Lemmini - Lemmings for Java - public Alpha

[Proxima]

Excellent! The music order does appear to be right now (though I haven't tried every level.....)

But, I now get the crash happening sometimes just when I'm playing, there doesn't seem to be a particular event that triggers it.

[ccexplore]

Just some information about the builder mask: Building to the right, the leftmost pixel of the step is exactly where the lemming is. Building to the left, the rightmost pixel is one pixel to the right of where the lemming is.

Although what you said is true for Amiga and DOS Lemmings, I do know for a fact that it is false for Mac Lemmings and I think also WinLemm.

Personally I think the setup should be symmetrical with respect to facing direction, so in both cases the brick should start off exactly at the lemming's position, the brick extending in the facing direction.  This is the way it would work in Mac and WinLemm.

[0xdeadbeef]

Excellent! The music order does appear to be right now (though I haven't tried every level.....)

But, I now get the crash happening sometimes just when I'm playing, there doesn't seem to be a particular event that triggers it.

If there's no message box displayed it's most certainly an issue of the runtime itself. so again: please start the game for the command line ("java -jar lemmini.jar") and tell me what it prints out there if it's crashing...

[tseug]

@cce: This appears to be modeled after winlemm, which I know nothing about. uhh.... just ignore me until I get winlemm.........

[ccexplore]

EDIT: Still haven't tried it, no winlemm files.

I have upload the data files of WinLemm at Mindless's portal:

http://it.travisbsd.org/lemmings/lemmingswelt/index.php?cmd=get&file=winlemm_data.zip

I purposely removed all the executable-code-containing files, so that this is only usable for Lemmini.  Just unzip the contents into some folder, and direct Lemmini to that folder when installing.

[ccexplore]

Continuing buglist after upgrade to ver 0.3:

32) First crashing bug I encountered.If the cursor highlights a blocker lemming whose explosion countdown has expired, the game crashes. &#A0;I think it was supposed to display "bomber", but since now with the fix the lemming has both "blocker" and "impending explosion" status, this confused the game into a java.lang.ArrayIndexOutofBoundsException[/s] &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

33) (part of bug #7, copied here) &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

34) With the fixed title for Fun 9 ("As long as you tried your best"), the title is displayed too far left, so the "Lev" in "Level 9: ..." is cut off. &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

35) (continuation of bug #11, copied here)Blockers must affect builders. &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

36) The trigger area for the exit in Havoc 15 is wrong. &#A0;If I recall correctly, you should not be able to trigger the exit as is; you are supposed to use either a digger or exploder to clear out a little bit of snow first before reaching the exit's trigger area. &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

37) Possibly level-breaking: the trigger area for the exit in Havoc 19 is, um, missing??? &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

38) On Mayhem 26 or Fun 21 there is an isolated water object to the very left of the level. &#A0;I'm guessing that's actually in the WinLemm lvl data, in which case I guess the fix would be either patching or just keep it. &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

39) In Lemmini Tricky 13 is an exact copy of its repeat in Mayhem 25. &#A0;For the correct level data for Tricky 13, see
http://home.wanadoo.nl/lemmings-solution/lemmings/lemmings_tricky_levels11-20.html
&#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

40) Havoc 5 appears to be unsolvable in Lemmini. &#A0;For the intended solution, see [/s]
http://home.wanadoo.nl/lemmings-solution/ohnomore/ohnomore_havoc_levels1-10.html

. &#A0;The problem I believe is that Lemmini's maximum safe falling distance is not high enough. &#A0;In the original games you should be able to survive a fall of 63 (lo-res) pixels.

That being said, the falling distance calculations in the original game is a little buggy. &#A0;Therefore, I will suggest retesting Mayhem 1<snip> &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

41) The entrance order of Havoc 12 "It's all a matter of timing" is incorrect, potentially breaking the level. &#A0;In general, entrance order is based on the order the entrances were listed in the LVL file, and you cycle thru them in that order, except with 3 entrances where instead of an exact 1,2,3,1,2,3 cycling, the original game does 1,2,3,2,1,2,3,2. &#A0;In Havoc 12 in the original game, this means left,middle,right,middle,left,... &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

42) If I pause the game when the entrance trapdoors just started to open, and increase the RR to 99, then upon unpause, the lemmings will begin to come out right away, even though the trapdoor hasn't even finished opening yet! &#A0;Fixed! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Proxima]

If there's no message box displayed it's most certainly an issue of the runtime itself. so again: please start the game for the command line ("java -jar lemmini.jar") and tell me what it prints out there if it's crashing...

If I understood any of that, I would......

[0xdeadbeef]

Ok, let's try it again:

1) Download the jar from my website or directly via this link
    http://home.arcor.de/0xdeadbeef/lemmini.jar
and save it somewhere on your machine.

2) Open a command line (command.com or cmd.exe). E.g. by using the start menu, then Execute/Run, then type "cmd.exe" or "command.com" (without the quotes, then press enter).

3) Change to the directory where you saved the JAR file.
E.g. if you saved it on "d:\temp", type the following lines in the command line (press Enter after each line):
    D:
    cd \temp

4) Start the JAR from the command line by typing
   java -jar lemmini.jar

5) Play until the game crashes

6) Look for error messages on the command line
If there are any, make a screenshot or cut out the text and post it here.


And some information about your system would be helpful (RAM size, CPU type/frequency, VGA card, desktop color depth).


About all the other topics: sorry folks, I was long in the office today, debugging some code for a peripheral processor that I messed up while optimizing it for size. So I'm kinda not in the mood now to continue debgging. Also I'll be away for the weekend in two hours. So there will be no updated before Sunday or Monday. We shall see.

[Proxima]

Thanks.

I'm afraid I didn't succeed in carrying out step #6 -- ctrl-alt-del wasn't working (or it was, but the program wouldn't "End Task") so i couldn't get out to see what was in the command line and had to restart.

Two small things I noticed while playing:

* ccexplore complained that the safe fall distance is too *high* on Mayhem 1 and they survive the initial fall when they shouldn't. But also, it's too *low* on Tame 4 -- there are several places you can see this, notably falling left off the platform just over the exit. On every version I've played they should survive that.

* I see the Tame 1 exit has been improved to get rid of the unsightly black rectangle -- but Tame 5 still has it!

[ccexplore]

I'm afraid I didn't succeed in carrying out step #6 -- ctrl-alt-del wasn't working (or it was, but the program wouldn't "End Task") so i couldn't get out to see what was in the command line and had to restart.

it sounds like rather than a crash (where the program aborts, possibly with some dialog box from Windows or Java about some error), you are actually saying Lemmini is frozen?

* ccexplore complained that the safe fall distance is too *high* on Mayhem 1 and they survive the initial fall when they shouldn't. But also, it's too *low* on Tame 4 -- there are several places you can see this, notably falling left off the platform just over the exit. On every version I've played they should survive that.

You confused the two versions and misread my comment. &#A0;In the earlier version (0.2) I pointed out lemmings come out of entrances from too low a starting height, which is why they survived (notice I didn't say anything about fall distances yet in ver 0.2). &#A0;That was fixed for version 0.3, but then I discovered that I can't survive the fall when playing Havoc 5. &#A0;I suggest increasing the safe fall distance (so I actually am saying it is too low in Lemmini), but also warned 0xdeadbeef to recheck Mayhem 1 after increasing the safe fall distance, because I know in the original game they don't calculate fall distances consistently, whereas Lemmini is probably more consistent in the fall distance calculation, which for Mayhem 1's fall from entrance could lead to a difference.

* I see the Tame 1 exit has been improved to get rid of the unsightly black rectangle -- but Tame 5 still has it!

I'm still seeing it in quite a number of places, so I don't think it was ever actually fixed yet. &#A0;It might've just been luck that got rid of it for Tame 1.

[Proxima]

I'm afraid I didn't succeed in carrying out step #6 -- ctrl-alt-del wasn't working (or it was, but the program wouldn't "End Task") so i couldn't get out to see what was in the command line and had to restart.

it sounds like rather than a crash (where the program aborts, possibly with some dialog box from Windows or Java about some error), you are actually saying Lemmini is frozen?

Yes. Pretty much the same thing that happened to DragonsLover (page 1 of the thread). Since he also has Windows 98, maybe it's something to do with that?

[ccexplore]

That's possible, I have WinXP and so far I encountered no such problems.  On the other hand, my impression is that DragonLover's problems also seem partly symptomatic of a slower machine, whereas that doesn't seem to be the case for you.

0xdeadbeef:  is there an option to turn off sound effects as well as music?

The only reason I ask is because one thing about raising the release rate is (relatively) frequent playing of a sound effect, in fact the same sound.  And Ahribar's machine froze at least two times during a RR change.  On that line of inquiry:  Ahribar, what about if you pick a level with 100 lemmings, get them all out, then start nuking?

[Proxima]

An interesting point -- I did in fact once have the crash problem during a nuke. On the other hand I have several times changed the RR or nuked without triggering it, and I have also had it once when I wasn't doing anything that caused sound effects to play at all.

[0xdeadbeef]

Hm, I changed quite a few things over the weekend. Hope I didn't mess too many things.
For the guys with crashes: please try to deactivate music and sound.
I'm also still waiting for some system info (RAM/CPU, DirectX installed etc.).


Fixes/Changes 0.3 -> 0.4
#  Fixed ArrayIndexOutofBoundsException when selecting A Blocker that is about to explode
#  When a blocker that is about to explode ("oh no") falls, the blocker mask is erased
#  Blocker skill can't be assigned when overlapping a blocker any more
    However it's (probably) still possible to create a gapless "line of blockers"
    Was this possible in the original?
#  Erased trailing spaces from Fun 9 level name "As long as you try your best"
    that caused the string being displayed too far to the left
#  Changed the way fast forward (and Superlemming mode) works. Should work much better and with
    less CPU load on mid-range machines. Could cause frame skip on very low end machines though.
#  Pressing shift doubles scrolling speed
#  Dragging right mouse moves screen (well, not perfect, but a start)
#  When a Blocker reflects a builder, only the direction is changed, but the builder keeps building
    Also a reflected miner keeps mining
#  Fixed masks for flamethrower (fire) and steam (snow)
#  Shruggers can explode now (hard to check though)
#  When a Blocker is trapped, the blocking mask is always removed now (well, I hope so)
#  Exit mask visible on some Brick exits was resolved
#  Additional skills like climbing, floating etc. can't be assigned to lemmings that are drowning,
    leaving the exit, splatting, trapped or exploding.
#  Hidden exit in Havoc 19 works now
#  Exit in Havoc 15 is working as it should
#  Explosions speed up with FF and stop when paused.
#  Menu option to disable sound
#  Completely reworked lemming coordinate system. This should fix this like shruggers being offset
    and make it easier to become more compatible. However it is very likely that I broke some things
#  Digger animation corrected (doubled animation length)
#  Fixed (WINLEMM) level errors in "Fun - Live and Lem" and "Mayhem - Steel Mines of Kessel"
#  Fixed typos in orig.ini resultin in wrong stats for "Tricky - Lemming Drops"
#  Messed around with fall distance and entry height

[Proxima]

Would it be possible to make shift double the speed at which the RR changes too?

EDIT: or an even better idea, increase the speed at which it changes with a normal click, but make shift-click change it by just one at a time, making it easier to get a precise number......

I'll try out the new version very soon.