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Lix 0.10.0 released:

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/handicap-dialog.png)

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/unbalanced-scales.png)

The big new feature: Lix 0.10 offers handicapping in multiplayer games. If you're too strong for your group, consider to click the handicap icon with the unbalanced scales in the game room. You can choose fewer initial lix, fewer skills, a spawn delay, fewer points per lix saved, or any combination of these four handicap types.

It's up to our sessions to fine-tune the options! Let's see what's reasonable and what's less exciting.

Networking:

• The server allows 0.9 and 0.10 in separate rooms. Decide with your friends whether and when to update as a group to Lix 0.10.
  
• Both 0.9 and 0.10 players can chat with each other in the server's lobby. The 0.10 client will see both 0.9 and 0.10 rooms, and print a console error when you attempt to join a 0.9 room. Since 0.9 has no such functionality, the server will not show 0.10 rooms to 0.9 players at all; instead, the server will write a chat message to those 0.9 players in the lobby if any 0.10 rooms exist, suggesting to update to 0.10.
  
• Renamed the server executable from server to lixserv.
  

The networking fixes are the silent star of the show this year. The server will now continue to support older Lix versions (0.9.x) in separate rooms from Lix 0.10. I won't have to force everybody to adopt a new physics release (this 0.10, or a future 0.11, 0.12, ...)

Let's give the 0.10 physics a good shot. :lix-grin: Besides handicapping, many small physics fixes made it into 0.10:

Physics:

• Fix #265: Allow simultaneous exiting. When you're playing a race map and reach the exit at the same time as one or more different teams, all teams will score. Before, only the red team would score.
  
• Fix #311: Top and bottom of maps are hollow. Terrain checks beyond those edges will not behave as if the edge row's terrain extended infinitely. Now, only the left and right edges of the level extend terrain in this way, not all four edges. Staircases built to the deadly ceiling will kill the builder as before, but now all following walkers will also leave the level and die.
  
• Allow ability assignments (climber, floater, runner) to blockers. For now, these assignments have low priority; we can raise the priority after playtesting as a UI change without changing physics.
  
• Fix blocker dancing: Now, walkers (and other non-blockers) don't move when they're both in a left-forcing blocker field and in a (different blocker's) right-forcing blocker field. Before, walkers would move sideways through the fields, turning each phyu. This looked like dancing.
  
• Fix #266: Grant batters extra backwards range against blockers. We keep forward batter range vs. blockers as in 0.9, even though it's a lot of forward range so the batter sprite needn't overlap the blocker to still bat the blocker. Nobody has complained so far, and it's nice to bat blockers without awkward precision. We keep the batter range against other activities.
  
• Half-fixed #397: The faller's distance in pixels fallen will not overflow the 32-bit int anymore. I didn't fix the overflow for physics updates yet, you can still play longer than what fits into the 32-bit int that counts physics updates (4.5 years at normal speed, or 46 days at turbo-fast-forward).
  
• Moved the frogs' trigger areas downward by 1 pixel, so that the coordinates are divisble by 2. No levels broke from this, not even geoo's Las Ranas Hermanas in Hopeless.
  
• Fix #410: Removed spike at top of both matt/beach/04 tiles (day and night). Before, both tiles had identical masks; now, both tiles still have identical masks, although the mask is different than before. There is no odd prong at the top right of those tiles anymore.
  
• Fix #414: Fixed transparency/air pixels in earth.png from the Oriental set. The top row of pixels was not fully transparent (that would be 0 % alpha); it had an estimated 5 % alpha. Lix treats that as solid. Walkers were walking over solid, nearly invisible pixels. Now, earth.png has full transparency above the earth. No levels broke from this change.
  
• Fixed #322: Don't wrap during tile group construction: Now, when you load a tile group on a small torus map, Lix will construct the group without wrongly wrapping the group's elements before grouping. Only when Lix has fully constructed the group tile, Lix will insert the group into the torus level.
  

Other:

• Adapted the singleplayer levels Cry for Me (from lemforum), Baywatch (by RubiX), and Walking in a Winter Wonderland (also by RubiX) to work well with the always-hollow ceiling.
  

All levels are proven solvable in 0.10.

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.1 released.

• Fix #376: The replay browser shows the filename of the currently selected replay in the nameplate below the preview, in addition to the existing fields (level name, player, pointed-to level). If the replay filename is too long, e.g., because you run Lix in a tall (= non-widescreen) resolution, the nameplate shows only the hinder part. This way, you'll see both the frontal part of the filename in the file picker on the left-hand side and the hinder part of the filename in the nameplate on the right-hand side.
  
• Fix #115: Added button to flip tiles vertically in the editor, in addition to the existing button that mirrors horizontally. No hotkey is bound by default to the vertical flip. You may assign a hotkey yourself.
  
• Hotkey reminders in button corners appear in lighter text than before, but still slightly darker than regular text.
  
• In the options menu, moved some menu hotkey options further right on the screen, to not overlap with the menu color pickers' description texts on tall (= non-widescreen) resolutions.
  
• In geoo's multiplayer map Ghetto Party, replaced imploders with exploders. This is funnier and stays true to the original two-player Ghetto Wars.
  
• Pruned empty space around Segmentation Fault in lemforum/Daunting.
  

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.2 released.

• Fix #440: Replays load/save handicap. Old replays contain no handicap information. Newly created replays will have handicap information and also load and play it back correctly.
  
• Fix #386: Allow to scroll to the very right edge even when the replay tweaker is open. The bug was: Open the replay tweaker. You were not able to scroll all the way to the right side of the map. You had to zoom out to see the entire map, or zoom in deeply enough to make the tweaker obscure less of the level. This was because the map only anticipated the normal panel on the screen, not the tweaker. The map expected to be able to draw all the way to the right edge of the screen. Now, even while the tweaker is open, you can scroll such that the right end of the map is visible to the left of the tweaker.
  
• Fix how the tweaker was appearing for a single frame on level start. This bug has been in Lix for 4 years, but we never realized it because the old tweaker didn't re-focus cameras when showing/hiding. Now, the tweaker starts hidden.
  
• Backroute fixes to lemforum levels: Cornerstone, The Last Laugh, Tinker Tailor Soldier Lix, Ferry Tale.
  
• Clarify and beautify some more lemforum levels: Compression Method 2, Tapestry, To Destroy Is to Construct, Narbacular Drop, The Road Goes Ever On (and both of its repeats). Renamed mobius's Conundrum to Get Behind Me, Satan.
  
• Add Everybody Wins, a multiplayer map by geoo for 4 through 8 players.
  
• End-of-level screen says on its bottom button: Back to Level Browser. Before, we had: Back to the Browser. That wasn't clear. Not everybody considers the browser a browser.
  
• Removed pre-2018 options/trophy format support. If you're updating from Lix versions older than 5 years, you'll have to reconfigure your hotkeys.
  

(https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/portrait-of-cute-manul-cat-sitting-picture-id1257942405?k=6&m=1257942405&s=170667a&w=0&h=sZV0Xpy5BXGr6GyJfQcWWz6mS86M_22OhtBtCa6eqHQ=)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.3 released.

• Fix #428: Update the next-level cache after solving. Before, there was the following bug: Have three unsolved singleplayer levels -- A, B, and C -- in this order. Enter A, exit to level browser, solve B, then solve A. Lix would then offer B as unsolved, even though you've solved B. Now, the end-of-level screen correctly offers B as solved and C as next unsolved level.
  
• The end-of-singleplayer screen, when you choose to play the previous level that you've just played, starts that previous level with your replay playing. You can view your solution again or fix your attempt. (To avoid the replay, interrupt it immediately when it starts playing, or instead start the previous level from the singleplayer browser.)
  
• Fix a backroute in mobius's Five for Fighting in lemforum/Vicious.
  
• In lemforum/Lovely: Diamond Dash: Replace imploders and blockers with walkers. The Borderland: Raise save requirement from 30/60 to 40/60 to require saving lix from both hatches. Reorder Climb to Freedom earlier to avoid two successive snow levels. Reorder Beneath the Lab to after Solar Eclipse.
  

(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--KpVelTS8--/c_fill,fl_progressive,g_center,h_358,q_80,w_500/18iwt3870eni4jpg.jpg)

The bugfixes in this release are to improve level-solving streams. Streaming Lix is popular these weeks: I'm looking forward to Ramond's next lemforum stream (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6101.msg97387#msg97387). I'll see if I find the time to solve levels on my own stream (https://www.twitch.tv/simonnaar), too.

There will be more lemforum backroute fixing and level shifting in the next months. We're getting a lot of feedback from these streams.

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.4 released.

• Replay insert mode is a new user option. By default, this is off. When it's off, assignments during replay cut the replay, then add the assignment, as they have always done. If checked, assignments cut only the future of the same lix: All assignments to that same lix, and nukes. The replay will keep assignments to different lix. You must check this in the options and then it's on permanently during play. You can't toggle it during play even though that would be useful. Click air to cancel the global future as usual.
  
• The replay tweaker will show nuke actions as "Nuke" in the line. Before, it tried to interpret the line as an invalid skill line and showed "Not", the first three letters of "Nothing".
  
• Loading a savestate always restores the savestate's replay, unless its past is equal to your replay's past and its future is a subset of your replay's future. Before, loading a savestate didn't restore the savestate's replay if its past was equal to your replay's past, regardless of future, and that made it harder to treat the savestating functionality as a stash for one replay.
  
• Radio-button options show a filled circle in the chosen box, not a checkmark.
  
• When you haven't bound a hotkey to one of the functionalities of a two-task button such as fast-forward, the button still showed a slash "/" at the start or end of its hotkey reminder. Now, the slash only appears when both functions have hotkeys.
  

Backroute fixes in lemforum:

• Alien Invasion: Thinner starting platform.
  
• All Aboard the Pain Train: Reduce steel in the central block.
  
• Down Among the Dead Lix: Move one platform near the bottom, it still allows my backroute from 2022-12-22.
  
• The Circular Ruins: Lower block below the half-column.
  
• 6 Gaps, 5 Builders: Single builders can't cross two gaps anymore and you must stretch.
  
• Down Among the Dead Lix: Fix a backroute by moving a lower platform right and making it smaller for style.
  
• The Hotel in Hell: Expose the top-left squisher. Add laser beam to prevent building over that squisher.
  

Improvements for lemforum levels that weren't backroute fixes:

• Recycling Plant: Removed a single leaf to reduce precision when using the flinging gadget.
  
• Put Your Lix on Ice: Final miner stops more easily by herself.
  
• Climb to Freedom: Added a climbable segment to the rightmost climber-turning obstacle to show that climbing is a permanent skill.
  
• This is a Stickup: Moved steel to reduce precision in initial crowd control.
  
• Minimalism and 100% Built by Lixes: Removed some of the unused empty space.
  
• Theresa Falls Up the Stairs: Corrected the lighting of the top-right steel.
  
• Alien Abduction: Match graphical style of the fixed Alien Invasion.
  

Reordered lemforum levels:

• Ferry Tale: Lovely -> Quirky.
  
• You'll Get Over It: Lovely -> Quirky.
  
• 6 Gaps, 5 Builders: Quirky -> Lovely.
  
• Time to Change the Road: Quirky -> Lovely, because geoo would like to keep it as easy as it is and not fix the backroute. geoo reserves his 2-cuber solution for a separate level.
  
• Reordered several levels within Quirky. (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6112.msg97635#msg97635)
  

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.5 released.

• The replay tweaker shows little skill icons (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6129.0) instead of the first three letters of the assigned skill. This also allowed the tweaker to become narrower.
  
• Fix #445 (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD/issues/445): Whenever you assign one of the following skills with or without directional force, the replay will always record a directionally forced assignment: Walker, jumper, batter, builder, platformer, basher, miner. Holding directional force for these skills is now merely a filter while you hover over multiple lix. As before, unless you hold directional force, the replay will record unforced assignments of: Permanent abilities, imploder, exploder, blocker, digger.
  
• Right-clicking now takes you back to the level browser from the end-of-singleplayer screen or from the find-replay-for-level screen.
  
• Fix #390 (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD/issues/390): Redraw matt/underworld/Lava.W.png: The lava's top is now a wobbling surface, not a straight line. Physics remain identical.
  
• Lemforum prettiness: Tower of Babel: Corrected lighting on top blocks. Added lower layer to central bridge to avoid bridge looking cut off. Can't Reach It, Under the Rainbow, The Ring of Fnargl: Add/move stacked lava because of the above change to matt/underworld/Lava.W.png.
  
• Removed the spare platformer in One-Way Road to make it easier for Lovely.
  
• Lemforum backroute fixes: Division of Labor: Add extra steel block in the central wall, add little triangle at the top of the diagonal shaft. Chasm: Add steel in the center. Theresa Falls Up the Stairs: Add second hatch. Wait Why is There a Tree: Add a third notch to the top half of the pillar. The Last Laugh: Surround the right-hand exit with steel to force solutions that use the left-hand exit.
  

(https://live.staticflickr.com/5603/15830553402_2865174159.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.6 released.

This is a small release. It's mainly for Dullstar to help debug on Mac: Dullstar suggested separate user options for the hardware fullscreen resolution and for the windowed resolution.

• Fix #453: Added a separate resolution user option (two integers) for hardware fullscreen. Now, you can specify a windowed resolution and a hardware resolution separately from each other. Before, the same setting applied to both windowed mode and hardware fullscreen.
  
• Fix a backroute in Come on Down to My Place, in lemforum.
  
• Fix a backroute in Spin Me Around, in miniatures.
  
• Re-order miniatures for difficulty: Uprank Diodes and The Bottomless Closet.
  
• Added Shed of Presents, a multiplayer map for 2p and 6p.
  
• music/minim-mobius/meadow-sunrise.ogg: Removed wrongly looped initial segment. Before, the song started, then restarted after 2 seconds.
  
• Work around a Linux-only bug in Allegro 5.2.8: Software fullscreen failed to deduce the desktop resolution. Lix now passes the hardware fullscreen resolution user option to Allegro even when entering a software fullscreen. Without the bug, Allegro ingores the passed resolution and deduce the desktop resolution, but with the bug, you can now achieve the right resolution. The user option tooltip still claims that software fullscreen ignores the resolution user options because this bug is Linux-only, it's already fixed upstream, and the bugfix will ship with the next stable Allegro 5 release.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/17/62/d9/1762d9f69ece420fdca241a0e33cfd06.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.7 released.

This is only a small maintenance release. There is no scissors button yet! (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6122.msg97648#msg97648) I'm still working on the scissors/insert buttons.

• Fix #451: In the connection picker of the networking screen, the 3D outlines of the buttons for IP address and ports were sometimes mispainted. Now, the buttons are drawn correctly.
  
• Radio button options, e.g., for screen mode, show a tooltip per possible choice instead of a catch-all tooltip for the entire option.
  
• Don't play music during player name entry on a fresh installation before reaching the main menu. Play music only when we enter the main menu. The music might be too loud or unexpected, and it's more obvious how to exit from the main menu than from the player name entry screen.
  
• Replace "No" with "Cancel" in two dialog boxes: Really delete this level? Delete, Cancel. Really overwrite this level? Overwrite, Cancel.
  
• Explain the command-line switches for screen modes in the main readme.
  
• When you run Lix's unittests ($ dub test), the tests will scan all installed languages in ./data/transl/ and print missing and unnecessary translations. to stdout. Such translation issues do not abort or fail the unittests. As before, Lix logs during play the missing and unnecessary translation lines for your chosen language in the log file ./user/log.txt.
  
• Use handwritten recoloring code from magic pink to alpha transparency instead of the Allegro 5 recoloring function, in hopes of avoiding #431: Magic pink won't become transparent on macOS. I doubt that this fixes #431.
  

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.8 released.

• Don't re-trap the mouse cursor on mere mouseover after the mouse cursor has left Lix. To re-trap, you must now click into Lix. WillLem suggested this. (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6239.msg98555#msg98555) How does it feel now? This new behavior is now hardwired, it's not a user option. Do we need more mouse options afterall?
  
• Added one singleplayer level, Cache Lines, in misc/simon/.
  
• Link to the Fedora Lix package by Marcin Zajączkowski on Lix's main readme. Thank you for packaging Lix for Fedora!
  
• Switch documentation from HTTP to HTTPS weblinks wherever possible. Thanks for the patch, Marcin!
  
• Fixed the new compilation warnings from DMD 2.103.0: Deprecation: alias this for classes/interfaces is deprecated. Now, Lix compiles without warnings again, even with DMD 2.103.0.
  

(https://www.earthtouchnews.com/media/1947493/manul-3-2016-12-10.jpg?width=710&height=474)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.9 released.

• Fix radio buttons: It was possible to select multiple radio buttons by clicking the squares, not the labels. Now, only one button is ever active.
  
• Add the 6 singleplayer levels from Lemmings Forums's Level Design Contest 27 by me and geoo in misc/contests/2023/: Bumper Cave, Inside Your Router, Pommes Schranke, Rhizome, Hanabi, The Last Shall Be First.
  
• Add Catalan translation of the Lix user interface. Thanks for the translation, Rampoina!
  
• Reduced the filesize of the SVG icon data/images/lix_logo.svg from 3.4 MB to 30 KB. It looks practically the same. Thanks for re-tracing, Rampoina!
  
• Allow longer description in the level editor's topology menu for wrap options. Paint the size warning (level too large can crash 32-bit Lix) in red, possibly overlapping the descriptions of the wrap checkboxes when both the description and the warning texts are long.
  
• Clarify "Alt+Tab is fast" in the options menu. Now the tooltip says: "Switching windows (e.g., with Alt+Tab) works quickly."
  

(https://www.niabizoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Mammal_Porcupine.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.10 released.

• Fix #452: The search for the next unsolved level works again for when the next unsolved level is not the next level. Before, from 0.10.6 through 0.10.9, the end-of-singleplayer screen showed only the next level.
  
• Fix tooltips: When you hovered over a platformer or builder, the tooltip would always instruct you to queue, even if you had, e.g., miner selected in the skillbar. Now, the tooltip to queue appears only for the same selected skill.
  
• Tweaker lines have white text when you hover over the corresponding lix.
  
• When you erase an assignment via the tweaker, the tweaker will also erase all assignments to the same lix in the same or a future physics update.
  
• Add Kingshadow's Rescue Reduction, a new multiplayer map for 3 through 8 players that combines Rescue Rangers Double Team with Downward Reduction.
  

(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XWgOapI8vFQ/hqdefault.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.11 released.

• Offer a user option to choose the splat ruler's snapping distance. Set this option to 0 to deactivate snapping altogether.
  
• Make Lix compile again with D compilers older than DMD v2.102.0 from 2023-02. In 0.10.10, I silently relied on a compiler bugfix that correctly allows indexing associative arrays during @nogc; this needs DMD v2.102.0 or newer.
  

(https://live.staticflickr.com/4621/39700865565_0873e01c9a.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.12 released.

• Fix #375: Changing sound/music in the options menu will immediately play an example sound or the menu music at the new volume setting. You don't have to exit the options menu anymore to test.
  
• Fix #466: When the next level is unplayable, e.g., it lacks hatches, you can't run it from the next-level menu. Before, you could, and Lix crashed.
  
• Added four boolean user options: With/without the tweaker, should air clicks cancel the replay, and should new assignments insert or cut the replay? Without the tweaker, the default remains that both air clicks and new assignments cancel the replay. With the tweaker, by default, air clicks do nothing and new assignments insert.
  
• During play, the tooltip line is separate from the panel's info bar. Tooltips appear over the play area and have a darkened background. I hope that new players can now see easily: "Replaying. To play yourself, click into air."
  
• Removed the zoom button from game and editor. Everybody zooms with the mouse wheel, and the zoom button would zoom into the mouse cursor on the panel, thus oddly fixing a point on the map outside the camera. For now, the game's restart button is wider to cover the area of the old zoom button.
  
• Revert mouse trapping to how it was in Lix 0.10.7 and earlier: We trap the mouse already on mouseover when the Lix window is active.
  
• Remove the steel tile matt/8x8. This tile had no nub, had no crossed metal bars, and looked like geoo's concrete blocks which are earth. Remove it with no replacement. We'll look separately at all levels that used it.
  
• Won't Get Fooled Again: Replace important 8x8 steel with a nice-looking tile group to make a steel staircase. Physics stay exactly the same.
  
• All Aboard the Pain Train: Remove purely decorative 8x8 steel.
  
• Sympathy for the Lix, Race to the Depths: Remove these multiplayer levels with 8x8 steel. Sympathy relied on other players' mistakes. Race was too hard.
  
• Removed an undocumented feature: You could place a file gain.txt into music/ to change the volume of tracks.
  
• Fixed compiler warnings from DMD 2.104.0: Change "in ref" to "in".
  

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.13 released.

• The tooltip for replaying (click to play) is now at the top of the screen, in the top-right corner. Hovering-sensitive toolips are still at the bottom.
  
• Rename Phyu (number of physics updates since the start of play) to Tick throughout UI and translations.
  
• Fix reading memory outside of array bounds (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6398.msg99541#msg99541) during the option menu's sound previewing. All writes were inbounds, therefore I doubt that this bug has ever crashed anybody's Lix.
  
• Fix compilation errors with DMD 2.105.0.
  
• Upgrade the Allegro 5 D bindings to fix compiler warnings from DMD 2.104.0.
  
• Refactor the Walker skill to function without saving and resetting position and encounters, and to avoid unnecessary physics map reads. Replay verification runs 2 % faster now. All replays in the proof collection appear to pass with identical timings as before, that is sufficient proof to me that I didn't change physics ... I was wrong, this introduced a bug. Fixed in 0.10.16.
  
• Align the lix' struct to 64-byte boundaries. Replay verification runs another 1 % faster now.
  
• The physics map stores bytes, not 16-bit integers. Transpose the physics map to storing columns, not rows. This appers to neither improve nor worsen performance.
  

This 0.10.13 introduced a physics bug (overlapping blocker fields on a slope) that will be fixed in 0.10.16.

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.14 released.

A small release with two easy-to-implement quality-of-life fixes.

• Hardcode Ctrl+V to paste the copy buffer of the operating system into Lix's currently focused text-typing field. You still can't copy text from Lix.
  
• Pre-fill the level author field with your username when you choose Create Level in the singleplayer browser.
  

Still contains 0.10.13's physics bug (overlapping blocker fields on a slope) that will be fixed in 0.10.16.

(https://quinhams.yolasite.com/resources/eropeanhamster2.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.15 released.

• Fix a performance bug: In insert mode (e.g., when, assuming default user options, the tweaker was open), new assignments would always recompute all physics since the beginning, even if nothing needed recomputation. Now, we recompute only as necessary.
  
• Fix #448: Prevent tumblers from repeatedly crying "Ouch" when they're trapped in a permanent flinger.
  
• Add user option: Allow blurry zoom. It's on by default. If you deactivate this, you force Lix to use only crisp integer zoom factors (1x, 2x, 3x, ...) that won't always fit the level to the screen size.
  
• Re-label the tweaker's [◂], [▸] buttons with "−" and "+". Reason: These buttons move assignments to a different tick, not left or right. It was confusing with left-facing walkers.
  
• Narrow the tweaker to fit more level on the screen.
  
• Allow .mp3 in the music/ directory. This works out of the box on Windows. On Linux or Mac, you must build Allegro 5 with the MiniMP3 library to hear the .mp3 files that you put in music/.
  

Still contains 0.10.13's physics bug (overlapping blocker fields on a slope) that will be fixed in 0.10.16.

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VAXg3hz13k4/TrXNreFj5LI/AAAAAAAACxU/19ph5yE188Y/s1600/caracal.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.16 released.

• Physics: Fix a bug with walkers in overlapping blocker fields that appears only in Lix versions 0.10.13, 0.10.14, and 0.10.15. The bug was: Trap a walker between two overlapping blockers on a slope, observe the walker bop up and down (0.10.13 through 0.10.15) instead of staying fixed on its height (0.10.12 and earlier). This bug triggered an assertion failure in debugging builds. This fix reverts the walker behavior to 0.10.12 and earlier. See images in the next post.
  
• Fix a crash in the editor: When you copy-pasted a tile on a torus map, resulting in an offset copy that went beyond the torus seam, then moved the resulting tile, Lix crashed. Now, copy-pasting wraps coordinates correctly.
  
• Enlarge number displays for large resolutions, e.g., 1920x1080. Now, numbers won't be abbreviated anymore. The bug was, e.g., that the tweaker displayed a four-digit tick count of "...4" instead of "1234".
  

This fixed the physics bug. See next post for a discussion of the physics bug.

(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hhkl6u1PqHM/TNDANr5aM-I/AAAAAAAAAAQ/MUlsV_dAsKU/s1600/3286047315_06995af94f.jpg)

-- Simon

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/walker-0.10.15-bug.gif) (https://www.lixgame.com/etc/walker-0.10.16-fix.gif)

Left: Walker bops when trapped on a slope between two blockers. This is a bug in 0.10.13 through 0.10.15.

Right: Walker stays on same height on the slope. This has been correct until 0.10.12 inclusive, and is fixed in the 0.10.16 that I released today; see post above.

Even though this touches physics, why do I still call this release 0.10.16, not 0.11.0?

Reason 1: This fixes a bug that I introduced in 0.10.13, thus we revert to the 0.10 physics that we've already had nearly for a year. The bug has only been in 3 releases. Few people will use the three buggy versions for a longer time.

Reason 2: The physics bug is rare to impact your play. It took over a month to find it even though it was right in the walker, the most common activity, and even though I've played a lot of Lix recently. It's unlikely, although possible, to desynch networking games with it.

Reason 3: I want to fix basher-walks-into-terrain and the heart bug (basher/miner hit blocker, then walk through terrain), therefore 0.11 shouldn't be that distant anyway. I'd like to fix these within the next months or in early-mid 2024.

Overall, yes, there is the danger of having potentially-desynching 0.10.x's in the same networking room. If I had only one of the reasons 1, 2, or 3, I'd call this a 0.11. But because I have all three reasons together, with each independently reducing the likelyhood of the desynch, I'd rather spare you from frequent updating.

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.17 released.

• Reword the lix-identifying panel text when you hover the cursor over a lix. Before, when one lix platformed with 9 bricks left, and two lix walked past, it read "3 Platformers [9]". Now, it reads: "Lix #7 is platforming [9] + 2 lix"
  
• Remove "(RCF)" from the lix-identifying panel text for the permanent abilities: runners, climbers, floaters. We already show permanent abilities directly on the main map as little icons above the lix. (Let me know if you start missing this text ...)
  
• Translate skill names. In English, a builder produces the lix-identifying panel text "Lix #13 is building [9]", which translates to the German text "Lix #13 baut [9]".
  
• Translate keyboard key names. E.g., in German, if you bind the Insert key, the keybinding button will read "Einfg". Before, it read "Insert" even in German.
  
• Reword the in-game tooltip "Replaying. To play, click into air." to "Replaying. Click to play from here."
  
• Don't show the tooltip "Rewind time or quit" after the single player has nuked. In this case, he wants to exit to menu, not rewind.
  
• Don't show tooltips in multiplayer. This works around bug #473: When you have both tooltips and the big score board, the tooltips don't erase the score board from screen properly. Until we solve the root cause of those drawing/undrawing races, let's hide tooltips altogether in multiplayer.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/474x/28/09/81/28098189962097b23c8d3a869b67a565--hypoallergenic-cats-bengal-kittens.jpg)

Bonus picture with stamps of Porcupines and Manuls (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/I0kAAOSwx8BkM3gy/s-l1600.jpg). This release of Lix 0.10.17 fixes two bugs about internationalization, and this picture with many different animals from Asia was the best candidate, but it's too big to inline here. Instead, the Bengal cats above are still appropriately exotic.

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.18 released.

• Solobattle: From the singleplayer browser, you can start a multiplayer map and you will control all teams (= all colors). Spawn order and timings will be as if you played the map with its intended number of players. Hover the mouse cursor over lix of different colors to see other teams' skill panels.
  
• Prevent accidental cutting of replays: To cut, you must click where no lix are on the map. It's not enough anymore to click on left-facing lix while you filter for right-facing lix (via rightward directional select).
  
• In singleplayer, after you nuke, the skill panel shows your remaining skills even though you can't assign them anymore. In multiplayer, after you nuke, you see zero leftover skills to make it clear that you cannot assign.
  
• When you observe a multiplayer battle, all of your skill buttons are unchosen (not highlit). You still can't switch teams, which would be nice.
  
• Hide the Windows command line console when you run Lix after you've built Lix from source with DMD. Reason: Newer DMD versions link with lld-link, not with optlink, and need different linker flags.
  
• Add over 60 of Flopsy's new multiplayer maps. Remove over 70 weaker maps by Flopsy according to Flopsy's own choice.
  
• Fix a backroute in Continuum Hypothesis (lemforum Hopeless).
  
• Fix player counts for Group Therapy and for One for Me, One for You.
  
• Update Catalan translations, thanks to Rampoina.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/236x/07/7b/a4/077ba4bf8bd1b06afaf71b3bc3083463.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.19 released.

• Fix #480: The networked game wouldn't start even though everybody was ready. The bug was: When a new player joined a room, the existing ready players became unready only on the server, not on each client. Now, the server and the clients agree that, after a new joiner, everybody becomes unready. The fix is client-side and doesn't affect physics. If the server starts the game at all, all 0.10.x clients start playing regardless of this fix.
  
• Add Eggs in One Basket, a new multiplayer map by geoo for 3-8 players.
  
• Add Hopscotch, a new miniature by geoo.
  
• Fix entrance order in the 6-player version of Rescue Ranger Trolls.
  
• Remove Cascade Squared 6p and 8p according to Flopsy's recommendation.
  
• Remove a zealous assertion that prevented you from re-entering the options menu after you've accidentally set an overly tall resolution, e.g., 300x800, when you ran a debug build of Lix.
  
• Update Allegro DLLs to 5.2.9.0 for the Windows 64-bit release.
  
• Rewrite the Windows 32-bit build notes. Offer DLLs/LIBs for building 32-bit Windows Lix and for linking with lld-link. (Both DMD and LDC now link with lld-link, not with Optlink. I still recommend everybody to choose 64-bit Lix.)
  

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0601/4169/files/Otter_pile_large.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.20 released.

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/rewind-to-previous-ply.png)

• New in-game panel button: Rewind your previous skill assignment. You can then click air to erase the assignment, or unpause to let it replay. If there are no earlier skill assignments, the level restarts from the beginning. This button has no default hotkey; you can assign one in the user options.
  
• Rename the options tab "Replay" to "Game Controls". Moved the splat ruler, tooltip, builder queuing, and batter priority options into this tab.
  
• Eye of the Needle (lemforum Hopeless): Fix my backroute. Now, the exit platform is thin, you can't mine and then platform to turn there. Eye of the Needle is also shorter horizontally.
  
• Fix #479: Fix a crash in the editor. The crash required five ingredients: You had to run a debugging version of Lix, the map was cylindrical or toroidal, you had many tiles on both sides of the the torus seam, you grouped the tiles, and you used the editor's undo feature to undo the grouping across the seam.
  
• Fix #481: In the main menu, print the version of the Allegro DLLs detected at runtime.
  
• Change the tree structure of internal images: Now each scalable image has a directory, which contains the different scalings (1.png, 1.5.png, 2.png, ...) of that image.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f9/cd/32/f9cd32b3f2851e338fe2446fa35ae06a.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.21 released.

• Added geoo's new singleplayer pack with 106 levels. They're sorted by theme:
  
  • Wrappy puzzles on cylindrical/toroidal maps,
    
  • flowy puzzles about crowd control,
    
  • classy large-scale strategic puzzles,
    
  • loony puzzles about physics curiosities,
    
  • and sketchy outtakes.
• Added two new miniatures by geoo: Bridges, and Mini Cellar.
  
• During insert mode, change the tooltip "Replaying. Click to play from here." to "Insert Mode: Click to insert." (You're in insert mode while the tweaker is open, unless you reconfigure this in the options menu.)
  

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/welcometospace.png)

Welcome to Space!

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.22 released.

• Fix #427: Reveal trigger areas during play: When you activate the splat ruler, you also see trigger areas of gadgets (goals, traps, flingers, water, ...) as cyan hollow rectangles.
  
• Fix #487: Whenever Lix saves your user options to ./user/options.sdl, Lix will also save unknown options that you happened to have in your options file from past or future Lix versions. This will be helpful in the future when you keep different versions in the same tree, e.g., for testing, and they're all version 0.10.22 or newer.
  
• Fix #472: In level and replay browsers, you can't simultaneously quit the browser and open the deletion confirmation dialog anymore. Before, the bug was: You returned to the main menu and still had the deletion dialog open.
  
• Fix tooltip font size. Now, the pause tooltip always shows in small letters. Before, the pause tooltip showed in the medium font when the mouse was at the screen edge in a scrollable level.
  
• Add three multiplayer maps by geoo: Pachinko (4-7 players), Zick-Zack Kunterbunt (4-8 players), Hanabi around the World (4 players).
  
• Reorder the singleplayer level directory: geoo's pack appears alphabetically among the other one-author packs.
  
• The Windows build script win-build.bat still prefers LDC, but now allows to build Lix with any compiler.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/b3/99/43b3997f7da9079ca8f71dd5f1ee9467.png)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.23 released.

• Keep visible land in-place when you open or close the replay tweaker. Before, when you opened or closed the tweaker, the land scrolled left or right.
  
• Fix #476: Chat messages appear in the chatters' player colors. Observers will continue to chat in white.
  
• On Windows, Lix shows a native dialog box when an exception flies out of main, e.g., when you lack important files that Lix needs to run. You can screenshot the dialog box or copy the error from user/log.txt.
  
• Move some multiplayer maps: For each player count (2p, 3p, ..., 8p), whenever an author directory held only only one map at player count, that that map is now in a directory other/ at that player count. See topic: Organizing Multiplayer Levels: Folder Structure (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6748)
  
• Add Sunny Day at the Beach, a multiplayer map by Blitz for 2p-5p.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/86/9a/d5869a19f7de4d2555bac606e222de2b.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.24 released.

• Shorten and easen Pipe Dream. It's now a better second introductory level.
  
• Change the author in Proxima's levels to Proxima. Existing checkmarks convert automatically whenever Proxima is the only author. Existing checkmarks become "?!" for Proxima's co-authored levels.
  
• Remove pack descriptions (_english.X.txt and _german.X.txt) from the level tree. Lix has never displayed them since 2016.
  
• Draw cyan trigger area rectangles one pixel lower. They now look like they match the lix's lowermost foot pixel. As before, cyan trigger area rectangles appear in the editor and during play when you activate the splat ruler.
  
• Many internal refactorings, e.g., to prepare multiple spritesheets for future physics changes.
  

(https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1293676161/photo/albino-porcupine.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=1P_N-mV_QIJvZG7Uh2FbHG1eaJDEPh0-PA0SQv6eEuE=)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.25 released.

• Refactor the collision code between lix and goals a.k.a. exits. This speeds up (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6792.msg102919#msg102919) rewinding and mass replay verification by at least 13 %.
  
• Refactor the world into a mutable and an immutable half to make savestates smaller and speed up rewinding. This brings only a small improvement.
  
• Add Rainbow Day (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6799), a 2-player and 4-player map by Miri.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/236x/83/d0/ff/83d0ffe29a49d4bc7766db27b8fe09eb--adorable-animals-cute-pets.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.26 released.

• In multiplayer, when you've selected a spawn delay handicap, the in-game panel shows you the remaining time until your first lix spawns.
  
• Fix an animation regression from Lix 0.10.25: Amanda's occult-style hatch animated only through its first 25 % of frames, then disappeared. This didn't affect physics, the lix continued to spawn correctly from thin air. Now, all hatches animate correctly through all frames again.
  
• Refactor permutations to be allocation-free.
  

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/fd/f8/acfdf85bab3b6e8d97c9007793f56130.jpg)

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.27 released.

• Add 156 multiplayer maps by Hyperlodge: 135 maps for 2 players, 20 maps for 4 players, and 1 map for 6 players. Thank you very much!
  
• Add Blitz's map: Happy First Day.
  
• Change default mouse options on Linux to match the existing defaults for all other platforms. The default mouse speed is now 20 (= 100 %), not 10. By default, the mouse untraps with fast mouse movement.
  
• Bump the DAllegro dependency to 4.0.7+5.2.0. This fixes a crash on MacOS (the "argv crash") when you ran Lix as packaged software instead of as a standalone executable.
  
• In the build instructions, explain how to avoid installing Visual Studio when you install Windows DMD: You should select "do nothing".
  

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDNbJXUpFzc/T0hzMcYLCgI/AAAAAAAAAH8/mCW2RWwo1S0/s1600/Ocelot+Cat+Pictures.jpg)

-- Simon

:party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party:

:8():  :8():  :8():  :8():  :8():  :8:()[:  :8:()[:  :8:()[:  :8:()[:  :8:()[: (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png)

I like that you announced that it would be coming in November and it just didn't came im Not complaining but i just find it funny

Wait why is the title changed it is Lix 0.10.28 already

Lix 0.10.28 released.

• Allow binding of more than 3 mouse buttons. On Windows, the Win32 API exposes a maximum of 5 buttons only. If you want more mouse buttons on Windows, map them to keyboard keys with external software and bind those keys in Lix.
  
• Show proper names for the keyboard keys F13 through F24. These keys are popular targets for mouse-to-keyboard remapping software. Binding F13 through F24 has always been possible in Lix. Previously, the options menu showed nondescriptive integers, e.g., 145 for F13. Now, it shows F13.
  
• When Lix cannot find important resource files and cannot even start, present an error box on Windows. We still log the problem to logfile. Previously, early errors presented no box; only later errors did.
  
• Skip taking an automatic savestate when the VRAM allocation for that savestate fails. This avoids crashes on Windows when the monitor turns off.
  
• The 2-bar splat ruler obeys the snap distance option. Set the option to 0 to disable snap. Set the option to the default of 126 to get the previously unchangable snap distance of 10 from either end of the ruler. If the option is between 0 and 126, the splat ruler divides the value by 12. If the option is over 126, the splat ruler adds difference to 126 to the old snap distance of 10.
  
• Fix the player count in Pro Boxing.
  
• Fix the symmetry in two-player Bunker Buster.
  

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/xmas-porcupine-ai/9.jpg)

-- Simon

THANK YOU SIMON THIS IS THE BEST XMAS PRESENT EVER  :lix-smile:  :lix-smile:  :lix-smile:  :lix-smile:  :lix-smile:  :lix-smile:  :lix-smile:  :lemming:  :lemming:  :lemming:  :lemming:  :lemming:  :8():  :8():  :8():  :8():  :8:()[:  :8:()[:  :8:()[:  :8():  :8():  :8():  :8:()[:  :lem-shocked:  :lem-shocked:  :lem-shocked:  :lem-mindblown:  :lem-mindblown:  :lem-mindblown:  :lem-mindblown:  :lem-mindblown:  :lem-mindblown:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup: (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png) (https://i.imgur.com/S4haH6p.png)
 :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:  :party:

Would you like to play some multiplayer 2p Lix to celebrate?

Thanks Simon those are features we needed Keep it up!  :thumbsup:
And todays is the last day of school Then I also have holidays

I love that we have such a love and caring programmer That hears our problems and cares about them thanks Simon  :lix-evil:

+1

Thanks, and you're welcome!

-- Simon

I think that I would like to start a lix playthrough or something like that would be fun I never really touched single player...

Lix 0.10.29 released.

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/digger-throws-jackhammer.gif)

• When a digger hits steel and stops, the jackhammer breaks into three pieces that fly away.
  
• After a basher has turned from hitting steel, the shovel flies away.
  
• Observers of a networking match can change the current team: Hover the mouse cursor over the lix of a different team to see that team's skillset and hear that team's sound effects.
  
• In solobattle (= play a multiplayer level from the singleplayer browser), you'll only hear sound effects for the current team. Hover the mouse cursor over the lix of a different team to change the current team.
  
• Update Allegro DLLs in the Windows binary release to Allegro 5.2.10.
  
• Document in ./doc/dev/nuget-dlls.txt how to extract Allegro DLLs from the Allegro 5 NuGet release.
  

(https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/77/70/05/360_F_377700579_7ddSzKchPZNFFIO2icVO9sKvpVmaDfvB.jpg)

-- Simon

That's a really fun animation for the breaking jackhammer, but I must admit my first thought when seeing it was being worried that it could clutter the screen, especially with many diggers. Additionally, since the parts fly away at high velocity, they attract the player's eyes' attention very quickly, and I feel that *could* make it a bit annoying or exhausting long term when trying to focus on other things. I haven't seen it in real gameplay yet, so I might be too quick to judge.

Yes, I have the same worry. We'll have to see it in practice. Let me know if it's distracting.

Naive fixes: Lower the lifetime of the debris. Or lower the velocity.

People are (too?) tolerant with eye candy and reluctant to report excessive eye candy. E.g., in multiplayer, you see assignment arrows for all enemy actions. Those arrows are good attention-drawing when the opponent hides a saboteur in your crowd. In general, when I think about it outside of play, the arrows feel like excessive design. You can't disable them: No user option exists. But nobody has ever complained about those arrows.

-- Simon

Lix 0.10.30 released.

:lix-cool: Download for Windows 64-bit (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD/releases/download/v0.10.30/lix-0.10.30-win64.zip) -- recommended
:lix: Download for Windows 32-bit (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD/releases/download/v0.10.30/lix-0.10.30-win32.zip) -- fallback for ancient machines
:lix: Download for Linux 64-bit (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD/releases/download/v0.10.30/lix-0.10.30-linux64.zip)
:lix-evil: Source code (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD)
:8(): Changelog (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SimonN/LixD/master/doc/history.txt)
:8:()[: Issue tracker (https://github.com/SimonN/LixD/issues)

How to update

Quick and dirty: Extract over your old installation. Level moves will then result in duplicate levels that remain in your level tree.

Clean method: Extract to new directory, then copy these directories from old Lix into new Lix:
user/
replays/
...and any levels that you've built yourself or added manually.

(https://www.lixgame.com/etc/catapult-explanation.png)

• When the mouse hovers over a gadget (hatch, goal, trap, catapult, ...), the panel explains the type of the gadget and some of its properties, e.g., in which direction and how strongly it flings the lix.
  
• Updated Allegro 5 DLLs to the hotfix version 5.2.11-nightly.20250218. This fixes the broken Alt+Tab and broken Winkey from Allegro 5.2.10 on Windows with the Direct3D backend.
  
• A replayed assignment plays its assign sound a quint lower and 2 dB quieter.
  
• Shorten the lifespan of the three flying pieces of debris after a digger has hit steel, to avoid clutter in multiplayer.
  
• Add sidekick mouse cursor. When you can click to cut the replay, a little pair of scissors appears next to the main cursor. When you can insert, a plus sign appears next to the main cursor.
  
• Fix #495: The outcome screen, after playing singleplayer level that generates the warning about huge levels, typesets the warning properly on the level's preview image. Before, the warning bled into the level name.
  
• When an internal image is missing, e.g., the mouse cursor, don't crash, but show fallback text instead of the image.
  
• When a translation string with format specifiers (%d, %s, ...) fails to conform to expectations, log the bad translation only once per program run. Before, the same bad translation could appear several times in the log file.
  

Levels:

• Add 34 new multiplayer levels by Hyperlodge.
  
• NepsterLix: Fix backroute in Miner Preservation Society. Fix typos in Introducing Climbers, Cannonballs in the Air.
  

(https://www.dhresource.com/webp/m/f3/ka/km/j/25/6ddd2539-5c5b-4fa0-83b9-82aaf462ba1e.jpg)

-- Simon