move any terrain pieces or objects with the arrow keys. Despite the fact I created so many levels in the past it'd be nice if you could fix this unnessecary issue.

This one has been bothering me too. I have to look more into exactly how the connection between parts of the editor work before I can fix this, but it's on my todo list.

And also, because I prefer to use the arrow keys to move pieces around rather than the mouse I prefer to move them quickly without having to hold Ctrl, and use that button instead to make 1-pixel moves, just like the original Lemmix Editor. Is it possible to add an option in the settings to change this back to normal? Thanks.

This should be possible. I'll probably also look into making the "larger" move distance configurable instead of hardcoded at 8 pixels.


Another thing I'm going to look into doing is splitting the Level Stats panel into two seperate ones; one for the skillset, and one for the other details. It's getting a bit overcrowded, I think... and I want to make setting infinite skills tidier, especially for SuperLemmini purposes - in NeoLemmix, you can't have more than 99 of a skill anyway, so using a value over 99 as infinite (specifically, 200) works fine, but SuperLemmini you can have higher amounts without actually being infinite.