Move to a text-based level format

[namida]

Look closer. The background isn't black at all, in any of them.

[IchoTolot]

Hmmm, the other three images appear to have the same black background color (while the first one is blue). Or am I missing something?

No! The bg color is slightly different here!

You can see it better in the crystal tileset as the black in the crystal pillars is now 100% recognisable!

+ if the whole screen would be displayed I bet you can now see the exact game area as well!

[Nepster]

I guess the background color is determined by the graphic set? Then I suggest keeping a black background for all styles that have no black colored terrain pixels and usually use light colors. In my opinion, the main objective should be to get the biggest contrast between terrain and background and black does this very well e.g. for the pillar or marble tileset.

[namida]

Yes, it is determined by set.

It can be decided at a later date exactly what colors should be used for what sets. For now, the main point of interest is that it's working.

[Wafflem]

Sorry guys, I initially saw this on my iPad and I was really tired that day, so I initially did not see the difference in background because the colors for the Pillar/Fire/Marble looked dark while the Crystal one stood out . They look really cool! I can't wait to see what the Lemmings Plus II-V levels will look like with the new backgrounds!

What about sets that use custom backgrounds (i.e. the background is not just a color, but a picture like scenery), like the Biolab tileset? Will custom backgrounds stay as separate objects?

[namida]

What about sets that use custom backgrounds (i.e. the background is not just a color, but a picture like scenery), like the Biolab tileset? Will custom backgrounds stay as separate objects?

Image backgrounds will probably be possible, but for now they're low priority. Of course, this doesn't hugely matter since I want to get as much as possible out of the way before any new release; it just means it may be longer before we see an experimental version that supports it.

[Simon]

Tileset-specific bg color: Good idea. Each level has a main tileset anyway. The set-specific bg harvests the benefits of that design.

This helps Crystal and Medieval.

-- Simon

[namida]

I guess the background color is determined by the graphic set? Then I suggest keeping a black background for all styles that have no black colored terrain pixels and usually use light colors. In my opinion, the main objective should be to get the biggest contrast between terrain and background and black does this very well e.g. for the pillar or marble tileset.

One other advantage (which to be fair; this is not the only possible solution to) is you can see exactly where the sides of the play area is (since the border, as well as the stats bar, are black).

Here's another shot of Mind The Step, this time without removing the black border around the game area.

[namida]

So, the latest update on the new formats - we finally have VGASPEC levels working again!

[namida]

Here's the latest thing the new formats let us do.



The key thing to note here: The two water pieces are the same (meta)object - set "default", piece "water". This piece allows for variable sizing. In general, water, one-way walls and updrafts allow for this, as do some (but not all) one-way fields.

Specifically, here's the relevant part of the level file:

Code: [Select]

# Interactive objects
 OBJECT
  SET default
  PIECE water
  X 504
  Y 52
  WIDTH 32
  NO_OVERWRITE
 
 OBJECT
  SET default
  PIECE water
  X 488
  Y 32
  WIDTH 64
  NO_OVERWRITE

[namida]

Here's something even more exciting from the new code.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2sGFG2ZlA

[LJLPM]

Good job! The text-based level format is very! promising, and the new features are very cool: I really like the resizable Objects