NeoLemmix Update: V10.13.XX [Player 10.13.18 update]

[namida]

Latest versions:

Player: V10.13.18
Editor: V10.13.13
Flexi: V10.13.15-B
GSTool: V10.13.14

These versions are now considered final for the Editor, Flexi and GSTool (which will be replaced rather than upgraded for the upcoming new-formats version of NeoLemmix). It is also the final old-formats version of NeoLemmix itself.


NeoLemmix Player

Physics / core changes are fairly few and minor, but the new features version (xx.xx.16) brings a LOT of new or improved features. Well worth the update alone, even if it wasn't for that packs will start to require this version.

Importantly, we now have stable Fencer physics; they'll likely only change further if bugfixes are needed.

Please note - if you find that this version lags considerably more than V10.12.15, try turning off the High Quality Minimap option in the config menu (F3 on the title screen of any pack; this option is in the 2nd tab). This option, which is on by default, looks very nice but does cause a huge performance hit. You will still get the improved minimap scrolling even with this option turned off; just not the fancier minimap graphics. Also, if you prefer the older-sized skill panel, use the "Compact Skill Panel" option (in the same place) to get it back, though do be aware that it no longer has the toggle minimap / extra buttons feature (just always displays the minimap).

Vxx.13.xx Core Changes
- Fixed bug: Talismans that set a limit on how many fencers may be used can never be unlocked.
- Fixed bug: Miners can do some damage to one-way-up walls, in a similar manner to steel glitching in DOS L1.
- Fixed bug: Inconsistencies in the trigger area algorithms for rotated objects.
- Contains latest versions of all included graphic sets.
- Some adjustments to Fencer physics. In particular, they can no longer endlessly move forwards without also moving upwards, or they'll stop.
- There is no longer a 320x160 minimum size for levels.
- Custom window ordering is no longer supported, as it was rarely (if ever) used.
- Receivers are now based on a single point, rather than an area that corresponds to the teleporter's trigger area.

Vxx.xx.16 Feature Changes

HUGE list, click to open (click to show/hide)

- Fixed bug: One-way-up arrow trigger areas are shown as purple in clear physics mode.
- Fixed bug: Saving an image during gameplay was broken.
- Fixed bug: Cursor and selected lemmings may display wrong when the mouse is over the skill panel or blank space.
- Fixed bug: Zombie levels are always marked as failing on the mass replay tester.
- Fixed bug: Mass replay tests may crash on packs with a large variety of graphic sets.
- Fixed bug: Replays that time out on a mass replay test *after* reaching the save requirement are marked as "Undetermined" instead of "Passed".
- Fixed bug: Information display on skill panel may sometimes not update until a frame is advanced (or rewound).
- Fixed bug: Left/right panning of sound effects was not working correctly.
- Fixed bug: Replays don't save properly under some circumstances, usually relating to the default replay folder not existing.
- Fixed bug: In the time display on the postview screen, single-digit seconds are shown without a leading zero.
- Fixed bug: Replays cut off if an invalid action is encountered.
- Fixed bug: Background colors don't show when "Disable Background Images" is enabled.
- Fixed bug: When loading and watching a successful replay, a duplicate of it is saved if automatic replay saving is enabled.
- Fixed bug: Mouseovering a receiver with no corresponding teleporter in clear physics mode crashes the game.
- Fixed bug: Constructive skill pixels that would be placed outside the level boundaries "wrap around" to the other side visually (but not physics-wise).
- Fixed bug: Skill panel zoom may cap at a lower zoom factor than it should for the screen / window size in use.
- The zombie sound no longer replaces "Let's Go" on levels where all zombies are preplaced (it still does on those that have zombie-spawning hatches).
- The unused area around the level area is now shown as grey instead of black, to better stand out from the level area.
- The April 1st rickroll prank has been removed.
- Debug options have been removed due to lack of usage.
- Added an initial popup menu for the first time a user runs NeoLemmix. Currently this only asks whether the user would prefer the default hotkey setup or a Lix-like setup but more will be added in the future.
- Save / load state now fully save the current state (including the actions taken), not just the current frame number.
- Added two new hotkey functions: "Jump back to previous action" and "Jump forward to next shrugger".
- Added an option to automatically increase the initial zoom on smaller levels.
- Added a "High Quality Minimap" option which shows the minimap in full color rather than a single color. WARNING: This can have a huge impact on performance.
- Expanded the skill panel to allow the extra buttons and the minimap at the same time, as well as making the minimap area taller.
- Added a "Compact Skill Panel" option, which sacrifices most of the extra buttons in exchange for a smaller (and thus more-zoomable) skill panel.
- Custom postview jingles are once again supported.
- Blocker regions are now shown in clear physics mode.
- The exact physics position of the selected lemming is now shown in clear physics mode.
- The level's border is now shown as a red outline in clear physics mode.
- The spawn position of receivers is now shown in clear physics mode.
- The accuracy of basher, fencer and miner shadows has been improved.
- Supports integration with Flexi to run mass replay tests, also updating the status of the replays in Flexi's data.
- Performance improvements when handling moving background objects with zero speed and no animation.
- Performance improvements on the mass replay tester.
- In-game zooming is no longer capped at "maximum zoom that would let a 320x160 level completely fit on-screen".
- Modified the fadeout of menu screens so that they will sacrifice quality for performance on weaker PCs if need be.
- Added a button in the config menu to download all available graphic sets from the NeoLemmix website.
- The frame advance/rewind skill panel buttons can now be click-held instead of repeatedly clicked.
- The frame advance/rewind skill panel buttons can be right clicked for a one second skip, or middle-clicked for a 5 second skip.
- The Edit Replay dialog now displays the current frame number.
- If the configuration file contains data that isn't recognized by NeoLemmix, it is preserved as-is rather than discarded.
- Packs can now have a Mac-style music rotation, where the rotation doesn't restart at the beginning of each rank.
- Custom lemming sprites no longer need to have a specific number of frames on some actions.
- All PNG files with transparency info should now be supported instead of only 32-bit ones, although this is not extensively tested.

V10.13.16-B Hotfix
- Fixed bug: Initial release actually introduced a bug with rotated object trigger areas, rather than fixing one; it is now re-fixed.
- Fixed bug: Screen may scroll while mouse cursor is released, if cursor is moved beyond the edges of the gameplay area.

V10.13.17 Features Update
- Probably fixed bug: Non-looping OGG files sometimes loop in weird ways
- Fixed bug: NeoLemmix crashes when clicking during a screen's fadeout
- Fixed bug: Red / blue R may appear in cases where they aren't meant to
- Fixed bug: Click-hold on the frameskip panel buttons wasn't working
- Added a "hold to scroll" key, which is by default A in normal layout or J in Lix-like layout
- Added an option to disable scrolling by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen
- Edge scrolling speed has been increased
- Mass replay checker applies the "Completed" checkmark to levels that are solved during running of it
- Levels can now have no background, even if their primary graphic set has backgrounds (pending editor support)

V10.13.18 Features Update
- Fixed bug: First skill in skillset is selected after a backwards frameskip
- Fixed bug: Backwards frameskips are extremely laggy
- Reverted to old skill panel code, as a precautionary measure (since the intent is for this version to last a while without needing further updates, something that already failed once)

Downloads: Latest stable release | Permalink to V10.13.18 | All available versions


NeoLemmix Editor

The purpose of this upgrade is mostly to bring the editor in line with the latest player version, but there are a few nice changes.

V10.13.13
> Fixed bug: Editor misbehaves when a level is loaded that contains an unrecognized piece. It is now replaced with a placeholder piece.
> Added protections against (and detection in the validation report) placing background image objects in the level.
> Several graphic sets have been updated.
> VGASPEC support has been fully stripped.
> Window order editing has been removed, as NeoLemmix no longer supports it. (Use multiple overlapping entrances instead. Existing levels will be auto-converted to this system when opened.)
> Fencers can now be added to a skillset.
> Screen start position is now based on center of screen, not topleft edge.

Downloads: Latest stable release (Full) | Permalink to V10.13.13 (Full) | Permalink to V10.13.13 (Upgrade version) | All available versions

(NOTE: The upgrade version includes copies of the graphic sets. USE THESE ONES, don't keep your existing ones. However, it does not contain a "styles.ini" file so you don't need to worry about losing customizations you've made to that.)


Flexi Toolkit

Again, not too many changes here. One nice new one is the option for Mac-style music rotation. Another is the ability to directly run a mass replay test from Flexi. A few bugfixes as well.

V10.13.15
> Fixed bug: Incorrect numbers would be appended to replay files when naming conflicts exist.
> Fixed bug: Error check would report an error when L2 / L3 / LPV styles aren't built into the NXP, even though they no longer need to be.
> Added option to use Mac-style music rotation, enabled by default.
> Replay files can now be added to or removed from the "replays" subfolder of a project without needing to manually modify the INI.
> Prevents building NXPs where level ID conflicts exist (can cause issues with replays, especially when running mass tests).
> Added an option in the Replay Manager to delete all failed replays.
> Removed "Hidden" option for talismans as this no longer serves any purpose.

-B Hotfix
> Fixed bug: Issue checker didn't detect all level ID duplicates properly.
> Gave more info in the error message when trying to build an NXP while level ID duplicates exist

Downloads: Latest stable release | Permalink to V10.13.15-B | All available versions


Graphic Set Tool

This one is mostly just to account for the receiver physics change, however, in case you somehow have multiple copies of a graphic set, one with names and one without, it has an option to import names from another graphic set DAT file. (Mostly added this for my own use, but I saw no reason to take it out again, someone might find it useful.)

V10.13.14
> Piece names can be imported from another DAT graphic set.
> Receivers no longer ask for a trigger area size, in line with NL
  V10.13.XX mechanics where they only use a single point.

Downloads: Latest stable release | Permalink to V10.13.14 | All available versions

[namida]

Content upgrade guide

Any graphic sets that contain receivers will need to have the trigger areas for the receivers modified. These should now be a single point, not an area - the lemming will always spawn at this point exactly.

Levels that use the Window Order capability will need to be modified, as this feature has been dropped. When opening such a level in the player or editor, a backwards-compatibility hack is applied that should give the correct functionality, but may look weird. If this bothers you, you'll need to fix it manually.

If by some chance, you're using the Rickroll music in your custom levels by referring to track "orig_00", this won't work as it has now been removed. You'll need to include it in the same way as any custom track.

Beyond these things, it's just the usual matter of re-testing, and re-building with the latest version of Flexi Toolkit. Special attention is needed on any levels that (a) use the Bubble tileset, (b) use teleporters, or (c) use the updrafts from any of the included graphic sets other than the L2 / L3 ones or LPV-Machine.

[namida]

Uploaded a hotfix for Flexi, V10.13.15-B. Fixes a bug where the Issue Checker doesn't always find duplicate level ID cases. The error when building an NXP also gives more details here (a list of levels that have conflicts, rather than just a message saying that some do).

[namida]

Uploaded a player hotfix, V10.13.16-B. This fixes a bug with rotated object trigger areas, and another bug with scrolling in windowed mode while focus is on another program.

[namida]

Alright. Well, I've maintained backwards-compatible versions for quite a while (basically, versions of NeoLemmix that run off the new-formats code internally, but still load the old formats instead), but the current change - integrating new code for the level system - affects so much of the code that keeping a backwards-compatible version will be practically impossible.

As such, I'm now officially announcing that V10.13.17 will be the last old-formats version. There'll still be that update soon - most likely very similar to the current experimental - but aside from that (and any important hotfixes that might come up), it's likely that there'll be no further updates until the new-formats version is ready for general usage. The good news is that won't be long now - integrating the new level system is pretty much the last huge task, and beyond that it's just a matter of creating tools for converting content - replays are already in the new format, levels convert very easily (and at any rate old-format level files will still be supported), and I've already made a tool for converting graphic sets, so it's pretty much just level packs that need a conversion tool. As of now, integrating the new level system code is mostly complete - there are some minor details that still need to have support added (like the custom postview screen texts, custom music rotation lists), and one somewhat major feature that isn't yet supported (talismans), but I do finally have a NeoLemmix build that can run level packs entirely off new-formats files.

[namida]

Released the player V10.13.17 update. This is not a critical update if you're on V10.13.16-B, it just adds a few new features (file compatibility and physics are identical between the two). See first post for download link and changelog.

Aside from any hotfixes that a need for may arise, this will probably be the final old-formats version of NeoLemmix, since new-formats isn't far from ready now (and at any rate, maintaining a version that works on new-formats internally but old formats externally is a messy affair, and the latest changes will make it almost impossible).

[IchoTolot]

I am noticing big performance issues with backwards framestepping in this version: Arty's special graphics level in the current contest nxp for example: After ~ 2 mins of assignments the performance is really bad. With the older version there was no performance issues, now going back a second nearly takes 2 seconds after 2 mins.
Happens on other levels as well, but the performance issus becomes noticable a bit later: 2-3 mins. "Frostbite" takes 2-3 mins to be noticable as an example. Fart Gallery is another good example as it's lenghty.

Did the improved scrolling cause this? I rather have the old scrolling instead of bad framestepping.

Edit: Tried out an extreme example and in Reunion's Lemtris Version X the backwards frameskip becomes suboptimal after a while! (~8 mins). Also I just had redownload the last version as this in combination with the skill selection bug is really bothering. On the last version everything works just fine. Again rather ditch the new scrolling if that's the cause.

[Wafflem]

This actually happens to me as well.

I would really like the old scrolling back; the new scrolling system is too fast and too inconvenient in my opinion.

[namida]

I had noticed bad backstopping performance in the new formats version but had assumed it was related to that.

Will investigate the cause and get a hotfix, if possible.

[namida]

Uploaded a V10.13.18 update, which fixes that bug (and the skill selection after backwards step one), and as a precautionary measure, reverts to the old skill panel code. (The new code is still going to be used in the long run, just not in this update.)

[namida]

I'm going to declare these versions final, as far as old formats versions go. All future work will be exclusively on the new-formats version, which is also going to be moved from Delphi 7 to Delphi XE6.