[✓][SUG] Adjustable side-scrolling speed

[littbarski]

thank you very much, by the way I just saw there is a sub forum for bugs and ideas, of course you can put it there, if you want.

if this is ok, I add two other ideas here in my topic :-)
- I like the scrolling with the mouse which works quite nice (I am a bit too much fan of good scrolling in old DOS games, took a while until I managed it in games like Kellogg's, Eismann, Nesquik games or Chaos Engine).
But to make the scrolling good in any system, perhaps it would be good to have a speed option for the scrolling, just something like "side scrolling speed" and 1, 2 and 3 as speed.

- the zoom levels are fine, but on all my screens they are just between too large and - a bit - too small, like also in Neolemmix this was the case. Would be between 5 and 6, so more a 5.5 . Here I mean the level zoom. The panel zoom is good for the monitor size, but could also be a bit larger. So the level zoom could be 5.5. and the panel zoom one step larger (probably not possible, but wanted to add it)

[WillLem]

I just saw there is a sub forum for bugs and ideas

Ideally, there should be 1 topic per suggestion (with the title format "[SUG] Your suggestion title", but I understand that people don't always have the time to post different topics, so it's fine to group the suggestions and I can separate them out as I need to.

Note that I've renamed both of your topics accordingly, and split some of the suggestions out into their own topics, as an example

it would be good to have a speed option for the scrolling, just something like "side scrolling speed" and 1, 2 and 3 as speed.

Sure, I can look into this. I've added it to the list.

- the zoom levels

I've replied to this in its own topic.

[littbarski]

Thank you, would be nice to have with the scroll speed.
Sorry, did not know all those forum topic creation things, thank you for creating the topics.

[WillLem]

So, adjustable side-scroll speed is absolutely possible. I'd most likely implement it by keeping the current speed as the default, then having a "Scroll Speed" hotkey which, when held, would increase or decrease the scrolling speed according to some preset (e.g. Super Slow, Slow, Fast, Super Fast); it would then be possible to set up several keys with different speeds depending on what's needed at the time of use.

However, there is already an existing function which might be even more appropriate, and is definitely more versatile than an arbitrary preset speed. Namely, the "Hold-to-Scroll" hotkey, which allows scrolling by moving the mouse and tracks cursor speed accordingly. It's perfectly usable, and might offset the need for an additional scrolling speed feature.

@littbarski - could you try using "Hold-to-Scroll" first, and then report back whether or not you still think adjustable scrolling speed would be a necessary addition to SLX's feature set.

Here's how to use it:

1) Open the F2 Options menu from the main menu screen.
2) Click "Configure Hotkeys".
3) Check "Show unassigned keys" and browse to any unused hotkey that you wish to assign (e.g. 'Q' is unused if you're using the default hotkey scheme)
4) Assign "Hold-to-Scroll" to the chosen key using the dropdown menu. You should be looking at something like this:



5) Head to any level that's wide enough to test out side-scrolling (recommended: Taxing 14 Hunt The Nessy)
6) Once in-game, hold down the chosen key (e.g. 'Q') whilst moving the mouse around. Try speeding up and slowing down the cursor movement to get an idea of how responsive the function is.

Let me know your thoughts. I won't go ahead with anything until I've heard back from you.

[littbarski]

thank you for the good explanation of another function I did not know.
it worked and I can say that the scroll speed is indeed different adjustable from slow to faster.
My impression was that the scroll speed with the mouse at the border is to uncontrollable, so sometimes not responsive, sometimes (often) too fast. When I now tried your hint with the "hold to scroll" I could also (not easy to test though but possible) achieve a scroll speed that would be nice. Just a bit slower than the standard scroll. But also here again I don't want to change the Superlemmix to what I wish, but just add ideas so that a setting could be added so that people who like it as it is, can continue using it that fast.

[WillLem]

My impression was that the scroll speed with the mouse at the border is to uncontrollable, so sometimes not responsive, sometimes (often) too fast

OK, I'll look at adding adjustable scroll speed. It's easy enough to do and might be helpful to other users as well, so let's go ahead with it.

Hotkey-controllable seems the best way to keep a few available speeds to hand in-game, but I could also add an option to set the default scroll speed.

NOTE: Vertical scroll will also be factored in to any such updates.

[WillLem]

Implemented variable scroll speed in commit a9de4f4.

This will be available as of the next update (2.9 or 2.8.5). A combo in the options menu gives 5 possible speeds "Slowest, Slow, Medium, Fast, Fastest", with "Medium" being the default (and identical to the current speed in 2.8.4):



I've decided against implementing a hotkey, since the existing "Hold-to-Scroll" hotkey is more than adequate for performing variable-speed scroll actions. We also now have hotkeys for nudging the viewport up/down/left/right by customisable amounts (see this topic), which are likely to be much more useful when using keys to affect viewport movement.

Anyways, as I understand it, the OP wanted to be able to set a slower speed globally. Hopefully, this update should suffice for that purpose, whilst providing faster scroll speeds for those who might want it to be quicker.

[littbarski]

thank you, yes the scroll in "slow" is perfect. I just like it more when you just want to scroll a little bit to the side that it is kind of "more relaxed" .

But in general (on both my laptops) I see some stuttering when scrolling long time to the side, but this sync problem is something I have very often in DOS games, it was very hard to get it working with better sync in Jump n Run games like Nesquik or Kelloggs or Chaos engine in DOSBox-X. So my guess is that this is something that won't go away easily in Superlemmix that there is no scrolling stuttering at all, or perhaps it is also PC system depending.

[WillLem]

I see some stuttering when scrolling long time to the side

Yes, this is normal. It's because the level area outside of the current viewport isn't rendered until it becomes visible. Even on a very powerful system, some delay is to be expected as the rendering catches up during scrolling. I get the occasional little bump, but it's not noticeable enough to warrant doing anything about it.

If it's very noticeable on your system, could you maybe post a short screen recording so I can take a look at it? There's probably not much that can be done about it tbh; rendering the entire level would slow gameplay down, so we'd just be swapping one problem for another much larger problem.

With that said, if it's significantly noticeable on your system, it might be worth looking at ways to optimise rendering whilst scrolling. I know that some lemmings games actually pause the game whilst scrolling (maybe test this on your system: does pausing the game and then scrolling reduce the stuttering?), probably in order to devote graphics power to level rendering rather than animation.

[littbarski]

hello you are right that this is something that is not such a real issue and anyway hard to fix or find out.
I have never used a screen recording software, but here in this timestamp you can see the same behaviour as I do:
https://youtu.be/YIybfmUH3p8?si=P42VPJFqE20UT_5j&t=113

As said the scrolling smoothness is not such a topic for Lemmings as it is for sidescrolling platformers. Normally you only scroll a bit to the side, and this now really improved thanks to your slow options.