SuperLemmini 0.104a

[Tsyu]

It's finally out! Superlemmini is a modification of Lemmini that I've been working on for some time. Here are some of the features that have been added:

• Lots of bugs fixed
• Game mechanics more faithful to the Amiga version while preserving Lemmini's smooth motion
• Automatic mod support: Level packs can apply added and changed assets when loaded
• Support for WAV, AIFF, AU, OGG, XM, S3M, MOD, and MIDI music
• PNG and GIF graphics
• Support for importing LVL files from DAT files
• Support for multilayer animated backgrounds
• Vertical level scrolling
• 324 levels included (sort of; extraction from Windows version is still necessary):
  
  • 120 levels from original Amiga Lemmings
  • 4 levels from "Free with Commodore Promotion Pack" version
  • 2 levels from "Book Club" version
  • Apple level (see here)
  • "Going Their Separate Ways" from Mac version
  • "One Way to Freedom" from Amiga Format demo
  • 100 OMNL levels
  • 2 Xmas '91 levels
  • 4 Xmas '92 levels
  • 32 Holiday '93 levels from Amiga version
  • "Vacation in Gemland" from DOS version of Holiday '93
  • 32 Holiday '94 levels
  • 8 levels from COVOX Lemmings
  • 16 levels from Lemmings Companion

Download it here (Java 8 required): https://www.dropbox.com/s/knqj014prgwyw9i/superlemmini_0.104a.zip?dl=1
(Source code: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6dav3k830iiulfg/superlemmini_0.104a_source.zip?dl=1)

Here's a package containing an enhanced version of the Lemmings soundtrack, containing music from certain DOS CD versions and Mac Holiday Lemmings. To install it, first complete the SuperLemmini resource extraction, then place this file where you saved the resources.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hm4q07xr497kzfi/superlemmini_enhanced_music.lzp?dl=1

Here are the levels from the Genesis/Mega Drive version. Install it in the same manner as the music pack above.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5frnphi4ze9nvv/superlemmini_megadrive.lzp?dl=1

Newer versions of the NeoLemmix editor do not support SuperLemmini. For more information, see this thread:
http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2874.0

[Tsyu]

Playing levels via the command line

To start a level directly with the command line, use this syntax:

Code: [Select]

java -jar [superlemmini.jar path] -l [level path]
Both paths must include the file name.

For now, levels loaded in this manner cannot use mods. I plan to remedy this sometime in the future.


How to use the mod feature

The mod feature allows you to create assets that are used only in certain level packs. For example, maybe you want the lemmings to look different, or maybe you want to add terrain pieces to a default style (which requires modifying an INI file); tasks like these are best done using the mod feature.

To create a mod, go to the folder where you performed the initial resource extraction and open the "mods" folder. Create a new folder there and give it any name you want (this will be your mod's name). Inside that folder, add the files that you want to have in your mod, using the same folder structure as the main resource folder.

To use a mod in your level pack, open levelpack.ini and add a new line containing "mods = ", followed by a list of mods that you want your level pack to use. It should look something like this:

Code: [Select]

mods = mymod1, mymod2
Mods are listed in order from highest priority to lowest priority.

To see an example of this in action, see the Genesis level pack, which includes its own mod.


Lemmini level compatibility

Because of the changes in SuperLemmini, some levels may not play properly, especially if they use custom or modified styles. Here are some of the things that may need to be changed:

General

• Never have the user overwrite any of the default resources! If you wish to modify them for your levels, use the mod feature instead! (And don't include any of the default resources in the mod unless they are supposed to be modified, renamed, or moved. Not only is doing so in violation of the license agreement, it can prevent updates to those resources from taking effect in your levels!)

Styles

• The "xmas" style is included with SuperLemmini, so your levels do not need to (and should not) include that style unless it was changed. (And note that it's called "xmas", not "christmas". If you used that latter name for the style, then you may need to adjust your levels.)
• The original Lemmini used the middle of the lemming for object collision detection. In SuperLemmini, this has been changed to just below the lemming's foot, which is what the original games did. For this reason, you will likely need to adjust your style's trigger areas. The maskOffsetX_n and maskOffsetY_n parameters (where n is the object number) can be used to move the trigger areas.
• The sound that's played when a lemming hits one-way arrows now depends on the sound_n parameter. Assuming you're using the default sounds and sound table, set the value of sound_n to 3.
• Likewise, the trapdoor sound is now defined in sound_n. The sound that you probably want is 5.

levelpack.ini

• The files awesome.mod, beasti.mod, beastii.mod, and menace.mod have been moved to a subfolder called "special." For this reason, if the music list includes these, then you must append "special/" to the beginning of each of those entries. Failure to do so can result in a crash.

Levels

• The style called "special" no longer exists; the special graphics are now implemented in a fasion similar to the original games. If you have a level that uses the "special" style, you must modify it in the following manner:
  
  • If the terrain piece isn't placed at exactly 608:0, then move it there. You may also need to move the objects and the starting position.
  • Change the value of the "style" parameter to "brick".
  • Add a new parameter called "specialStyle" and set its value to the appropriate special style ("awesome", "beasti", beastii", or "menace").
  • Remove the terrain piece.
  • Look through the object entries for objects with an ID of 2. Change those to 7.
  • If the terrain piece was inverted or multiple pieces were used, then the instructions above are not appropriate for your level. If this is the case, then you will need to create a new style using the graphics from the dirt set and the special styles, which are found in the subfolders of the styles\special folder.

And, most important, test your levels! Many adjustments to physics, styles, and other things were made in SuperLemmini, so what worked in the original Lemmini might not work in SuperLemmini.


Backgrounds

Information on the background format is in the level documentation that's included with SuperLemmini (docs\level format.txt), just after the steel section.

[Minim]

This should be exciting. I was going to try it out but I get this error message (see attachment) when I've extracted the WinLemm files. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but can someone please help me out with this?

[Tsyu]

It sounds like the resource extraction didn't go quite right. Can you post a screenshot of your resource folder (that is, where you extracted the WinLemm files)?

(In the future, don't post BMPs; they're uncompressed and can get quite large. Use PNG instead.)

[wysiwyg]

Hi Tsyu,

I've started testing Superlemmini out for you, I'll let you know of any bugs I find.

Not sure why but I'm having to extract the files from winlemm everytime I start Superlemmini up though. I keep getting the message it is the first time I've started Superlemmini even though it isn't. Is this intentional or should it be a one-time only extraction?

[Ron_Stard]

Not sure why but I'm having to extract the files from winlemm everytime I start Superlemmini up though. I keep getting the message it is the first time I've started Superlemmini even though it isn't. Is this intentional or should it be a one-time only extraction?

I have the same issue. Also, music doesn't seem to go fluent, but by fits and starts.

[Tsyu]

The problem that everyone is experiencing is caused by the routine that gets the path where the JAR file is located--namely, that it doesn't work if the JAR is not named "lemmini.jar." I haven't figured out how to fix it (it's a surprisingly difficult thing to do), so I switched to saving superlemmini.ini to the user's home folder instead of where the JAR is located.

Download SuperLemmini again from the original post and see whether the problem continues to occur more than once.

Also, music doesn't seem to go fluent, but by fits and starts.

Can you post your system specs? Are you using the music pack (and not playing the ONML or Holiday '94 levels)?

[Ron_Stard]

Can you post your system specs? Are you using the music pack (and not playing the ONML or Holiday '94 levels)?

Yes, I am using the default music pack, and it happens both in ONML and in Lemmings 1 levels.
I am using Windows 7 within a 10" Intel Atom laptop. More precisely, Intel Atom N270, dual core @ 1.6 Ghz, 32 bits, 2 GB RAM.

[Tsyu]

Yes, I am using the default music pack, and it happens both in ONML and in Lemmings 1 levels.
I am using Windows 7 within a 10" Intel Atom laptop. More precisely, Intel Atom N270, dual core @ 1.6 Ghz, 32 bits, 2 GB RAM.

When I said "music pack," I was referring to the enhanced music pack that's downloaded separately, not what comes with the game. Which one were you referring to?

Anyway, I made another update (0.90b) that should solve your problem. If it doesn't, then go to your "home" folder (usually C:\Users\[username] in Windows 7) and open "superlemmini.ini" (the ".ini" part might be hidden). In that file, look for a line that begins with "bufferSize". Change the number to 16384, save the file, and run SuperLemmini. If you still get the stuttering, try 32768. If that doesn't work, try 65536.

[mobius]

I downloaded and tried-- thanks for your hard-work! 

It was nice to play the Covox levels which I never have before, and will eventually try the others which I never have.

I like the points system. I love the right click/walker select and middle mouse button scroll!
also being able to block out of the entrance again is very nice

I don't like all of the changes however; I wish you could still assign blockers; climber/floaters and I  really don't like the steel being brokenish again.

I may have found a problem with the graphics; in the crystal terrain the black portions of terrain seem to be treated just like empty space. 
I actually got this to happen with old Lemmini somehow  but I don't remember how

[Tsyu]

I wish you could still assign blockers; climber/floaters

This isn't possible in the original games either. I can re-add this if enough people want it, but it still wouldn't be allowed in the included levels.

and I  really don't like the steel being brokenish again.

This behavior exists only in levels that set "classicSteel" to true (all the included levels do). Otherwise, the steel behavior is similar, but not identical, to that of the original Lemmini.

I may have found a problem with the graphics; in the crystal terrain the black portions of terrain seem to be treated just like empty space. 

Is the COVOX level the only "crystal" level that you tried? If so, then keep in mind that that level is really a special-graphics level that uses the bubble set. What you observed there also happens in the DOS version, and I don't plan on changing it.

[namida]

Yeah, COVOX level exhibits that problem in all versions. Black space is regarded as non-solid in VGASPEC levels; you can see similar effects in Mayhem 22.

[Zack]

I try to extract but I get the error saying CRC error for file D:/Games/WINLEMM/SOUND/BANG.WAV. How would I extract it successfully and not get any errors?

[Tsyu]

I try to extract but I get the error saying CRC error for file D:/Games/WINLEMM/SOUND/BANG.WAV. How would I extract it successfully and not get any errors?

It sounds like that file differs from what I (and everyone else here) have. If you have the CD, can you try reinstalling WinLemm (that just means copying files from the CD)? If that doesn't work or you don't have the CD (please tell me which one is the case), then upload WINLEMM/SOUND/BANG.WAV to an online hash calculator (here's a good one) and tell me what the SHA-1 hash is.

[Zack]

Another error I get when trying to extract is Unable to patch file D:/Games/WINLEMM/sound/bang.wav.
Size of source differs from that in patch header

[Tsyu]

Another error I get when trying to extract is Unable to patch file D:/Games/WINLEMM/sound/bang.wav.
Size of source differs from that in patch header

Can you follow the instructions in my previous post?

Also, make sure you're not extracting to the WinLemm folder. When asked for two paths, the first one must be the WinLemm folder, and the second one must be the folder where you want to extract the files to (again, it cannot be the WinLemm folder).

I highly recommend deleting the contents of your WinLemm folder and reinstalling it from whatever media you have. Doing so should solve your problem.

[mobius]

I wish you could still assign blockers; climber/floaters

This isn't possible in the original games either. I can re-add this if enough people want it, but it still wouldn't be allowed in the included levels.

and I  really don't like the steel being brokenish again.

This behavior exists only in levels that set "classicSteel" to true (all the included levels do). Otherwise, the steel behavior is similar, but not identical, to that of the original Lemmini.

ok great! I haven't had any issues with the starting the game and working btw. 
I may tell people to use this when I release my Lemmini Levelpack instead of old Lemmini.
--------------
I found possibly a minor graphical glitch [for real this time]. The image attached is a level of mine. The upside-down vines are a different color than when right-side up. I need to investigate more but this doesn't happen in Lemmix or old Lemmini. It's not a big deal in any case.

[Tsyu]

I found possibly a minor graphical glitch [for real this time]. The image attached is a level of mine. The upside-down vines are a different color than when right-side up. I need to investigate more but this doesn't happen in Lemmix or old Lemmini. It's not a big deal in any case.

I don't see the problem in that picture; the upside-down vines look the same as the normal ones.

[Zack]

I downloaded the zip file and noticed the SuperLemmini.ini file isn't in the zip file.

[Tsyu]

I downloaded the zip file and noticed the SuperLemmini.ini file isn't in the zip file.

That file isn't included; it's created in your home folder (typically "C:\Users\[username]" in Windows 7) after you've run the game. (And notice that I said "home folder." The file is not created where superlemmini.jar is located.)

[Zack]

I'm trying to edit a level in Lemmix, but it won't open since the style files are in png format. How can I get Lemmix to work with png?

[namida]

I don't believe Lemmix supports Lemmini styles, it only supports Lemmini levels. You can either download and use the DOS versions of the styles, or else there's an editor called jLevelBuilder that has been built primarily with Lemmini in mind (though it does support DOS/Lemmix format too). It's quite a powerful one; my biggest reason for not using it is that it has the opposite problem to Lemmix: It doesn't support DOS/Lemmix styles, only Lemmini ones. (It's possible to convert them, but that's a bit more hassle than I can be bothered with, especially when I'm creating my own styles and I often test them or even build full levels while still working on the styles.)

jLevelBuilder is probably a better option for Lemmini levels anyway, since I believe Lemmix still enforces DOS limitations even when editing Lemmini levels. (I could be wrong about this - in all honesty, I don't use either; I still use LemEdit - which wouldn't be suitable for you, it has zero Lemmini support whatsoever.)

I'm not sure if Lix's editor supports Lemmini format, since Lix doesn't work at all for me so I haven't investigated much what it's capable of, but that might also be worth looking into.

[Zack]

Is there anyway Lemmini can be full screen one day? I've always wondered what it would be like to play it Full Screen.

[Tsyu]

I don't believe Lemmix supports Lemmini styles, it only supports Lemmini levels.

Lemmix actually does support Lemmini styles. However, it doesn't any of the features that are new to SuperLemmini, such as PNG graphics; only GIF is supported.

since I believe Lemmix still enforces DOS limitations even when editing Lemmini levels.

This is also incorrect; Lemmix handles the doubled resolution just fine, as long as a Lemmini style is being used. However, it can't actually play the levels, and the new SuperLemmini features are unsupported and discarded.

Is there anyway Lemmini can be full screen one day? I've always wondered what it would be like to play it Full Screen.

Full-screen support and in-game window resizing likely require an overhaul of graphics-pane code, which I intend to do eventually (no, I don't know when). In the meantime, you can widen the window. To do so, open superlemmini.ini (instructions are in this post), find the line that begins with "frameWidth", and change its value to whatever you want (such as your screen width in pixels). Keep in mind that you can't make it narrower than 800 pixels.

[namida]

Tsyu, check your private messages. =)

[Tsyu]

I added a compatibility guide to the second post. If you have any Lemmini levels and want them to work in SuperLemmini, please read that guide.

[Ron_Stard]

I've found a fall safe distance error in Genesis Mayhem 15 ("Two Ponds"): the lemmings of the right trap are doomed to die once they are released, but the level demands a 100% saving. Check it, please.

[Tsyu]

I've found a fall safe distance error in Genesis Mayhem 15 ("Two Ponds"): the lemmings of the right trap are doomed to die once they are released, but the level demands a 100% saving. Check it, please.

It turns out that the Genesis version spawns lemmings four pixels lower than the Amiga and DOS versions do (out of curiosity, did ccexplore already know this?). I updated the Genesis pack to make the styles take this into account.

[ccexplore]

out of curiosity, did ccexplore already know this?

I don't, apparently.  But I tested quickly on Lemmix (editor), and it turns out other game-mechanics differences kind of fix the problem for Mayhem 15:

- When played using "Dos Original Lemmings" style, the mechanics (which emulates PC DOS Lemmings) spawns lemmings one pixel more to the left compare to other styles like DOS ONML or CustLemm.   This is a well known difference/quirk with that mechanics, and in this case it is enough to make the fall safe for the right entrance.

- When played using "Custom Lemmings" style, although now it spawns at the usual x-position, that style is also known to have increased the safe-fall distance by 3 pixels, which is also enough to make the fall safe for the right entrance.

- The one Lemmix style where Ron's reported problem happens is ironically the "Sega Genesis/Megadrive" style I created specifically for the conversion, which uses alternate versions of VGAGRx and GROUNDx  files to make the visuals look like the Genesis version.  For that style I defined it in LemmixStyles.ini to use the ONML mechanics (presumably because I found it to be closer to Genesis behavior than Lemmings 1), which both spawns at the usual x-position and doesn't have the higher safe-fall distance, and testing today shows indeed the lemmings splat at the right entrance.

So by happy accidents, that level can apparently still work out okay in most of the configurations it can be played in back in the days.  I guess that may be why no one reported a problem with this level all this time.

[Ron_Stard]

It turns out that the Genesis version spawns lemmings four pixels lower than the Amiga and DOS versions do (out of curiosity, did ccexplore already know this?). I updated the Genesis pack to make the styles take this into account.

The Original Lemmings package has also a weird level, but this time, related to graphics: check Fun 20 (We Are Now At LEMCON ONE) - there's toxic waste on the left columns!!!

[ccexplore]

That's actually exactly how it looks in the Amiga version.  It's the DOS version that removed the liquid objects there (plus many other places in many levels).  I guess it's trying to depict tubes of bubbling liquid.

[Ron_Stard]

That's actually exactly how it looks in the Amiga version.  It's the DOS version that removed the liquid objects there (plus many other places in many levels).  I guess it's trying to depict tubes of bubbling liquid.

Oh, ok, I didn't know about it! Although it seems pretty weird and misplaced   

[ccexplore]

Just to make sure (since I haven't tried SuperLemmini), this is what it looks like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEutzsETmS8&t=660

I'll admit the effect in the Amiga version is maybe only half-successful, but I guess it's the best they can do at the time.

[namida]

Heh, I had never seen that before. It's certianly a very unique way of using the draw-on-terrain effect.

[Ron_Stard]

Just to make sure (since I haven't tried SuperLemmini), this is what it looks like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEutzsETmS8&t=660

I'll admit the effect in the Amiga version is maybe only half-successful, but I guess it's the best they can do at the time.

Yes, that's the way the level is showed up on SuperLemmini. I thought it was a bug, since I've only played and completed MS-DOS Lemmings games, and never saw that before 

[Tsyu]

Version 0.91 is out! Here are most of the changes:

• The "swap buttons" option was not being saved correctly. This has been fixed.
• Removed a call to KeyEvent.consume() that prevented Alt-F4 from closing SuperLemmini during levels.
• It is now possible to have entrances spawn left-facing lemmings. To do this, add a sixth value to the entrance's object entry and set it to 1. (In the future, this sixth value may be extended to modify other object types.)
• Added support for the following NeoLemmix extended LVL features: more precise steel size and placement; second-based time limits; left-facing entrances; fake objects; gimmick codes that enable superlemming (although only the superlemming feature is supported).
• Changed the way that random music selection works when loading a level via the "Load Level" dialog. Rather than just picking a random music file from the "music" folder, it now tries the following in order: 1) If the level uses a special style and a music file with the special style's name exists in the "music\special" folder, then that file is selected for the level. 2) If a folder with the same name as the level's style exists in the "music" folder and that folder contains music files, then a random music file is selected from that folder. 3) A random music file is selected from the "music" folder.
• Added an option to disable using percentages for the number of lemmings saved.
• Added a message that warns when a replay might be incompatible with the current version of SuperLemmini.

Because I added the sixth object_x parameter to the documentation in the level files, resource extraction is required.

Also, I updated the Genesis levels to take advantage of a new feature in SuperLemmini 0.91 relating to the edges of levels, so if you downloaded that pack before, please download it again.

[Ron_Stard]

Not with this current version (which I have not tried yet), but with 0.90 I have received this error, just before playing Taxing 2 ("Watch out, there's traps about!"). I don't know if it will happen with the new version or you have corrected it:

[Tsyu]

Not with this current version (which I have not tried yet), but with 0.90 I have received this error, just before playing Taxing 2 ("Watch out, there's traps about!"). I don't know if it will happen with the new version or you have corrected it:

Thanks for reporting that. That problem also existed in 0.91, but it is fixed in the new 0.91a, so go get that from the original post. (Since the problem was in the LVL converter, a resource extraction is required.)

[Lomax]

Found a graphics related error. It looks glitchy when a Lemming burns up.








Also, there are a couple of levels missing from the Genesis pack - Test level and Flag test level.

[Tsyu]

Found a graphics related error. It looks glitchy when a Lemming burns up.

This is fixed in version 0.91b, which is now available in the original post.

Also, there are a couple of levels missing from the Genesis pack - Test level and Flag test level.

Yes, I'm aware of those levels. I purposefully left them out since they're not normally accessible. If you want me to, though, I can release them as a separate pack.

[Lomax]

I would like to see them as a separate pack.

[Tsyu]

Here you go. Make sure that you already have the main Genesis pack since that includes a mod that this pack uses.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89353583/Lemmings/Lemmini/superlemmini_megadrive_test_levels.zip

Both levels are unlocked from the start. Also, there is no password for level 2.

[Ron_Stard]

By chance, I've found a bug on Havoc 18 ("Lemmings In A Situation"): climber lemmings are able to clamber through the obstacle of the right thin wall (left part of the screen). A picture is worth a thousand words:

P.S. However, it doesn't happen with the left thin wall.

[Tsyu]

By chance, I've found a bug on Havoc 18 ("Lemmings In A Situation"): climber lemmings are able to clamber through the obstacle of the right thin wall (left part of the screen). A picture is worth a thousand words:

P.S. However, it doesn't happen with the left thin wall.

I've confirmed this myself; I also confirmed that it doesn't happen in the Amiga version. I will see if I can fix it in version 0.92.

[Tsyu]

Version 0.92 is out! Here are the changes:

• When loading sampled music formats (i.e., anything that isn't a module or MIDI file), SuperLemmini now looks for a version of the music file with "_intro" appended at the end of the file name but before the extension. (For example, if the game loads mysong.ogg, then it will look for mysong_intro.ogg.) If that file exists and uses the same format (i.e., same encoding, sample rate, channel count, and sample size, although bit rate may differ) as the main music file, then it will be played just once before the main file. This makes it possible to have a song intro that does not loop.
• Fixed a bug where, if a blocker was in the trigger area of certain objects, the blocker mask would be erased immediately rather than when the object was triggered.
• When reaching one-way arrows in the wrong direction, bashers no longer silently stop bashing as if reaching empty space.
• Fixed a bug that allowed a lemming to climb through one of the ledges in Havoc 18. (It's still possible to do this if a builder step is placed below the ledge and touching the wall, though.)
• New versions of MOD files based on Mindless's re-rips

The Genesis pack has also been updated so that the music for the Sunsoft level can take advantage of that first change.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that documentation on the level format is now found in the "docs" folder that's included with SuperLemmini. It could probably be written better, but at least it documents every parameter that's supported in level files.

[Lomax]

Just wanted to say thanks!

I have also included a fix for Flag test map.

[CharlieLove]

I really enjoy Super Lemmini.  It is by far my favorite version to play Lemmings. I have a few feature requests.

1) Fullscreen: It seems like something you'll add eventually. I've been able to fake fullscreen by having Super Lemmini on one monitor whilst playing it through OBSE on another.

2) Cursor lock: Super Lemmini is more authentic in that moving your mouse cursor to the edge of the screen scrolls the image. This is great until you move your cursor too far to the left and right and click off the screen. Having the cursor locked into the game window would be great. Perhaps have a key to toggle to lock and unlock the mouse?

3) Lemming skinning: I really like how this package basically includes all the original lemmings levels including expansions. It would be amazing if the Xmas stages had the Lemmings dress as Santa just like in the originals.

[Tsyu]

I have also included a fix for Flag test map.

Just so you know, Lemmix strips away all of the new SuperLemmini features, such as adjustable width. (You can do a text comparison to see what got lost; a number of websites let you do this without downloading anything.)

Anyway, the way that the Genesis version renders objects is different from many other major versions. For example, it seems that entrances are always drawn behind terrain (even if it's configured to be drawn in front), and water may be rendered only partially in front of terrain. It's possible that exits are rendered like entrances, which would explain what you noticed.

1) Fullscreen: It seems like something you'll add eventually. I've been able to fake fullscreen by having Super Lemmini on one monitor whilst playing it through OBSE on another.

Yes, I would like at add this. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do it, though.

2) Cursor lock: Super Lemmini is more authentic in that moving your mouse cursor to the edge of the screen scrolls the image. This is great until you move your cursor too far to the left and right and click off the screen. Having the cursor locked into the game window would be great. Perhaps have a key to toggle to lock and unlock the mouse?

From what I can tell, this can't be done well without using a software-drawn cursor, and I would rather not resort to that. If I can implement full-screen support, though, this shouldn't be a big problem if you run in full screen.

3) Lemming skinning: I really like how this package basically includes all the original lemmings levels including expansions. It would be amazing if the Xmas stages had the Lemmings dress as Santa just like in the originals.

I intend to do this soon. (This is already possible with the mod feature; all that's needed is for the Santa lemmings to be created.) And no, I'm not just going to use the sprites from Holiday Lemmings; I want them to be done in the same style as the ones already in SuperLemmini. Fortunately, since I only need to modify existing sprites, this shouldn't be too much trouble.

[namida]

Alright, it's taken me a while to get around to it, but I'm planning to start adding support for this to the NeoLemmix Editor very soon. Main thing I'm waiting for is for people to report any known issues with standard Lemmini - best to have the basics sorted before moving on to the advanced stuff. I've already done some basic looking through the code to see where I might have to change things to add SuperLemmini support.

Tsyu, if you're around - are *all* new features relevant to level designing documented in the Level Format file included with the current version? I notice that some level names have slashes added in them - what purpose does this serve, and is it required?


I've started on implementing SuperLemmini features - at the moment, it can load (but not yet save) and save XPosCenter rather than XPos, seconds-based time limits (NeoLemmix also uses these so it was a very easy thing to add), and variable widths (though it still can't edit the last one, it's stuck with what the level's set to when it loads - obviously I plan to change that it can now).

I'm a bit wary of adding certain features - for example, the fake terrain pieces. Outside of maybe the odd gimmicky situation, these really serve no purpose other than to be annoying... :/


EDIT: Marking objects as invisible does not work. I tried a couple of other values just in case the one you'd documented was wrong. In the case of the terrain pieces, you've documented the flags wrong, but they do all work once the correct values are used - but it seems that invisible objects don't. (I even checked SuperLemmini's source code in case that helped work out how to set it, but it appears that the documented way is correct, and it just simply doesn't work.)


EDIT: Alright, here we go. Doesn't quite support 100% of features yet, but it supports most of them. Download here. Let me know if you find any issues.

Please remember, this editor is not an official part of SuperLemmini, so any requests / comments / bugreports for it should go in the NeoLemmix topic, even if they relate to SuperLemmini features.

[Tsyu]

I have been more focused on other projects lately, so I haven't been very active here. I'm still monitoring this thread (and, to some extent, the rest of the forum) and will fix bugs and add certain features when appropriate.

Tsyu, if you're around - are *all* new features relevant to level designing documented in the Level Format file included with the current version? I notice that some level names have slashes added in them - what purpose does this serve, and is it required?

Aside from the error that you pointed out, the documentation should be complete and accurate as far as level files are concerned. However, I still need to write documentation for other files and structures, as well as general information that applies to all text-based files.

The slashes that you mention are actually backslashes, and they're inserted before certain characters to ensure that such characters are interpreted correctly. For more information, see here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Properties.html#load%28java.io.Reader%29

EDIT: Specifically, when writing level names, SuperLemmini inserts backslash characters before the following characters:

• \ (This is important!)
• #
• =
• :
• !
• The first leading space character, if one exists

EDIT: Marking objects as invisible does not work. I tried a couple of other values just in case the one you'd documented was wrong. In the case of the terrain pieces, you've documented the flags wrong, but they do all work once the correct values are used - but it seems that invisible objects don't. (I even checked SuperLemmini's source code in case that helped work out how to set it, but it appears that the documented way is correct, and it just simply doesn't work.)

Both of these will be fixed in the next release, which should be ready today or tomorrow.


EDIT: And it's out now! The invisible-object bug and the documentation fix are the only things that changed.

[Tsyu]

I noticed today that 0xdeadbeef released Lemmini 0.85, which adds a zoom option for those who want a larger window (so things aren't tiny on 1080p+ screens). I'm currently working on adding the same feature to SuperLemmini.

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.93 has been released! Here are the changes:

• Added the zoom feature from Lemmini 0.85, along with optional bilinear filtering (which is not in Lemmini 0.85).
• Added support for infinite numbers of skills. To use this feature with a skill, use "Infinity" (case sensitive, no quotes) for the number of that skill. (E.g., for infinite builders, use "numBuilders = Infinity".)
• When classic steel is not enabled, steel and no-bash areas are no longer applied where terrain does not exist, and removing terrain also removes the no-bash status. (I think the original Lemmini works this way too.)
• Added support for autosteel via the autosteelMode parameter. See the level documentation for information on how to use this.
• Added support for steel erasers. To turn a steel entry into an eraser, add a fifth value to the entry and set it to 1.
• Partial support for the latest NeoLemmix level formats. Non-classic skills, oddtabling, music selection, and gimmicks other than superlemming are unsupported; everything else (assuming I didn't miss anything) should work fine.

The Genesis/Mega Drive pack has also been updated to add autosteel support to the modified styles.

[Lomax]

Thanks!

However, I seem to have found an issue with "allLevelsUnlocked = true".

I added this to the original levels, than played "Not as complicated as it looks".

This is how the menu looked afterwards:

[Tsyu]

"allLevelsUnlocked = true" works fine for me. You're putting that in levelpack.ini, not the level files, correct?

If putting that in levelpack.ini doesn't work, then send that file to me (as an attachment or otherwise). Also send me your player file; you can find it in your [superlemmini.jar location]\players folder.

[Lomax]

Yes, it was in levelpack.ini.

Menu was back to normal when SuperLemmini was restarted, but I was able to recreate the issue.

[Tsyu]

Just so we're clear, the problem is that most of the levels aren't actually being unlocked, correct?

Anyway, how were you able to recreate the issue?

[Tsyu]

I figured out how to trigger the problem that Lomax was happening: Play and complete a level from a level pack that has the "allLevelsUnlocked" property set to true, and the level selection menu will "forget" that all levels of that pack are supposed to be unlocked. This will be fixed in the next version.

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.93a is out! Here are the changes:

• Removed direct drop since it's not in the Amiga version. (It's not in the original Lemmini either.)
• When the game window loses focus, all keys and mouse buttons should now be released, and the level should stop scrolling.
• Fixed a bug that basically caused the level selection menu to "forget" the "allLevelsUnlocked" parameter of a level pack if a level from that pack was completed.

[namida]

Some bugs, from least major to most:
- If you have your mouse over a bomber when it explodes (at least, if it was a blocker beforehand), the cursor still changes and registers as having an Exploder under it when the mouse is hovered over its position. I'm not sure how long exactly this lasts; it definitely stopped after I selected a different skill. If it matters, the skill I had active at the time was Floater. Can't really demonstrate this one with a replay.
- If you mine into steel from the right position, the lemming may get stuck in the terrain. Attached level may be useful in trying to trigger this. I don't know if this is all steel or only autosteel. Replay attached.
- If you dig through the negative-steeled bit and block near the bottom, then release the blocker with a bomber, the lemmings that fall past turn around as they fall. It seems this doesn't need too much precision to trigger. Replay attached.
- When using autosteel mode 2 ("standard autosteel" by NeoLemmix terminology), non-steel terrain is treated as non-solid. Try the same level but with autosteel mode 2. I don't think a replay is needed for this one.


Also - have you added, or planning to add, an "ignore levelsteel" option like NeoLemmix has? If you are, let me know how you plan to implement it, and I'll get it ready in advance in the editor. This option would possibly be useful to people who are converting existing levels and want to switch to autosteel without having to remove steel data, or possibly also during development.
Another NeoLemmix feature that I reckon people might find very useful and would suggest adding (at some point, anyway; it is a bit of a tricky one to implement) is the oddtabling; or at least some form of oddtabling.

EDIT: One more bug; setting a skill count to "infinity" causes SuperLemmini to crash.

[Tsyu]

Thanks for the bug reports. Everything that I consider a bug has been fixed. However, I'm currently adding a few features that still have to be ironed out, such as a level selection dialog to replace the current menu (mainly for things like player records), so it may be a little while (probably about a week or so) before the next release.

- If you have your mouse over a bomber when it explodes (at least, if it was a blocker beforehand), the cursor still changes and registers as having an Exploder under it when the mouse is hovered over its position. I'm not sure how long exactly this lasts; it definitely stopped after I selected a different skill. If it matters, the skill I had active at the time was Floater. Can't really demonstrate this one with a replay.

This is intentional; it's how the original games worked. If it bothers people, though, I can easily change this behavior without affecting gameplay. (Of course, if it happens well after the explosion particles have disappeared, then that does need to be fixed.)

- If you mine into steel from the right position, the lemming may get stuck in the terrain. Attached level may be useful in trying to trigger this. I don't know if this is all steel or only autosteel. Replay attached.
- If you dig through the negative-steeled bit and block near the bottom, then release the blocker with a bomber, the lemmings that fall past turn around as they fall. It seems this doesn't need too much precision to trigger. Replay attached.
- When using autosteel mode 2 ("standard autosteel" by NeoLemmix terminology), non-steel terrain is treated as non-solid. Try the same level but with autosteel mode 2. I don't think a replay is needed for this one.

All of these have fixed for the next version.

Also - have you added, or planning to add, an "ignore levelsteel" option like NeoLemmix has? If you are, let me know how you plan to implement it, and I'll get it ready in advance in the editor. This option would possibly be useful to people who are converting existing levels and want to switch to autosteel without having to remove steel data, or possibly also during development.

I don't think I'm going to implement this, mainly because it can be simulated by commenting out each steel entry with a number sign or exclamation point. If you don't want to comment out the lines (in case doing so makes them unreadable to the NeoLemmix editor), you can instead prefix the entries with underscores--SuperLemmini will never use entries whose keys begin with an underscore, at least not by default.

Another NeoLemmix feature that I reckon people might find very useful and would suggest adding (at some point, anyway; it is a bit of a tricky one to implement) is the oddtabling; or at least some form of oddtabling.

I'll look into implementing this, but probably not in the next version.

EDIT: One more bug; setting a skill count to "infinity" causes SuperLemmini to crash.

It has to be "Infinity", with a captial I. This matches how Double.parseDouble() and Double.valueOf() (the former of which is used by SuperLemmini to read floating-point values from files) work, which also require "Infinity" to be capitalized like that.

[namida]

Reuploaded the latest version of the editor with the infinity issue fixed.

Another NeoLemmix feature that I reckon people might find very useful and would suggest adding (at some point, anyway; it is a bit of a tricky one to implement) is the oddtabling; or at least some form of oddtabling.

I'll look into implementing this, but probably not in the next version.

If it helps, the way this is done in NeoLemmix is that the level loading routine has an optional additional parameter which tells it if it's loading a level normally or loading it for oddtabling. In the latter case, it just overwrites the already-in-memory level with the new one, but doesn't load certain data (instead preserving the ones from the initially loaded level).

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.94 is here, and it's probably the biggest update since 0.90! Here are the changes:

• Rewrote the dialog boxes using the GUI builder in NetBeans.
• Player files now track completed levels and various records as well as what levels are unlocked.
• Level selection is now a dialog box with a tree instead of a menu, similar to Windows Lemmings. Level stats and records are now displayed in this dialog box. (There is currently no preview image in this dialog box, but it may be added later.)
• Moved "Load Level" to the level selection dialog and renamed it to "Load External Level."
• Added support for DAT level packs. Levels inside DAT files must be in LVL format.
• In cheat mode, it's now possible to advance a frame by clicking the play area.
• Implemented non-integer zoom levels. The zoom menu now has options for x1.5 and x2.5. "Custom" has also been added, which allows the player to specify any zoom level x1 or greater. (Bilinear filtering is strongly recommended when using a non-integer zoom level!)
• Terrain pieces can now be flipped horizontally. To flip a piece, add 32 to its modifier. Support for flipped terrain pieces in LVL files has also been added. Objects can also be flipped horizontally by adding 8 to the flags.
• Added "oddtable" support to level files, which allows a level to use the objects, terrain, steel, and other parameters of another level. See the level documentation for details. (The main levels now use this feature where appropriate, so resource extraction is required.)
• Changed uses of String and File for file names to Path wherever possible. I hope I didn't mess anything up in the process.
• Temporary level and replay files are now saved to a "temp" folder.
• When classic steel is not enabled, miners hitting steel no longer move forward before becoming a walker. This should prevent such miners from becoming stuck in certain cases.
• If a blocker becomes a walker or faller, the blocker mask is now removed before the lemming is moved.
• Solid pixels of non-steel terrain pieces no longer erase terrain from the stencil in autosteel mode 2.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the "R" image from being visible if the game window was scaled.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the minimap frame width to be incorrect under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a crash that occurs if a format 0 level containing negative steel entries is loaded.

The Genesis levels have also been updated to take advantage of the oddtable feature.

[namida]

A minor glitch: When objects are flipped (whether horizontal or vertical), their colors are slightly off.

[Tsyu]

A minor glitch: When objects are flipped (whether horizontal or vertical), their colors are slightly off.

I'm not able to reproduce this. Can you post a few screenshots, both with print screen and with the S key (which saves an image of the full level to level.png)?

[namida]

It appears to be style-specific. For example, it doesn't seem to happen in the Crystal style, but it does in the Marble and Brick styles. I attached some shots.

EDIT: I just noticed (no screenshot included for that reason) that it's EXTREMELY noticable on the falling rock trap in the dirt set. On anything else it's relatively subtle.


EDIT: Another thing I've noticed (though this might be intentional or just seen as unnessecary) is that chain-oddtabling isn't supported. For example, in NeoLemmix, if Fun 1 oddtables Fun 2, and Fun 2 in turn oddtables Fun 3, then when you play Fun 1, it'll load the map etc from Fun 3. But in SuperLemmini, it would load it from Fun 2 (and depending on whether Fun 2 has the full information or just the bare minimum needed for oddtabling, it would possibly crash). On that note, the crash dialog that pops up in this case doesn't respond to clicking Ok, and at this point SuperLemmini must be Ctrl+Alt+Del'd.

[Tsyu]

I see what you mean. I loaded your screenshots in GIMP to check the color values, and it looks like something is increasing the red values of many of the colors. I haven't been able to get that to happen to me, though. Can you attach a level file that's affected?

Ensuring the following might help:

• You're not running in 16-bit color mode.
• The latest drivers for your video card are installed.
• The latest version of Java 7 or Java 8 is installed.

If none of that works, go into Color Management (you can type that or colorcpl.exe in the start menu's search bar), select your monitor in the drop-down menu at the top, and look for the ICC profile that's labeled "(default)". What's the profile called?

[namida]

1) 32-bit, 1360x768.
2) They are.
3) I did have an out-of-date version, but I updated to the latest Java 7 and it still wouldn't work. I'll try Java 8 and see if that makes a difference.

No color management profiles are listed.

EDIT: The issue does not occur with Java 8.

[uci]

Hi,

Support for DAT level packs is a great addition. Now many archived levels can be played in Superlemmini almost instantly. It is a great player!

However, I have found a level that crashes the game (see attached file). It also crashes Lemmini so I suspect is something with the file itself.

[namida]

It is indeed a problem with the level itself - the 10th terrain piece in the level is Piece #50, but the Snow graphic set only has up to Piece #37. I'm not sure about Lemmix or NeoLemmix players (didn't try), but the NeoLemmix Editor doesn't handle it much better than SuperLemmini is - it doesn't crash, but it still throws a fit about it. xD

Here's an edited copy of that level with the faulty piece removed. Does this work better?

[uci]

Yes, it works!
How did you edit the level file?

[namida]

Yes, it works!
How did you edit the level file?

I was able to use NeoLemmix Editor to *idenitfy* the issue, but the only way I was able to actually *fix* it was manually changing it with a hex editor.

[uci]

Hi,

I have a request regarding Supelemmini. I don't know if it is good but here it is.

Since we can play now so many packed levels I would like to put all these files in a specific folder and let Supelemmini read this folder when it starts. The player will then browse the created tree and choose a level from. Maybe a rating system could be implemented to keep track of how good a level is and/or how difficult it is.

[Tsyu]

EDIT: Another thing I've noticed (though this might be intentional or just seen as unnessecary) is that chain-oddtabling isn't supported. For example, in NeoLemmix, if Fun 1 oddtables Fun 2, and Fun 2 in turn oddtables Fun 3, then when you play Fun 1, it'll load the map etc from Fun 3. But in SuperLemmini, it would load it from Fun 2 (and depending on whether Fun 2 has the full information or just the bare minimum needed for oddtabling, it would possibly crash). On that note, the crash dialog that pops up in this case doesn't respond to clicking Ok, and at this point SuperLemmini must be Ctrl+Alt+Del'd.

Chaining is probably difficult to implement given how timeLimit/timeLimitSeconds and xPos/xPosCenter work, but I'll give it a shot. And I will certainly look into fixing the unresponsive dialog.

EDIT: The issue does not occur with Java 8.

My testing environment uses Java 7 (because that's what I compile SuperLemmini for), and the issue doesn't exist there either. What video card are you using? (I use an AMD Radeon HD 6870.)

Hi,

I have a request regarding Supelemmini. I don't know if it is good but here it is.

Since we can play now so many packed levels I would like to put all these files in a specific folder and let Supelemmini read this folder when it starts. The player will then browse the created tree and choose a level from. Maybe a rating system could be implemented to keep track of how good a level is and/or how difficult it is.

Do you mean putting the converted INI files in a certain folder as though you're making a Lemmini level pack? Or do you mean putting the actual DAT files there and having the game load those automatically?

[namida]

I have one of those dual-switching-GPU laptops with an Intel HD and a NVidia GeForce GT 540M. I'm not entirely sure which one Java was trying to run from; though it's probably the NVidia, as I don't think the HDMI-out (which I use an external display on; I don't use the internal one) is connected to the Intel.

[uci]

Do you mean putting the converted INI files in a certain folder as though you're making a Lemmini level pack? Or do you mean putting the actual DAT files there and having the game load those automatically?

The second one!

[Tsyu]

Do you mean putting the converted INI files in a certain folder as though you're making a Lemmini level pack? Or do you mean putting the actual DAT files there and having the game load those automatically?

The second one!

That's what I thought. Rather than load DAT files automatically, I think I will provide an option to convert a DAT file to a level pack that uses INI files. I'm not sure how exactly I will do it, but I will try to make it as easy for the player as possible.

[namida]

My suggestions:
1) Obviously, once you decompress the DAT, SuperLemmini can already handle the resulting LVLs, right? So, that part's simple enough.
2) Default parameters, or maybe the CustLemm / NeoLemmix ones as appropriate scaled to suit SuperLemmini's resolution. Although you may want to allow selecting options here - eg; fall distance is 3 pixels higher in CustLemm than others (including Neo).
3) Beyond that, I think the only other thing that needs to be done based on user input is letting the user enter a name for the pack?
4) If any DATs do show up that use NeoLemmix-style oddtabling, they'll almost certianly follow the CustLemm level ordering, so that means for example, if it oddtables Rank 3 level 1, that's the 5th level in the pack.

One other thing to be aware of is NeoCustLemmix packs with secret levels. Obviously SuperLemmini doesn't support secret level triggers, but you could still make the levels themself playable. In this case, keep in mind that the 10 normal levels (2 per rank) come first, then followed by the 5 secret levels (which may not exist in the DAT if the pack in question doesn't actually use any secret levels). This is important for oddtabling too.

Just to keep it clear, the correct ordering is (keeping in mind the last 5 only apply to NeoCustLemmix packs):

1/1
1/2
2/1
2/2
3/1
3/2
4/1
4/2
5/1
5/2
1/3
2/3
3/3
4/3
5/3

You may not want to worry about dividing up the custom pack into ranks (as they're probably not made with any special attention to ranks anyway), but this is also important for the oddtabling.

[uci]

Rather than load DAT files automatically, I think I will provide an option to convert a DAT file to a level pack that uses INI files. I'm not sure how exactly I will do it, but I will try to make it as easy for the player as possible.

OK, let me rephrase my request.
Would be possible to select an entire folder (full of DAT files, or LVL files) when opening the external level dialog?
You see, maybe I have tens of files stored in a folder and would be nice to load them at once.

[Tsyu]

OK, let me rephrase my request.
Would be possible to select an entire folder (full of DAT files, or LVL files) when opening the external level dialog?
You see, maybe I have tens of files stored in a folder and would be nice to load them at once.

All right, I think I can do that. In the event that subfolders with other level files exist, should those be loaded too?

[uci]

All right, I think I can do that. In the event that subfolders with other level files exist, should those be loaded too?

Well, maybe if they are Lemmini subfolders only.

EDIT:
I want to fill a bug report here. It is about builders finishing the stairs. I should hear three beeps before finishing, but this is NOT always the case. I can reproduce this with the first level in Lemmings/Tricky if I put a lemming to build stairs more than once.

[Tsyu]

I want to fill a bug report here. It is about builders finishing the stairs. I should hear three beeps before finishing, but this is NOT always the case. I can reproduce this with the first level in Lemmings/Tricky if I put a lemming to build stairs more than once.

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce this. Can you post a replay that reliably triggers this bug for you?

[uci]

Hi,
Here is a replay. With this occasion I observed more bugs. I summarize below.

1. I cannot count the 3 beeps when a builder is about to finish stairs (as mentioned before).
2. The saved replay file had the name 'bugrpl' instead of 'bug.rpl'
3. During replay the screen movement is not the same as the original play (check the second builder which is out of screen)

[Tsyu]

1. I cannot count the 3 beeps when a builder is about to finish stairs (as mentioned before).

I'm not getting this problem. Just so we're sure that stereo sound is working properly for you (since SuperLemmini uses stereo panning), listen to this stereo test and make sure that the sound is properly alternating between the left and right channels.

2. The saved replay file had the name 'bugrpl' instead of 'bug.rpl'

This will be fixed in the next version. For now, if you want to save a replay, make sure you add the extension manually.

3. During replay the screen movement is not the same as the original play (check the second builder which is out of screen)

This is caused by the game not accounting for the zoom level everywhere that it should. It will be fixed in the next version.

[uci]

I'm not getting this problem. Just so we're sure that stereo sound is working properly for you (since SuperLemmini uses stereo panning), listen to this stereo test and make sure that the sound is properly alternating between the left and right channels.
aused by the game not accounting for the zoom level everywhere that it should. It will be fixed in the next version.

The test sound works as expected. The original Lemmini works as expected. It could be Superlemmini doesn't like my system? It is WinXP-SP3 + Java 7u60.

I changed SFX Mixer from 'Primary Sound Driver' to something else I have, but is not better.
Sometimes I hear two beeps, sometimes just one, or even none. Randomly...

[Tsyu]

I suggest updating Java to Update 67. Java vulnerabilities are commonly targeted by hackers and malware authors, so you should always keep Java up to date (although you don't need to install Java 8 at this time). It might even fix the sound problem that you're experiencing, but I doubt it.

Before I release the next version, I will have a look at SuperLemmini's sound code and do whatever I can to maybe fix your problem.

[uci]

I installed Java 7 u67 and reinstalled Superlemmini. No help!
I read that WinXP is not supported anymore by Java. It is probably the time to change my system, but I am not ready yet.

[Tsyu]

I tested SuperLemmini on one of my own XP computers and experienced your problem. Not only that, the sound was a bit glitchy and stuttered at times. I tried tweaking the sound code to no avail. Then again, the computer is almost 10 years old and has an AMD Sempron 2800+ (a low-end CPU), and CPU usage was generally around 50-80%.

When you get the chance, run SuperLemmini with Task Manager open and note how much CPU javaw.exe or java.exe uses. How high is it for you?

If anyone has this problem under Windows Vista or later (or any OS other than Windows XP), let me know. I'm wondering if this is specific to XP.

I read that WinXP is not supported anymore by Java. It is probably the time to change my system, but I am not ready yet.

Technically, it is; it's just Java 8 that doesn't support XP. Still, keep in mind that Windows XP is no longer receiving security updates from Microsoft, so any new vulnerabilities that get discovered will not be patched.


Anyway, the next version of SuperLemmini should be out soon, and it will finally have a certain feature that was introduced in Lemmings 2 (no, it's not the new skills).

[uci]

When you get the chance, run SuperLemmini with Task Manager open and note how much CPU javaw.exe or java.exe uses. How high is it for you?

As I understand, there is no hope to fix the sound problem?

[Tsyu]

Good news: I think I fixed the problem that you're having. My sound code had each line call start() when it started playing a sound and stop() when it was finished. This works fine on my main computer (which runs Windows 7), but it looks like it doesn't work so well under Windows XP. I changed this so that the lines keep running even when they aren't playing anything; this appears to have fixed the problem on my XP machine.

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.95 is out! Here are the changes:

• Levels can now be taller than 320 pixels. To set the height of a level, add a "height" parameter to the level file and set its value to the desired height. Vertical scrolling is done similarly to horizontal scrolling. To scroll with the minimap, click and hold a portion of it and drag above and below the minimap frame. Arrows around the minimap will tell you whether there is more of the level in that direction.
• Added the vertical "scroll lock" feature from Lemmings 2. To toggle it, either press S (just as in Lemmings 2) or press the new button that's next to the fast-forward button. When it's enabled, you will not be able to scroll the level vertically with the mouse or the minimap. Because the screenshot and superlemming toggle functions were also assigned to S, they have been reassigned as follows: V for screenshot, U for superlemming (cheat mode only).
• Implemented customizable entrance order. To use this, add an "entranceOrder" parameter to the level file and use a comma-separated list of integers for its value. Use 0 for the first non-fake entrance in the object list, 1 for the second, 2 for the third, and so on.
• Folders can now be selected when loading external levels. When this is done, all level files in that folder will be added to the list, and subfolders are ignored. Also, multiple files can be selected.
• The mainLevel parameter can now be used to chain more than two levels.
• All sizes and positions should now be scaled appropriately according to the zoom scale. (Well, at least I THINK I got everything.)
• Non-drawing-related code in GraphicsPanel.redraw() has been moved to GraphicsPanel.updateFrame(). This should fix the problem where some error dialogs were unresponsive to input.
• Fixed an omission that caused replays to be saved without a period before the extension.
• Replaced most uses of Thread.sleep() in loops with better (I think) techniques.
• Tweaked the sound code a bit to hopefully fix some potential sound problems.
• Fixed a bug where the sliders in the gain dialog defaulted to the wrong values (the music slider used the sound gain, and the sound slider used the music gain).

[namida]

I'll hopefully have these features in the editor later today.
Is there any limits on the entrance order thing? eg. max number of entrances, can the same entrance be repeated (eg. 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, repeat), anything else I should know for it?

[Tsyu]

There are no limits on the entrance order--entrances can be repeated in the list (so things like "2, 1, 3, 3, 0, 1" are allowed), and there is no practical limit to the size of the list. If invalid indexes are in the list, then they're skipped as though they weren't even there (meaning that if there are three entrances and the list is "1, 3, 2, 0", then the list becomes "1, 2, 0"). The only other thing to keep in mind is that only non-fake entrances count, so if there are three entrances and the second one is fake, then the third entrance has an index of 1 rather than 2.

[namida]

Also, just to be clear - is minimum height 320?

I might actually be a bit longer on this one - the entrance order will be a bit tricky to implement, while I'm going to add adjustable dimensions to NeoLemmix as well so may as well support both at the same time rather than have to come back and add in the same function under NeoLemmix style later. I might consider the entrance order thing too - it should actually be quite simple to implement on the player side as it already saves an entrance order internally (it's just automatically generated based on their indexes).

[Tsyu]

Also, just to be clear - is minimum height 320?

Not really, but it's the recommended minimum because if the height is less than 320, then there will be a gap between the bottom of the level and the status area, and the minimap frame won't be properly adjusted to fit the level. I'll probably fix the former in a future version, but I'm not as sure about the latter.

[namida]

Another thing: Have you not yet added an option to set the screen start Y position, or have you just not documented it?

[Tsyu]

Oh yeah, sorry about that. Yes, I did implement a way to set the start Y position: yPosCenter, which works similarly to xPosCenter. (There is no yPos, by the way.) I will reupload SuperLemmini 0.95 in a few minutes with this parameter documented. Anyone who has already downloaded it will not need to download it again.

[namida]

Okay - I've got adjustable height and yPosCenter both working perfectly fine in the editor. Still got to do something about the window order; first I need to decide *how* I'm going to implement it.

[uci]

Good news: I think I fixed the problem that you're having. My sound code had each line call start() when it started playing a sound and stop() when it was finished. This works fine on my main computer (which runs Windows 7), but it looks like it doesn't work so well under Windows XP. I changed this so that the lines keep running even when they aren't playing anything; this appears to have fixed the problem on my XP machine.

Maybe a flush() is needed? I am just guessing...

Anyway, it seems to work well! Thank you for the effort!

[Tsyu]

Maybe a flush() is needed? I am just guessing...

No, that discards whatever is in the buffer, which would cause the sound to cut off early. A more appropriate method, and the one that I was using, is drain(), which blocks until the sound buffer has finished playing. At least, that's what's supposed to happen...

[namida]

New NeoLemmix Editor update is here. It can edit SuperLemmini levels with non-standard vertical sizes (including changing the size) and set the screen start Y position. In the end I didn't get around to implementing the editing of entrance order; but it does *preserve* custom entrance orders when loading a level with one.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wwu3xh8sogro3ed/NeoLemmixEditor_V1.23n-A.zip


(Just a thought - it might be worth including a link to the NeoLemmix topic, or at least a mention of "the NeoLemmix editor can edit Superlemmini levels" in the first post? Since at the moment you have no mention of how levels can actually be edited while using SuperLemmini features.)

[Tsyu]

For version 0.96, I intend to redo the code for the main window so that I can make it resizable and maybe implement full-screen mode. In the meantime, here's SuperLemmini 0.95a, which fixes a few bugs in 0.95:

• Height and starting Y position are now read from LVL files.
• Fixed a bug where the size of each background tile was capped at the size of the actual level.
• Fixed the scrolling behavior of the arrow keys when advanced select is disabled.
• Possibly fixed a bug where the records of one rating would sometimes instead be applied to a different rating, either of the same level pack or a different one.
• Reverted my Alt-F4 fix since it caused F10 to select the menu bar, at least under Windows.
• Tweaked the sound code somewhat, mostly to allow sounds to cut playback of other sounds if no free channels are available.

While I work on 0.96, I will keep two versions of the SuperLemmini project on my computer so that if any major bugs are found, they can be fixed before 0.96 is released.

[Tsyu]

Version 0.96 is out. While I did make the game window resizable, I didn't implement full-screen mode; quite a bit more work is needed for that to be possible, including changing the use of external dialog boxes to internal ones somehow.

Anyway, here are the changes:

• Implemented the classic cursor from Lemmini 0.86, which changes the cursor to the box graphic when it's hovering over a lemming (just like what the original games did) rather than drawing both graphics at once. This feature is disabled by default and can be enabled in the new options dialog.
• The game window can now be resized and maximized.
• Zoom options have been removed; scaling is now done automatically based on the window dimensions.
• Certain dialogs can now be resized.
• Changed the disclaimer and extraction dialogs to frames so that they appear on the taskbar.
• The title screen now has text buttons for various functions and dialogs.
• Added "Start Level" and "Menu" buttons to the briefing screen. To start the level, you now need to click "Start Level"; simply clicking anywhere won't work.
• Added an options dialog and moved all options (including those related to sound) from the menu bar to that dialog.
• Removed the player-selection menu from the menu bar. Players can still be changed using the Manage Players dialog as before.
• The mouse scroll wheel now cycles through the available skills.
• If a level is wider that 3,200 pixels, the minimap no longer expands to display the full level width; instead, the minimap displays only 3,200 horizontal pixels at a time and scrolls as needed.
• Switched from Timer to ScheduledExecutorService to prevent the game from hanging if the system clock is adjusted.
• Fixed a bug that caused sound effects (but not music) to no longer play if the sound mixer was changed.

I noticed that my XP machine also experiences the problem where certain colors of flipped objects are changed, so at least I can try to fix that in a future release.

[namida]

It appears SuperLemmini crashes on a level where the level name is blank. This may be an annoyance to people who repeatedly test levels during development, prior to giving them a name (myself included, though obviously I'm not generally designing for SuperLemmini apart from for the purpose of testing NeoLemmix Editor's support for it). Obviously I could make the editor simply replace a blank title with a single space or some similar workaround, but is there any "official" method to avoid this crash (or is it a bug that needs to be fixed on your side)?

[Tsyu]

It's probably caused by a blank entranceOrder entry, not an empty name. Does removing entranceOrder from the level file prevent the crash?

[namida]

It's probably caused by a blank entranceOrder entry, not an empty name. Does removing entranceOrder from the level file prevent the crash?

Confirmed that this happens regardless of entranceOrder setting - it still happens (if the name is blank) with both:
a) no entranceOrder entry at all
b) a perfectly valid entranceOrder entry

I have not tested if it happens with LVL format levels, only INI. I would assume it wouldn't with the former, since a "blank" level name there is actually 32 spaces.

[Tsyu]

I figured out what the problem was: TextDialog was trying to create an image from a zero-length string (the blank level name), resulting in an illegal image width of 0. I have released version 0.96a, which fixes this problem. (LVL levels were not affected because they are padded with spaces, and SuperLemmini does not remove leading and trailing space before displaying them on the briefing screen.)

In case you want to see the 0.96a section of the change log:

• TextDialog no longer attempts to create images from zero-length strings.

[lemming_1]

Hi. I just discovered SuperLemmini and it's like a dream come true for me. Thanks for making it 

But I have a problem: I can't install it in Ubuntu 14.04. This is the error message I'm getting:

[Tsyu]

It works in Windows (I verified just now), so it must be related to Ubuntu or Linux in general. Does the levels/1_orig folder actually have a file called lvl0000.ini? If not, are all files and folders in your Windows Lemmings folder in all caps?

I'll have to try the extraction myself on an Ubuntu machine (which I have but rarely use), although I will say that it has worked for me before. I will also say that SuperLemmini does (or did) experience glitches under Ubuntu (and most likely all Linux OSes), such as key-repeat commands not behaving as they do in Windows (see here), and sound going dead and/or freezing the program.

[lemming_1]

It works in Windows (I verified just now)

Yup. I have no problem with it on Windows.

Does the levels/1_orig folder actually have a file called lvl0000.ini?

No, it's missing from there.

If not, are all files and folders in your Windows Lemmings folder in all caps?

Yes and my copy of WinLemmings works perfectly with Lemmini 0.86.

I'll have to try the extraction myself on an Ubuntu machine (which I have but rarely use), although I will say that it has worked for me before. I will also say that SuperLemmini does (or did) experience glitches under Ubuntu (and most likely all Linux OSes), such as key-repeat commands not behaving as they do in Windows (see here), and sound going dead and/or freezing the program.

I played through the entire game (Lemmini 0.86) and never encountered any glitches or freezes after switching the SFX Mixer to default.

[Tsyu]

It's possible that case-sensitive file names under Linux may be the cause, but that wouldn't explain how the extraction process got as far as it looks like it did. Again, I need to check this with an Ubuntu machine to determine the cause.

As for why the sound would work fine in Lemmini but not SuperLemmini, it's because I made some major changes to the sound code to prevent the game from sometimes freezing for short moments whenever a sound played. I have, however, tweaked the sound code somewhat since the last time that I tested SuperLemmini under Ubuntu; perhaps those changes fixed any sound problems that might have been encountered under Ubuntu.

For now, if you want to play SuperLemmini under Ubuntu (or any Linux OS) and you have access to a Windows machine (which you suggested that you do), follow these steps:

• Install SuperLemmini under Windows.
• Copy your SuperLemmini installation to somewhere accessible by your Linux machine.
• On your Windows machine, go to your "home" folder (typically C:\Documents and Settings\[username] under Windows XP and C:\Users\[username] under Windows 7) and look for a file called superlemmini.ini (assuming file extensions are visible). Copy it to your "home" folder on your Linux machine.
• On your Linux machine, open the aforementioned file and look for the line that begins with "resourcePath". Change the path after the equals sign to the full path where you copied SuperLemmini. Also, delete the line that begins with "mixerName", as well as the one that begins with "sourcePath". Save the file.
• Back up that file! Certain situations involving missing files can force a resource extraction, in which case you will need to restore that backup.
• Run SuperLemmini on your Linux machine and make sure the title screen appears.

[lemming_1]

Many thanks for your help, Tsyu! It works now 

[Tsyu]

This is just a quick update to support some of the new features in NeoLemmix levels (and no, I haven't tested in Ubuntu yet):

• Levels using a special style can now specify where to place the special graphic using the specialStylePostionX and specialStylePostionY parameters.
• Added support for most of the new features in NeoLemmix LVL format 3. Right now, entrance order is not imported, and special-graphic positions may not be converted correctly if SuperLemmini's version of the special graphic is not exactly 1920x320. I intend to remedy these later.

[mobius]

• Height and starting Y position are now read from LVL files.

Dumb question:
Does this mean I can edit the starting Y position in the lvl file thus changing it in level? Can I alter ini files as well?

The reason I ask is because I've been wanting to use super lemmini but levels I made using the Gronkling's left facing entrance trick don't work because the lemming starts (I'm guessing lower) and becomes stuck in the terrain under the exit instead of walking on top of it.

[namida]

He means the vertical screen start position.

As for left-facing, SuperLemmini supports it directly. Remove the piece of terrain, then set the "left facing" flag on the entrance (in NeoLemmix editor, or read the comments in the INI file).

[mobius]

sweetness. thanks.

ok I guess I need to break down and make the time to install NeoLemmix editor. I used to be able to figure all this stuff out on my own but now I can never find the time. 

[namida]

1. Download and extract it.
2. Copy contents of your SuperLemmini styles folder to the editors superlemministyles folder.
3. In the editor, click Tools > Compile Styles.
4. Click SuperLemmini, then "Compile All Styles"
5. Its now ready to go.

The process for standard Lemmini is similar. As for CustLemm and NeoCustLemmix, its ready to go out-of-the-box; you don't need to do anything to set it up for them.

Any options that are grayed out are irrelevant to superLemmini, these options generally relate to NeoLemmix. (The opposite is also true; some are grayed out while editing NeoLemmix levels because they only apply to SuperLemmini.)

[mobius]

I might have asked this before but I'm very busy and not able to follow the thread. The only major things I don't like about SuperLemmini are the RR and the trigger areas.

The RR thing; I enjoyed being able to press the RR button and see it change immediately; instead, the old way you have to time it so you press the button ahead of time; extra needless work.

And is it possible to have the exits work like they did in Lemmini? Namely; as long as they are flat on the ground they work and you don't have to make annoying minute adjustments to have them work correctly?

or do I simply have an older version? and these options have been implemented or altered recently? I'd like to start using it but the exit thing especially makes creating levels rather annoying.
On the other hand; I'm loving the new features like left facing entrance. 

[Tsyu]

The RR thing; I enjoyed being able to press the RR button and see it change immediately; instead, the old way you have to time it so you press the button ahead of time; extra needless work.

SuperLemmini is designed to work more like the original game. So yes, the release-rate change isn't supposed to take effect until the next lemming is released.

And is it possible to have the exits work like they did in Lemmini? Namely; as long as they are flat on the ground they work and you don't have to make annoying minute adjustments to have them work correctly?

SuperLemmini changed the detection pixel from the middle of the lemming to the first pixel below its feet (which is how the original games worked). Thus, if you're using custom styles that weren't designed with SuperLemmini in mind, you may need to adjust the trigger areas. If necessary, you can use maskOffsetX_n and maskOffsetY_n (where n is the object ID) in [style name].ini to move the trigger area (which does not need to be entirely within the object bitmap).

The default styles included with SuperLemmini use the trigger areas from the original games. If you're using the bubble or rock style, you need to position the exit so that it's at least one pixel into the ground; there are no plans to change this. You shouldn't need to do this with the other included styles, though.

SuperLemmini does not mimic the quirk where trigger areas are locked to a 4x4 or 8x8 grid, and it most likely never will.

[namida]

The rock exit works that way, but the bubble exit's trigger area is 8 pixels tall (16px in SuperLemmini resolution) so shouldn't need to be placed in the ground.

[Tsyu]

...but the bubble exit's trigger area is 8 pixels tall (16px in SuperLemmini resolution) so shouldn't need to be placed in the ground.

Actually, it's only half of that, but the trigger area's height alone is not relevant in this case. Both the rock and bubble exits have trigger areas that don't reach below the graphic, so those exits do need to be placed at least one pixel into the ground.

Why is this so? Because a lemming's collision pixel, unintuitively, is the first pixel below its foot, not the one inside it--see the walker section in this post for more information. Thus, an exit's trigger area must actually go into the ground for it to work as expected. This applies to Amiga-like official versions (Amiga, DOS, Genesis, etc.) as well as SuperLemmini and Lemmix.

[namida]

I'm well aware of that mechanic. However, I was recently decompiling and checking the trigger areas of all the styles, and the Bubble one was 4x8. It is possible that I myself edited this at some point and forgot about it since, though.

[mobius]

I'm loving the new sounds and the fact that when a lemming far on the left will only make a noise on your left speaker 

Would it be at all possible to add a line on the pre-level menu screen for "author" or creator? I suppose this would also mean a change for this option on Lemmix (It seems to alreay exist but only for extended format?)
You could have this be something editable in the level's ini file.
I'm asking this mostly for the community pack so everyone's name can appear on their appropriate level's

[Crane]

Would it be at all possible to add a line on the pre-level menu screen for "author" or creator

That... is an absolutely brilliant idea!  Hmmm, it's about time I had a look around at these versions of Lemmings to see what's new.

[namida]

Would it be at all possible to add a line on the pre-level menu screen for "author" or creator

That... is an absolutely brilliant idea!  Hmmm, it's about time I had a look around at these versions of Lemmings to see what's new.

Tsyu, if you implement this feature, drop me a PM to let me know how. The NeoLemmix Editor already supports this (as NeoLemmix has this feature), so it'll be very easy to implement.

[Tsyu]

The author thing should be easy to implement. I'll be sure to put it in the next version, which should be out within the next few days.

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.97 is out, and it has a new level: One Way to Freedom, which is found at the end of the Bonus rating of the Lemmings pack. The changes are below:

• Object animations can now run at speeds other than 2 game frames per animation frame. To change the speed of an object, add a speed_n parameter (replace "n" with the object's ID) to the object's section in the style's INI file, and set its value to the desired number of game frames per object animation frame.
• Level files can now specify which music files to play. To use this feature, add a "music" parameter to the level file and set it to the name of the music file (e.g., mysong3.mod). If the music file is in a subfolder, the relative path from the music folder should also be given (e.g., mymusic/mysong3.mod). If the parameter exists, it overrides what's set in levelpack.ini.
• It's now possible to set a terrain piece to ignore one-way and steel objects.
• Level authors can now add their names to level files using the "author" parameter. Such names will be displayed in the Select Level dialog box when the level is highlighted.
• Entrance orders, music selection, and level author names in NeoLemmix LVL files are now supported.
• Added the level "One Way to Freedom" from the Amiga Format demo. The level is found at the end of the Bonus rating of the Lemmings pack.
• Added the Lang and IO libraries from Apache Commons since they're incredibly useful.
• Changed the way that minimaps are generated to help ensure that objects are always positioned correctly.
• Fixed a bug that caused the minimap to glitch if the window was wider than the level.
• Fixed a number of other bugs related to the minimap that could take effect if the window width was not the default of 800.
• Object 8 of the dirt set (the rock trap) now looks nearly identical to terrain piece 27, as it did in the original games.

[namida]

(The following two parameters are loaded from the level specified in mainLevel only if neither one of these is specified in this level.)

xPosCenter: ...

Should that be "the following three"?

[Tsyu]

(The following two parameters are loaded from the level specified in mainLevel only if neither one of these is specified in this level.)

xPosCenter: ...

Should that be "the following three"?

No, "the following two" is correct. Remember that xPosCenter and xPos are mutually exclusive, with xPosCenter having priority over xPos. yPosCenter, on the other hand, specifies something different (the Y coordinate of the starting position rather than the X coordinate), so it would be bad design to make it mutually exclusive with xPosCenter and xPos.

And do note the "neither one" in the sentence that you quoted; it means that if xPosCenter or xPos is used in the "oddtable" level, then neither one of those will be read from the main level. Thus, if the main level uses xPosCenter and the "oddtable" level uses only xPos, then the main level's xPosCenter will not override the "oddtable" level's xPos.

[namida]

Ah, I was thinking just in that yPosCenter is also (I assume) loaded from mainLevel if not specified.

Also - about the Author and Music File tags, should they be escaped in the same way the level title is? I've implemented them in the NeoLemmix Editor assuming that they *should* be (since level name and mainLevel both are); let me know if this is wrong so I can change it ASAP.

Anyway, editor update supporting the new stuff has been released. Just for reference, I allowed use of the "one-way invert" option; since SuperLemmini doesn't have such an option, it's applied when saving the level. When loading the level, it determines whether to turn this option on or not based on how many pieces have the "no one way" flag set (and adjusts the flags accordingly).

[Tsyu]

Ah, I was thinking just in that yPosCenter is also (I assume) loaded from mainLevel if not specified.

And you were correct. In fact, almost all of the parameters that aren't marked in the documentation as "ignored if mainLevel is set" work this way. It's just that xPosCenter and xPos (as well as timeLimitSeconds and timeLimit) needed to be treated a little differently to avoid the (albeit unlikely) scenario where the main level's parameters would override those in the "oddtable" level due to the latter using lower priority parameters.

Also - about the Author and Music File tags, should they be escaped in the same way the level title is? I've implemented them in the NeoLemmix Editor assuming that they *should* be (since level name and mainLevel both are); let me know if this is wrong so I can change it ASAP.

Yes, they should. In fact, any line that isn't commented out with "#" or "!" should work this way.

[mobius]

very nice modifications on the new update! 
[some I'm noticing might have actually been present before but didn't notice them until now]

I was sort of hoping that the author's name could appear on the menu screen before the level begins so that you'd see it if you were playing a levelpack. Other than that, no complaints

[mobius]

what happened to the old "load level" feature? The new one is very nice but without the old one it's unnecessarily difficult to load one specific level. What makes it worse is "add external levels" features doesn't seem to save this information (new levels I add, I have to re-add them every time I load the game).

[Tsyu]

"Load level" is now "add external levels." And I don't see how it's much more difficult--only two extra clicks are needed to load a single level.

In any case, I'll look into a way of saving the levels that have been loaded.

[Crane]

I have a request for the next release.  Support for level "hints".

Mechanics:

If you fail to achieve the required percentage for the same level 3 times in a row, the option to "Show Hint" will appear on one of the screens (probably the level preview window), if the level supports it.  Doing so will cause a fade-out, and it will fade-in with a text hint relevant to the level, after which you can continue back to the preview screen.  This would be implemented via a "hint=" field in the INI file.

Examples:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fun 6: A Blocker stops a Lemming from moving so you can choose precisely where you want him to explode. (When I first started playing Lemmings, both myself and my mother tried walking bombers right from the start!)
Fun 7: Builders can also be used to delay lemmings so they don't crowd the pathfinder.
Tricky 25: The last lemmings out are usually the ones furthest away from the pathfinder. (This is if you're just going for 10%)
Mayhem 5: Lemmings that are turned around by Blockers do not stop whatever task they are currently performing.
Mayhem 20: How might you free a Blocker if you can't explode him?
Crazy 4: The pathfinder isn't always the first lemming.
Havoc 10: What was the name of this level?

Of course, it's up to the level designers if they want to be kind, but it's a carry-over from Cheapo Copycat and may be a nice, merciful move for some of the more heinous of levels like those found in Revenge of the Lemmings.  e.g.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Armageddon 29: One of the lemmings that dies is neither a Blocker nor a Bomber.

And of course, you can decline selecting "Show Hint" if you want the privilege of solving the level without help.

[Proxima]

Of course, it's up to the level designers if they want to be kind, but it's a carry-over from Cheapo Copycat and may be a nice, merciful move for some of the more heinous of levels like those found in Revenge of the Lemmings.  e.g. Armageddon 29:

Wow, thanks for the spoiler 

[Crane]

Erk, sorry.  Modified for future viewers.  I thought most people knew it by now, especially as a video of its solution has been posted.  Still... surrounded in spoiler quotes now.

[namida]

Erk, sorry.  Modified for future viewers.  I thought most people knew it by now, especially as a video of its solution has been posted.  Still... surrounded in spoiler quotes now.

It's always better to be safe than sorry. There's some people here who refuse to even so much as read hints on levels they haven't solved yet. I myself prefer not to see them until I've at least given the level plenty of tries.

[Crane]

Apologies again.  I just wanted to give a good example.  I should have known better, especially as I suggested the hints not be available until you fail the level three times in a row.

[namida]

Apologies again.  I just wanted to give a good example.  I should have known better, especially as I suggested the hints not be available until you fail the level three times in a row.

No worries. We all make that mistake sometimes (especially without the existance of a proper spoiler tag).

[mobius]

"Load level" is now "add external levels." And I don't see how it's much more difficult--only two extra clicks are needed to load a single level.

In any case, I'll look into a way of saving the levels that have been loaded.

I guess I was exaggerating a little. It's not incredibly difficult but the not saving what you loaded is an annoyance. Much appreciated if you fix that.
Also thank you for fixing whatever bug was in the old version which seemed like the game was too slow.
The biggest thing I probably enjoy is being able to make the screen bigger.  No more squinting! [Maybe "Lem-mini" is no longer an appropriate name  ] except after reading that topic (minim I think?) posted apparently that's not why it was called Lemmini in the first place. 

[mobius]

Is it at all possible to fix the problem where if you try to play a level without the right graphics or music it forces you to re-extract the files?
All that has to happen is it gives you the message: "level unplayable" or something like that, there's no reason to have to re-extract the files; this is a major nuisance and inconvenience because if you have custom graphics you must reinstall them (else just replace your ini files inside the graphics folders). Anyway, this is a big reason some people don't use Lemmini.

[Tsyu]

Is it at all possible to fix the problem where if you try to play a level without the right graphics or music it forces you to re-extract the files?
All that has to happen is it gives you the message: "level unplayable" or something like that, there's no reason to have to re-extract the files; this is a major nuisance and inconvenience because if you have custom graphics you must reinstall them (else just replace your ini files inside the graphics folders). Anyway, this is a big reason some people don't use Lemmini.

I'll see what I can do about that in the next version. What will most likely happen is whenever a necessary file is missing, the game will look it up in an internal file listing. If (and only if) it's there, it will throw an error requiring resource extraction.

[namida]

Is it at all possible to fix the problem where if you try to play a level without the right graphics or music it forces you to re-extract the files?
All that has to happen is it gives you the message: "level unplayable" or something like that, there's no reason to have to re-extract the files; this is a major nuisance and inconvenience because if you have custom graphics you must reinstall them (else just replace your ini files inside the graphics folders). Anyway, this is a big reason some people don't use Lemmini.

Isn't that what the mods feature is there for?

[Crane]

I've found a glitch with the miner.  It seems if the terrain has gaps that are a single pixel wide, the miner can sometimes fall through them but not actually make a hole (i.e. the miner escapes, but the other lemmings remain trapped).

See the attached image for a visual explanation - the lemming down below is the miner just after he falls through that tiny pixel-wide gap just to the left of the bottom step of the tunnel.  As you can see, it's still actully solid and the other lemmings above can only walk back.

[Tsyu]

Thanks for reporting that bug. The cause is a combination of the higher resolution and the quirky miner mechanics of the original game that SuperLemmini mimics. I think I have a good solution, though: If the miner is facing right, check the first column of pixels to the right of the lemming's position rather than the pixels directly underneath when determining whether the miner should become a faller. I checked this solution with your level and it appears to work as intended.

[mobius]

I have a question; in the level format.txt it says how the file format works; I seem to remember you saying this could be edited manually? For example; I'd like to edit the entrance order of a level. It's a little confusing and after trying a twice I messed it up somehow. If you could help me a little..

What I did was; edit the line right after # of diggers (no spaces right?) like this;

= 2numDiggers = 0xPosCenter = 1600y...
to;
= 2numDiggers = 0entranceOrder = 0, 1, 2xPosCenter = 1600y...

how exactly should I write this line? I'd like the entrance order to go 1,2,3,1,2,3 etc...

[the result of my above tampering btw, made  the one entrance not work and the start position different]


--------
I can say whether this is a bug or not but in case it is you might be interested:

if a lemming on count-down reaches the exit and starts the exit animation, if his countdown gets to 0 he'll stop "exiting" and blow up, and not be counted as saved. I'm not sure but I think at least in DOS this didn't happen, maybe it was only Lemmix but the lemming would exit and be saved. I don't know how Amiga worked.

[Tsyu]

First of all, if the level file (or any text file, for that matter) really looks like that, with each line having lots of parameters without proper spacing, then you need to open it with something other than Notepad (Notepad++ will do). Notepad, unlike most other text editors, is a picky little bastard that only recognizes Windows-style line breaks (0x0D 0x0A or \r\n); levels saved in Lemmix or NeoLemmix use UNIX-style line breaks (0x0A or \n). Editing a file that uses the latter in Notepad can have undesired results (in this case, SuperLemmini crashing or some parameters not working properly).

You are correct in using 0, 1, 2 to get an entrance order of 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. The line-break issue described above is probably the reason why it's not working properly.

if a lemming on count-down reaches the exit and starts the exit animation, if his countdown gets to 0 he'll stop "exiting" and blow up, and not be counted as saved. I'm not sure but I think at least in DOS this didn't happen, maybe it was only Lemmix but the lemming would exit and be saved. I don't know how Amiga worked.

Yes, this is how it works in the Amiga version, and SuperLemmini is intentionally mimicking this behavior.

[mobius]

ok, thanks for the link and everything 

[Tsyu]

Version 0.98 is out. I didn't implement a way of saving external levels (that will need some work), but I did implement some of the other features and fixes that have been requested.

• Added support for terrain IDs above 63 in LVL files. (Object IDs above 15 have always been supported.)
• Added steel to the bubble and Xmas sets. Also added the snow set's hazard objects to the Xmas set. These additions follow those in recent versions of Lemmix.
• Levels can now include hints using the hint_n parameters, where n is a number starting from 0. See the level documentation for more information.
• Resource exceptions regarding a custom files (i.e., those not included with SuperLemmini) no longer force resource extractions.
• Fixed a bug that would cause a builder to get stuck in a wall under certain conditions.
• When checking whether a right-facing miner should become a faller, SuperLemmini now checks the first column of pixels to the right of the lemming's position rather than the pixels directly underneath. This should prevent cases where a miner stops and falls through a thin yet solid floor even though other lemmings can walk over it in both directions.

[mobius]

I didn't notice this until now; but you've fixed the terrain glitches on pillar 16 and bubble 33 

Not sure if this matters anymore; [it certainly matters with Lemmix and on Old Lemmini] you have 64 terrain pieces labeled in the ini file for bubble but it should be 68 with the new steel there.

And of course; nice on the other bug fixes

[mobius]

I think I found a bug:
A climber gets stuck at the top of the screen. The best way to demonstrate it is; download this level and play it. Make a climber going left at the top. He get's stuck at the crook where he should just turn around.

[Tsyu]

Not sure if this matters anymore; [it certainly matters with Lemmix and on Old Lemmini] you have 64 terrain pieces labeled in the ini file for bubble but it should be 68 with the new steel there.

Oops! Yes, you're right--the tiles parameter should be 68. This is fixed in 0.98a, which is available now.

I think I found a bug:
A climber gets stuck at the top of the screen. The best way to demonstrate it is; download this level and play it. Make a climber going left at the top. He get's stuck at the crook where he should just turn around.

I tried your level in the Amiga version by hacking a savestate, and the same thing happened. So, I don't consider this to be a SuperLemmini bug. To prevent this from happening in the Amiga version, I had to move the "spoke" thing to the left by 5 pixels. I suggest doing the same thing to your level, but move it by 10 pixels to account for the doubled resolution.

[Crane]

This is just a suggestion, but for levels that have an "Author" field, can it be displayed under "Rating" on the info screen, possibly in the red letters used to display the level name? (I don't think there's another colour that isn't used).

Formatting should be straightforward and obvious: "Author" is aligned with "Rating", and the author name is left-aligned with whatever the rating is.

EDIT: I had pondered about an "Auto-nuke" option, which you can turn on and off in the dialogs, where the nuke is automatically triggered if all the lemmings are out of the trapdoors and the only ones left on the field are blockers, but I realised there may be situations where this is undesirable (i.e. bombing a blocker releases another due to blasting the floor away).  It's more of an anti-frustration feature for beginners on, say, Tailor-made for Blockers.  Would an "Auto-nuke" feature be viable under the following conditions?

- All lemmings have entered the level.
- The only lemmings still on the field are blockers.
- You have no bombers (and a blocker doesn't have a countdown over his head).

[Tsyu]

This is just a suggestion, but for levels that have an "Author" field, can it be displayed under "Rating" on the info screen, possibly in the red letters used to display the level name? (I don't think there's another colour that isn't used).

Formatting should be straightforward and obvious: "Author" is aligned with "Rating", and the author name is left-aligned with whatever the rating is.

I think I can still fit that in. Keep in mind that the hint feature needs a place for the "Show Hint" button, and it's currently placed just above the "Start Level" and "Menu" buttons (although it doesn't appear unless the level has hints and the player has failed the level three times). Also, I want there to always be a gap between the level info and the buttons below.

The author field will probably go below the level name rather than the rating.

EDIT: I had pondered about an "Auto-nuke" option, which you can turn on and off in the dialogs, where the nuke is automatically triggered if all the lemmings are out of the trapdoors and the only ones left on the field are blockers, but I realised there may be situations where this is undesirable (i.e. bombing a blocker releases another due to blasting the floor away).  It's more of an anti-frustration feature for beginners on, say, Tailor-made for Blockers.  Would an "Auto-nuke" feature be viable under the following conditions?

- All lemmings have entered the level.
- The only lemmings still on the field are blockers.
- You have no bombers (and a blocker doesn't have a countdown over his head).

If more people want this feature, I'll look into adding it.

[mobius]

it seems that if certain objects overlap; like an arrow is near by an exit. The exit does not work.
It doesn't matter which object is on top in the list, the exit is always canceled.
Note that in my test; the objects were not really overlapping at all; at least from the viewpoint of the editor; the boundary box of the arrows were several pixels below the exit.
I attached the level I discovered this on. I found the glitch when the arrows were even lower.

[ccexplore]

It's rather hard for me to imagine people not knowing about nuking, Lemmings being rather (in)famous for it.  Also, does SuperLemmini support something like pressing ESC to end the level early without even bothering to nuke?  The official classic versions of Lemmings (eg. PC, Amiga etc.) all support that AFAIK.  Even some ported versions on consoles like SNES/Genesis support such an abort with specific 2-button combinations (like Start+Select on SNES, IIRC).  Maybe it's better to look into how best to introduce truly new players on the manual nuke feature instead?

Example:  maybe instead of auto-nuking, the same conditions just trigger the nuke button to flash.  If the player single-clicks on the button (assuming SuperLemmini requires double-clicking to activate like in classic Lemmings), pop-up some text informing player to click second time to nuke for sure.  (This special help text can be a one-time thing too, or not.)

[Tsyu]

it seems that if certain objects overlap; like an arrow is near by an exit. The exit does not work.
It doesn't matter which object is on top in the list, the exit is always canceled.
Note that in my test; the objects were not really overlapping at all; at least from the viewpoint of the editor; the boundary box of the arrows were several pixels below the exit.
I attached the level I discovered this on. I found the glitch when the arrows were even lower.

Where two objects' trigger areas overlap, the object with the higher index number (that is, lower in the list) takes priority. Also, the trigger areas of the one-way arrows in the default styles are positioned 8 pixels above the actual object (which is how they are in the original games). All you need to do is assign the exit a higher index number than the arrows immediately below it--that worked for me.

Also, does SuperLemmini support something like pressing ESC to end the level early without even bothering to nuke?

ESC ends a level in SuperLemmini (but not Lemmini).

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.99 is out, now with proper replay support for external levels! This should make level testing much easier in cases where replays are useful.

Here is the list of changes:

• SuperLemmini now remembers which external levels have been loaded.
• Replay files now save the names of ratings and levels in addition to their names, helping SuperLemmini to find the correct level in case levels or ratings get shuffled. This means that replays for external levels can be loaded reliably if the level is in the level list and the level's name has not been changed.
• When the level selection dialog is opened, the current level is now automatically selected.
• If a level that is already in the external levels list is reloaded, a duplicate entry is no longer made.
• The level briefing now displays the level author below the rating if the level specifies an author.
• Added support for NeoLemmix's Cheapo fall distance "gimmick."
• Fixed a bug that would cause level extraction to fail on systems that use case-sensitive file names (such as Linux).
• The author field in the level-selection dialog is now cleared when no level is selected.
• If a sound channel cannot be opened, SuperLemmini no longer tries to use it to play sound effects.

For those who are wondering, the next version will almost certainly not be 1.0; it will probably be either 0.100 or 0.99a.

Editing the original post will take a while since the edit button gives me the post with HTML markup rather than BBCode, so I'll put the links here for now:
Build (this is probably what you want): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89353583/Lemmings/Lemmini/superlemmini_0.99.zip
Source: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89353583/Lemmings/Lemmini/superlemmini_0.99_source.zip

[mobius]

Some excellent updates! Thanks for your hardwork! 


your edit button problem sounds like a bug with the site? 

[Tsyu]

your edit button problem sounds like a bug with the site? 

The problem appears to happen only with posts that were imported from the old site, so it's probably just the way that the posts were added. (And I already fixed and updated the original post; the second post will be fixed eventually.)

[namida]

(And I already fixed and updated the original post; the second post will be fixed eventually.)

Done.
While importing every post with proper BBCode is not feasible (other than by writing a snippet of code to revert it, which would in itself be very complicated), it's pretty easy to fix up individual posts on a case-by-case basis.

[lemming_1]

• Fixed a bug that would cause level extraction to fail on systems that use case-sensitive file names (such as Linux).

Thanks Tsyu, you are the best! It works perfectly now 

[BradLee]

Playing with this now... VERY cool. 

One question I have though... is it possible to run this on an Android phone/tablet/emulator?

[Tsyu]

One question I have though... is it possible to run this on an Android phone/tablet/emulator?

Most likely not. From what I can tell, Android does not officially support Java. There are a number of Java emulators for Android, but I don't know how well SuperLemmini works in any of them or if it works in them at all. And a native Android version is probably never going to happen.

[BradLee]

Thanks, but I've tried them all and they all crash straight away and spit out errors before even starting.

It's such a shame that you don't plan on an Android port, because SuperLemmini is an otherwise great Lemmings engine. Unfortunately it's just on the wrong operating system for me. 

[Tsyu]

Version 0.100 is here, and so are Santa lemmings! No longer will you need to put up with non-Christmas graphics in your Christmas levels!

Changes:

• Added the ICU library to support certain text operations that Java itself does not provide. Unfortunately, it adds about 5 MB to the download size (and that's after removing lots of language-specific data that isn't currently needed). Hopefully it doesn't make the download too big.
• If a player name is entered that contains non-ASCII characters or characters that are known to be illegal in some file systems, such characters are replaced with an escape sequence in the form of "_xxxx" when creating the player file, where "xxxx" is the four-digit hex code of the character's Unicode code point. Supplementary characters are replaced with two escape sequences, each representing a surrogate code point used to represent the character in UTF-16. The "_" is also escaped to prevent ambiguity. If the entire player name is known to be illegal in some file systems (such as "com1"), then every character of the name is escaped.
• Removed the need to use numBackgrounds when using backgrounds in a level.
• Added support for background scaling and tinting. See the level documentation for information on how to use these features.
• Lemmings now wear Santa suits in the Xmas/Holiday Lemmings levels. Custom level packs may also use the Santa lemmings by using the "xmas" mod (add the line "mods = xmas" somewhere to the pack's levelpack.ini file).
• Hints no longer need to include explicit line breaks; word wrapping is now done automatically.
• Hopefully fixed the key-repeat problem that happens under Linux.
• Made a tiny tweak to how the climber behaves when it's near the top border (to match the Amiga version).
• Fixed a bug that prevented certain images from the gfx/misc folder of mods from being loaded.

[Tsyu]

Version 0.100a is now out, mostly to improve level loading performance under certain circumstances.

Changes:

• Readded some optimizations to level loading that were removed in version 0.100.
• Slightly reduced the fall distance of LVL levels that use the Cheapo gimmick to 152. SuperLemmini doesn't currently support the other changes to game mechanics that are supposed to be used when that gimmick is enabled, however.
• The Xmas number font and terrain pieces 12 and 36 of the Xmas style have been updated to look a bit nicer.

Does anyone here feel that Java 7 support is still important? I'm asking because I have been planning for some time to move to Java 8 sometime after Java 7 stops receiving public updates (more specifically, once the Java 7 links are removed from this page). If people still want Java 7 support, however, I will continue to support it.

[Tsyu]

Version 0.101 is out now. While this is mostly a bugfix release, do take note of the first change in the list below.

Changes:

• Level lists in levelpack.ini can now use "level_n_m" (where n is the rating's index number, and m is the level's index number in the rating) instead of "[lowercase name]_m" as the key for each entry. This new format is now prefered, with the older one being deprecated.
• Removed the ICU library, at least for now.
• Updated the IBXM, and Apache Commons Lang libraries.
• Added support for the latest NeoLemmix LVL format.
• Supplementary characters in player names are now represented in file names using the form "__xxxxxx" (two underscores), where "xxxxxx" is the six-digit Unicode code point of the character.
• Fixed a bug where author names of imported LVL files weren't being escaped with backslashes, sometimes resulting in certain characters (typically backslashes) not being displayed.
• Fixed a bug where, if the level selection dialog is opened while a level is being played, the list would not be scrolled down to ensure that the level's entry was visible.
• Fixed a bug where the level-info fields of the level selection dialog would always be empty initially, even if a level is selected initially.

The Genesis pack has also been updated to fix the way that certain object types are drawn. (Specifically, it seems that the Genesis version always draws entrances, exits, and passive objects [but not flags] behind terrain.)

This will most likely be the last version of SuperLemmini to support Java 7, with future versions requiring Java 8.

[Chib]

Just found this today and wanted to say thanks, this is an awesome program!

I wanted to make a few suggestions for you to consider too:

• Allow re-binding of shortcut keys, including separate keys for scrolling left/right and selecting a lemming moving left/right (from advanced select). I mostly want this so I can bind the WASD keys for moving the screen (while maintaining the ability to select left/right moving lemmings). Something like space to pause would be much more handy than P/F11 too.
• Make it so when you hit shift-F2 or shift-left clicking the increase release rate button automatically puts it to 99 (since you can pause and do this slowly, it shouldn't impact the game play). Perhaps a shortcut for the converse to, so shift-F1 to set it to the minimum release rate allowable for the level.
• Add a shortcut key to restart the level (ctrl-R maybe?) to avoid having to use the menu with the mouse.
• On the end level screen, rename "Replay" to "Watch Replay", just to make it clearer that it's not a button to replay the map (I clicked it several times before realising what was going on).

Finally, I have a bug report. I'm seeing the slime water where it shouldn't be in one of the levels imported from the Windows Lemmings:

http://i.imgur.com/cDB1mv4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nNA8Btd.png

Shown on both the level title screen map and in the level itself as per above. If you can't replicate it, let me know what information you need from me.

Thanks again!

[Tsyu]

I wanted to make a few suggestions for you to consider too:

• Allow re-binding of shortcut keys, including separate keys for scrolling left/right and selecting a lemming moving left/right (from advanced select). I mostly want this so I can bind the WASD keys for moving the screen (while maintaining the ability to select left/right moving lemmings). Something like space to pause would be much more handy than P/F11 too.
• Make it so when you hit shift-F2 or shift-left clicking the increase release rate button automatically puts it to 99 (since you can pause and do this slowly, it shouldn't impact the game play). Perhaps a shortcut for the converse to, so shift-F1 to set it to the minimum release rate allowable for the level.
• Add a shortcut key to restart the level (ctrl-R maybe?) to avoid having to use the menu with the mouse.
• On the end level screen, rename "Replay" to "Watch Replay", just to make it clearer that it's not a button to replay the map (I clicked it several times before realising what was going on).

I'll look into implementing all of these into the next release.

Finally, I have a bug report. I'm seeing the slime water where it shouldn't be in one of the levels imported from the Windows Lemmings:

That's not a bug. As ccexplore said earlier in this thread:

That's actually exactly how it looks in the Amiga version.  It's the DOS version that removed the liquid objects there (plus many other places in many levels).  I guess it's trying to depict tubes of bubbling liquid.

Although the Amiga version probably renders this effect a bit better. I can look into making SuperLemmini handle this more like the Amiga version does.

[Chib]

Awesome, thanks!

One amendment though, it seems double tapping F1/F2 actually minimises/maximises the release rate, so don't worry about that one. It must've been implemented in Lemmini originally and not documented.

[Chib]

Small bug report:

The file levels\1_orig\levelpack.ini has the following as the final line:

level_5_20 = demomulti2,15

Instead of:

level_5_20 = demomulti2.ini,15

Edit: I forgot I renamed those variables so I could play the multiplayer maps, I think the line was originally something like:

demo_20 = demomulti2,15

[Tsyu]

Thanks for reporting that error. Since multiplayer isn't supported yet, I won't release a new version just to fix that line. It will certainly be fixed in the next version, though.

[exit]

Is manually editing player files meant to be done? I tried to edit the file and entered everything in(completed=true, time elapsed, skills used, lemmings saved, score), but it didn't work. I copy-pasted it and changed the group and level numbers to the correct ones.

Edit: Looks like I didn't think to see if the level numbers started on 0 instead of 1. It seems, though, that the next level is marked as completed, but it doesn't load the next level(the level just says completed and has all of the things I entered in it, it's just that the next level isn't accessible). I suggest that you do something that makes the program reload the player file on startup or something of the sort.

[Tsyu]

Player files aren't meant to be edited manually, although it is possible.

All the "completed" field does is add "(completed)" next to the level title in the level selection dialog. It's not meant to cause any levels to be unlocked--that's the job of the random-looking numbers at the ends of the lines containing the names of the level packs and ratings. (And in case you're wondering, those numbers are simply bit fields expressed as decimal numbers. I can explain how they work if you want me to.)

I suggest that you do something that makes the program reload the player file on startup or something of the sort.

It already does...? I mean, if the game didn't load the file on startup, it wouldn't know what levels should be unlocked. (In other words, it would be as though the file didn't even exist.)

[exit]

I suggest that you do something that makes the program reload the player file on startup or something of the sort.

It already does...? I mean, if the game didn't load the file on startup, it wouldn't know what levels should be unlocked. (In other words, it would be as though the file didn't even exist.)

I really don't know why I said that. If player files aren't meant to be manually edited I guess you can always just edit the level itself!

[namida]

Shhh. If you tell him that, he'll find a way to prevent that too.

[Ron_Stard]

I've just found a package for Lemmini with all the Lemmings 2 Classic Tribe leves. I have not tested yet on Superlemmini, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hviZ0oX_fSU

The link for the package is posted within the video description:

http://www.mediafire.com/?chefe6ow61wndf5

[Ron_Stard]

It seems that all the Lemmings 2 levels that I mentioned before have problems with the exit detection: once the lemmings reach the tipi, there is no way to make them enter on it. According to the info within the levels, they were edited with Alpha version of Lemmings Level Editor. Is that program not compatible with SuperLemmini?

[namida]

Yes and no. Yes in tha it's compatible with Lemmini; and all Lemmini levels are compatible with SuperLemmini. No in that it doesn't support SuperLemmini-exclusive features (only the NeoLemmix Editor does, as far as I know).

With that being said, the end result here is still the levels will be fine. The problem is with the graphic sets; Lemmini graphic sets are not 100% compatible with SuperLemmini ones, primarily due to a difference in how trigger areas are handled. The NeoLemmix Graphic Set Tool is capable of loading Lemmini graphic sets and saving SuperLemmini graphic sets (these options are in the "Import" and "Export" menus respectively); you can use this to convert them without having to do the work manually.

[Ron_Stard]

Thank you for the info!

[manic23]

just wanted to say a huge thank you for this awesome Lemmings game, I can't believe how awesome this is, I love that you get all the levels and just about every game and the Mega drive levels are the icing on the cake, to be able to play the Mega drive levels with a mouse is a dream come true to me.

One happy Lemmings nerd!

[namida]

I discovered a Lemmini group on Facebook and introduced them to SuperLemmini. Some of them seem quite interested; so don't let the lack of interest on the forums get you down - it seems you do have fans, just elsewhere.

[Tsyu]

Yes, development has been extremely slow lately; I've been busy doing other things. I haven't given up, though.

The next version will support loading directly from ZIP files, which has already been implemented. All that needs to be done is to get the Windows Lemmings extractor to save the extracted resources to a ZIP file and delete the loose resources that are in use now; this has been partially completed.

[Ben H]

SuperLemmini is still my favourite of all the various Lemmings engines.
I wish more people were creating content for it.

[Colorful Arty]

I just randomly found the CRAZIEST glitches ever when playing one of my levels. Apparently, if you dig all the way to the bottom of the screen and bash before falling into the abyss, you warp to the top of the screen. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, so I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Tsyu]

After far too long, SuperLemmini 0.102 is ready for release. Here are the changes:

• Java 8 or later is now required to run SuperLemmini. Various parts of the SuperLemmini code now take advantage of certain Java 8 features such as lambda expressions.
• Changed most of the object arrays to lists. Hopefully this didn't introduce any bugs.
• Levels and other resources can now be loaded from ZIP files. Such files must use the .lzp extension (not the usual .zip), must be placed in the root of the resource folder, and must contain the same folder structure of the resource folder.
• Resources extracted from Windows Lemmings are now stored in root.lzp rather than as separate files.
• Fixed a bug that caused a basher to warp to the top of the level if it was very close to the bottom and encountered a hole.

In case you didn't read the change list, Java 8 or later is now required.

SuperLemmini can now load files from LZP files, which are just standard ZIP files with a .lzp extension. This feature was designed this way so that players don't try to extract the files (as they don't need to). The proper folder structure of LZP files is the same as that of the resource folder. Also, remember that SuperLemmini reads from all LZP files, not just those pertaining to the current level pack, so it's still necessary to continue to place replacement files within the "mods" folder, even if they're inside an LZP file.

[Tsyu]

I released a small update to fix a bug that can cause a crash:

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the random music selector to inappropriately pick a music file that existed only in a subfolder of the music folder, resulting in a crash.

[Colorful Arty]

Just got the newest update, and everything works perfectly. Excellent work Tsyu!

[grams88]

SuperLemmini sounds cool. Need to give that a go.

[Colorful Arty]

Ok, one problem.

When I have used SuperLemmini in the past, I extracted the regular Lemmini Source Files to run it, because when I try to extract the new SuperLemmini Source Files, it gives me this error:

Validating WINLEMM...
GFX/BLINK.SPR
File C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\src\GFX\BLINK.SPR not found.

How do I fix this?

[Tsyu]

Can you verify that C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\src\GFX\BLINK.SPR actually does exist? Also remember that you have to point SuperLemmini to the WINLEMM folder itself, not its parent folder.

[Colorful Arty]

I can assure you that the path does exist. Is the file I need to point SuperLemmini to INSIDE the src file, or do I have to download WINLEMM somewhere?

[namida]

You should use an actual copy of WinLemm. It isn't too hard to find one.

[IchoTolot]

I can assure you that the path does exist. Is the file I need to point SuperLemmini to INSIDE the src file, or do I have to download WINLEMM somewhere?

The Lemmini version of Reunion has a download link for WINLEM. (It's inside my Dropbox so no dubious site )
http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2101.0

[Colorful Arty]

Is there a way to unlock all the levels in a given SuperLemmini pack by entering a code? I know you could do that in Lemmini, but was that removed from SuperLemmini?

[IchoTolot]

I could start the discussion about the default setting should be "everything is unlocked" here aswell.

But I think everything what had to be said about this has already been said in another topic.

Topic: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2136.msg51613#msg51613

My post there:

For a long time my opinion was against unlock all. It's not Lemmings like and you need to progress to the final boss level.
But after this thread appeared I thought about it and now I ask myself why Lemmings wasn't unlock all in the first place!

It has to do with a (and maybe even the) main point of the game:

You get stuck!  (and sometimes over weeks and months)

It's is a puzzle game, so you need to think about a solution to a puzzle. Here the puzzle is to manipulate the terrain to get from A to B.
If you think about a solution and don't get it right away you are stucked at this point.
If you don't get stucked in a pack (getting all the solution after a few tries) the whole puzzle aspect of this pack falls short.
And remember: What are the levels which you will remember forever?
The ones you got stuck really hard and solved them finally after days, months or even years. And often they are the best ones! Example: The original games!
"No added colors or Lemmings" and  "There's madness in the method" are the levels where nearly everyone got stuck (I got stuck for a year back in the days and there are my favorites).

But there is one point that keeps pushing these type of puzzles down:

The levels from this point onward lay dead!

If you get stuck hard you often need to take breaks from this level. What do you do?
Play another rank or take a break from the game.
If you are stuck for a long time you maybe loose interest in the pack even if you played just a part of it, because you cannot access the rest! (which usually has a lot of levels where you won't get stuck)

And that's the point why unlock all is in my opinion the best option.
A big part of the game lays dead and some people might loose interest after some time. With unlock all they can explore the game further on and come back to the level they couldn't solve before. (And they will, because that level will haunt them in their dreams! I know it from myself!)
Now they can see the pack in all it's glory and save the frustraiting part for the end.
But don't leave out the frustraiting part, because as explained above it is often the best one when you have beaten it!

At the end of this post a little quote from me I said to Simon at our meet up as we spoke about this topic (translated):

"Frustraition at it's core, if you are too dumb at this point to get the solution, but that is one of the main point of the game"

[Tsyu]

Is there a way to unlock all the levels in a given SuperLemmini pack by entering a code? I know you could do that in Lemmini, but was that removed from SuperLemmini?

In both SuperLemmini and Lemmini, you can enter "0xdeadbeef" as a level code to unlock all levels.

By the way, did you manage to get the extraction to work?

[Colorful Arty]

Thanks!

And yes I did get the extraction to work, but I had to use the Lemmini files instead of the SuperLemmini ones.

[Tsyu]

And yes I did get the extraction to work, but I had to use the Lemmini files instead of the SuperLemmini ones.

I meant using SuperLemmini to extract the files. It's very important that you do this because SuperLemmini does not use the same file structure as Lemmini, and even some of the files are incompatibly different.

Keep in mind that the current version of SuperLemmini crashes at a certain point during extraction if the destination folder doesn't exist. Once I figure out why extraction is failing for you, I will release an update that fixes this. In the meantime, make sure you extract to an existing folder (and make sure it's empty!).

I might be able to figure out what your problem really is if you post the directory list of your "src" folder. Here's how to do it:

• Open the Command Prompt. (You should be able to do this by searching for Command Prompt or cmd.exe. If you're running XP or earlier, you can enter cmd.exe into the Run prompt.)
• Enter cd C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\src.
• Enter tree . /F /A > tree.txt.
• A file called "tree.txt" (or just "tree" if file extensions are hidden) should now be found in C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\src. Open it to make sure it's readable, then post it here.

[namida]

Tsyu: On the subject of extraction failures, people elsewhere have mentioned that extraction sometimes fails if files are set to read-only; specifically it seems to occur most often with the sound files. Since (I would assume) SuperLemmini only reads from the WinLemm files, not writes to them, surely this can be fixed?

[IchoTolot]

As I remember   Here's some feedback with SuperLemmini on Linux:

I've actually gotten SuperLemmini to work on ubuntu (on my laptop), but with some problems with the file extration/custom levels.

Ubuntu seems to be very sensetive about upper/lower case letters and therefore fails to find certain files.

At some point it searches for sth like "BUBBLES.dat", but finds "Bubbles.dat"   I cant remember the failure exactly so it can be the other way round or so, but nevertheless I had to do some manual renaming in order to make it find the files.
Custom levels:
The editor for example writes tileset: "Bubble" into a ini file of a level, but the tileset acually is named "bubble" ---> manual renaming required
I didn't test the official levels there, but it could be that the error also accours.

[namida]

The extX file systems generally used under Linux are case-sensitive, so "BUBBLES.dat" and "bubbles.dat" are two different files as far as it's concerned; you could indeed have both names in the same folder.

There are ways to deal with this - eg. SuperLemmini could get a list of files from the target directory, look for ones that match the desired ones in a non-case-sensitive way, then use those. This would be a bit of extra coding effort, but it would greatly increase compatibility and ease of use, especially since it appears different copies of WinLemm may have different capitalization.

NeoLemmix Editor should be always saving graphic set names as lowercase (although it might only be doing this for NeoLemmix levels, not SuperLemmini ones). However, of course, this could still cause problems if SuperLemmini expects a mixed-case one (though I believe Tsyu once mentioned that it generally expects lowercase, at least by default).

[Colorful Arty]

This is a really minor issue, and it may not even be SuperLemmini causing it, but on marble levels only, objects that are flipped upside-down turn a much brighter shade of pink than usual. Am I the only one having this problem?

[Tsyu]

This is a really minor issue, and it may not even be SuperLemmini causing it, but on marble levels only, objects that are flipped upside-down turn a much brighter shade of pink than usual. Am I the only one having this problem?

It appears to be a Java bug, and it only happens on some systems. I've got a few ideas on how to work around this, one of which will be implemented in the next version.


Regarding extraction, please follow the instructions that I posted here: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1793.msg57262#msg57262. If you don't, then I can never know for sure why SuperLemmini extraction isn't working for you. If this really is a problem with SuperLemmini, I want to fix it for you and others who may have the same problem. (And please don't ignore them just because you can just copy Lemmini files over to SuperLemmini. This may seem good enough to you, but trust me, it isn't, for reasons that I've already stated.)

There are ways to deal with this - eg. SuperLemmini could get a list of files from the target directory, look for ones that match the desired ones in a non-case-sensitive way, then use those. This would be a bit of extra coding effort, but it would greatly increase compatibility and ease of use, especially since it appears different copies of WinLemm may have different capitalization.

I'll give this a try. I can't guarantee that it will be in the next version, but it should come soon.

NeoLemmix Editor should be always saving graphic set names as lowercase (although it might only be doing this for NeoLemmix levels, not SuperLemmini ones). However, of course, this could still cause problems if SuperLemmini expects a mixed-case one (though I believe Tsyu once mentioned that it generally expects lowercase, at least by default).

I added a hack to SuperLemmini 0.102 that looks for a lowercase version of a graphic set if the set couldn't be found the first time, mainly because Lemmix didn't use all-lowercase names and LZP files (which are just renamed ZIP files) use a case-sensitive structure.

Tsyu: On the subject of extraction failures, people elsewhere have mentioned that extraction sometimes fails if files are set to read-only; specifically it seems to occur most often with the sound files. Since (I would assume) SuperLemmini only reads from the WinLemm files, not writes to them, surely this can be fixed?

I can't reproduce this on my machine (which runs Windows 7), but I remember being unable to extract directly from the CD under Ubuntu. I will have to test it again and find out what the problem is exactly.

[namida]

It seems to work fine up until the sound files in most cases. With that in mind - is there any difference in how it reads them? (eg. it opens the other files and reads binary data I assume; while for the sound files perhaps it just copies them directly? If so, perhaps it could open the sound files the same way, read the binary data, then write it as-is to the destination file?)

[Tsyu]

During extraction, most files are opened with Files.readAllBytes, which reads the binary data into memory. Sound files, however, are copied with Files.copy, which just copies the file to another location. As far as I can tell, this shouldn't fail just because the source file is read-only (and, on my machine, it doesn't).

[namida]

As seen in this post, Flopsy86 is having this issue, on the file that's the usual culprit, "bang.wav". So perhaps try making a modified version that simply changes to using readAllBytes instead of copy, sending it to him, and seeing if this works better. If it does, it may be worth using that for all files in future versions.

[Colorful Arty]

So here's what I'm doing. When I launch SuperLemmini and it asks to extract Lemmings from Windows, I input

C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\src

for the source path and

C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\New SuperLemmini

for the target path. The former is the src file that has been unmodified, and the latter is a completely empty folder on my desktop. When I push "extract" I get the error message

Validating WINLEMM
GFX/BLINK.SPR
File C:\Users\ColorfulArty\Desktop\src\GFX\BLINK.SPR not found.

So mine does not fail on bang.wav like most people. I followed your instructions on the command prompt and apparently tree.txt does exist in the src file (since terminal didn't raise an error message when I typed the command), and I can absolutely assure you both of the files I used exist in those locations specified.

[IchoTolot]

Actually I have another thing to report, too:

As I downloaded the last SuperLemmini version together with "Prince Jamie Super Challenge Pack" (link: http://sta.sh/0200tf2xesh), everything worked fine. The pack adds a few objects to certain tilesets and places these into the dedicated mod folder.
After the recent update, SuperLemmini tells me that the rest of the tiles and objects were missing via an error message and it seems that it expects the whole tilesets to be in the mod folder rather than just adding the new objects. For now I could fix this on my own by copying the Lemmini tilsets into the mod folder aswell, but now some replays are not working anymore due to different trap trigger areas.
This seems like a new bug to me that SuperLemmini doesn't count the mod files as a simple addition to the standard tilsets anymore.

[Tsyu]

So mine does not fail on bang.wav like most people. I followed your instructions on the command prompt and apparently tree.txt does exist in the src file (since terminal didn't raise an error message when I typed the command), and I can absolutely assure you both of the files I used exist in those locations specified.

Can you attach the tree.txt file? I might get some valuable information if I look at it.

As I downloaded the last SuperLemmini version together with "Prince Jamie Super Challenge Pack" (link: http://sta.sh/0200tf2xesh), everything worked fine. The pack adds a few objects to certain tilesets and places these into the dedicated mod folder.
After the recent update, SuperLemmini tells me that the rest of the tiles and objects were missing via an error message and it seems that it expects the whole tilesets to be in the mod folder rather than just adding the new objects. For now I could fix this on my own by copying the Lemmini tilsets into the mod folder aswell, but now some replays are not working anymore due to different trap trigger areas.
This seems like a new bug to me that SuperLemmini doesn't count the mod files as a simple addition to the standard tilsets anymore.

Actually, the problem is related to case sensitivity. Specifically, it's due to the levels in that pack not using all-lowercase style names, LZP files using a case-sensitive file structure, your file system using a case-insensitive one, the [style name].ini file that's in use being located in that case-insensitive file system, and some files of the style being located in the case-sensitive LZP file. This combination of conditions is causing the hack that I mentioned earlier to fail. So, basically, I need to implement a good way of working around case sensitivity.

[Colorful Arty]

Here is the tree.txt file.

[Tsyu]

You were trying to extract from the SuperLemmini source code; you need to extract from the Windows version of Lemmings instead. (And no, you don't have a file called "BLINK.SPR", at least not where you're trying to extract from.)

I suppose your confusion is that the first text field asks for a "source" folder, and you thought that meant the source code of SuperLemmini. I will change the text field's label in the next version to avoid confusing other users in this manner.

[Colorful Arty]

So is there any practical purpose for the src file, or is it just for making mods?

[Tsyu]

You mean the src folder? That contains SuperLemmini's source code, which is used to compile the binary code* that users run. It's distributed because SuperLemmini is open source, which basically means the source code is made available for anyone to look at, modify, and distribute. For more information, see the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

Source code is of little or no use to those who just want to play or make content. That's why it's a separate download.


*Well, with Java programs, it's technically bytecode, but the idea is the same.

[Colorful Arty]

Well, that explains A LOT. I was trying to extract from the src file. No wonder it failed...

[phicr]

Hello! I was introduced to SuperLemmini by Psychedelic Eyeball's new let's play and have been having lots of fun with it!

I came here to report some odd behaviour that may be bugs (replays showing them off attached).

In Taxing 4, "Lend a helping hand...", I've met failure in two different ways trying to mine a pillar near the top of the screen. Once the lemming mined nothing, went right through a staircase and fell into his death. The other time he made a path and exited the level, but left a pixel wide part of the wall keeping the other lemmings from following him.

In Bonus 8, "Don't make the wrong choice!", the exit seems to be a little above the ground. Thankfully I had an extra Builder, but it seems odd that I needed it. I've only seen the Sega Master System version of the level, which differs in some significant ways, so apologies if that's intended/replicating the original.

Thanks for the hard work so far!

[namida]

In Bonus 8, "Don't make the wrong choice!", the exit seems to be a little above the ground. Thankfully I had an extra Builder, but it seems odd that I needed it. I've only seen the Sega Master System version of the level, which differs in some significant ways, so apologies if that's intended/replicating the original.

The direct level rip from the Budget Amiga version has this issue too. I don't know if this was an error in the ripping, or in the original level design.

[Tsyu]

In Taxing 4, "Lend a helping hand...", I've met failure in two different ways trying to mine a pillar near the top of the screen. Once the lemming mined nothing, went right through a staircase and fell into his death. The other time he made a path and exited the level, but left a pixel wide part of the wall keeping the other lemmings from following him.

SuperLemmini intentionally mimics the Amiga version's behavior of not removing terrain (that includes builder steps) if the miner is extremely close to the top of the level. I did, however, find during testing that SuperLemmini is a little bit off in mimicking this--I'll have it fixed in the next version. (Your replay examples still won't work as you intend because the miners still start too high, even for the Amiga version.)

Keep in mind that the intended solution is to build up through the hole that has the spike traps. It may look impossible, but the traps only activate if a lemming is in a specific spot. (It's not like in the original Lemmini, where lemmings die if they go anywhere near the spike traps.)

In Bonus 8, "Don't make the wrong choice!", the exit seems to be a little above the ground. Thankfully I had an extra Builder, but it seems odd that I needed it. I've only seen the Sega Master System version of the level, which differs in some significant ways, so apologies if that's intended/replicating the original.

I double-checked the Amiga version that has this level to verify whether the same thing happens there (I thought it did). It turns out that, while there was still a thin gap between the exit and the ground, the lemmings could enter it without any builder steps. I even hacked the level into a savestate of the standard Amiga version and got the same result. It looks like I need to check the Amiga version's object trigger areas and make sure SuperLemmini's trigger areas match those.

[namida]

SuperLemmini intentionally mimics the Amiga version's behavior of not removing terrain (that includes builder steps) if the miner is extremely close to the top of the level. I did, however, find during testing that SuperLemmini is a little bit off in mimicking this--I'll have it fixed in the next version. (Your replay examples still won't work as you intend because the miners still start too high, even for the Amiga version.)

Are you sure this is a behaviour you want to replicate...?

[phicr]

SuperLemmini intentionally mimics the Amiga version's behavior of not removing terrain (that includes builder steps) if the miner is extremely close to the top of the level. I did, however, find during testing that SuperLemmini is a little bit off in mimicking this--I'll have it fixed in the next version. (Your replay examples still won't work as you intend because the miners still start too high, even for the Amiga version.)

Keep in mind that the intended solution is to build up through the hole that has the spike traps. It may look impossible, but the traps only activate if a lemming is in a specific spot. (It's not like in the original Lemmini, where lemmings die if they go anywhere near the spike traps.)

Thanks for looking into it! I am aware that that wasn't the intended solution, I just like finding alternate ones. (which paid off, since I helped find a bug!)
I did manage to mine the pillar and clear the level by building the ladder a little lower.

If you have any use for them, here are all my replays: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oqvritvifsyh44w/AACOnu-R1y5Q-WD-rx2V5wXna?dl=0
They are labelled <difficulty>_<level number>_<lemmings saved %>_<OptionalRandomComment>_<level_name>
You could check if there are any where I got a percentage higher than I was supposed to be able to. (or something)

Are you sure this is a behaviour you want to replicate...?

As a user, I personally like that this version mimics the original because it makes my solutions feel "portable" (even if someone shows me a version where it doesn't work, I can say "hey, that's your version's fault, mine is like the original!!!!!1!")
Dunno if that's just me, though. Maybe a "optional bugfixes" mode or something?

[Tsyu]

Here's another bugfix release (0.102b) before I make any changes that alter gameplay:

• Changed the WINLEMM text field label on the extraction dialog to avoid using the word "source", which confused some users into thinking they had to extract from the SuperLemmini source code.
• Image types are no longer dependent on the system configuration. This will hopefully prevent flipped objects and terrain pieces from having altered colors.
• Fixed a crash that occurred during extraction if the destination folder didn't exist.
• If the game is paused and the player does something that ends replay mode (such as clicking the game area), replay mode now ends immediately rather than after the game is unpaused.

(Yes, I said that I would fix the miner in this release, but I decided to wait until I change the object trigger areas to match the Amiga version. Each of these can break some replays, and I'd rather break them once rather than twice.)

Are you sure this is a behaviour you want to replicate...?

As a user, I personally like that this version mimics the original because it makes my solutions feel "portable" (even if someone shows me a version where it doesn't work, I can say "hey, that's your version's fault, mine is like the original!!!!!1!")
Dunno if that's just me, though. Maybe a "optional bugfixes" mode or something?

The reactions here seem mixed so far, so I will keep this behavior unless more people want me to remove it.

[IchoTolot]

The original Lemmings games were great, yes, BUT in terms of behaviors and physics they were an inconsistant bugfest!

Old Lemmix replicates the DOS version and in the early states even with totally broken "original" stuff like the nuke glitch.
In NeoLemmix and Lix we try to fix those old issues and aim for clean mostly consistant and logical physics.
The original games are broken as hell and desperately needed those fixes!

I would highly recommend leaving the original bugs ,glitches and odd behaviors behind and aim for sth better! It is 100% worth it, if you take nostalgia glasses off and see the old problems

[phicr]

The reactions here seem mixed so far, so I will keep this behavior unless more people want me to remove it.

Oh, please don't let my comment influence your work by itself. I only expressed my opinion to see if more people agree, but I myself don't feel that strongly about the issue, I will certainly survive and adapt if it changes.

I would highly recommend leaving the original bugs ,glitches and odd behaviors behind and aim for sth better! It is 100% worth it, if you take nostalgia glasses off and see the old problems

It was less nostalgia glasses in my case and more that I am WAY too proud of my lemmings achievements, after beating the game while only having memories of pain and sorrow from my childhood with the SNES version. I am sure that after my excitement dies a little, I will agree with you.

[grams88]

Welcome to the forum Phicr

Hope a lot of people can get the superlemmini to work, I hear there has been a bit of problems but hopefully nothing too bad or something that can be fixed easily.

[Flopsy]

Wow, don't know what you did Tsyu but I can now extract SuperLemmini

I've never been able to get the program to work until now, I even had problems getting Lemmini to work recently.

Thanks so much for the update file

Also welcome to the forum phicr

[phicr]

Welcome to the forum Phicr

Hope a lot of people can get the superlemmini to work, I hear there has been a bit of problems but hopefully nothing too bad or something that can be fixed easily.

Thanks! When I first installed SuperLemmini on Ubuntu I had some weird issues:
  - The replay selection gui would sometimes freeze the game, and I would have to kill the process to close it.
  - After playing for a few hours (cumulative between sessions), the game would start to lag on occasion and I needed to restart the computer to fix it.
  - Having a lemming killed by the beheading (bear?) trap would mute the music, and exiting the level (by success or failure) would give a black screen, and I had to restart the game.

But eventually I had to reinstall Ubuntu, and all these problems went away. Either it was OS bugfixes, or replacing my (months old) java version solved the problems.
I guess the moral of the story is that hopefully compatibility is increasing! (If it wasn't corruption I introduced myself to my system, although I wasn't experiencing anything else out of the ordinary then)

Also welcome to the forum phicr

Yay!

[ccexplore]

As a user, I personally like that this version mimics the original because it makes my solutions feel "portable" (even if someone shows me a version where it doesn't work, I can say "hey, that's your version's fault, mine is like the original!!!!!1!")
Dunno if that's just me, though. Maybe a "optional bugfixes" mode or something?

Except doesn't Superlemmini uses high-resolution graphics and the game mechanics is based on that higher resolution?  (It's possible I'm mistaken and this is only true for Lemmini.)  That alone can potentially affect how a solution would play out between SuperLemmini versus actual Amiga Lemmings--Mac Lemmings has a similar situation, and there was at least one level there (The Steel Mines of Kessel) where the hi-res graphics affected level solutions (because one of the roots can no longer be walked through).  Beyond that, I'm sure there are currently other things that only work in SuperLemmini or only work in Amiga Lemmings.  If being 100% faithful to Amiga Lemmings behavior is important, you're better off just playing the actual Amiga version of Lemmings on an Amiga emulator.

Also, historically speaking the Amiga, Atari ST and PC (DOS) versions were developed in parallel.  Amiga might have the earliest release date of the 3 (though not by much), but it is reasonable for someone to consider, say, the PC version as just as much an "original" version as Amiga.  And already there are some game mechanics differences between PC and Amiga.

In any case, my guess is that in terms of the original levels from the game, most of the typical solutions won't require any version-specific behaviors anyhow.

[phicr]

Except doesn't Superlemmini uses high-resolution graphics and the game mechanics is based on that higher resolution?  (It's possible I'm mistaken and this is only true for Lemmini.)  That alone can potentially affect how a solution would play out between SuperLemmini versus actual Amiga Lemmings--Mac Lemmings has a similar situation, and there was at least one level there (The Steel Mines of Kessel) where the hi-res graphics affected level solutions (because one of the roots can no longer be walked through).  Beyond that, I'm sure there are currently other things that only work in SuperLemmini or only work in Amiga Lemmings.  If being 100% faithful to Amiga Lemmings behavior is important, you're better off just playing the actual Amiga version of Lemmings on an Amiga emulator.

Hmm, you're right! I was thinking too narrowly, reducing the differences to that single one when there are probably many others. Mind you, it's not that I prefer the Amiga version, it's that I wanted to feel that my solutions were "canonical", but the more I think about it, the less important it seems to me. In fact, this conversation made me want to go ahead and try the other versions, maybe I will learn to celebrate the differences instead of trying to avoid them!

So yeah, I retract my "vote" against the fix. I will still keep the current version of SuperLemmini safe somewhere because I thought the replays were funny

[Tsyu]

Except doesn't Superlemmini uses high-resolution graphics and the game mechanics is based on that higher resolution?  (It's possible I'm mistaken and this is only true for Lemmini.)

Yes, this is true for both Lemmini and SuperLemmini. However, SuperLemmini supports masks for terrain pieces, which, if present, are used instead of the actual terrain graphics for collision detection and such. To help prevent major changes in how levels play, all the default styles include masks that come from the low-resolution graphics.


If there's no objection (and I don't think there is), I'm going to remove the miner quirk from 0.103.

I finished testing all the object masks from the Amiga versions and found only one difference from the DOS versions: In the Amiga version, the Crystal set's trigger area is placed 4 pixels lower than in the DOS version. (The size of the trigger area isn't any different, just its placement.) Version 0.103 will use the Amiga version's trigger area.

[Chib]

Just getting back into a bout of playing some more Lemmings, awesome to see you're still updating it, thanks!

No pressure or anything, but was wondering if you were still planning to implement the following suggestions?

I wanted to make a few suggestions for you to consider too:

• Allow re-binding of shortcut keys, including separate keys for scrolling left/right and selecting a lemming moving left/right (from advanced select). I mostly want this so I can bind the WASD keys for moving the screen (while maintaining the ability to select left/right moving lemmings). Something like space to pause would be much more handy than P/F11 too.
• Add a shortcut key to restart the level (ctrl-R maybe?) to avoid having to use the menu with the mouse.
• On the end level screen, rename "Replay" to "Watch Replay", just to make it clearer that it's not a button to replay the map (I clicked it several times before realising what was going on).

I'll look into implementing all of these into the next release.

And while I'm here, I thought I'd add one more suggestions onto the pile.

On the select level screen it would be super handy if a folder contained only levels that had been marked as completed then the folder itself would say (completed) after it too. You could do the same for the top level folders too:



Thanks again, and keep up the awesome work!

[Proxima]

Better than putting "(completed)" after every folder name would be to change the icon in some way, e.g. recoloring or add a tick.

[Tsyu]

No pressure or anything, but was wondering if you were still planning to implement the following suggestions?

I wanted to make a few suggestions for you to consider too:

• Allow re-binding of shortcut keys, including separate keys for scrolling left/right and selecting a lemming moving left/right (from advanced select). I mostly want this so I can bind the WASD keys for moving the screen (while maintaining the ability to select left/right moving lemmings). Something like space to pause would be much more handy than P/F11 too.
• Add a shortcut key to restart the level (ctrl-R maybe?) to avoid having to use the menu with the mouse.
• On the end level screen, rename "Replay" to "Watch Replay", just to make it clearer that it's not a button to replay the map (I clicked it several times before realising what was going on).

I'll look into implementing all of these into the next release.

I intend to implement the last two in version 0.103, while the first one will have to wait until 0.104. (I want to release 0.103 soon, so I don't want to make any major changes or additions that I haven't already made.)

On the select level screen it would be super handy if a folder contained only levels that had been marked as completed then the folder itself would say (completed) after it too. You could do the same for the top level folders too:

I'll look into adding this to 0.103.

Better than putting "(completed)" after every folder name would be to change the icon in some way, e.g. recoloring or add a tick.

I agree, but since those icons aren't built into SuperLemmini, that would entail creating new icons. I'll see what I can do for version 0.104.

[grams88]

Hi PsychEyeball

Welcome to the forum.

I remember watching a bit of your Duke3d youtube videos celebrating 20 years since duke3d was made. Goes to show that the time is going by very quick.

Glad you like the Superlemmini program, it is a very well made program for playing lemmings I feel. One big difference I've noticed is in the older program lemmini I don't think it allowed you to click builders or any skills when lemmings are in the same position but with the Superlemmini it seems to work quite well. It's interesting watching the lets plays of people playing lemmings. I find them quite interesting the lets play as not only do you get to see them playthrough the levels you get to hear peoples thoughts on certain levels also seeing individual solutions to the levels.

I discovered lemmings on the atari st originally and have always found lemmings to be a very fun game that can sometimes take you sometime to complete the levels.

[PsychEyeball]

I found Lemmini to be really strange when it comes to assigning skills to a giant mass of lemmings and it was my big gripe about it. That, and the way it handles steel as an absolute barrier, which makes Wicked 1 a pain to complete.

I waited so long to do a Let's Play of it because while my first contact with Lemmings was the DOS version and the SNES version, I only completed the game way later in 2001 while playing the Windows 95 version. While it was fine for the time, it didn't age too well, the UI is hard to capture well and the fast-forward is busted. However, it did have action replay and I owe it a lot. I don't think I could beat Lemmings without it or its ability to assign skills to lemmings going in a certain direction.

Honestly, I have mad respects for the people who won the game with any of the other versions without these luxuries because I don't think I could do it!

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.103 is done, and it's got some changes that work around Linux case sensitivity and make the game experience more like what you guys have been wanting (no more timed bombers, for instance). Here are the changes:

• Implemented a workaround for Linux case sensitivity that caches the path of every file and folder in the resource folder (and the Windows Lemmings folder during extraction) and maps them to all-lowercase paths. Whenever a file is to be opened, its path name is first converted to lowercase and then used to get the actual path to the file (if it exists) from the aforementioned map. A similar (and simpler) workaround has also been implented for LZP files.
• Implemented a workaround for cases where the extraction process fails to copy a file.
• Updated the Apache Commons IO library.
• Renamed and moved the text buttons on the debriefing screen.
• AffineTransform is no longer used for image transformation. This should prevent colors of mirrored images from being changed. (At least it does on the one system that I tried that exhibits this issue.)
• Level packs and ratings whose levels are all completed now display "(completed)" next to their names.
• Ctrl-R now restarts the level, skips the preview screen, and shows the action replay.
• The arrow keys can now be used on the level preview screen to cycle through levels and ratings of a level pack. Left and right select levels, while up and down select ratings.
• Clicking any part of the level while SuperLemmini is paused now advances the game by one frame, even if cheat mode isn't activated.
• Added three new options: "Stop Fast-Forward When Pausing", "Scroll Level During Replay", and "Unpause After Assigning Skill", the second of which is enabled by default.
• Steel placed by terrain or steel areas is no longer cleared by object trigger areas. (Steel objects can still be canceled this way, however.)
• Lowered the Crystal set's exit trigger to match the Amiga version. This fixes the exit in Bonus 8, "Don't Make The Wrong Choice!"
• Modified some of the terrain graphics to better match their masks (which determine which pixels of terrain pieces are really solid).
• Removed timers from normal, non-nuked bombers.
• SuperLemmini no longer mimics the Amiga behavior where bashers and miners that are extremely close to the top of the level don't remove terrain.
• Added a safeguard that prevents the user from extracting Windows Lemmings to its own folder.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to use the first audio device on startup rather than the one that the user had previously selected.
• Left-facing builders can now build one pixel further into a wall before being forced to stop and turn around.

[phicr]

Bug report! These things happen on Ubuntu:

• Starting the .jar from the commandline prevents it from creating/updating the superlemmini.ini file. (happens on 0.103 and 0.102a both)
• Starting the 0.103 .jar outside the commandline and when there is no superlemmini.ini gives an Access Denied error. (attachment 1)
• Even after installing successfully, trying to start the game gives me another error. (attachment 2)

Because of (1) I can't "sudo java -jar" 0.103 to avoid (2) and install it But I can get around (2) by using SuperLemmini 0.102a to create the .ini, and (3) by going to the Options dialog in 102a and changing the "SFX Mixer" option. (I can just change, apply, then change back and apply, and then 0.103 starts working...? No idea.)

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.103a has been released to address the bugs that phicr has found, as well as one other that I found:

• Fixed a bug where no sound device was selected if no valid device was specified in superlemmini.ini, resulting in a crash.
• Hopefully fixed cases of the AccessDeniedException by using a different method of scanning a directory and ignoring files and folders that cannot be read due to insufficient privileges.
• Fixed a bug where the case-sensitivity workaround would not be utilized for files that were expected to exist in the same location as another files (such as "oddtable" levels) unless they were in LZP files.

@phicr: I strongly recommend against using "sudo" to run SuperLemmini. This is because SuperLemmini places the superlemmini.ini file in the user's home folder, and placing "sudo" before a command runs it as the root user, which has a different home folder (/root in Ubuntu). Thus, if you run SuperLemmini from the terminal, just type "java -jar superlemmini.jar"; no "sudo".

[phicr]

@tsyu Oooh, I didn't know about that one detail of sudo. There is indeed a superlemmini.ini file in my root folder, oops! Thanks for the warning.
Also, confirmed that everything now works fine! Thanks!

[UnrealGecko]

Hello! New to the forums and somewhat new to lemmings.

I played a few other versions before, like a mobile port on my old Nokia phone, but I wanted to try SuperLemmini for the sake of completing the game someway finally. Thanks to PsychadelicEyeball's videos I learned of SuperLemmini in the 1st place

Anyway, for whatever reason I cannot complete some of the levels in SuperLemmini in the latest 0.103a version, as now the detection for the exit seems to be a bit above the usual reach for the lemming, so I need an extra builder in those levels.
I attached a few demos showcasing this, hope that helps explain what I mean.

EDIT: Turns out the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Only Floaters Can Survive this does not have this bug, while the original one does... there are other levels that seem to have it as well. It just seems to happen with certain exits for me

Lastly, a lot of the Traps seem to crash the game for whatever reason, here's the crash window if it helps:



Other than those, I'm loving the enhancements done to the game, and the inclusion of all those different version levels (like the XMAS ones etc.) is really awesome! Thank you for your hard work and for making me remember this great classic

[Tsyu]

I'm unable to reproduce any of the problems that you reported; your replays work fine for me, and the trap in Lemmings Companion Fun 4 (the level that I think your screenshot comes from) doesn't produce an error message.

It sounds to me like you installed SuperLemmini to an existing Lemmini installation. SuperLemmini is not fully compatible with Lemmini assets, save for levels (although some Lemmini levels don't work in SuperLemmini). I suggest deleting everything everything in your SuperLemmini folder with the exception of these files and folders:

• changelog.txt
• superlemmini.jar
• superlemmini_enhanced_music.lzp (if it exists)
• superlemmini_license.txt
• superlemmini_megadrive.lzp
• the "docs" folder
• the "lib" folder

Once you've done that, start SuperLemmini again. You should be asked to perform resource extraction again; go ahead and do it.

[UnrealGecko]

Thank you, that seems to have fixed it  Didn't think that I did not need Lemmini... my bad 

Sorry for bothering. Thank you again!

[Ben H]

Hi,

I'm trying to get Oskar's Lemmini pack to work in SuperLemmini, but it doesn't seem to work anymore.

Using SuperLemmini 0.103a
Pack here: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1723.msg43179

I can see the levels listed in the browser, but whenever I try to load one I only get a black screen.
I'm not sure where to put the levels properly after the format change? Or whether anything else needs altering too?

Thanks

[Tsyu]

The levels in that pack use a single massive graphic set, so give them time to load.

(If you're wondering why that graphic set is so huge, it's because it contains a full-level image for just about every level in the pack. It may be convenient for a level designer, but it's actually a bad idea because it results in every level image being loaded whenever any level using that set is loaded, resulting in long load times and hundreds of megabytes of memory being wasted.)

Even if the levels do load, don't expect them to work properly. The graphic set in that pack was designed for Lemmini, not SuperLemmini, and Lemmini graphic sets are not fully compatible with SuperLemmini due to differences in game mechanics, the most common problem being exits that require an extra builder.

[namida]

Just wondering, how possible is it to detect whether a graphic set was made for SuperLemmini or not? I'm thinking whether it may be worthwhile automatically moving the trigger area if a Lemmini set is detected.

Perhaps one measure is - if no SuperLemmini-exclusive features are detected, then unless there's a line (perhaps something like SUPERLEMMINI=1) that specifically states it as one, the adjustment occurs? I think the problem here is, it should've been designed in such a way that these could be told apart from the beginning; this is something NeoLemmix also had a problem with early in its development, but was resolved with newer versions using entirely unique formats rather than derivative ones for most files.

[Ben H]

The levels in that pack use a single massive graphic set, so give them time to load

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, but I don't think that is it.

I have left a single level loading for 20 mins and it still does not show up.
Whereas the exact SAME level loads in SECONDS on Lemmini.

My system is:
i7 2600K
Windows 10 x64
16GB RAM

So not slow or underpowered by any means.

It used to work fine on older versions like 0.9.9 or whatever is was.

[Tsyu]

Those levels load for me. Are you able to load the built-in levels (i.e., those not from Oskar's pack)?

[Ben H]

Hi,

Yes, all the built-in levels play fine for me.

[namida]

It came up in chat, but I see no one posted here - is there any reason that SuperLemmini needs to load every piece, rather than simply loading the metainfo (which is relatively non-time-consuming) if even that up-front, and only loading the image if/when it's needed?

If you need ideas on how to implement this, feel free to take a look at the source code of recent experimental NeoLemmix versions (the way it loads pieces isn't really going to help here due to the very different graphic set structure it now uses, but the way it handles caching flipped / rotated pieces can be adapted to this) or just ask. In general, NeoLemmix and Lix have both benefitted greatly from ideas suggested by each other's authors; we'd be more than happy to help SuperLemmini out too.

[Tsyu]

I did some testing and found that 32-bit Java throws an out-of-memory error when SuperLemmini tries to load Oskar's graphic set. 64-bit Java doesn't throw this error (most likely because it has access to more RAM), but it still allocates 1.5 gigabytes(!) when loading that graphic set.

I don't really know why so much RAM is used, but I do know that SuperLemmini uses more RAM for images than Lemmini 1) to support full translucency, 2) to support separate terrain masks (applies only to terrain pieces, obviously), and 3) because images are first loaded as-is and then copied to a blank image of a more predictable format.

I'll do what I can to reduce memory usage and avoid 3) whenever possible.

Just wondering, how possible is it to detect whether a graphic set was made for SuperLemmini or not? I'm thinking whether it may be worthwhile automatically moving the trigger area if a Lemmini set is detected.

Perhaps one measure is - if no SuperLemmini-exclusive features are detected, then unless there's a line (perhaps something like SUPERLEMMINI=1) that specifically states it as one, the adjustment occurs? I think the problem here is, it should've been designed in such a way that these could be told apart from the beginning; this is something NeoLemmix also had a problem with early in its development, but was resolved with newer versions using entirely unique formats rather than derivative ones for most files.

I'll do something like this. At least there are a good number of SuperLemmini-exclusive features (PNG images and movable object trigger areas, for example).

It came up in chat, but I see no one posted here - is there any reason that SuperLemmini needs to load every piece, rather than simply loading the metainfo (which is relatively non-time-consuming) if even that up-front, and only loading the image if/when it's needed?

Not really. I plan to revamp the way that graphic sets are handled (mainly to support multiple sets in one level); I'll be sure to load only the graphics that are needed by the current level.

[Ben H]

It's working with the 64-bit java version. It's a little slow to load, but at least it's working now.
Oh, and ofc some of the exits need adjusting.

[namida]

Not really. I plan to revamp the way that graphic sets are handled (mainly to support multiple sets in one level); I'll be sure to load only the graphics that are needed by the current level.

Interesting. Lix has had this feature since day one so it was never really a problem there, but NeoLemmix is currently going through such a change (the experimental version already supports it). So, if you need any suggestions on how to handle this, and in particular how to handle compatibility with older content, feel free to ask! Of course I can't help with actual code since I know next to nothing of Java, but I should be able to help with general concepts.

[zanzindorf]

I noticed the countdown for bombers was removed by default. Is there a way to enable it through a setting somewhere? It'd be nice to be able to disable/enable the countdown for certain level packs. I'm loving this launcher so far

[grams88]

Welcome to the forum Zanzindorf.

[zanzindorf]

Thanks Grams!

[namida]

I noticed the countdown for bombers was removed by default. Is there a way to enable it through a setting somewhere? It'd be nice to be able to disable/enable the countdown for certain level packs. I'm loving this launcher so far

There's a general trend to remove timed bombers in the modern engines; as they don't actually add anything to the puzzle, but just make it harder to execute. Indeed, in general, the tendancy is to provide measures to ease execution, in favor of a focus on solving the puzzle. Although SuperLemmini has less of these features than NeoLemmix or Lix, it's still starting to head in the same direction.

[zanzindorf]

Alrighty, that makes sense. Thanks for your response Namida.

[Tsyu]

In case you guys are wondering, no, I'm not dead. SuperLemmini development isn't dead either, just dormant.

I intend to get the next version of SuperLemmini out soon, either by the end of the year or shortly after (since I intend to get a new computer), hopefully along with more complete documentation both in the source code and for the game itself.

[uci]

Great. Looking forward for you update.

[Tsyu]

Just so you guys know, the next version of SuperLemmini won't be out in time for the new year, but it will definitely be out in the first half of January.

[Tsyu]

After too long, SuperLemmini 0.104 is finally out! Here is the rather large list of changes:

• Updated the IBXM, Apache Commons Lang, and Apache Commons IO libraries.
• Added support for the subheader and style list of NeoLemmix LVL format 4.
• Time limits greater than 9:59 in LVL files are no longer treated as indicating no time limit.
• Added some objects and terrain pieces to the Pillar and Snow styles to be more consistent with how NeoLemmix loads LVL files.
• Added a restart button to the icon bar. (Thanks to WillLem for making the icons.) This restarts the level without displaying the preview screen and shows the action replay (which was previously implemented with the Ctrl-R keyboard shortcut). To prevent accidental use, the button needs to be double-clicked to be used.
• Errors as well as exceptions are now caught so that things like out-of-memory errors result in a message being displayed and SuperLemmini closing rather than a hang.
• Changed the way that graphic sets are stored in memory. Rather than being stored as part of the level, they're now stored as their own objects.
• Image files are now loaded with ImageIO instead of MediaTracker. In addition to hopefully being more efficient, this also adds support for BMP and WBMP images, though the use of those formats isn't recommended.
• Fixed objects with bitmask transparency having a 1-bit red color channel when flipped or rotated.
• When reading LVL format 0 files, the LVL converter was reading the wrong bit when determining whether an object should be upside-down. This has been fixed.
• Fixed a bug that prevented level selection dialog from opening if the user loaded an external level, cleared the external-level list, then opened the level selection dialog again while still in the level.
• When loading graphic sets, SuperLemmini now loads only the image files necessary for the current level instead of everything.
• Removed support for octal (base 8) numbers in INI files, as such numbers are really of no use, and some users may decide to zero-pad their numbers. Numbers beginning with the digit 0 but not 0x or 0b are now parsed as decimal (base 10) numbers.
• Added support for loading objects and terrain pieces from styles other than the level's main style.
• Autosteel now works with special styles. In order for a special style to support this, it must include a steel mask that uses the "s" suffix it its file name (e.g., "mystyles.png" for a special style named "mystyle"). The Covox special style now supports this.
• Increased the supported release rate range to -99 to 106, which should be enough to cover NeoLemmix's range. Additionally, the maximum release rate can now also be changed from 99 to any supported release rate.
• Objects and terrain pieces can now be rotated in 90-degree increments.
• Blockers and one-way objects no longer push lemmings through walls.
• Climbers reaching the top of the level should now fall rather than summit and get stuck.

Although I have said in the past that I would add a way to change the key assignments and to create level packs, they are unfortunately not implemented yet. I do hope to add them to the next version, though (which shouldn't be too long from now).

Also, I have found that Java 13's PNG writer produces PNG files that differ from those produced by Java 8's PNG writer, breaking Windows Lemmings resource extraction. Because of this, you must currently use Java 8 when doing resource extraction. I intend to address this in a future release by including a PNG writer with SuperLemmini.

[namida]

Autosteel now works with special styles. In order for a special style to support this, it must include a steel mask that uses the "s" suffix it its file name (e.g., "mystyles.png" for a special style named "mystyle"). The Covox special style now supports this.

Based on experience in NeoLemmix, I suggest abandoning the concept of a "special style" altogether, now that mixing of styles in a single level is possible. Instead, just handle them as regular terrain pieces (that happen to be really large).

This is one thing Lemmini got really, really right - treating them as just plain old terrain pieces. (Of course, Lemmini lacked the ability to mix styles, which limited the effectiveness of this method - but that lack of style mixing, not the "treat as standard terrain" approach itself, was the source of this limited effectiveness.) It took me a long time to realise and accept this in NL, too.

Increased the supported release rate range to -99 to 106, which should be enough to cover NeoLemmix's range. Additionally, the maximum release rate can now also be changed from 99 to any supported release rate.

NL's 1 to 99 maps to SL's -97 to 99 (skipping SL's even numbers). SL's RR's of -99, and anything over SL's 99, as well as all even numbers in SL, do not correspond to any valid RR in NL (-99 would equal NL 0, 101 would equal NL 100, and any even number in SL would equal something-point-5 in NL - meaningless due to NL's lower resolution, and although NL is getting a high-res mode in the next update, this high-res mode is purely visual and the underlying physics still run in low-res).

[Tsyu]

Autosteel now works with special styles. In order for a special style to support this, it must include a steel mask that uses the "s" suffix it its file name (e.g., "mystyles.png" for a special style named "mystyle"). The Covox special style now supports this.

Based on experience in NeoLemmix, I suggest abandoning the concept of a "special style" altogether, now that mixing of styles in a single level is possible. Instead, just handle them as regular terrain pieces (that happen to be really large).

This is one thing Lemmini got really, really right - treating them as just plain old terrain pieces. (Of course, Lemmini lacked the ability to mix styles, which limited the effectiveness of this method - but that lack of style mixing, not the "treat as standard terrain" approach itself, was the source of this limited effectiveness.) It took me a long time to realise and accept this in NL, too.

I probably won't drop support for special styles completely (within level files, anyway), but I will look into a way of treating them as a single regular style and most likely storing them as such.

Increased the supported release rate range to -99 to 106, which should be enough to cover NeoLemmix's range. Additionally, the maximum release rate can now also be changed from 99 to any supported release rate.

NL's 1 to 99 maps to SL's -97 to 99 (skipping SL's even numbers). SL's RR's of -99, and anything over SL's 99, as well as all even numbers in SL, do not correspond to any valid RR in NL (-99 would equal NL 0, 101 would equal NL 100, and any even number in SL would equal something-point-5 in NL - meaningless due to NL's lower resolution, and although NL is getting a high-res mode in the next update, this high-res mode is purely visual and the underlying physics still run in low-res).

Yes, I'm aware the new SuperLemmini release rate range is now larger than NeoLemmix's; I just wanted SuperLemmini's range to at least cover NeoLemmix's range. Plus, I think -99 looks better as a minimum than -97 (because it only has 9's).

[WillLem]

EXCITING NEWS!

Just played through a few levels, it's looking great. Love the new replay button!

Nice one Tsyu!!!

[uci]

Hi and thanks for the detailed documentation about level format. Do you consider creating in the future an updated level editor just for Lemmini/Superlemmini?

[LanaAndCo]

Hello!

I'm sorry to disturb you but since I updated SuperLemmini, I've got an error message each time I load my custom levels which says "The resource styles/0/0.ini is missing". This only happened with the 0.104 version. What should I do?

Thank you in advance.

[WillLem]

Hello!

I'm sorry to disturb you but since I updated SuperLemmini, I've got an error message each time I load my custom levels which says "The resource styles/0/0.ini is missing". This only happened with the 0.104 version. What should I do?

Thank you in advance.

Just to double check... have you gone through the process of unpacking the styles and everything from WINLEMM again? If so, have you copied your custom styles across to the Resources/styles directory in the new SL folder?

[LanaAndCo]

Thank you for your response. Yes, I did the unpacking of WINLEMM. And I didn't copy my custom styles since I used the original tilesets for my levels.

[uci]

Noticed something weird in level COVOX Lemmings - Taxing - IceTown: lemmings do fall into the frozen water instead of being drown!

EDIT: that piece of water is rendered upside down in Lemmini!

[uci]

Another one, in level Lemmings Companion - Fun - For Every Lemming, Turn, Turn... the trap on the left does not trigger. Is this due to different game mechanics or wrong positioning?

[namida]

In DOS Lemmings (not sure about Amiga, which is what SuperLemmini tries most closely to imitate), the level format has 32 object slots, but only the first 16 work - the last 16 will be visible in-game, but won't actually function (exception: entrances will function even when they're in the last 16, just as long as there's no more than four entrances on a level - the 5th and onwards won't function, even if they're not in these last 16 slots). SuperLemmini may be reproducing this.

To be clear - I don't know for sure that's what's going on here, it's just a plausible explanation, as SuperLemmini does retain support for fake objects so could reproduce this effect.

[WillLem]

Thank you for your response. Yes, I did the unpacking of WINLEMM. And I didn't copy my custom styles since I used the original tilesets for my levels.

Might be one for Tsyu to enlighten us on. Have you managed to get it working yet?

[LanaAndCo]

No. But since the custom levels made by others work, the problem might come from me.

EDIT : Nevermind, I finally got them working by resaving them with an old version of Neolemmix.

[WillLem]

No. But since the custom levels made by others work, the problem might come from me.

EDIT : Nevermind, I finally got them working by resaving them with an old version of Neolemmix.

[Tsyu]

Hi and thanks for the detailed documentation about level format. Do you consider creating in the future an updated level editor just for Lemmini/Superlemmini?

I will look into making a level editor (which, I admit, is desperately needed now). No guarantees, though.

Noticed something weird in level COVOX Lemmings - Taxing - IceTown: lemmings do fall into the frozen water instead of being drown!

As Namida pointed out, in the original games, objects (other than entrances) placed in the upper 16 slots are fake. In this level, the water objects near the start happen to be in those upper slots, so they do nothing, even in the DOS version. Most of the other water objects in the level do work, though. This is almost certainly an oversight from the level's author. (And to be clear, SuperLemmini does in fact support far more than 16 working objects; these objects were deliberately marked as fake to imitate the original game.)

EDIT: that piece of water is rendered upside down in Lemmini!

It turns out Lemmini considers an object to be upside-down if its flags field is anything other than 0 instead of just checking the 1 bit like SuperLemmini. Since SuperLemmini uses the 2 bit of this same field to mark an object as fake, Lemmini thinks such objects are upside-down. (If you load the original, unconverted, LVL version of this level in Lemmini, the water objects won't be upside-down.)

Another one, in level Lemmings Companion - Fun - For Every Lemming, Turn, Turn... the trap on the left does not trigger. Is this due to different game mechanics or wrong positioning?

In this case, the trap actually does work, but it's placed a little too high. If you build where the trigger area is (on the left), the trap should start killing lemmings.

Hello!

I'm sorry to disturb you but since I updated SuperLemmini, I've got an error message each time I load my custom levels which says "The resource styles/0/0.ini is missing". This only happened with the 0.104 version. What should I do?

Thank you in advance.

No. But since the custom levels made by others work, the problem might come from me.

EDIT : Nevermind, I finally got them working by resaving them with an old version of Neolemmix.

Could you attach the problematic level file so that I can maybe determine what went wrong?

[uci]

Noticed something weird in level COVOX Lemmings - Taxing - IceTown: lemmings do fall into the frozen water instead of being drown!

...these objects were deliberately marked as fake to imitate the original game.)

Is there a way to implement a switch to become fully compatible with Lemmini? I like its engine, but I prefer SuperLemmini due to its GUI improvements.

Another one, in level Lemmings Companion - Fun - For Every Lemming, Turn, Turn... the trap on the left does not trigger. Is this due to different game mechanics or wrong positioning?

In this case, the trap actually does work, but it's placed a little too high. If you build where the trigger area is (on the left), the trap should start killing lemmings.

So, this is another difference compared to Lemmini. There it works just fine.

[LanaAndCo]

Could you attach the problematic level file so that I can maybe determine what went wrong?

You're lucky I still have some of the old levels I did for testing SuperLemmini 0.103b. Here's one of them, it should have the same problem.

[Tsyu]

Noticed something weird in level COVOX Lemmings - Taxing - IceTown: lemmings do fall into the frozen water instead of being drown!

...these objects were deliberately marked as fake to imitate the original game.)

Is there a way to implement a switch to become fully compatible with Lemmini? I like its engine, but I prefer SuperLemmini due to its GUI improvements.

Technically, yes, it's possible, but it would be more trouble than I think it's worth. There are just so many little differences between Lemmini and SuperLemmini that implementing such a feature would mean that pretty much every part of the lemming logic code would require two paths (one for Lemmini and another for SuperLemmini), making the code considerably more complex and harder to maintain. On top of that, almost every lemming and object mask would need two versions, since those are different as well.

Despite being based on Lemmini and being able to load Lemmini levels, SuperLemmini is meant to be more like "original Lemmings with improvements" rather than "Lemmini with improvements". With that said, I do try to be somewhat compatible with Lemmini as a secondary objective, but there are practical limits to how far I can go with that.

Another one, in level Lemmings Companion - Fun - For Every Lemming, Turn, Turn... the trap on the left does not trigger. Is this due to different game mechanics or wrong positioning?

In this case, the trap actually does work, but it's placed a little too high. If you build where the trigger area is (on the left), the trap should start killing lemmings.

So, this is another difference compared to Lemmini. There it works just fine.

I had forgotten to say that the trap doesn't work right in the original DOS version either for the same reason. So this is another case of an oversight on the part of the level author.

Could you attach the problematic level file so that I can maybe determine what went wrong?

You're lucky I still have some of the old levels I did for testing SuperLemmini 0.103b. Here's one of them, it should have the same problem.

Whatever version of NeoLemmix you used was writing terrain entries incorrectly. Here is an example of such an entry from your level:

terrain_0 = 25, 1521, -114, 0, 0, 1

The first four values there (the ones in bold) are the only ones that should have been written; the other two never had any meaning until SuperLemmini 0.104, which uses the fifth value (if it exists) to indicate which style the terrain piece should come from. The value there is "0", so SuperLemmini tries to load that terrain piece from a style called "0" (which, of course, doesn't exist). (And if you're wondering, if you load the level in Lemmini, the terrain doesn't show up at all, because Lemmini expects terrain entries to have exactly four values, whereas SuperLemmini expects at least four values.)

[LanaAndCo]

Oh, that explains a lot. Thank you very much for your help!

Also, I have another question : where do you put custom packs for SuperLemmini?

[uci]

Despite being based on Lemmini and being able to load Lemmini levels, SuperLemmini is meant to be more like "original Lemmings with improvements" rather than "Lemmini with improvements". With that said, I do try to be somewhat compatible with Lemmini as a secondary objective, but there are practical limits to how far I can go with that.

Oh, sorry. I thought its a Lemmini improvement after all. You know... the same logo.

[WillLem]

Despite being based on Lemmini and being able to load Lemmini levels, SuperLemmini is meant to be more like "original Lemmings with improvements" rather than "Lemmini with improvements". With that said, I do try to be somewhat compatible with Lemmini as a secondary objective, but there are practical limits to how far I can go with that.

Oh, sorry. I thought its a Lemmini improvement after all. You know... the same logo.

That's a point - Tsyu, if you want to use the logo I designed for SL to distinguish it from Lemmini you're more than welcome. See attached.

[Tsyu]

That's a point - Tsyu, if you want to use the logo I designed for SL to distinguish it from Lemmini you're more than welcome. See attached.

Wow, has it really taken me nearly two months to reply? I really need to be more active here (and in SuperLemmini development, for that matter)...

Anyway, I will be sure to use your logo in the next version of SuperLemmini.

[WillLem]

That's a point - Tsyu, if you want to use the logo I designed for SL to distinguish it from Lemmini you're more than welcome. See attached.

Wow, has it really taken me nearly two months to reply? I really need to be more active here (and in SuperLemmini development, for that matter)...

Anyway, I will be sure to use your logo in the next version of SuperLemmini.

Haha no worries, I'm sure you've got other stuff going on.

And brilliant, great to know the logo will be of use!

[LanaAndCo]

Hello,

I was wondering, is there a way to enable the timer for Bombers? I know that a lot of Lemmings players dislike it but I really want my levels to feel like the Amiga version...

[ericderkovits]

I was disappointed also with no timer bomber since the original games had one. I like all my games to be like the originals. But I also understand other player don't like it. I hope you can put it as an option not get rid of.

[ericderkovits]

Also it would be nice if you added ohaya lemming san level from the SNES Version since you have some other levels already there from like the amiga set and dos' vacation in gemland.

[WillLem]

Hello,

I was wondering, is there a way to enable the timer for Bombers? I know that a lot of Lemmings players dislike it but I really want my levels to feel like the Amiga version...

+1 for this: Since NeoLemmix now has a Hi-Res mode as well as all of its other beneficial features, it would be good for SuperLemmini to go even further in the direction of emulating the Amiga experience. That way, it further distinguishes it from NeoLemmix as an option for people who prefer the old style of playing, and an option for timed bombers to be switched on or off would definitely help with that.

I'd also suggest an option for no assigning skills whilst paused. If both of these were optional, it allows the player to tailor their playing experience to their own preferences, and keeps the game accessible for beginners as well.

[ccexplore]

I was wondering, is there a way to enable the timer for Bombers? I know that a lot of Lemmings players dislike it but I really want my levels to feel like the Amiga version...

Note that some levels may be affected due to requiring a bomber to explode within the first 5 seconds of the lemming coming out of its entrance, which can't be done when there's a 5-second delay from the timer.  Probably not common, but you need to be prepared with needing to turn off timed bombers anyway occasionally for such levels.  At least the original levels (not sure if SuperLemmini came with those or not) are not affected since they were designed with timed bombers in mind.

I'd also suggest an option for no assigning skills whilst paused.

It's already optional--no one says you have to assign skills whilst paused if you don't want to do so.

[ericderkovits]

Just have it be where the DEFAULT is where timed bombers is turned off, that way for those you dont like it , one won't even have to choose the option to turn it off.

[WillLem]

Here are the main advantages of the two platforms:

NeoLemmix

• Large user community
• Active support directly from the developers
• Extensive selection of custom-created level packs
• Larger and more varied skillset
• Very easy to customise and create content for
• Option for a gorgeous Hi-Res mode for those who prefer a more modern visual experience
• A range of player-assist tools: skill shadows, directional select, framestepping, etc (I'd probably count untimed bombers in this as well)

SuperLemmini

• Perfectly replicates and enhances the experience of playing Lemmings on the Amiga
• Lush Hi-Res graphics from WinLemm
• Works on both Mac and PC
• Faithful to the original game in terms of skillset
• Also includes player-assist tools, but to a much lesser extent, making it more like the original in terms of gameplay style as well

Those are what I'd list as the main advantages of each. SuperLemmini may seem to have less, but these are very strong advantages that are important to fans of the original game. And, rather than trying to compete with each other when there's already a fairly small user-base to begin with, I'd suggest that each platform play into these strengths to continue to provide an alternative experience each way.

If SuperLemmini were to bring back timed bombers (as an option) and give the option for the player to disable things like direction select and assign-whilst-paused (@ccexplore - if it's there, you generally will use it!) then it will have the ability to perfectly simulate the original gameplay experience of Lemmings, and with delicious-looking graphics as a bonus. Having said that, I totally agree with ericderkovits that these features should remain optional (and enabled by default); sometimes it is nice to keep the player-assist tools enabled and enjoy a slightly easier gameplay style!

NeoLemmix, on the other hand, is better off standing as a more modern, puzzle-focused and feature-rich version of the game. I have suggested several times that various options be introduced to make it more like the original for those that occasionally enjoy re-living the game in that way, but now that I think about it - we do have SuperLemmini for that.

If SL also brings about an easier way to create levels and compile them into packs, then it'll be the complete package for fans of the Amiga version.

[Ron_Stard]

The Bomber timing is something I really miss in SuperLemmini and NeoLemmix, since it adds an extra layer of difficulty to otherwise quite easy levels (Mayhem 19, for example). But I understand why both Lemmings forks have disowned that "remora" from the original games. I really appreciate the direction NeoLemmix is taking, and I love the new skills and levels. I think SuperLemmini should be more like NeoLemmix than to Original Lemmings in the future. After all, we already have Lemmini as a Lemmings clone for all Operating Systems.

[WillLem]

The Bomber timing is something I really miss in SuperLemmini and NeoLemmix, since it adds an extra layer of difficulty to otherwise quite easy levels (Mayhem 19, for example). But I understand why both Lemmings forks have disowned that "remora" from the original games. I really appreciate the direction NeoLemmix is taking, and I love the new skills and levels.

I've just finished playing through Lemmings on my Amiga emulator, and it's almost a different game to the way it's currently presented in NeoLemmix. Neither is necessarily a better or worse way to enjoy the game; both are valid for different reasons. I'm exploring this quite extensively with my current LP series.

I think SuperLemmini should be more like NeoLemmix than to Original Lemmings in the future. After all, we already have Lemmini as a Lemmings clone for all Operating Systems.

I disagree: Lemmini, whilst great, is no longer actively maintained and doesn't have a level editor.

Also, it wouldn't benefit SL to be "more like NeoLemmix," because it simply can't compete: NeoLemmix is way too far along in its development and is already very much its own thing.

SuperLemmini is far better off standing as a decent, working, actively developed alternative to NeoLemmix for enjoying the game as originally intended - albeit with more modern graphics, and options for player-assist tools such as direction select and untimed bombers that can be enabled, or not, as the player wishes. It's already far closer to being that way, and I think it would benefit it more to go further in that direction.

[kaywhyn]

Hello,

Can anyone confirm if this level is solvable in Superlemmini? I'm finding it impossible. This level is from a level pack called Blizzard of Lemm by someone named Jkapp76 on the Lemmings Level Database. According to the author, the pack is intended for Superlemmini. I have solved every level in the pack except for the level in the attached screenshot, The Snow Palace. If you take the route of building up in the very last part of the level, you run out of time (you can't even reach the top without running out of time). However, I think the level might be possible if you were given an additional minute so that you have 11 minutes instead of 10. Similarly, if you try to horizontally bash by spamming diggers at the very last obstacle, you don't get through because you don't have enough diggers to get it done. I'm thinking the only way to complete this is through the Giant Leap glitch, which is possible in both Dos and Lemmini, but I'm not sure if it carried over to Superlemmini. Not to mention that I have never been able to get it to work on any level because I cannot set it up correctly. Perhaps WillLem or anyone who happens to have Superlemmini can give this level a shot and confirm it impossible in its current state? 

[WillLem]

Hello,

Can anyone confirm if this level is solvable in Superlemmini? I'm finding it impossible. This level is from a level pack called Blizzard of Lemm by someone named Jkapp76 on the Lemmings Level Database.

Can you post a link to this level, or attach it? My solving skills are not the best, by any means, but I'll certainly have a look.

[kaywhyn]

Hello,

Can anyone confirm if this level is solvable in Superlemmini? I'm finding it impossible. This level is from a level pack called Blizzard of Lemm by someone named Jkapp76 on the Lemmings Level Database.

Can you post a link to this level, or attach it? My solving skills are not the best, by any means, but I'll certainly have a look.

http://lemmings-db.camanis.net/levelpack/ag1zfmxlbW1pbmdzLWRichYLEglMZXZlbFBhY2sYgICAgNCzjAoM/

What you can do is after downloading the pack from the link above and extracting the levelpack to the levels folder where you have Superlemmini extracted, look for the 313.ini file in the Blizzlem folder. Then, when you load Superlemmini, you can click Play level, add external level, and then look for the 313.ini file. After you do that, The Snow Palace level should appear in the Single levels subfolder in the external levels folder.

[WillLem]

Hi Kaywhyn,

I've had a go at this level and it does indeed seem like there just isn't enough time to complete it. Since you only get diggers and builders, there's pretty much no chance of backrouting it. I can conserve the builders well enough for the solution, but with it being such an out-and-out builder fest, I'd say about another 30 seconds - 1 minute is needed for it to be possible.

I've attached my replay. I'm generally a pretty good speed-solver and I've used as many time-conservation techniques as I could here, but it's looking like either we're both missing something in the solution, or we indeed have an impossible level...

On the plus side, it has given me a really good idea for a level! I've called it Nothing is Impossible Let me know what you think!

---

P.S. Whilst there are a few SL peeps active on here at the mo, does anyone know what this button does?

[LanaAndCo]

P.S. Whilst there are a few SL peeps active on here at the mo, does anyone know what this button does?

By looking in the "Key Assignment" text file, I think it's for toggling vertical scroll lock on and off but I not sure. I never seen any vertical level in SuperLemmini and whenever I tried to make one, it crashed.

[namida]

P.S. Whilst there are a few SL peeps active on here at the mo, does anyone know what this button does?

By looking in the "Key Assignment" text file, I think it's for toggling vertical scroll lock on and off but I not sure. I never seen any vertical level in SuperLemmini and whenever I tried to make one, it crashed.

Correct, it's to lock the vertical scrolling.

[WillLem]

By looking in the "Key Assignment" text file, I think it's for toggling vertical scroll lock on and off but I not sure. I never seen any vertical level in SuperLemmini and whenever I tried to make one, it crashed.

Correct, it's to lock the vertical scrolling.

Thanks guys.

Lock it in what way? I'm just wondering why you would even want to make it so that you can't scroll vertically...

[kaywhyn]

Thanks for the replay, WillLem. Indeed, by taking the route you took, I would think an additional minute is needed in order to make the level passable. I wonder what was going through the author's mind when he made this level for Superlemmini. It would be nice to get a hold of him, but I don't think he's ever been on this forum. According to the levelpack info on the website I linked to, this level was chosen as one of the best by both the author and the Lemmings community. This would probably suggest that the level is passable in its current iteration, but if it is the only way I can think of is through the giant leap glitch. However, I have never ever gotten this particular glitch to work on any level. Perhaps someone else can get it to work? More importantly, does that glitch carry over from Dos and Lemmini to Superlemmini?

I just confirmed that the level is indeed possible with an additional minute, which means a time limit of 11 minutes instead of the current 10 minutes will make the level solvable the way it is. However, using WillLem's building up to the very top at the very end solution, only 2 seconds remained, so it really comes down to the wire, but it will be passable with 1 extra minute added while keeping the skillset the same. I think I ended up using all 50 builders, surprisingly, and so absolutely no wasting builders at all! So, maybe the author saved the time limit for the level wrong?   

[Tsyu]

For those of you (as well as me) who prefer having bomber timers, no directional selection, and such, I have been thinking of adding a difficulty selection that toggles these behaviors: an "Original" mode that enables bomber timers and disables directional selection, skill assignment while paused, frame-stepping, rewinding (if it's ever implemented), builder/digger/bomber guides (ditto), and maybe resuming from replays; and another mode (which I haven't named yet; perhaps "Normal" or "Easy") that behaves like how SuperLemmini currently does. I think the latter mode will be the default unless you guys prefer the "Original" mode.

P.S. Whilst there are a few SL peeps active on here at the mo, does anyone know what this button does?

As others have determined, yes, that button disables vertical scrolling. I implemented it because Lemmings 2 also has that control (albeit only on the keyboard; it's the S key). If it would reduce confusion, I can remove that button for levels that don't feature vertical scrolling (which is almost all levels).

Also it would be nice if you added ohaya lemming san level from the SNES Version since you have some other levels already there from like the amiga set and dos' vacation in gemland.

I'll add it and the Sunsoft levels if I can extract them directly from the ROM. (I managed to do it with the Genesis version but not the SNES version. I think the SNES version's levels are compressed.)

(And yes, I will eventually include the Genesis levels with SuperLemmini rather than provide them as a separate download.)

[WillLem]

For those of you (as well as me) who prefer having bomber timers, no directional selection, and such, I have been thinking of adding a difficulty selection that toggles these behaviors: an "Original" mode... and another mode... that behaves like how SuperLemmini currently does.

Thanks for the reply Tsyu. A difficulty selection is a great idea and it's similar to an idea I've had previously; I'm sure it would be a welcome feature for a lot of players.

Will you also provide the opportunity to toggle individual behaviours on and off as well? Or are you thinking it would be better to simply toggle everything either on or off?

I'd probably suggest the former be available from the Options menu for those that want to tailor their experience more specifically, whilst the more general difficulty option you've suggested be available from the main menu screen, and/or even in-game via a hotkey.

Either way, it's really great to know that this is being considered.

As others have determined, yes, that button disables vertical scrolling... If it would reduce confusion, I can remove that button for levels that don't feature vertical scrolling (which is almost all levels).

Thanks for clarifying. This sounds good: I'd definitely vote for removing the button when it's not needed, if possible.

[LanaAndCo]

So if this button exist, is there actually a way to make vertical levels in SuperLemmini?

[Ron_Stard]

Is there any chance to include more levels by default in the new version? I was thinking of Mazulems and Lemmings 2 Classic Tribe.

[WillLem]

So if this button exist, is there actually a way to make vertical levels in SuperLemmini?

If you use NeoLemmix Editor 1.43n-C (there's a permalink to it on this page), you can by all means make vertical levels.

Open the editor and press F10 to open the level properties window, then change the second "Size" value to however many pixels high you want your level to be. I've attached a quick test level I made just now called Only Floaters Can Survive This 2 which is 640 wide by 800 high. I can confirm that it works in the latest version of SuperLemmini.

Let me know when you've made a level and I'll give it a playthrough!

[LanaAndCo]

I already use NeoLemmix to correct my levels (I had made them entirely with jLevelBuilder before the 0.104 SuperLemmini update). The problem is that when I play a level that can scroll vertically, it crashes. So I always thought that these types of levels were exclusive for NeoLemmix.

I've taken a screenshot of the error.

Thank you for your help!

[WillLem]

The problem is that when I play a level that can scroll vertically, it crashes. So I always thought that these types of levels were exclusive for NeoLemmix.

I've taken a screenshot of the error.

Thank you for your help!

No problem, thanks for sending the screenshot. I get the same error, but only when I actually click the minimap. If you hover your mouse pointer over the arrows at the top and bottom of the minimap, it should scroll.

This is most likely to be a bug; I've now reported it as a separate topic.

Have you got some levels in LVL or INI format currently? I'd like to see them if you don't mind sharing.

[LanaAndCo]

Oh thanks, I didn't even knew about that!

Sorry, the level pack I'm making at the moment is in a very early state, so I can't share it now.
But if you are really interested, I'll publish a demo with the basic levels in it when they'll be finished.

[Tsyu]

I just now tracked down the problem and fixed it. (The crash occurs when the level is narrower than the game window, not when the level has vertical scrolling.) I will have an updated version out shortly.

[Tsyu]

Version 0.104a has been released to fix the crashing that LanaAndCo has been experiencing.

• Fixed a crash that occurs when the minimap is clicked while the game window is wider than the level.

[ericderkovits]

Thanks, I downloaded it already and extracted it. thanks

[WillLem]

the level pack I'm making at the moment is in a very early state, so I can't share it now.
But if you are really interested, I'll publish a demo with the basic levels in it when they'll be finished.

Sounds good - but, I totally understand if you'd rather wait until the pack is finished before sharing! Let me know if you need someone to playtest it for backroutes/general feedback.

[WillLem]

Version 0.104a has been released to fix the crashing that LanaAndCo has been experiencing.

• Fixed a crash that occurs when the minimap is clicked while the game window is wider than the level.

Thanks Tsyu, I can confirm that the crash no longer occurs.

[LanaAndCo]

It works! Thanks a lot Tsyu!

[Dr. Boogang]

It doesn't work for me. When I extract it it gives me an error that says

"Resource extraction failed. File gfx\blink.spr not found"

I don't know what to do someone help please.

[kaywhyn]

Hey Dr. Boogang,

The reason the extraction is failing is because you also need a copy of the Winlem files. Both Lemmini and Superlemmini require these files in order to run. You can download a copy here: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=2101.0. It's the 3rd link where it says Lemmings for Windows. Extract the files somewhere on your computer. Then, when you run the Superlemmini.jar file, when it asks where the source is, that's where you want to navigate to where you extracted the Lemmings for Windows files.

[Dr. Boogang]

It worked! thanks a lot!

[kaywhyn]

Glad to be of assistance. Enjoy revisiting the game with the many packs available for the engine!

[ericderkovits]

Yes especially mine. I have official remakes just look under levels for other engines. You will see my uploads for many of the original remakes made for Superlemmini.

Also I've done many Conversions of custom packs from Regular Lemmini, now availaible for Superlemmini. Those are just listed in the Superlemmini main board.

[kaywhyn]

Be aware that custom level packs are generally more difficult than the official games. However, if you're willing to look into playing custom level packs, especially with eric's remakes and conversions to Superlemmini, I recommend beginning with Dovelems. It has a really nice difficulty curve from start to finish, and is generally easy throughout, although there's still a few real nailbiters, especially in the later ranks. It was the very first custom level pack I played when I found out about Lemmini.

I can also recommend Dodochacalo's other mini packs too: Franlems, Dodopack, and Cachapack. The former is a pack of 40 levels entirely in French (I believe eric translated it all to English when he converted the pack to Superlemmini), while the latter packs are each 10 levels (20 levels total). These 3 packs are more difficult than his Dovelems pack, but they should still be manageable. Pimolems is another well done pack that's slightly harder than Dovelems, although I say the real difficulty starts at the third rank and stays high until the end of the 4th rank. The remaining ranks are special ranks and a bonus rank.

Then, if you're still willing to tackle even more packs and looking for a real challenge, Reunion is a highly regarded pack that has a nice difficulty curve throughout that's considerably harder than all the packs I mentioned in the previous paragraphs. The pack gets difficult much faster than the original game does. It already starts getting difficult near the end of the first rank. After the other packs I mentioned, this was and still is the largest custom pack I have ever completed, at a total of 150 levels. Also, all the packs I mentioned, including Reunion, I first completed on Lemmini. Reunion took me about 3 months to complete. Definitely not for the faint of heart or for the easily frustrated, but if you're willing to take on the pack, it's readily available for download.

These are all just suggestions, of course. You're more than welcome to start with the harder packs first, but if it's been a really long time since you last played Lemmings (I don't know your history, so I don't know how long it's been since you last played the game or if you have played any custom level packs), I would definitely start with the official games (Lemmings, ONML, Holiday Lemmings, etc) first, followed by Dovelems if you want to play custom level packs. Even without brushing up on the official games first, I say that it's still viable to start with Dovelems, as it does ease you into the game again with tutorial levels for the 8 classic skills, followed by easy puzzles.

I've played and completed all of the packs I mentioned, so that's why I'm able to offer my views on the difficulty of each. In any case, there's so many level packs to play and enjoy that it'll take a long time to get through them all. What's more, more are being made all the time, both from the veteran players and new, so the amount of content continues to grow all the time.   

[ericderkovits]

You forgot to mentioned the Sublems pack I just uploaded with the 4 new backroute fixes in the Hellish Rank. (I also uploaded in the Sublems board the .rar file that contains all the levels
including the backroute fixes and the new Retro 20.ini I made. Also the .rar file contains all the new unbroken replays). Just look in the Superlemmini board under Sublems. It's the last post.
Note: after downloading Colorful arty's Sublems pack. Just extract my sublems .rar file over his, this way everything will work.


Also There is Colorful Arty's Reverse Lemmings Pack available in the Superlemmini board too.

[kaywhyn]

I did mention that "there's many packs for Superlemmini." The packs I mentioned were ones I remembered off the top of my head and ones I feel are good for any player to begin with, especially if the person is new or is rusty. My intention wasn't to list every pack available for Superlemmini (too many to list). Also, you kind of already had it covered when you mentioned for him to look under the "levels for other engines" and Superlemmini board, so any packs I didn't mention he could just look in those two places anyway.

[Tsyu]

Just so you guys know, I am alive and well, and I have not officially given up on SuperLemmini! Admittedly, though, I have done little with the project since I last wrote here.

The main thing I want to implement before releasing the next version is the oft-requested controls customization. I already implemented a lookup system that accepts key codes and returns the action assigned to that key code. The main thing that's left is to implement a dialog window that allows the user to change the key bindings.

I haven't read any recent posts yet; I intend to do that over the next few days and address them.

[kaywhyn]

Just so you guys know, I am alive and well, and I have not officially given up on SuperLemmini! Admittedly, though, I have done little with the project since I last wrote here.

So good to finally hear from you! I guess my PM from about a night ago did indeed get through to you. Thanks for the update and letting all of us here know that you're alive and kicking

[ericderkovits]

OMG, what a nice surprise, finally hearing from Tsyu.

[LanaAndCo]

That's a very good thing to see when waking up!
I'm glad to hear that you're all right. Not gonna lie, I though you abandoned the project after your long absence and we got a bit scared that SuperLemmini was going to be left behind.

[WillLem]

Just so you guys know, I am alive and well, and I have not officially given up on SuperLemmini!

Music! Glad to hear it, and glad to know you're well

The main thing I want to implement before releasing the next version is the oft-requested controls customization.
---
I haven't read any recent posts yet; I intend to do that over the next few days and address them.

Brilliant stuff. I've made quite a sizable wish list which compiles most if not all of the various features SL players have mentioned they'd like to see in the game. It'd be great to know which of these are possible/likely, and just your thoughts in general.

I've also been learning Java for the past few months, on and off, and I've made small but significant progress in that time. I'm very keen to learn more, so if you'd like any help with a particular task or something that you think a beginner could have a look at, please do let me know.

Anyway, whatever happens, it's good to have you back on the forums, Tsyu!

[jkapp76]

What do I need to name the Newer Replay icon to replace it with my own?

[Tsyu]

The file name for the replay icon is icon_restart (along with the appropriate extension). It should be placed in the gfx\icons folder.

[WillLem]

Unless you mean the "R" symbol which appears in the top right when in Replay mode, in which case it should be placed in gfx\misc, with replay as the file name.

[Tsyu]

WillLem sent an e-mail to Volker Oth, the author of Lemmini, asking for permission for SuperLemmini to include the Windows Lemmings assets. Volker replied, and WillLem sent me copies of his and Volker's messages.

From what I can tell, Volker forbids the inclusion of Windows Lemmings resources only to (possibly) stay out of legal trouble, and doesn't intend to actually enforce that policy. Also, he didn't seem to care what I do with SuperLemmini, at least as far as Lemmings assets are concerned.

So, I now announce that, starting with the next version of SuperLemmini, extraction from the Windows version of Lemmings will no longer be required; instead, all the required assets will be included, ready to use. This will address any problems related to the extraction process, and should make SuperLemmini a bit more accessible (since it won't require a version of a game that's probably long out of print).

[WillLem]

This is great news Tsyu, glad to hear it

I'd also suggest merging root.lzp with the standard, user-accessible resource folders so that everything is in one place for easy access/customisation. However, I can understand if you'd rather not do this.

Also, I am more than happy to merge all exits (and other split objects) into a single graphic for ease of use in the Editor; I have attached a copy of the modified Marble exit as an example.

Further to this, I have recreated the "special" entrances and exits from the Beast I & II, MENACING and AWESOME levels. They are currently included with the remastered version of the original games, but you are more than welcome to merge these into the official styles (and by all means use the remastered levels themselves) if you wish.

[jkapp76]

Hello, I'd like to share my High Quality music files for ONML...

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZwY1nXZ8MBuyv8h9chezWzJ1iTCS0xY33yy

[kaywhyn]

Hey jkapp76,

A while ago I PMed you about the level "The Snow Palace" from your pack Blizzard of Lems, which I downloaded from here: http://lemmings-db.camanis.net/levelpack/ag1zfmxlbW1pbmdzLWRichYLEglMZXZlbFBhY2sYgICAgNCzjAoM/. Are you able to confirm if the level is possible under the 10 minute time limit currently set for the level? I'm finding it impossible, but I have confirmed that the level can be solved if an additional minute is provided, i.e, if the time limit is 11 minutes instead of 10. All the other levels I have solved, so no need to check if they're possible. I'm just curious about "The Snow Palace"

[jkapp76]

There were two levels I wanted to edit to make them winnable. Must be only one apparently.
I got busy with life back in 2015 and tossed this together. You might have noticed a few community levels edited to make them easier (a fearful symmetry) was renamed from dreadful symmetry and fixed because it was awesome but unwinnable.

I worked on many of the levels editing different things. I can't even remember how to use the editor anymore. If you can edit this level and re-post it go ahead. I believe I was originally going to keep the time the same but change the abilities to make it winnable... but that was a long time ago.

I'm just lately getting back into it. I have lots of cool Icon packs, music, and lemmings too.

..Jeremy

[jkapp76]

Here's a link to my own personal icon set. I call this my "RoyGBiv" set because of the colors.

I've made several icon sets, but this is my favorite that I use all the time. I also made the Holiday set included in SuperLemmini.

...Jeremy Kapp

[kaywhyn]

Short summary of The Snow Castle level: With the 10-minute time limit, you simply run out of time with the final builder section at the very end. However, the level is doable with an extra minute, but just barely. Since the time limit is 10 minutes, that must mean that you had a good reason for that and you were able to solve it. The only other way is to

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Horizontally dig through the structure at the very end, but you don't have enough diggers to do so, so therefore the only way is to build up, but as I mentioned there just isn't enough time to build all the way up

[jkapp76]

I can't seem to get an editor to work. can you fix and upload?

[WillLem]

Here's a link to my own personal set of Icons. I call this my "RoyGBiv" set because of the colors.

Nice! Thanks for sharing these - please do share some of your others as well

I can't seem to get an editor to work

Can you elaborate? What exactly is the problem you're experiencing and which editor are you trying to use?

[jkapp76]

Here's a link to all my icon sets.  I prefer the versions with text at the top.

I made this standard set as an official replacement for superlemmini so it would match the xmas style I made that's now part of superlemmini better.

You can mix and match from all these too.

...Jeremy Kapp

[jkapp76]

I have NLeditor.   maybe this is the wrong editor. but I can't remember how to edit the level .ini file. I just realized I can edit the time with notepad though.

...Jeremy Kapp

[WillLem]

I've made this post detailing which Editors can be used for SL (including downloads)

[Chthon]

Hi there, I registered just to say "thanks" for this.

Well, that, and also to report a bug and request a few features:

BUG: If Java 11 JVM is used, the asset extraction fails with an error that says, "Unable to patch file gfx/lemming/lemm_basher_2p.png. Size of source differs from that in patch header." It works if I use the Java 8 JVM instead. I suspect something got deprecated between Java 8 and Java 11 and no longer provides its old functionality. Since I didn't experience the same problem in Michael J. Walsh's Lemmini fork, I'm thinking that maaaaaybe this commit might fix it.

Feature Requests:

• Hotkey for "restart this level" (Michael Walsh commit)
• "Play Level" on the home screen should fetch last difficulty and level for the current player and jump to first unfinished level. (Can be adapted from this Michael Walsh commit)
• Fullscreen and integer scaling options (Can be borrowed from Michael Walsh; spread over several commits)
• (Really, lots of Michael Walsh's stuff looks worth borrowing. Except I don't care for how his home screen looks.)
• Scroll speed slider. The default is painfully slow.
• Option for xBR scaling instead of bilinear.
  
  • It looks like someone ported xBRZ to Java, and hopefully their class is portable enough to just drop in.
  • xBR looks best when scaling by a power of 2, then downscaling with bilinear or whatever to the target scale factor.
  • xBR looks better when assets are scaled independently, then composited (rather than scaling the whole video frame).
  • Following from the above, it might make sense to keep the scaled lemming spites in memory.
• Some hotkeys to temporarily alter the behavior of the "advanced select" feature:
  
  • Hotkey 1: "While this key is held down, the cursor will NOT follow the highlighted lemming.
  • Hotkey 2: "While this key is held down, the cursor will NOT follow the highlighted lemming, and only a lemming that is facing LEFT can be selected.
  • Hotkey 3: "While this key is held down, the cursor will NOT follow the highlighted lemming, and only a lemming that is facing RIGHT can be selected.

[kaywhyn]

Hi Jeremy,

Here's your level "The Snow Palace" from your Blizzard of Lem pack. This is the original, meaning I haven't edited it or anything, just simply the copy from the Lemmings Database link above. I prefer not to touch/edit people's levels and would rather the author of the level edit it. Sorry that it took me a while. Load the level via the external function in SL and try your level and see if you're able to beat the level under the 10-minute timer, which is the time limit that you set for the level when you released the pack. I'm finding it impossible, but if you are given 11 minutes then it's possible, although time is still quite tight. In regards to editing the time limit, it's just a simple matter of opening the attached .ini and editing the time in there.

For the link to your pack that you uploaded to the Lemmings Database, see my reply from a few posts above.

[jkapp76]

Yes. I made that pack in 2015. I had some major things happen in life and rushed the pack and didn't test it well enough. I think I was going to add a couple bashers or something but keep the 10 minute time. But that was 6 years ago now. I'm just now getting back into super lemmini. been a long time.

I am glad to hear that at least two people enjoyed that pack. I edited many of those levels to try to keep a progressive difficulty. Maybe that's not how others do it now... But I wanted to fill the lack of a good full winter pack then.

I'm having lots of fun now playing these new packs on super lemmini. I am also working through lemmings revolution... I got it working under windows 10 finally.

You can feel free to do anything you want with my pack...use parts, edit it or rename it. I had to fix many exit locations in 2015 because the lemmings wouldn't jump in, And a few other little things like that.

[kaywhyn]

All rightie, since you have given permission, I'll see what I can do. From what I remember when I played this pack years ago, I was able to solve all the levels except for "The Snow Palace," so that's really the only level that needs editing to make it solvable. I do have two ideas in mind, although one of them might be too fiddly to do. I'll have to see. I thought you did a pretty good job with the pack. I'm guessing it's a level you made and not an already existing level you edited? At least I don't ever recall seeing the level in some pack I have played.

I'm having lots of fun now playing these new packs on super lemmini. I am also working through lemmings revolution... I got it working under windows 10 finally.

Glad to hear that you're enjoying the Superlemmini content. It's a shame that there aren't that many original level packs for Superlemmini, as most of the ones that currently exist are simply conversions from one engine to SL, but there's still some members here who are Superlemmini fans. Though I enjoy Neolemmix because of the very useful quality of life features, I still prefer Superlemmini over NL any day, as I'm quite the traditionalist when it comes to Lemmings.

Also, that's cool to hear that you're playing through Lemmings Revolution. Great game, I can say. I recently got it installed on my computer again from earlier this year I think, so I will definitely be going through the game again at some point, as I certainly have forgotten many of the levels. I think I have only completed the game either once or twice, but that was from years ago. It's definitely a pain to get working on modern OSes, but it's definitely worth it, as it's a game I recommend that people play.

Have you ever played Lemmings 2? Give that a try as well. In my opinion, it's neither good nor bad, but you might still enjoy it.

[jkapp76]

I made only a couple levels, most were reworked from community levels. I can't remember if I made that one or not any more. It was 6 years ago. I did intend to keep the time at 10 minutes and add skills to make it possible though.

I have played Lemmings 2. I was turned off by the new skills a bit and eventually lost interest. I'll probably try it again someday soon.

Let me know if you tweak the pack or update it and upload it. I'll play through it again if you do.

[kaywhyn]

Will do! I will also credit you since you are the original author of the pack Note it'll likely be a long while before I do anything with it, if ever.

[kaywhyn]

Hello Tsyu,

A bug I discovered while playing around with Superlemmini.

Steps to reproduce:

• Choose any level pack to play, and make sure the allLevelsUnlocked = true line is in the levelpack.ini file for the pack (very important!)
• Pick any level from the pack and let the game load up the level by clicking "continue"
• Once inside the level, pick another level from the same level pack or any pack where the levelpack.ini file has the line allLevelsUnlocked = true
• Complete/solve the level successfully.
• At the postresults screen, open up the level menu, and you'll see that the level you just solved is not marked with "completed"

However, the next level you play after solving the second level and successfully solve will be marked as "completed" as appropriate. So, it seems that this bug only happens when loading up a level and going inside, load up another level, and you successfully solve the new level. The important thing is making sure the levels you load up are from packs that have the line allLevelsUnlocked = true in the levelpack.ini file.

After some more testing, this bug does NOT occur if you first load up a level that has the allLevelsUnlocked = true line and once inside the level, you load up a level from a different pack that does NOT have the levels unlocked line, as it will say that the new level you loaded up is "completed" if you successfully solve it.

Needless to say, this is an annoyance, especially having to do a level all over again just so one can see a level marked as "completed." Even more so if you're a completist like me, where you get a kick out of seeing all levels marked as "completed" in a level pack.

EDIT: Ah, so turns out that it is NOT necessary for both packs to have the levels unlocked line in order to trigger off the bug. Instead, what matters is the second level you load up, making sure the pack you load it from has the levels unlocked line. In other words, this bug will also occur if you first load up and go inside a level from a pack that doesn't have the levels unlocked line, but then the next level you load up and successfully solve is from a pack that has the all levels unlocked line.

[WillLem]

The following error appears when attempting to extract resources:

Resource extraction failed.
Unable to patch file gfx/lemming/lemm_basher_2p.png.
Size of source differs from that in patch header

[WillLem]

This topic is now set to non-sticky until SuperLemmini is updated.


Note to SuperLemmini users:

SuperLemminiToo is a more recent version of SL which fixes a number of bugs, re-implements timed bombers (as an option), adds various UI features and removes the need to extract resources from WinLemm. It is strongly recommended that you use this version instead, at least until SuperLemmini is updated.