This is probably well known, maybe even used somewhere but since I've encountered it:

Passing through blockers in two different variants (attached replays for both):

1st Is more of an oddity that works in L1 Winlemm as well I think. The lix can walk through two blockers under following circumstances:
- You position a blocker at a very specific place close to the hatch.
- You position then a blocker directly under the hatch.
=> The lix will "dance" through the two blockers.

2nd Is about changing directions through blockers:
- You place a blocker under the hatch. (=> Lix can still pass through in their spawning direction)
- You place another blocker one frame to the side of the first blocker. (=> Spawning lix will be turned around and pass through the first blocker to the other side.)
- You place then another blocker one frame to the other side of the first blocker.
=> Lix will be turned around again and walk through the first and second blocker (in their original spawning direction).

Maybe this is even desired:
But if you fulfil the save requirement and just exit the level with Esc/Menu then the solving replay is automatically saved although you haven't finished the level properly.
This means that infinite replays can be automatically saved under solved.
Simon indicated that infinite solving replays are no problem for him, so maybe a non-issue. But I find it incomplete to provide such a replay and it accidentally happened to me once.

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this and it is I think Win specific:

But I don't want to use command prompt for building, so I do it via batch file. The problem is that it is then hard to catch error messages since the window closes usually immediately.
So I'd actually like to create a logfile. I know that you can generally use > to get the output to a file. But now my problem: While it catches some messages like concerning the libraries it doesn't seem to catch the actual compiling messages, in particular not compiling errors.
I don't know why and what I can do about it. Has anyone an idea?

Edit: Okay, I think I have found it out myself. For the compiling messages I seem to need to use 2>.

Issue #262 on github

mobius discovered that (for an older Lix version) on Win when in fullscreen Lix remains on the screen (like a background screen image) when tabbing out and you cannot get to other windows.

My observations concerning v. 0.9.7 (I really hope they are accurate since it really behaves odd and particular):
- Hardware fullscreen seems to behave as expected, i.e. doesn't have this issue, i.e. lets you switch to other windows and minimizes.
- Software fullscreen:
a) If you press Win key you get the task bar but cannot switch to other tabs by clicking on them and Lix remains on the screen in the background. You can though open program windows with the popping up Start menu but only in its activation via Win key but not if you click on the Start menu button (Win 7). If you opened such another window you can actually switch by clicking on tabs until you focus Lix again.
b) If you press Alt+Tab you can get to other open windows and can change to other windows but Lix remains on the screen in the background unless you explicitly choose desktop and clicking on any other window then seems to bring Lix in the background again.

Edit Simon: This was split off mobius's how replays work ??

Quote from: Simon on December 29, 2017, 01:51:51 PM
Don't use Windows Notepad, it cannot display text files with Unix line endings, which is a 30-year-old bug.

Isn't that too much said? Of all the plenty files I inspected I could open all but sometimes the text was just clustered with no real line breaks. So isn't it more like it can't understand the line breaks than that it can't be read at all?
$FILENAME should be the first entry, so even without line breaks it should be viable.

Quote from: Simon on December 29, 2017, 01:51:51 PM
Use a reasonable text editor, of which there are many.

That's not really helpful. You point users to go on search for external software to use your product properly. Especially if there are many it can be hard to decide what to take and what is safe to take.
I can understand that it would be problematic to promote a particular program it is nevertheless not user friendly.
I don't know if it would be at least ok to link to a trustworthy arcticle which presents the different alternatives?

I had a crash while playing with the main message:

core.exception.AssertError@src\lix\skill\basher.d(101): Assertion failure

I have used my own (debug) build (of 0.9.6), so maybe I messed something up with it. I moved furthermore the folder to another place after the build but the error message still shows the path of the build place.

Edit: Debug build seems to crash consistently, release build from the same data doesn't. Debug build crashes consistently when basher finishes tunnel. That didn't happen with the test builds you provided. Did you do something with the basher code in the meantime? Or do I do something utterly wrong? At least release build doesn't crash.

Following the full message from log.txt:
(I have censored parts of the file paths but the important bits should be still there):

Lix version:  0.9.6
Session date: 2017-12-28 01:48:14
  1028.02 src\lix\skill\basher.d:101:
  1028.07 Assertion failure
  1028.28 0x005334DF in _d_assertp
0x00509085 in void lix.skill.basher.Basher.stopIfMovedDownTooFar() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\lix\skill\basher.d(100)
0x00508D72 in void lix.skill.basher.Basher.perform() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\lix\skill\basher.d(38)
0x00507E4B in void lix.perform.performUseGadgets(lix.lixxie.LixxieImpl*) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\lix\perform.d(19)
0x0050796A in void lix.lixxie.LixxieImpl.perform(lix.fields.OutsideWorld*)
0x004CBB8E in D4game5modelQg9GameModel13updateLixxiesMFZ15performUnmarkedMFE3net2ac9PhyuOrderZ9__lambda2MFCQDF961ACA6FFECAD39D41547C51BB029FD at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\model.d(254)
0x004CB892 in void game.model.model.GameModel.updateLixxies().foreachLix(void delegate(game.tribe.Tribe, const(int), lix.lixxie.LixxieImpl*)) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\model.d(216)
0x004CBB03 in void game.model.model.GameModel.updateLixxies().performUnmarked(net.ac.PhyuOrder) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\model.d(250)
0x004CB7C3 in void game.model.model.GameModel.updateLixxies() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\model.d(265)
0x004CB040 in void game.model.model.GameModel.advance() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\model.d(94)
0x004CCD03 in void game.model.nurse.Nurse.updateOnce() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\nurse.d(221)
0x004CC5E0 in void game.model.nurse.Nurse.updateTo(const(net.phyu.Phyu), const(game.model.cache.DuringTurbo)) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\model\nurse.d(138)
0x004C4A55 in void game.core.speed.updatePhysicsAccordingToSpeedButtons(game.core.game.Game).upd(const(int), const(game.model.cache.DuringTurbo)) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\core\speed.d(27)
0x004C49AF in void game.core.speed.updatePhysicsAccordingToSpeedButtons(game.core.game.Game) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\core\speed.d(72)
0x004C1199 in void game.core.calc.implGameCalc(game.core.game.Game).noninputCalc() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\core\calc.d(27)
0x004C10D8 in void game.core.calc.implGameCalc(game.core.game.Game) at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\core\calc.d(39)
0x004C3415 in void game.core.game.Game.calc() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\game\core\game.d(195)
0x0042B383 in void basics.mainloop.MainLoop.calc() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\basics\mainloop.d(265)
0x0042AC4F in void basics.mainloop.MainLoop.mainLoop() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\basics\mainloop.d(103)
0x0050DD04 in int main.main(immutable(char)[][]).__lambda2() at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\main.d(39)
0x0053194F in extern (C) int allegro5.system.al_run_allegro(scope int delegate()).main_runner(int, char**) at C:\...\LixD-master\..\..\AppData\Roaming\dub\packages\allegro-4.0.1_5.2.0\allegro\allegro5\system.d(45)
0x00531933 in int allegro5.system.al_run_allegro(scope int delegate()) at C:\...\LixD-master\..\..\AppData\Roaming\dub\packages\allegro-4.0.1_5.2.0\allegro\allegro5\system.d(62)
0x0050DCB7 in _Dmain at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\main.d(35)
0x0053EDFB in void rt.dmain2._d_run_main(int, char**, extern (C) int function(char[][])*).runAll().__lambda1()
0x0053EDBF in void rt.dmain2._d_run_main(int, char**, extern (C) int function(char[][])*).runAll()
0x0053ECC0 in _d_run_main
0x0050DD30 in main at C:\...\LixD-master0_9_6\LixD-master\src\verify\counter.d(7)
0x0057D8F9 in mainCRTStartup
0x76AB337A in BaseThreadInitThunk
0x77519882 in RtlInitializeExceptionChain
0x77519855 in RtlInitializeExceptionChain

This is probably again one of my specific problems and has to do with how I encountered Lix as I started playing it.

The main question is:
Is there any (unobtrusive) way to make the in-level-replay in its working clearer?

In particular:
The fact that and how you can cancel the replay (when using e.g. restart).

As I started playing Lix that really messed with me since I thought I was caught with my former actions forever.
I messed something up or just wanted to restart the level, but then by using restart the replay just repeated all my actions, which I actually wanted to redo. I think I soon realized that it cancelled if you assign a skill but sometimes you want to move an assignment forwards and not backwards and that didn't seem to be possible to me.
Form that experience I have still the habit to just completely quit and enter a level if I want to restart it.

To be clear I don't want to speak against the replay functionality. It's just an experience report from someone who started playing Lix mainly with knowledge of L1 but not of newer engines and I'm not sure if there can be done anything against it.

Edit: It just gets to my mind that I even played Lemmings for Windows (1995), which had already the action replay functionality but I think I never used nor understood it at that time.

Quote from: Simon on December 13, 2017, 03:52:34 PM
Draw splat ruler even when it doesn't snap to anything.

Does this really improve useability? But if the others get better along with that I have to take it I guess.

As I looked through the build instructions I noticed that there are non-working links provided:

Windows build instructions:
1st One of the forum links: asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/bb/forum.php
2nd Allegro DLL/lib. package: http://www.lixgame.com/dow/alleg-5.2-dlls-libs.zip

And the file mentions an appendix 2 but there doesn't seem to be one?

Linux build instructions:
Lix website: http://asdfasdf.etzh.ch/~simon

Probably everybody knows this already or maybe there is even something implemented but I just wanted to share how I integrated the large bridge tiles (in fact made of 4 Simon bridge tiles) into the existing Clam levels as I converted the oriental ones.

1st Create a level file with the desired tile groups

This one is maybe obvious but you can build tile groups (connect them as tile groups) in the ingame editor and save. This creates a level file with the tile group data. The level will show missing hatches but you can edit it and so work with the tile groups (copying, deleting etc. them as you need). You so create a template that you could use if you want to build new levels with these tile groups.

2nd Copy the tile group data of the desired tile groups in the desired level file

But I wanted to integrate them in existing files.
So you can open your template level file with the tile group data and copy that data + (at least) one instance of that group in the desired existing file.

The structure of the tile group data is like that (example: one of the big bridge tiles):

$BEGIN_TILE_GROUP 0
:simon/oriental/bridge1: 0 22
:simon/oriental/bridge1: 44 0
:simon/oriental/bridge1: 0 65 rr
:simon/oriental/bridge1: 44 43 rr
$END_TILE_GROUP

You have a bracket of $BEGIN_TILE_GROUP 0 and $END_TILE_GROUP and inbetween the tile data of which the tile group is composed. (0 indicates which tile group it is.)
You have to integrate that and then one instance, which for example looks like that:

:Group-0: 112 132 rr

Group-0 is the name of the tile group, so if you want to integrate more than one tile group you have to look for the number. (The colon at the beginning seems to be some sort of separator, the numbers are the coordinates and rr seems to indicate that I turned it twice.)
And you need to give different numbers to different tile groups in the tile group data.

I have attached a template level of the big bridge tiles:
tile group 0 is the angled bridge tile group that is built roughly on the shape of the old tiles.
tile group 1 is the straight bridge tile group (built roughly on the shape of the old tiles).
tile group 2 is the angled bridge tile group that is built to fit to the straight ones.

You can look at this file to get an impression how it looks like with more than one tile group.

I have attached a pointless test level as well, where I integrated one of the big bridge tiles, which is another reference how to exactly integrate such tile groups.
The easiest way seems to be to just integrate it after the skill enumeration. (Make sure that everything concerning tile group data is in different lines.) (It will be probably reordered after you have saved in the ingame editor but that shouldn't be a problem.)

If you have integrated them you can copy, delete etc. them in the ingame editor as you wish and so work with them.

Just a side note in the end: Since I converted the levels I mainly text edited and used find and replace (all) to replace the old tiles with the new tile groups (and didn't need to integrate an (extra) instance of the tile groups). But I got as I side information how to integrate such tile groups, which could in turn be used for level building. 

I hope that explanation was not redundant and not too confusing.

This one should only hit people that change replay files; is therefore a very specific and rare thing I think. So it's probably not important but I was shortly confused.

PointedTo and the verifier don't seem to be case sensitive (at least concerning subfolders) but the checkmarks seem to be.

I think as I dealt with "Five for Fighting" (FfF) I wanted to try out my solution to "Whispering Wind" (WW). To achieve that I copied the replay of WW and changed the $FILENAME to the respective one for FfF but wrote "vicious" with lowercase first letter and used pointedTo.
I saw quite early that my other solution won't work and tried other things finding a solution, which was saved in solved/lemforum/vicious/
The folder "vicious" was created with lowercase first letter and within the replay file the path was lowercase first letter for the rank subfolder as well.
The verifier had no problems but no checkmark was created even when I played the replay.
As I realized what could be the reason and changed "vicious" in the replay file to uppercase first letter the checkmark was created after playing the replay.

To reproduce this:

- copy a replay of a lemforum level to an instance of Lix that has in replays/solved/lemforum/ no subfolder for the rank of it (but the same player name of course)
- change the $FILENAME within the replay file to lowercase first letter for the rank
- use pointedTo to play it, cancel it somewhen and solve the rest of the level
->
- A subfolder of the rank should have been created in solved/lemforum/ with lowercase first letter and the replay file in there should have lowercase first letter for the rank subfolder as well
- There should be no checkmark for that level and playing that replay shouldn't create one.

- Now change the path in the replay to an uppercase first letter for the rank subfolder.
- Play the replay.
->
- Now the checkmark should appear.

I hope my description is accurate and reproduceable.

I ask only out of curiosity; I'm no programmer and have no knowledge of D as language, so sorry if this question is out of place.

Issue #263 has as main error message:
core.exception.AssertError@src/game/tribe.d(210): Assertion failure

and issue #269 has:
core.exception.AssertError@src/game/tribe.d(211): Assertion failure

The numbers are different and one is reported to have happened at the beginning and the other at the end of a multiplayer game but there seem quite some similiarities apart from that both happened to geoo.

One side remark: It seems that Lix error windows appear in the background (at least for Windows XP, 7). That seems to make them (or even a crash) hard to spot. I don't know if there is something to do about it.

That issue struck me as I was playing Nessy's levels:

Destroyable tiles looked like steel colorwise and that confused me.
In particular it was matt/bricks/18 and if combined with other tiles the small geoo/construction/concrete (in particular here: 008) tiles; I thought they were steel pieces.
(I have to admit I was extremely tired as I played these levels, so I'm not fully sure if I would have been as confused if I had been in a better state of mind. And I don't know if anyone else has this problem.)

I don't know any good solution.
Simon seems to want to implement a mode where steel is specifically marked as such but that feels more like a workaround. You have to suspect that there is unclear terrain but then you try out anyways or you have to check every level you play. I really don't want to speak against such a feature; it's really nice to get information about the level and it can be helpful. But the best thing would be you could see it without such means but maybe that's not viable. To be clear I don't want these tiles to be culled but maybe they can be marked or recolored?

(To be clear furthermore that is not directed against Nessy's level design; these tiles are available as terrain pieces and have their aesthetics. It's if at all more a problem about these tiles itself.)

Again if nobody else has a problem with it I can live with it since now I know that this can occur.

Sorry for bringing up another thing but that just occured to me:

I solved Rubix Sinister level "Holly Jingle?" (v.0.9.3) and the replay was automatically saved in solved/rubix/Sinister.
When I mass verify it then it shows fail whereas when I look at it it succeeds.

I've attached the replay.

verifier.txt shows only 5300 Phyus but it lasted 5457 Phyus.

(FAIL),replays/solved/rubix/Sinister/hollyjingle-Forestidia-2017-11-26-031453.txt,levels/single/rubix/Sinister/hollyjingle.txt,Forestidia,97,99,5,5300

I hesitated to report this since I was using one of the test versions of lix and it's as well possible that my laptop had just "hiccups" then.

But since I got an error message I could as well post it; maybe it's of interest, maybe not.

It just happened when I started the game.

Looked through the log file and a message that could be related to it is:
0.18 Allegro 5 can't install audio

This gets printed from src/hardware/sound.d:

    // assumes Allegro has been initialized, but audio hasn't been initialized
    if (! al_install_audio())
        log("Allegro 5 can't install audio");


The rest from that day seems to be mostly complaining that translations are missing (due to v.0.9.2) and that I had a zip-file in the level folder, which couldn't be read.

Some things that occured to me when adjusting the Clam levels:

First of all I'm not experienced with the editor so if the feature is already there then understand my remarks as questions if they are there and how to apply them.

Is there something like an undo button? I always lost my non-saved progress if I made a missclick and moved the wrong tile (group). Since I was dealing with an existing level I couldn't guarantee to move it back to the original position.

Is there a possibility to show grid lines? That would have been helpful to see where exactly everything is situated.

Is there something like a blank space to manage tiles? I had an existing level before me and if that was quite full or had giant tile clusters then it was hard to manage new tiles. Managing means for example: put them together to tile groups, copying them etc.

I know I speak from a very particular viewpoint and that makes these things maybe not so important but I just wanted to bring that up since it occured to me.

Attached a crash window that occured to me as I used the level editor. The game froze and I had to kill the process.
Unfortunately I cannot say what I exactly did. I was just generally copying tiles, combining them to tilegroups and moving them.

Even if the ground is destructable the miner at certain places (kind of seam places that have a rather steep angle I think) only starts to mine and then stops. This is probably intended to a certain degree but it is not always obvious where this will happen I think.
I attached a replay to demonstrate that (the situation is at the very end of the replay.)

I mentioned it already in this post but since it was something like a stress test for the game I post it with a bit more precise information:

System specs:

Old laptop (abbreviation: OL):
CPU: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU T4500 @ 2.30GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Graphics card: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
VRAM: Dedicated: 64 MB -  Total (including shared memory): 1695 MB
OS: Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Newer laptop (abbreviation: NL):
CPU: AMD A6-5200 APU Quad-Core @ 2.00GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 8400
VRAM: Dedicated: 493 MB -  Total (including shared memory): 4077MB
OS: Win 8.1, 64 bit

The level "Any Way You Want" without doing anything:
OL: FPS: about 12, VRAM: max. 87 MB
NL: FPS: slightly below 60, VRAM: max. 87 MB

Stress test:

Map: Infinitus (8p) modified to have 999 lix, played within singleplayer

Test:
- let all lix spawn
- nuke

FPS at the beginning:
OL: about 5
NL: about 40-45

FPS before nuking:
OL: 2-4
NL: about 18

FPS while nuke:
OL: 2
NL: about 10
FPS eventually rise when much less lix are on the screen by the end.

max. VRAM-usage:
OL: about 218 MB (250 MB was from a bit different setting with more distributed lix)
NL: about 203 MB

This came up already in this thread/post but what I sorely miss is something like a splat ruler/something to determine splat height.
The levels have by default different sizes and that makes it hard for me to assess what is safe to do concerning fall height. The assessment concerning that determines what I try or if I can get to a particular idea. There was even an instance where I used a real life ruler to get an idea what I can do.

So if at any time new features are added again I would make this feature wish.