Test Release 3 - 20/01/2022, Linux release (probably same for Windows)

The installation of L2Player tells us to extract it into the same directory where our L2 sits. This seems only necessary for the first successful run of L2Player because L2Player now extracts the L2 resources into its own tree that L2 cannot see.

The problem is that both L2Player and L2 contain several files in their root directories, and it's hard to separate the two programs later. E.g., if L2Player gets new files or drops files from its release, it's hard to wipe L2Player and cleanly reinstall. For now, I've duplicated the L2 files into L2Player's directory because I don't trust L2Player yet, it's a new program for me. :-)

I'd like a way to point L2Player to an L2 installation elsewhere for resource extraction. I expect L2Player to only read from that L2 path then, not modify any files in it. It's okay to continue to extract from the working directory if I don't explicitly point L2Player to an L2 installation.

The first idea that comes to mind is a command-line option, e.g.:
$ L2Player --extract-from=/path/to/l2/
or, if you need it more often than only during first run:
--l2path=

But anything is fine for now, e.g., you can ask me at runtime, or you let me edit a line in a config file. Or even declare it low priority. It's not so hard to duplicate L2 into L2Player.

If L2Player has already extracted the resources, I expect to run it later without pointing it to L2 again. In particular, if you don't give me a way to point L2Player elsewhere, I'd like to know how soon I can remove the duplicated L2 files in L2Player's root dir.

-- Simon

Test Release 3 - 20/01/2022

The Linux release contains OpenAL32.dll and wrap_oal.dll. The Linux executable is a native 64-bit ELF, and it runs as expected even when I delete both DLLs:

SpriteSheet: Calculated 102 font widths for ./data/cache/font_0.spt
Starting OpenAL... 1.1 ALSOFT 1.23.0, OpenAL Community, OpenAL Soft
[...]

Thus, you can omit OpenAL32.dll and wrap_oal.dll from the Linux release. You already instruct to install OpenAL natively.

-- Simon

Hi,

Let's meet in Mumble for loose discussion this Sunday, April 30th, starting 17:00 UTC. Flopsy has time to join this Sunday. Who else is up?

Haven't joined Mumble voicechat before for multiplayer? Ask me for Mumble server details. I'll PM you.



Possible topics:

• What annoys you in Lix?
  
• Singleplayer panel UI: What buttons to show? What buttons to hide in a secondary menu, or possibly a second bar?
  
• The 2023 roadmap.
  
• Level reorderings in lemforum. It's been a while and I'll have to piece together suggestions from last year's threads. Do you already have concrete ideas?
  
• Anything you like. Please bring your own topics!
  

-- Simon

From level Armani_Natural-born_R2V4.nxlv (Contest 27 entry, can't usefully link because I backrouted it and Icho will delete older versions of contest levels):

TITLE Natural-born
AUTHOR Armani
MUSIC dropthebeat
ID x55D5AD0151E8EF4E
VERSION x000000000000001C

From replay of that Natural-born v4:

USER Simon
TITLE Natural-born
AUTHOR Armani
GAME Contest_27
GROUP Contest_27
LEVEL 10
ID x55D5AD0151E8EF4E
VERSION 28

Compare the final quoted line of the level with the final quoted line of the replay: One is decimal, one is hex. To see that 0x1C = 28 isn't trivial, thus it's unnecessarily hard to see if the replay has really been played against that level version.

The ID is hex in both cases, that's fine. The version should also be identical in both cases, either both hex or both decimal, probably both decimal.

-- Simon

2017 -- 2018 -- 2020 -- 2022 -- 2023

---

Development in 2023 will focus on:

• Insert/Cut mode in singleplayer,
  
• Livestreaming singleplayer: the remaining lemforum/Hopeless, and other packs,
  
• Small physics bugs such as Basher Walks into Terrain,
  
• Stability and hard bugs such as Magic Pink on Mac,
  
• Fundamentals towards neutral lix.
  

Back in 2022 and January 2023, I've livestreamed lemforum on several evenings. I haven't livestreamed singleplayer Lix in February and March; instead, I've spent the free time on Lix development.

But I want to return to solving on livestream as soon as the cut button is functional. I'm inserting so much and hopping around in the solution timeline, I don't want to cut another replay by an accidental airclick.

I want to include Proxima's wood tiles and I'll have to fix Basher Walks into Terrain. I have ideas for that bug (and for miner❤blocker which is linked from that basher bug) that I still have to write down. Maybe that's already enough for a 0.11.0.

Thus, in the first half of 2023, these bugs and unfinished features have priority.

There are lemforum pack level movements/replacements waiting, and I want to merge some level movements. I forgot parts already, I'll have to plow through the level topics and stream feedback topics.

Development for neutral lix: I'll postpone this in light of the stuff above. I won't work on neutrals before summer/autumn of 2023. We'll see what comes back from the other stuff during summer. I have ideas and decisions with geoo, I'll still have to post those. With all the groundwork that we envision for Lix's internals and for the level format, it'll be too much to cram as stable into 2023.

-- Simon

Hi,

geoo has visited me for a week.

For this visit, we happened to snatch exactly the weekend with the big publication of the Level Design Contest 27 entries. We had a lot of fun playing the levels together, often getting fresh ideas from each other.

But first: Do you remember how geoo visited me in September 2010, almost 13 years ago, and we took this photo?



Here's the up-to-date recreation:



I'm still the tall guy in the red shirt. geoo has the black shirt.

And it's the very same empty bag of Quavers! The quavers from inside are long gone, but they were curly. Here in Germany, this brand of potato chip isn't sold, so I've kept the empty bag as a souvenir to the old visit, and to the 1992/1993 DOS games Pushover and One Step Beyond.

We cooked meals, worked from home on our day jobs, played levels, raged about time limits, played card games and board games, and theorized improvements for both Lix and NeoLemmix. We'll have a few stories to tell.

Stay tuned for more posts, with more photos!

-- Simon

A basher oddity found by Icho during multiplayer in Lix 0.10.5. Thanks! Here's a reduced example level.

Rule 1: Bashers walk forward during some frames in their cycle. This forward movement is allowed to enter terrain, i.e., the basher's foot is allowed to move into and through terrain.

Reasoning behind rule 1: Either the basher's swing removed all terrain here, therefore we won't walk into earth anyway. Or the basher hit steel, immediately stopped bashing, and won't walk forward.

Rule 2: During the walk forward, bashers lower themselves into holes. Bashers never gain height.

Reasoning behind rule 2: We removed all terrain onto which we might step upwards, or cancelled on steel in the way. Either way, there is no need for the basher to ever rise. But the basher may try to walk over holes, and the basher should certainly fall into such holes if they're deep enough. If the holes are shallow, it's okay for the basher to continue; shallow holes shouldn't break mental pathfinding.

As a result of rules 1 and 2 combined, the attached level Basher Walks into Terrain is solvable (saves 1 of 2, using 1 cuber, 1 basher, and a few jumpers to position the cuber and basher). The thin white line is steel.



The most noticeable effect here is that we can clip through a particular arrangement of steel.

The second effect is that a basher falls through an arrangement through which a following crowd would not fall. The non-falling crowd alerted Icho in the first place.

I don't have a good solution.

• Basher source on github
  
• github #47: Basher/Miner Interact with Blocker, Passes Through Wall, a closely related bug that comes from the same two rules.
  
• geoo's post from 2015: basher/miner❤blocker interaction, desired behavior? -- the same bug as #47, but on Lemmings Forums instead of on github.
  

-- Simon

NL 12.5.5.

Have a lemming near the top of the level, almost at the ceiling. Have space in front of the lemming. Select jumper in the panel. Hover over the lemming.

Game draws an arc that goes out of bounds (where nothing is drawn, and this is correct), then returns downwards from the ceiling. But if we assign jumper, the jumper does not follow this arc. Instead, the jumper dies beyond the ceiling and never returns. The arc and the path do not match even though there is no interaction with other lemmings.

Expected: The arc comes back from the ceiling if and only if the jumper survives.

-- Simon