[✓][SUG] Allow hiding animated decoration ("Butterflies don't go away")

[Simon]

CE 1.1.1

There is the option to hide background tiles. This hides non-animated background, but it still shows animated background. There seems to be no way to hide animated decorations.

Please let me hide the animated decorations!

With the CE 1.1.1 set of options, I would have expected the hide-backgrounds option to also hide the unanimated decorations. Reasoning: Either we want to see the level exactly how the designer made it, or we want the bare-bones functionality.

I don't know if anybody wants to see one kind animated/unanimated background, but not the other. Maybe it's better as a separate option, even if it's more clutter and more work for the user?

Maybe reword the options to Show Backgrounds and activate by default, instead of Hide Backgrounds and disabled by default. It's the classic preference to word bool options positively: I want backgrounds, check, I don't want backgrounds, uncheck.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Maybe reword the options to Show Backgrounds and activate by default, instead of Hide Backgrounds and disabled by default. It's the classic preference to word bool options positively: I want backgrounds, check, I don't want backgrounds, uncheck.

I thought I'd already done this. Will make sure this is done for 1.1.2.

Please let me hide the animated decorations!

Added to the to-do list.

With the CE 1.1.1 set of options, I would have expected the hide-backgrounds option to also hide the unanimated decorations. Reasoning: Either we want to see the level exactly how the designer made it, or we want the bare-bones functionality.

I don't know if anybody wants to see one kind animated/unanimated background, but not the other.

Fair enough. It should probably be "Hide (rather: Show) Backgrounds and Decorations", then. Probably no need for separate options.

[Simon]

Thanks! I promise I'll re-test performance on Turrican's huge map 10,000 AD from Level of the Year 2024 with disabled decorations. Prod me after release if I forget.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Paint and Background objects added to 'ignore these when rendering' if Disable Backgrounds is active.

Implemented in NLCEPlayer commit 7cf3886.

Option bool flipped from 'Disable Backgrounds' to an opt-in 'Show Backgrounds and Decorations'.

Implemented in NLCEPlayer commit b1949d4.

[Simon]

CE 1.1.2

Yes, the option is now worded positively. Yes, it works with non-animated backgrounds as before.

It doesn't work with animated background: I have "Show ..." disabled and nonetheless see the butterflies on Dexter's The Split. Expected instead: The butterflies have gone away.

The Split is contained in Icho's pack of all candidates of Level of the Year 2025.

The butterflies in The Split aren't the main concern; they're out of the way, you can't possibly reach there, and they're cute. Some other levels have more of these animated decorations. But I still test it with the butterflies because Flopsy enjoyed me saying "Butterflies don't go away" on stream.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

It doesn't work with animated background: I have "Show ..." disabled and nonetheless see the butterflies on Dexter's The Split. Expected instead: The butterflies have gone away.

This particular object is marked as 'NO_EFFECT'. Such objects are not marked as 'Decorations' (i.e. Paint, Animation, Background) - they are simply not designated at all.

Rather than including undesignated objects in the 'Decorations' crowd, we'll instead understand 'NO_EFFECT' as 'ANIMATION' (which is more or less the same thing anyway, and won't affect existing levels/physics).

Reason for this approach: Traps become undesignated when they are disabled, and it's unlikely we'll want them to disappear when 'Show Decorations' is toggled off. Let's keep undesignated state as its own thing, then.

Fixed in NLCEPlayer commit d51c2b7.