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Messages - Simon

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1
Summary: Shift should make things go horizontally. At least Gimp and Firefox agree on this.



Your Alt means vertical scrolling for the mouse wheel, but horizontal movement for the dragging. Sounds more inconsistent than necessary.

The fundamental ideas are sound, let's see what other programs do.

Google Maps needs Ctrl+Wheel to zoom, and does nothing on wheel alone, even complains to the user that you should press Ctrl+Wheel to zoom. Probably because it's usually embedded in a webpage, and webpages have their rules for mousewheel. The restriction of being embedded in a browser trumps all other concerns, thus let's ignore Google Maps.

In Gimp:
  • Ctrl+Wheel zooms.
  • Wheel (without modifier keys) scrolls vertically.
  • Shift+Wheel scrolls horizontally.
  • Alt+Wheel seems to do nothing, but I'm not sure if this even gets through xfce4 to Gimp, see below.
In xfce4, my window manager, Alt+Wheel zooms the entire desktop, i.e., all windows become larger and I have to scroll around my desktop by moving the mouse. For me, this is a really dumb feature, but maybe it's useful for the sight-impaired. Anyway, I never accidentally press Alt+Wheel and it never annoys me.

It's possible that xfce4 eats the Alt+Wheel entirely and doesn't pass it on to Gimp. I haven't dug into the xfce4 config to remap Alt+Wheel.

In Firefox:
  • Ctrl+Wheel zooms.
  • Wheel (without modifier keys) scrolls vertically.
  • Shift+Wheel scrolls horizontally.
  • Alt+Wheel again seems to do nothing, but I can't test for sure.
Thus, at least between Gimp and Firefox, we have consistency: Shift always means horizontal action.

-- Simon

2
Lix Main / Next Bugs to Prioritize
« on: June 04, 2023, 10:41:31 PM »

3
Lix Main / Re: Untrap Mouse with Remappable Hotkey
« on: June 04, 2023, 10:07:30 PM »
From September 2017 by mobius:
github #233: Windows, mouse feels too strongly trapped even with fast-untraps

mobius wanted the trapping weaker, but WillLem wants it stronger.

Should we have an option to set the strength with which you have to move the mouse against the sides to untrap?

-- Simon

4
Lix Main / Re: Lix 0.10.11 released
« on: June 04, 2023, 08:07:08 PM »
Lix 0.10.11 released.

:lix-cool: Download for Windows 64-bit -- recommended
:lix: Download for Windows 32-bit -- fallback for ancient machines
:lix: Download for Linux 64-bit
:lix-evil: Source code
:8(): Changelog
:8:()[: Issue tracker

How to update (click to show/hide)
  • Offer a user option to choose the splat ruler's snapping distance. Set this option to 0 to deactivate snapping altogether.
  • Make Lix compile again with D compilers older than DMD v2.102.0 from 2023-02. In 0.10.10, I silently relied on a compiler bugfix that correctly allows indexing associative arrays during @nogc; this needs DMD v2.102.0 or newer.


-- Simon

5
Lix Main / Re: De-Cluttering the Panel: Fewer Non-Skill Buttons
« on: June 03, 2023, 10:49:14 AM »


It's back to what we had from 0.9.x through 0.10.10, except that the zoom button is gone.

I've filled the void (from the removed zoom button) with a wider restart button. Reason: This button merely happened to be adjacent. This looks reasonable enough to ship it for a while, until I can think of something better.

-- Simon

6
NeoLemmix Main / Re: Join development team
« on: June 01, 2023, 10:44:16 PM »
The glaring bug here is that NeoLemmix doesn't tell how to cancel the replay (click into the air). I'm beginning to think that NeoLemmix should write that in big fat letters during replay.

You aren't the first to be confused on how to cancel the replay. I've heard about this confusion in Lix at least once before, and in NeoLemmix IIRC also another time before. It's a terrible problem. It has the potential to discourage new players from the hobby, and they'll never ask about it.

Welcome to the forums!

-- Simon

7
Lix Main / Re: Untrap Mouse with Remappable Hotkey
« on: May 31, 2023, 10:31:49 PM »
Last month, WillLem and I talked in Mumble about the mouse-trapping/freeing behavior. I changed it between 0.10.7 and 0.10.8, and it's identical from Lix 0.10.8 through Lix 0.10.10.

I forgot to write down your verdict. I believe you wanted stronger resistance, but not impossible resistance, against fast-movement-frees-mouse.

WillLem: What would you like exactly?

-- Simon

8
Lemmings Main / Re: New idea?
« on: May 31, 2023, 06:43:00 PM »
Welcome to the forums!

The best way to attract co-developers is to present a program that already does something fun and unique. It doesn't have to be perfect, as long as it's exciting to try. Compare it with some existing Lemmings projects here: All those projects started in the hands of a single programmer. Only over time, the projects attracted graphic artists, level designers, and extra programmers.

If you aren't into software development yourself: What would be the big new exciting idea? What do you envision that none of Lix, NeoLemmix, Lemmini, SuperLemmix, L2Player, Loap, ..., have yet? Do have a specific gripe about one of them that you want to see fixed?

-- Simon

9
Lix Main / Re: Lix 0.10.10 released
« on: May 29, 2023, 04:04:46 PM »
Lix 0.10.10 released.
  • Fix #452: The search for the next unsolved level works again for when the next unsolved level is not the next level. Before, from 0.10.6 through 0.10.9, the end-of-singleplayer screen showed only the next level.
  • Fix tooltips: When you hovered over a platformer or builder, the tooltip would always instruct you to queue, even if you had, e.g., miner selected in the skillbar. Now, the tooltip to queue appears only for the same selected skill.
  • Tweaker lines have white text when you hover over the corresponding lix.
  • When you erase an assignment via the tweaker, the tweaker will also erase all assignments to the same lix in the same or a future physics update.
  • Add Kingshadow's Rescue Reduction, a new multiplayer map for 3 through 8 players that combines Rescue Rangers Double Team with Downward Reduction.


-- Simon

10


Radical new plan. We'll ditch the scissors button again. Reasons:
  • Wasn't nice in my own playtesting on stream.
  • Behaves like a skill (mutual toggling, only one of those buttons can ever be active), thus goes into the skillbar. But feels alien in the skillbar.
  • Unclear what you can do with it on first sight.
  • I have other solutions for the design problems that prompted me to create the scissors button.
The design insights that suggest other solutions:
  • I want to avoid air misclicks during insert mode that cut the replay and thus lose data. We can do that by disallowing { air clicks cut replay } at certain times. We don't necessarily need a new button.
  • I see a lix on the map and want to erase her future. We can support that by better association between lix and their tweaker lines. E.g., we can highlight lines of the hovered lix (will be in 0.10.10). We can also highlight the lix of a hovered line (not implemented). It's not 100 % necessary to click the on lix to erase the assignments, we can also click on the assignments in the tweaker, which should also feel nicer.
  • In a multi-hatch level, especially in a disjoint union, I want to see which assignments go to which hatch, or to which level component. We can solve that by re-labeling the lix: Instead of a running count across all hatches, we can label the lix <hatchID><runningCountFromThatHatch> (not implemented). E.g., with three hatches, we'll get lix a0, b0, c0, a1, b1, c1, a2, ...
In Lix 0.10.10, we only have the highlighting of tweaker rows for the hovered lix. That's a standalone improvement. I'm happy to add that ahead of time, regardless of what we'll eventually implement for inserting.



If I don't want a scissors button, then how do we choose between cutting and inserting? We can tie the insert mode to user options. I believe that I want to be in insert mode 90 % of the time. With the options in this screenshot, I'd check both of the bottom Insert Mode options.

The downside is that it's harder to discover, and I'll need tooltips.

I haven't tried an insert button yet, I merely know that the scissors button is not so nice. It would be another option (good default?) to have an option for an insert button. I.e., replace the bottom two bool opions in the screenshot with radio buttons:
  • Never insert,
  • always insert,
  • insert only when tweaker is open,
  • insert only when insert button active, which starts off by default. And you get the button in the panel only when you pick this option. This can be default.
Odd thing though and more elaborate to tie the panel button layout to user options.

We can even consider a button that only cuts the replay, without creating new modes. Heretic idea! What a waste of panel space! But after all this design pondering, it doesn't sound as far-fetched as before. I still don't want to make one yet.

-- Simon

11
Lix Main / Re: De-Cluttering the Panel: Fewer Non-Skill Buttons
« on: May 27, 2023, 08:22:14 AM »


The scissors button will go away again. And I won't reintroduce the zoom button either.

The restart button will become larger again (half-skill height instead of crammed in the top row) to fill half of the void. I don't know yet what to do with the second half of the void. Please play some mental tetris with the buttons!

-- Simon

12
Thanks for the feedback!

-- Simon

13
Stream is over. Recording will remain for 14 days at: https://www.twitch.tv/simonnaar

I spent another hour on Metal City Mayhem, haven't solved it. I think I've sunk 2-3 hours total into it so far, plus subconcious brainstorming between streams.

I solved Behind Bars in 1 hour and 20 minutes, minus a few side conversations with the stream chatters. Replay attached. I remember how I helped Proxima backroute-fix Behind Bars 8 (?) years ago. Since then, I've completely forgotten the solution. I re-solved it today from scratch.

Next, I think I'd like to work on alternate ideas for replay cancelling than the scissors button: More user options on how/when to cut or insert based on whether the tweaker is open or not. Maybe you always want to insert, or only when the tweaker is open, we'll have to see what good default options are. I'll post it all in the scissors button topic.

-- Simon

14
The UI bugs from the previous stream (Sunday, May 21st) are now fixed.

For the next stream: I'm still not sure if the scissors button is really the best UI. We'll see. The main point of the stream is to test the scissors button myself more. Maybe the levels are getting too difficult for your entertainment, I can't promise anymore that I'll solve anything.

-- Simon

15
General Discussion / Re: geoo visits Simon, February 2023
« on: May 23, 2023, 07:57:50 PM »


Here is the story about NieSch's Tomb of Doom from Level Design Contest 27.

The image shows the lower half of Tomb of Doom. geoo and I each played on our machines next to each other. We tried for half an hour to find an efficient way across the lower-left pool.



Eventually, geoo said: "I want to use the Highland-10 trick to fling a worker out of the water pool."

L2 always flings lemmings upwards, even if they're below the epicenter of a flinging explosion. This method allows to save 100 % on Highland 10 instead of the intended lose-1. As in the gif, you mortar close to the faller, thus fling the faller to the bottom-right side.

You can even use a variant of the trick where you don't fling a faller, but a drowner, which will fly upwards out of the water and thus survive.

Well, this is all very nice in theory, but Tomb of Doom doesn't give us any mortars. namida never added flinging to NeoLemmix, thus the Highland-10 idea can't lead to anything promising. Right?

Spoiler for Tomb of Doom (click to show/hide)

NieSch, thanks for the most memorable a-ha effect of the contest-solving weekend!

-- Simon

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