Remastered official / LPII / LPIII sets

[namida]

So, I must admit... when put next to newer sets like many of the custom ones, or the LPIV and LPV sets, the older sets look a bit strange by comparsion.

As such, I've decided to begin work on creating alternate versions of them (which from a functional point of view will be 100% equivalent), to bring their appearance more in line with how newer made-for-NL graphic sets tend to look. I'm not entirely certain yet whether I'll integrate these into NL as standard and provide the original versions as an alternate one that can be downloaded (at least for the official sets; I'll probably outright replace them for my own sets), or the other way around - include the original versions as standard and provide these seperately.

So far, I've almost finished doing the Brick set (just need to do the traps still). These have been created via similar methods to how I designed the LPIV and LPV sets, in many cases using the high-res graphics from Win95 lemmings as a starting point rather than the original low-res ones. (Don't worry, no violations of (Super)Lemmini's licence going on here; I wrote some code of my own to extract them from WinLemm. ) Got a few images attached to this post.

Will link to the post containing each set as I finish them. If they aren't linked, they aren't done yet.

Brick
Bubble
Circuit
Crystal
Desert
Dirt
Fire
Lab
Marble
Martian
Metal
Pillar
Psychedelic
Purple
Rock
Sega
Sky
Snow
Special
Tree
Xmas

[namida]

Here's the brick set!

Just place it in your "styles" folder and it'll replace the standard one on any Brick level. If you want to change back, just delete it. Let me know if you find any physics mismatches between it and the normal version of the brick set.

[namida]

Bubble set is done!

[namida]

Bubble set has been updated to reflect the changes in the upcoming V10.13.16 update to NeoLemmix.

Please note - until that version is released, this does mean there's some slight physics discrepancies between the standard version and the remastered version. Only report discrepancies with the Bubble set if they exist even when using the V10.13.16 experimentals.

[nin10doadict]

The new sets look very nice, but as I was looking at the brick set... Uh... I have no idea why the exit is doing this. I'm pretty sure I'm using the latest version of the editor and the wacky quad-stack exit is reflected in game too.
EDIT: I also have no idea how to make PNG files not have atrocious filesizes, sorry

[namida]

I messed something up when adding the backgrounds, I think. Will fix soon.

EDIT: Done.

[namida]

Not quite ready yet (still need to do the traps), but Rock is coming along nicely.

[Nepster]

I'm not entirely certain yet whether I'll integrate these into NL as standard and provide the original versions as an alternate one that can be downloaded (at least for the official sets; I'll probably outright replace them for my own sets), or the other way around - include the original versions as standard and provide these seperately.

Please keep the original versions available (at least for the L1/ONML/L2 styles; what you do with your own graphic styles is of course your decision). As you intend to keep them functionally equivalent, I don't see any reason not to allow people to choose what they prefer for themselves. This is especially true, once we migrate to the new file-types and NeoLemmix no longer contains these styles in the exe.

Another thing to keep in mind: Many of my levels use a lot of no-overwrite and erasing wizardry, e.g. "Study in Scarlet" or those that use custom-sized terrain/steel blocks made out of a bunch of other pieces. When I created them I specifically ensured that the borders between the original pieces are smooth and look natural. So simply replacing the pieces has the potential to mess around with the visual fine-tuning of such levels.
Of course I don't know yet, whether this will really turn out to be a problem. Neither do I know how many level-designers use as excessive pixel-magic as I use, i.e. how many level designers are potentially impacted by this.

[Flopsy]

I like the backgrounds that are being used in these remasters, will these be added to the standard tilesets as well?

While it's nice that these remastered tilesets are being made, I would prefer to stick with the originals myself.

[namida]

Please keep the original versions available (at least for the L1/ONML/L2 styles; what you do with your own graphic styles is of course your decision). As you intend to keep them functionally equivalent, I don't see any reason not to allow people to choose what they prefer for themselves. This is especially true, once we migrate to the new file-types and NeoLemmix no longer contains these styles in the exe.

I will definitely keep both available, the question is just which one will be "standard".

I like the backgrounds that are being used in these remasters, will these be added to the standard tilesets as well?

The general standard has been not to have backgrounds on tilesets simulate having a DOS-like limited palette, except maybe a background color, so probably not. The other thing is that I haven't made original-quality versions of these backgrounds; some would be easy enough to reproduce, others not so easy.

[Dullstar]

I don't think the backgrounds should be added to the original version of the sets. I can justify the color changes since those were done to make the sets more readable, but I think they should be kept as close to the original games as possible.

I've personally never really liked the high resolution sets. They seem a bit too...  shiny, maybe? There's just... something about them that looks off to me. Especially the dirt set. Although I think I remember there being a port that had different high resolution sets that may have been better looking. I think I've only seen a bit of it, so I don't really know how good they are.

I wonder if it would be nice to have an option to have a high resolution version of the set?
My thought is this: Have a checkbox that says "Use high resolution sets if available." High resolution sets would probably be named with some sort of convention, e.g. dirt_hd. If a level using "dirt" is loaded, and the high resolution checkbox is checked, see if tileset "dirt_hd" exists; if so, use that. It could also be checked for in the event that the standard version isn't found. If you opt to use standard sets but you only have "dirt_hd" and not "dirt" and the level calls for "dirt" then just go ahead and use "dirt_hd"
I don't think the backgrounds should be added to the original version of the sets. I can justify the color changes since those were done to make the sets more readable, but I think they should be kept as close to the original games as possible.

I've personally never really liked the high resolution sets. They seem a bit too...  shiny, maybe? There's just... something about them that looks off to me. Especially the dirt set. Although I think I remember there being a port that had different high resolution sets that may have been better looking. I think I've only seen a bit of it, so I don't really know how good they are.

I wonder if it would be nice to have an option to have a high resolution version of the set?
My thought is this: Have a checkbox that says "Use high resolution sets if available." High resolution sets would probably be named with some sort of convention, e.g. dirt_hd. If a level using "dirt" is loaded, and the high resolution checkbox is checked, see if tileset "dirt_hd" exists; if so, use that. It could also be checked for in the event that the standard version isn't found. If you opt to use standard sets but you only have "dirt_hd" and not "dirt" and the level calls for "dirt" then just go ahead and use "dirt_hd"

The suggestion assumes that the editor wouldn't let you specify the hd set (sure, you can use dirt_hd to look at things, but when it comes to selecting the tilesets in the editor, dirt and dirt_hd should be considered the same set), and that there would be no physics differences between standard and high resolution.

[namida]

I was considering whether to allow something like this on the new-formats version. Basically, allowing alternate "skins" for graphic sets, with a user-side choice to switch between them. This could be used not only for the original vs remastered versions of the sets, but also for eg. the Genesis and EGA variations; with a fallback (on a per-piece rather than per-set basis, thanks to how the new-formats version works) to default if an alternate version of a piece isn't found.

I'm not sure if it's worth making the effort to implement this on the current ("old-formats" or "backwards-compatible") version.

I've personally never really liked the high resolution sets. They seem a bit too...  shiny, maybe? There's just... something about them that looks off to me. Especially the dirt set. Although I think I remember there being a port that had different high resolution sets that may have been better looking. I think I've only seen a bit of it, so I don't really know how good they are.

You're probably thinking of the Mac version.

[Dullstar]

I'd suggest waiting for new formats for that.

Mentioning skins gave me a thought:

Allow a graphic set to consider itself as a skin. For backwards compatibility, a skin would behave just like a normal set if a level uses it. In terms of file format, they'd be indistinguishable.

In the editor: load a main tileset (skins are hidden), then choose a skin of that set. The level can "lock" the skin, so that the level can be played with the intended version of the set if it was designed for a specific one. If the user still wants their preferred skin anyway, they can have a separate setting to ignore locked skins. If the level doesn't lock the skin, the user's default is used.

Potential abuse: skin sets that don't have identical physics to their normal counterparts.