What made SuperLemmini good could make NeoLemmix great!

[WillLem]

OK... I've decided to move on from SuperLemmini. Clearly, it's not very well looked after any more, there are no decent tutorials for how to use it more extensively, create levels packs, etc, and generally speaking, nobody seems to care about it except me!

So, here's what I particularly like about SuperLemmini that, if incorporated into NeoLemmix, may help to improve it:

- Firstly, and most importantly (to me, at least)... I think it looks great. It's a lot smoother, everything looks more rounded and well-defined, and this just makes for a more enjoyable gaming experience, in my humble opinion. It's great that a Hi-Res facelift for NL is being considered/in production: I am happy to continue providing graphics/help with this wherever I can.
  - The control panel has "clickable" buttons, rounded edges and cartoon icons; all of which adds texture and provides a more tactile interface (I'm currently working on one that could be used in the Hi-Res mod, if needs be).
  - The main menu/level screen text & images are in the correct aspect ratio rather than being stretched, as they are in NL. This may seem a minor point to most people, but it just adds to the overall aesthetic when everything is taken into consideration.

- You can double click the release rate to get to 01 or 99 quickly. This is mainly just convenient, but it can also help with certain level solutions as well.

- The level selection window automatically saves level stats upon successful completion of a level, which is great for reviewing/trying to beat your time/skill count/% saved etc.

All of this said, there are some things about NeoLemmix which are wayyy better than SuperLemmini, and here they are (I like to give a balanced view of things wherever possible ):

- Being able to frame-step forwards and backwards, and hotkey these actions - VERY nice!

- Savestates and replays more integral/accessible, which can be of help.

- Being able to view the trigger points in-game.

- Knowing exactly which Lemming is being selected, and being able to see which ones have had climber/floater skills assigned to them.

- The emphasis on tactics rather than technique is quite refreshing; the guide lines for builders, diggers, etc are very handy.

Thoughts? Discussion? Agreements/disagreements?

-WillLem

[IchoTolot]

Thanks, that's valuable feedback!

- You can double click the release rate to get to 01 or 99 quickly. This is mainly just convenient, but it can also help with certain level solutions as well.

NL has the same thing, but here it's the right mouse button rather than a double click.

  - The control panel has "clickable" buttons, rounded edges and cartoon icons; all of which adds texture and provides a more tactile interface (I'm currently working on one that could be used in the Hi-Res mod, if needs be).

This is a problem you or another user needs to tackle most likely: If a good replacement is made by someone you can simply swap out the default ones with your preferred choice.

Most graphics in NL are swappable/customisable. They just need to be created and be the same size.

  - The main menu/level screen text & images are in the correct aspect ratio rather than being stretched, as they are in NL. This may seem a minor point to most people, but it just adds to the overall aesthetic when everything is taken into consideration.

Could the window mode in the right size fix that at least partly for you? NL has a windowed mode with several window sizes.

- The level selection window automatically saves level stats upon successful completion of a level, which is great for reviewing/trying to beat your time/skill count/% saved etc.

Stats are certainly something the F2 level selection screen could display. Consider making a suggestion topic!

[namida]

- Firstly, and most importantly (to me, at least)... I think it looks great. It's a lot smoother, everything looks more rounded and well-defined, and this just makes for a more enjoyable gaming experience, in my humble opinion. It's great that a Hi-Res facelift for NL is being considered/in production: I am happy to continue providing graphics/help with this wherever I can.

High-res mode is likely to be the "major" feature for V12.8, in the same way eg. the Shimmier was for 12.6. I suspect at first, high-res mode will be limited to the lemming sprites and the official styles, but over time this will expand.

- The control panel has "clickable" buttons, rounded edges and cartoon icons; all of which adds texture and provides a more tactile interface (I'm currently working on one that could be used in the Hi-Res mod, if needs be).

NL will never use native Windows GUI buttons on this, but I'm open to graphics that simulate such buttons. EDIT: To be clear, this would need to be widely agreed on, not just "one person wants it" - but if that consensus is there, sure, it can be done.

- The main menu/level screen text & images are in the correct aspect ratio rather than being stretched, as they are in NL. This may seem a minor point to most people, but it just adds to the overall aesthetic when everything is taken into consideration.

NL keeps a consistent aspect ratio, specifically 8:5 (as the internal rendering resolution of the menu screens is 640x400). It stretches it to fill the screen, but keeps it proportional, adding blank space at the sides if need be. There's currently no option to avoid non-integer resizing of these screens; but you could use windowed mode with a window size of 640x400 (or a multiple thereof).

The alternative option for full-screen mode is to limit it to integer resizes, and add blank space on all sides. The main problem here is that this will look very awkward on some screen sizes - for example, 1366x768, there isn't enough room to zoom it to even 2x, leaving a situation like in the attachment (white = preview screen area, black = border). 1366x768 is in fact a screen resolution that's frequently lead to awkward situations with zoom / etc, but is critical to consider because it's the most common resolution out there. 1920x1080 is also very important to consider, but it rarely causes difficult situations, and this is no exception (see attachment; note that it uses nearly the full height of the screen).

Alternative option is of course to use a smarter resize than just directly zooming a 640x400 render. This would be a lot of effort for little gain, though.

If you don't already have it turned on, try enabling the smooth resizing in menus option under settings. This tends to look a lot nicer.

- You can double click the release rate to get to 01 or 99 quickly. This is mainly just convenient, but it can also help with certain level solutions as well.

There is no level that's solvable with this feature but not without it, as it's equivalent to pausing, increasing / decreasing the RR, then unpausing. However - as IchoTolot says, NL does have this feature if you right-click.

- The level selection window automatically saves level stats upon successful completion of a level, which is great for reviewing/trying to beat your time/skill count/% saved etc.

NL currently saves lemmings-saved and time-taken records (but not skill counts). There was discussion of extending this, as well as making it more visible, but nothing has come of that yet - I need to revisit this at some point. They're currently only visible on the postview screen; this could be improved.

[ccexplore]

- The main menu/level screen text & images are in the correct aspect ratio rather than being stretched, as they are in NL. This may seem a minor point to most people, but it just adds to the overall aesthetic when everything is taken into consideration.

NL keeps a consistent aspect ratio, specifically 8:5 (as the internal rendering resolution of the menu screens is 640x400). It stretches it to fill the screen, but keeps it proportional, adding blank space at the sides if need be. There's currently no option to avoid non-integer resizing of these screens; but you could use windowed mode with a window size of 640x400 (or a multiple thereof).

WillLem, can you post some screenshots comparing SuperLemmini and NeoLemmix on above point?  If as namida said NL keeps the stretching proportional to fill screen, then the result should still be in the correct aspect ratio in contradiction to what you say, so I'm a bit confused here.

[WillLem]

Thanks, that's valuable feedback!

- You can double click the release rate to get to 01 or 99 quickly. This is mainly just convenient, but it can also help with certain level solutions as well.

NL has the same thing, but here it's the right mouse button rather than a double click.

You're very welcome

Ah yes! Perfect, thanks for letting me know. The only other thing I'd say here then is it'd be nice to have the rate-increase sound from the Amiga game included, if possible.

  - The control panel has "clickable" buttons, rounded edges and cartoon icons; all of which adds texture and provides a more tactile interface (I'm currently working on one that could be used in the Hi-Res mod, if needs be).

This is a problem you or another user needs to tackle most likely: If a good replacement is made by someone you can simply swap out the default ones with your preferred choice.

Most graphics in NL are swappable/customisable. They just need to be created and be the same size.

Good shout, but I think it'd be nice to upgrade the default panel for everyone as well, or at least have it as an included alternative option just in case people prefer the current look & feel and want to keep it that way.

NL will never use native Windows GUI buttons on this, but I'm open to graphics that simulate such buttons. EDIT: To be clear, this would need to be widely agreed on, not just "one person wants it" - but if that consensus is there, sure, it can be done.

Again, I'm more than happy to look at doing this. I'm currently creating a set of buttons that are similar to the Windows GUI buttons but, IMO, even better, and closer to the slim size of the NeoLemmix buttons. I'll get some examples uploaded soon.

[/quote]

- The main menu/level screen text & images are in the correct aspect ratio rather than being stretched, as they are in NL. This may seem a minor point to most people, but it just adds to the overall aesthetic when everything is taken into consideration.

NL keeps a consistent aspect ratio, specifically 8:5 (as the internal rendering resolution of the menu screens is 640x400). It stretches it to fill the screen, but keeps it proportional, adding blank space at the sides if need be. There's currently no option to avoid non-integer resizing of these screens; but you could use windowed mode with a window size of 640x400 (or a multiple thereof).

WillLem, can you post some screenshots comparing SuperLemmini and NeoLemmix on above point?  If as namida said NL keeps the stretching proportional to fill screen, then the result should still be in the correct aspect ratio in contradiction to what you say, so I'm a bit confused here.

Sure thing, see attached images. Similarly with the panel GUI, I just feel that an overall visual facelift for NeoLemmix should include the main default-view screen looking as great as it possibly can, with little/no adjustments from the end-user (although, of course, the options should still be there).

- Firstly, and most importantly (to me, at least)... I think it looks great. It's a lot smoother, everything looks more rounded and well-defined, and this just makes for a more enjoyable gaming experience, in my humble opinion. It's great that a Hi-Res facelift for NL is being considered/in production: I am happy to continue providing graphics/help with this wherever I can.

High-res mode is likely to be the "major" feature for V12.8, in the same way eg. the Shimmier was for 12.6. I suspect at first, high-res mode will be limited to the lemming sprites and the official styles, but over time this will expand.

It's great that you're taking all this into consideration btw, and looking to make some adjustments. Really looking forward to seeing how the ideas develop.

NL currently saves lemmings-saved and time-taken records (but not skill counts). There was discussion of extending this, as well as making it more visible, but nothing has come of that yet - I need to revisit this at some point. They're currently only visible on the postview screen; this could be improved.

If you wanted to go one better than SuperLemmini, have individual skill counts as well as time & % saved. It's possibly a good shout to display the records as part of the F2 level-select screen since there's a lot of unused space on the right hand side, it'd be more than good enough to put the records there.

As always, it's great to be getting feedback from these suggestions. Thanks again!

All best,

-WillLem

Regarding the attached images:

If you look at the compared level screens for Fun 24 in SL and NL, you can see that the lettering in SL is taller & more like in the original game rather than stretched horizontally, as in the NL example. There is also variation in the text colour, which makes for a more dynamic-looking intro screen.

With the main logo screen examples, it's very clear here that NL stretches the Lemmings logo (as well as the graphics of the Lemmings holding the options cards) quite extensively. I've included a screenshot of the original Amiga screen for comparison. Incidentally, although SL is comparitively closer to the Amiga screen, it doesn't include the original logo (probs for licencing reasons?) and the scroller text is stretched vertically - so, it doesn't get everything right!

IMHO hat's needed is a redesign of the main screen using the Amiga screen as a guide. I offer my services for this task if you'd be happy to make this change. I'll keep it exactly like the original NL screen in every other regard - layout, etc. Let me know if you'd like to me get on this.

[namida]

Ah - I think I see where you're coming from regarding the "aspect ratio" of SuperLemmini vs NeoLemmix.

What you're seeing is actually not to do with stretching, but to do with different sources of the graphics - SuperLemmini's appearance is based on Amiga, whereas NeoLemmix's appearance is based on DOS. Indeed, the majority of menu graphics, including the font and the logo, are direct rips from the DOS version of Lemmings. However, there is one change - while both render at a set resolution then scale up, for DOS this resolution is 640x350, whereas for NL it's 640x400. NL does not achieve this by stretching anything; rather, NL adds more space. But yeah - you will notice, if you compare NeoLemmix to DOS Lemmings rather than Amiga, it's pretty much the same as that.

I should note that overall, NeoLemmix's general tendancy when referencing an original engine, is to treat DOS version as the authoritative source. However, there are absolutely some case-by-case exceptions, most notably digger behaviour, and the source of levels used in the conversions of official games (Amiga has highest priority, then DOS is second; beyond that is more or less on a basis of "whatever gets converted first").

[WillLem]

ALSO! I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I much prefer the dark-blue in-game background rather than black. I believe there is an option to create custom backgrounds for individual levels when editing, but it would be good to have this as a basic selectable option in NL itself - dark blue, black, maybe even light blue...?

[WillLem]

Ah - I think I see where you're coming from regarding the "aspect ratio" of SuperLemmini vs NeoLemmix.

What you're seeing is actually not to do with stretching, but to do with different sources of the graphics - SuperLemmini's appearance is based on Amiga, whereas NeoLemmix's appearance is based on DOS. Indeed, the majority of menu graphics, including the font and the logo, are direct rips from the DOS version of Lemmings. However, there is one change - while both render at a set resolution then scale up, for DOS this resolution is 640x350, whereas for NL it's 640x400. NL does not achieve this by stretching anything; rather, NL adds more space. But yeah - you will notice, if you compare NeoLemmix to DOS Lemmings rather than Amiga, it's pretty much the same as that.

I should note that overall, NeoLemmix's general tendancy when referencing an original engine, is to treat DOS version as the authoritative source. However, there are absolutely some case-by-case exceptions, most notably digger behaviour, and the source of levels used in the conversions of official games (Amiga has highest priority, then DOS is second; beyond that is more or less on a basis of "whatever gets converted first").

Hmmm... fair enough. I grew up with the Amiga version, which is probably why I prefer that look. Maybe something to consider for the hi-res version? Again, I'm happy to do all the work with regards to getting graphics together...

EDIT - I've just had a look at the DOS version, and yes - the logos and everything do appear to be squished horizontally... surely the Amiga verson is better in this particular regard?

[IchoTolot]

ALSO! I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I much prefer the dark-blue in-game background rather than black. I believe there is an option to create custom backgrounds for individual levels when editing, but it would be good to have this as a basic selectable option in NL itself - dark blue, black, maybe even light blue...?

This has nothing to do with NL itself. The background is determined by the level itself and which tileset it is using. Tilests have different backgrounds as sometimes the standard dark one is working quite poorly with the terrain and/or objects.
So the level designers did in fact chose the background for each level. You would most likely have to edit the level files here.

[WillLem]

ALSO! I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I much prefer the dark-blue in-game background rather than black. I believe there is an option to create custom backgrounds for individual levels when editing, but it would be good to have this as a basic selectable option in NL itself - dark blue, black, maybe even light blue...?

This has nothing to do with NL itself. The background is determined by the level itself and which tileset it is using. Tilests have different backgrounds as sometimes the standard dark one is working quite poorly with the terrain and/or objects.
So the level designers did in fact chose the background for each level. You would most likely have to edit the level files here.

I've attached a screenshot of the same level opened in NL and SL for comparison - note the difference in background colour. I edited these levels myself, and didn't specify a background colour at all. Are you sure there isn't a default for each engine?

[ccexplore]

mmm... fair enough. I grew up with the Amiga version, which is probably why I prefer that look. Maybe something to consider for the hi-res version? Again, I'm happy to do all the work with regards to getting graphics together...

EDIT - I've just had a look at the DOS version, and yes - the logos and everything do appear to be squished horizontally... surely the Amiga verson is better in this particular regard?

Out of curiosity, when you looked at DOS version, presumably in DOSBox, are you looking at it in windowed or fullscreen mode?

The squishing you see may technically be an emulation inaccuracy in DOSBox.  The pixels in many of the standard screen resolutions supported by DOS PCs at the time are not square pixels!  640x480 has truly square pixels at the 4:3 aspect ratio of the monitor.  At the other resolutions, the pixels would actually be rectangular as displayed on the actual hardware, so that it still fills up the whole monitor despite not matching the aspect ratio of the monitor.  And DOS Lemmings uses 640x350 and 320x200, neither of which are 4:3.

AFAIK DOSBox does not attempt to apply corrective stretching to account for this, especially in windowed mode.  In fullscreen mode, it could in theory change to a different resolution, and maybe it could find one that's compatible aspect-ratio-wise with 640x350 or 320x200, and also hope that the display hardware will apply stretching in hardware for those non-4:3 resolutions to fill up the monitor (as opposed to just leaving blank space at the margins).  So there's maybe more of a chance of the display looking closer to the original unemulated hardware when in fullscreen mode of DOSBox, but still not guaranteed.

Given that NeoLemmix uses 640x400 rather than 640x350, I suppose there's a case for NeoLemmix of adjusting the 640x350-based graphics to at least take advantage of the 50 extra vertical pixels instead of leaving more space.  I don't know you could just directly use the Amiga graphics though, since I don't know what screen resolutions those are made for and thus may not be fully compatible as-is with NeoLemmix's resolution either.

[namida]

ALSO! I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I much prefer the dark-blue in-game background rather than black. I believe there is an option to create custom backgrounds for individual levels when editing, but it would be good to have this as a basic selectable option in NL itself - dark blue, black, maybe even light blue...?

This has nothing to do with NL itself. The background is determined by the level itself and which tileset it is using. Tilests have different backgrounds as sometimes the standard dark one is working quite poorly with the terrain and/or objects.
So the level designers did in fact chose the background for each level. You would most likely have to edit the level files here.

I've attached a screenshot of the same level opened in NL and SL for comparison - note the difference in background colour. I edited these levels myself, and didn't specify a background colour at all. Are you sure there isn't a default for each engine?

In NeoLemmix, levels may specify a background image. Where none is specified, they use a background color based on the style. For most styles, this is black; but for some styles (eg. orig_crystal) it isn't.

[WillLem]

mmm... fair enough. I grew up with the Amiga version, which is probably why I prefer that look. Maybe something to consider for the hi-res version? Again, I'm happy to do all the work with regards to getting graphics together...

EDIT - I've just had a look at the DOS version, and yes - the logos and everything do appear to be squished horizontally... surely the Amiga verson is better in this particular regard?

Out of curiosity, when you looked at DOS version, presumably in DOSBox, are you looking at it in windowed or fullscreen mode?

The squishing you see may technically be an emulation inaccuracy in DOSBox.  The pixels in many of the standard screen resolutions supported by DOS PCs at the time are not square pixels!  640x480 has truly square pixels at the 4:3 aspect ratio of the monitor.  At the other resolutions, the pixels would actually be rectangular as displayed on the actual hardware, so that it still fills up the whole monitor despite not matching the aspect ratio of the monitor.  And DOS Lemmings uses 640x350 and 320x200, neither of which are 4:3.

AFAIK DOSBox does not attempt to apply corrective stretching to account for this, especially in windowed mode.  In fullscreen mode, it could in theory change to a different resolution, and maybe it could find one that's compatible aspect-ratio-wise with 640x350 or 320x200, and also hope that the display hardware will apply stretching in hardware for those non-4:3 resolutions to fill up the monitor (as opposed to just leaving blank space at the margins).  So there's maybe more of a chance of the display looking closer to the original unemulated hardware when in fullscreen mode of DOSBox, but still not guaranteed.

Given that NeoLemmix uses 640x400 rather than 640x350, I suppose there's a case for NeoLemmix of adjusting the 640x350-based graphics to at least take advantage of the 50 extra vertical pixels instead of leaving more space.  I don't know you could just directly use the Amiga graphics though, since I don't know what screen resolutions those are made for and thus may not be fully compatible as-is with NeoLemmix's resolution either.

OK... so, if I make a 600 x 400 main menu graphic, would you be happy to consider it for inclusion?

[WillLem]

ALSO! I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I much prefer the dark-blue in-game background rather than black. I believe there is an option to create custom backgrounds for individual levels when editing, but it would be good to have this as a basic selectable option in NL itself - dark blue, black, maybe even light blue...?

This has nothing to do with NL itself. The background is determined by the level itself and which tileset it is using. Tilests have different backgrounds as sometimes the standard dark one is working quite poorly with the terrain and/or objects.
So the level designers did in fact chose the background for each level. You would most likely have to edit the level files here.

I've attached a screenshot of the same level opened in NL and SL for comparison - note the difference in background colour. I edited these levels myself, and didn't specify a background colour at all. Are you sure there isn't a default for each engine?

In NeoLemmix, levels may specify a background image. Where none is specified, they use a background color based on the style. For most styles, this is black; but for some styles (eg. orig_crystal) it isn't.

OK. Would it be possible to have preferred background colours as a selectable option (where the level creator has not specified one)? For example:

- Default based on style (this would be the default option)
- Black
- Dark Blue
- User Image (upload)

[WillLem]

(Aside: Does anyone happen to have the code for SuperLemmini btw?)

[ccexplore]

OK... so, if I make a 600 x 400 main menu graphic, would you be happy to consider it for inclusion?

I'll let namida comment in more details, but off top of my head, I think one major problem now is that parts of the main menu screen (eg. title at top, rating text/graphics) are already customizable by level packs, but supplied customizations are of course based on the current sizes and positionings of things.  Your 640x400 main menu graphic would effectively impose different sizes and placements that wouldn't work with the main menu screen customizations in existing level packs.

For reference, attached is what the DOS title screen would look like with corrective stretching applied (to mimic what the original hardware would effectively be doing).  It's definitely less squished than before (especially that title at the top), but I think compared to Amiga it is probably still slightly "squished".  But keep in mind that it features six boxes rather than Amiga's five, and it chooses to do two rows rather than trying to jam all six into one row.  It settles on four boxes on one row, which is less than Amiga's five, and thus would call for wider boxes than Amiga's.

[IchoTolot]

OK. Would it be possible to have preferred background colours as a selectable option (where the level creator has not specified one)? For example:

- Default based on style (this would be the default option)
- Black
- Dark Blue
- User Image (upload)

Every level in the game has a specified background, as every level has a main tileset theme that specifies it and this way it is ensured that the background color matches at least reasonably well with the terrain+objects so nothing becomes invisible.

That is the main concern of the background: Everything should always be visible! That's why it's bound to the tilesets (and therefore the levels) and not the user. Here the user option you proposed could really screw you over, as you are not sure anymore if your chosen background creates invisible terrain/objects.

Levels can also have custom background images over the normal background and they can be turned off, but the standard level specific background stays.

[Proxima]

It's worth pointing out that all of this is fully customisable on your own copy.

orig_crystal contains a text file called "theme" with exactly the following text:

LEMMINGS default

$COLORS
  MASK xF0F0F0
  MINIMAP xF0F0F0
  BACKGROUND x080810
  ONE_WAYS xF02020
  PICKUP_BORDER x4040E0
  PICKUP_INSIDE xF0F0F0
$END

To get that dark blue background on other styles, just copy the "background" line from this theme into another style's theme.

[WillLem]

It's worth pointing out that all of this is fully customisable on your own copy.

orig_crystal contains a text file called "theme" with exactly the following text:

LEMMINGS default

$COLORS
  MASK xF0F0F0
  MINIMAP xF0F0F0
  BACKGROUND x080810
  ONE_WAYS xF02020
  PICKUP_BORDER x4040E0
  PICKUP_INSIDE xF0F0F0
$END

To get that dark blue background on other styles, just copy the "background" line from this theme into another style's theme.

Thanks Proxima, I'll do that

[WillLem]

(Aside: Does anyone happen to have the code for SuperLemmini btw?)

Bump

[namida]

OK... so, if I make a 600 x 400 main menu graphic, would you be happy to consider it for inclusion?

The menu isn't a single graphic, but rather is made up of several graphics - some of which, individual packs have custom graphics for. It would be quite messy to replace it, so there would need to be a lot of support for this, not just "one person would like it changed". (By comparison, the in-game higher-resolution is likely to see wider support, and while it might be tricky code-wise, it shouldn't break any existing content.)

OK. Would it be possible to have preferred background colours as a selectable option (where the level creator has not specified one)? For example:

- Default based on style (this would be the default option)
- Black
- Dark Blue
- User Image (upload)

This is a feature that existed in the past (minus the "custom image" option, but allowing arbitrary color selection), and was removed because it was deemed unneccessary. Not a single person took issue with the removal of it, leading me to believe this is not a very widely-desired feature - and thus would not be worth the effort to reimplement. If things have changed and there is widespread demand for it now, I can reconsider this, but it's unlikely.

(Aside: Does anyone happen to have the code for SuperLemmini btw?)

There's a link to the source code right below the main download link, in the main SuperLemmini release topic: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1793.0

[ccexplore]

One thing we could consider for the "squished main menu graphics" issue is to actually modify the graphics parts to compress them in the horizontal direction, to get them back to the intended aspect ratio, at least for the default non-customized graphics.  So we still leave all the parts at the exact same positions as before, but narrower (with the now-unoccupied areas of graphics be left transparent).  Existing customizations would be left unaffected this way (and would look exactly the way it is today) although they'd probably look squished now by comparison to the defaults, but level authors could potentially update the graphics to account for this.  Alternatively but still along same lines of thought, we could also experiment with automatically always applying the graphics transformations this way as a user option, it might work reasonably well even on customized graphics.

[WillLem]

The menu isn't a single graphic, but rather is made up of several graphics - some of which, individual packs have custom graphics for. It would be quite messy to replace it, so there would need to be a lot of support for this, not just "one person would like it changed". (By comparison, the in-game higher-resolution is likely to see wider support, and while it might be tricky code-wise, it shouldn't break any existing content.)

One thing we could consider for the "squished main menu graphics" issue is to actually modify the graphics parts to compress them in the horizontal direction, to get them back to the intended aspect ratio, at least for the default non-customized graphics.  So we still leave all the parts at the exact same positions as before, but narrower (with the now-unoccupied areas of graphics be left transparent).  Existing customizations would be left unaffected this way (and would look exactly the way it is today) although they'd probably look squished now by comparison to the defaults, but level authors could potentially update the graphics to account for this.  Alternatively but still along same lines of thought, we could also experiment with automatically always applying the graphics transformations this way as a user option, it might work reasonably well even on customized graphics.

Every level in the game has a specified background, as every level has a main tileset theme that specifies it and this way it is ensured that the background color matches at least reasonably well with the terrain+objects so nothing becomes invisible.

It's worth pointing out that all of this is fully customisable on your own copy.

orig_crystal contains a text file called "theme" with exactly the following text:

LEMMINGS default

$COLORS
  MASK xF0F0F0
  MINIMAP xF0F0F0
  BACKGROUND x080810
  ONE_WAYS xF02020
  PICKUP_BORDER x4040E0
  PICKUP_INSIDE xF0F0F0
$END

To get that dark blue background on other styles, just copy the "background" line from this theme into another style's theme.

Thanks for this, guys. Your comments have helped me realised that, in fact, it's ridiculously easy to customise a lot of these things by playing around with the graphics and "theme" files in the styles folders.

By modifying the logo, background and menu items I was able to create the following (see attached "NLmenuWillLem). The Lemmings logo is smaller horizontally but now in the correct aspect. The menu items now appear slightly further away from each other, but if the alloted "size" for each could be increased by a few pixels each way, this could be easily remedied. Also note how I got around the need to keep the rank graphic card the same size - there are 2 Lemmings sharing this duty! I also sorted out the scroller text Lemmings so they're less stretched and adapted some of the colours to suit my own preferences, but this is a minor point.

Further to this, by changing the background colour in all of the default themes to 000030, I was able to get the dark blue colour I generally prefer (thanks again Proxima - ridiculously easy! - see attached "NLfun24WillLem). Also note the customised skills panel - this is an indication of what I'll be aiming for in the hi-res version. If you like it, let me know and I'll carry on creating the 2x res versions of this.

To be fair, the more I learn about NeoLemmix the more I realise how capable an engine it is. Keep up the great work!

Finally, I managed to get the menu_font to look like the Amiga text simply by doubling the vertical size (see attached menu_font2). However, it then only displayed half of each letter (of course!) I wonder whether the display aspect for font could be increased to 32 pixels height?

By the way, Namida - I'm playing through the Lemmings Plus packs at the mo - very nice work! I'll let you know how I get on

All best,

-WillLem

P.S.

(Aside: Does anyone happen to have the code for SuperLemmini btw?)

There's a link to the source code right below the main download link, in the main SuperLemmini release topic: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1793.0

Can't believe I missed this! Thanks!

[ccexplore]

By modifying the logo, background and menu items I was able to create the following (see attached "NLmenuWillLem). The Lemmings logo is smaller horizontally but now in the correct aspect. The menu items now appear slightly further away from each other, but if the alloted "size" for each could be increased by a few pixels each way, this could be easily remedied. Also note how I got around the need to keep the rank graphic card the same size - there are 2 Lemmings sharing this duty!

Well, I'm just glad you are able to customize your own copy to your very particular desired tastes.   Personally your version of main menu screen seems a bit too much open space for me, so I would not have compressed the title text and the boxes quite as much as you did (in fact I might just leave the boxes alone), and then I guess you wouldn't have liked the result as much.  So you can see, it's harder to come up with something that works for many people as opposed to just a single person.

By the way, your version now has wrong glyphs for the up/down arrows in the rank (rating) box, they turned into two F1s.

[WillLem]

By modifying the logo, background and menu items I was able to create the following (see attached "NLmenuWillLem). The Lemmings logo is smaller horizontally but now in the correct aspect. The menu items now appear slightly further away from each other, but if the alloted "size" for each could be increased by a few pixels each way, this could be easily remedied. Also note how I got around the need to keep the rank graphic card the same size - there are 2 Lemmings sharing this duty!

Well, I'm just glad you are able to customize your own copy to your very particular desired tastes.   Personally your version of main menu screen seems a bit too much open space for me, so I would not have compressed the title text and the boxes quite as much as you did (in fact I might just leave the boxes alone), and then I guess you wouldn't have liked the result as much.  So you can see, it's harder to come up with something that works for many people as opposed to just a single person.

By the way, your version now has wrong glyphs for the up/down arrows in the rank (rating) box, they turned into two F1s.

Legend! Thanks for pointing that out. My attention to detail is usually pretty good, I must have been very tired

I've now updated my post with the corrected graphic

[IchoTolot]

Congrats on your own version.

That's the beauty of the format change we did a while ago: Everything is customisable. So even if you don't fully agree with the standard here you are not stranded.

The standard should be good with most players, but you always have the option to optimise it for yourself. Just be wary which changes can have possible side-effects

[namida]

Anyway, it looks like most of the matters here are either sorted, or duplicates of existing issues. As such, I'm going to close this topic now. If there is still interest in any of the issues from it, feel free to create topics for those - one topic per subject. (It is absolutely acceptable to create multiple topics in quick succession on the Bugs / Suggestions board, if you have multiple ideas / bug reports at the same time - just as long as you aren't making multiple topics for the same issue, or creating new topics for an issue when one for that same issue was already closed due to being rejected.)