Quote from: Simon on March 06, 2025, 01:43:19 AMThis visual counterintuitivity is the heart of the matter.

I really don't think this is an issue that needs solving at all.



That ship has sailed a long time ago. The original lemmings engine shipped with this exact kind of visual counterintuivity baked into it.
Players are confused at first, but adapt quickly. The notion that a lemming's hitbox is beneath its feet is something that players can quickly adapt to.

At any rate, I will NOT be changing this functionality in my engine.

Quote from: Simon on March 04, 2025, 12:41:17 AMWhen you collide gadgets with lemmings, instead of colliding two pixels (the foot, and one-below-foot), have you considered colliding only the foot?

Unfortunately, that is not going to be an option. One key difference in the new engine is that gadgets can now act as solid terrain.

Lemmings will be able to walk on gadgets such as metal grates, water lemmings will treat water as solid, and so on. As such, the hitbox of such a gadget will have to be treated identically to terrain. Hence, anchor pixel checks for terrain/gadget collision (solid gadgets), foot pixel checks for other gadget collisions (non-solid gadgets).

I fail to see the point of making these changes.
Fundamentally, a lemming needs to make collision checks with the pixel beneath its feet.

The current system makes use of the anchor pixel for these primary collision checks. This implementation gives the desired behaviour, without overcomplicating things.

If the system were to be changed to use the foot pixel instead, there would have to be separate checks for collisions one pixel beneath the lemming's foot (relative to gravity). Making this change would mean a vast amount of code would have to be re-written, which could also introduce a lot of bugs.

What possible reasons are there for changing this? I really don't understand the problem at all.

Quote from: Simon on March 03, 2025, 01:45:36 AMWill you remove exiting during the nuke? Or did you merely not list the nuke as a second exception?

No, the nuking functionality will remain unchanged. I just forgot to mention that possibility.

Quote from: Simon on March 03, 2025, 01:45:36 AMIt feels more natural to use only the foot (and never the ground under the foot) for both terrain and gadgets. Did you consider this? What problems will arise from this?

What should occur in this case? Under the current behaviours (anchor pixel), a lemming will drown when it touches the water. Given the commitment to replicating NeoLemmix mechanics as much as possible, we need to preserve this behaviour.
If we switch to using the foot pixel to determine movement and collisions, then there will have to be extra checks to see if the pixel beneath the foot is within a hitbox. Fundamentally, there is no real difference between this and just using the anchor pixel. Changing it would also potentially lead to messier code.

Quote from: Simon on March 03, 2025, 01:45:36 AMWhat kind of level will behave differently? Or is the 99.9% a blanket figure to allow potential future incompatibilites?

The 99.9% statement is indeed a blanket figure. In regards to incompatibilities, levels which feature gadgets (water/fire/exit, etc) that have been rotated will most likely not function in the same way as expected. This is due to the differences in how hitboxes are rotated between engines. WillLem has had similar experiences in SuperLemmix, changing the way hitboxes rotate with the gadget. NeoLemmixSharp will behave similarly to SuperLemmix in this manner.

That said, what is also planned is the ability to define separate collisions for different orientations. That is, if a lemming has gravity oriented down, then it will check one hitbox, whereas a lemming whose gravity is oriented to the left would use a different hitbox.
This will have the most noticable effect on long, thin gadgets, such as flamethrowers.
As for one-pixel-tall hitboxes, this will indeed need to be special cased. As a result, these gadgets will have a hitbox that is functionally two pixels tall.
I can think of at least one gadget that would be affected by this: the horizontal electricity hazard in the dex_industry style (along with its counterpart in dex_circuit).

Hi Simon!

Sorry for not getting back to you earlier - it's been a busy week!

I've made my own post about the project here.
https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=7066.0

Hi all!

For some time now I've been working on a new lemmings engine. I'd like to introduce NeoLemmixSharp!

NeoLemmixSharp is designed to be a "superset" of the features of regular NeoLemmix. The engine is intended to be backward compatible with NeoLemmix, aiming for 99.9% compatibility. That is, the intention is that the vast majority of existing NeoLemmix levels should play identically in the new engine, and the few that do not are hopefully easy to tweak.
In addition to the features expected of NeoLemmix, a greatly expanded feature set is planned. These features draw inspiration from various sources, including lots of concepts from Lemmings Revolution.

This is a completely new engine written in C#. The project is very much still in development; even the name "NeoLemmixSharp" is temporary!
I've attached a design doc outlining some of my plans for the engine.

I intend for development of this new engine and its various features to be driven by the community. Feedback, suggestions and contributions are welcome!

Github repo

Let me know what you think!

Are we allowing achievements for Oh No More Lemmings? If so:

Tame 4:
Complete with only 1 skill usage.

I think one potential issue is that NeoLemmix is entirely data driven. There are comparatively few hard-coded strings in the engine that could be localised.
Even if support for different languages was added, this still doesn't update the text of existing levels and level packs. These will only have access to English text, and so no other language translations will exist.

A lemmings pack can contains meny instances of custom text:
- Main menu message ticker (including any custom graphics that pack might use)
- Level pre/post view messages
- Level title, pack name and author
- Level completion screen messages

These level packs will not have any support for translations into other languages. Support for this feature will require a change to both the level file format and the level pack format.

At any rate, the current engine limitations have not stopped users from creating level packs with non-English text. See https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5206 for an example! 

Hi MasterMatt, and welcome to the forums!

Support for other languages sounds like a great idea! Although a concern I have is that many level packs have custom intro/outro texts which wouldn't be feasible to translate. A screen might end up with a strange mix of French and English text.

Quote from: Simon on October 11, 2024, 11:24:30 PMAnd maybe ∫tan x dx arrives by train and prefers to book tickets in advance?

That is correct. I don't have access to a car for travelling, so I like to plan ahead

Quote from: Flopsy on October 12, 2024, 02:36:35 AMtanxdx could always ride with me in my car to wherever we decide to go, if we decide to do something

That's very kind of you to offer. If we do decide to meet up on the Sunday, I'd like to take you up on that

I'd be interested in a Sunday meetup as well. Leeds/Manchester/Liverpool all sound good to me

257 = A Fermat prime!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat_number

As of writing, only five such numbers are known!

A meetup sounds great! I'll be there

Hi Ichotolot!

There's a few highlights from your replays:

Spoiler

Unfriendly Neighbours - I always love solutions with quick reflexes, and this solution is no different! Have to be quick when there's zombies around!
The Lemmings And Those Lemmings - Oh cool! I've not seen a solution that involves bombing from the right side! Nice lemming control!
Crowd Control - Nice synchronisation with the lemmings and the hatch here!
A Sorting Problem - A very streamlined solution! A kind of "blink and you'll miss it" approach.
Escape From Zombie Island - I absolutely adore the builder/basher staircase solution here! Awesome!

Thank you very much for your replays!

Hi Mobiethian,

Great work on the pack! There's some very nice levels in here, and a great variety of solutions!

I've attached my replays for this pack. Let me know what you think!

Great job!