Player V1.43n-F | Editor V1.43n-C | Flexi Toolkit V1.17 | GSTool V1.03

[namida]

Flexi Toolkit update. This one *actually* fixes the deleted LVL bug.

[Tsyu]

Are gimmicks still supposed to make gimmick music play automatically (provided the level doesn't specify any music)? Because that's not happening with NeoLemmix Player V1.43n-F.

[namida]

Are gimmicks still supposed to make gimmick music play automatically (provided the level doesn't specify any music)? Because that's not happening with NeoLemmix Player V1.43n-F.

No; this hasn't happened for a long time now. If you're wanting to make a level do so, you need to specify "frenzy" or "gimmick" as the music file; be aware that gimmicks are being removed altogether with the next major (ie: V1.44n) update. V1.43n-F will remain available for those who want to play older content that relies on to-be-removed features, though obviously this means any UI improvements / etc won't be available.

[namida]

I've uploaded an alternate verison of NeoLemmix V1.43n-F. This doesn't contain any new features or changes in mechanics from V1.43n-F; the only difference is that it disables windowed mode, and removes some of the behind-the-scenes code to support it. Hence, it is labelled V1.43n-F-alt, rather than V1.43n-G.

The reason for this is that the code that enables windowed mode can cause issues on WINE, and with certain recording software. This is not guaranteed to fix issues, but you can try it if you're having such problems. On Windows, in the absence of recording software, it makes no difference.

I have tried with Ubuntu and the LXDE desktop, and it does not help for me. Another user tried on Ubuntu with the Unity desktop, and said it fixed the problems they were having. Yet another user who uses Debian (I'm not sure what desktop) and an older version of WINE never had problems in the first place.

In regards to recording software, I haven't had any feedback as to what it does or doesn't improve. Open Broadcaster Software does not have issues with NeoLemmix in the first place, provided Screen Capture mode is used. XSplit seems to have issues, according to one streamer; I have no feedback yet as to whether or not this version helps. Another piece of software, which I can't remember the name of (but might've been a CyberLink product) also doesn't appear to have issues in the first place.

So - if you're having any such issues - feel free to try it. I can't promise it will fix anything, but it can't hurt to try.

The normal version of course still remains available, and I recommend you use the normal version unless you're specifically having any problems of those natures.

I'll continue to see if I can improve the de-windowing in this version, since most people say that V1.37n (the last version without windowed mode) or EXE-based standalone players (also lacking windowed mode) didn't have these problems.

[namida]

Toolkit V1.14 update released.

V1.14
-----
> Level filenames can now be arbitrary. The list of which level is which position is kept in the
  levels.ini file in the levels subfolder.

Basically, like the changelog says, you can now call your project's level files anything you like, rather than having to follow a strict naming scheme. A "levels.ini" file is used to track the names.

To update old projects to this format, simply open them with the new version of the toolkit. Note that it may become impossible to load it in older versions after doing this. This does not affect which versions of NeoLemmix can play your pack; only which versions of Flexi Toolkit can edit it.

[namida]

A minor, and long-overdue, update for Flexi to fix a bug which can occur when opening level packs created in very old versions of the toolkit.

V1.15
-----
> Fixes a bug where an error may occur when attempting to open very old packs.

(Specifically, this is the bug where you get an error about a "levels" folder not existing, when trying to open a pack that has LEVELxxx.DAT files.)

[namida]

Uploaded Flexi Toolkit V1.16 update.

This update should be considered critical, as it fixes a bug that can otherwise lead to very significant data loss.

If you cannot update at the moment, then please check what version you have (Help > About on the menu bar). If it's V1.14 or V1.15, do NOT use the "Move To Prev. Rank" / "Move To Next Rank" buttons on the Levels tab, otherwise you may lose a LOT of data when trying to save the pack. (It is safe to use these in V1.12 or V1.13, and any version older than that doesn't have these buttons.)

[namida]

Released an editor update V1.43n-C.

V1.43n-C
--------
> Removed the panels at the bottom of the main window
> Various improvements to window ordering
> Fixes the following bugs:
  - Input in text boxes is discarded unless another text box is selected before saving
  - Screen jumps to screen start position when undoing / redoing

Not too important, just a few fixes.

[namida]

I've added a feature to Flexi that allows attaching a replay file to each level. If the level changes (even if the LVL file is modified directly, rather than being reimported), Flexi will mark the replay as out of date (this can be manually overridden in the case that the replay still works for the modified level). There's also a "Replay Check" that makes sure every level has an up-to-date replay. This won't be a full substitute for the mass replay checker, as it can't actually test that the replays work (it just relies on "Has the level been modified since the replay was attached / last confirmed as working?"), but it'll be a nice help, as well as a way to maintain the replay files in the proper order even if levels are reordered.

Once I've tested this some more, I'll release it, probably in the next few days.

[namida]

Well, it took a while, but here's the update with that feature!

I haven't updated the tutorial to explain it yet. In short:

- To attach a replay to a level, double-click the level on the "Levels" tab, then load from the popup menu.
- You can mass-export the replays via the menu bar. There's currently no mass-import feature.
- You can check that all levels have an up-to-date replay (defined as that the replay was either imported, or manually marked as up-to-date, since the last time the level was modified) on the Other tab, in the same place as the existing Issue Checker.
- Replays will remain attached to the correct level even if the level is moved in the ordering, including when moved to a different rank.
- Remember that this is not a full-fledged replacement for the mass replay checker. Before releasing your project, use the mass replay checker to confirm you have working replays for every level.
- Flexi does not in any way force you to have a replay file present for every level.

[Simon]

Equipping levels with replays as proof, that's extremely smart and is direly-needed tooling. The general principle is that there must be automation for level -> replay, not only, as before, for replay -> level.

I have 200 levels, 3 or 4 replays per level, and the replay checker tells me that 50 of the 800 replays fail. I don't care about any single replay in particular. I can throw away some replays and the pack is still OK.

But I care pedantically that every level remain solvable. The level is the central piece of data in our culture, therefore all tooling should treat the level as central. The tooling must make explicit when there are levels that lack a proof, that's more important than when a certain replay fails.

-- Simon

[namida]

Currently, there's no support for multiple replays per level. This is definitely something I could consider adding in a near-future update to the toolkit if it's widely requested, though.

There is the downside that currently, Flexi Tool has no way of actually knowing "does the replay work" - hence why it instead simply detects "has the level been modified since the replay was last imported / flagged as okay". This part of the problem will probably need to wait for the new version of NL for a fix.

[namida]

Well, I don't know if anyone else is making use of it, but I'm finding the replay feature really handy. So I thought, why not turbo-charge it?

I've been working on an update that now lets you attach more than one replay to each level. A note can be attached to each one, as can a general classification (and when exporting replays, you can choose which classifications to export or not). For example, you might want to keep track of backroute replays using this feature; you can export them seperately from intended solution replays.

So far, the feature seems to work pretty solidly, though as usual I'll want to test it a bit more before releasing. I also still need to add a way to modify the categories; currently it's only possible to add / rename categories by modifying the data files directly (though it is a plain text file, so at least it's relatively simple to do).

[namida]

After a little bit more work, the feature itself seems pretty stable; the only thing that's missing is a way to customize the classifications (by default, it has "Unclassified", "Intended", "Acceptable", "Backroute", "Attempt" and "Talisman").

But I figure some people would probably find it useful to get this feature as soon as possible, and I often tend to take a while to get these "one last thing" features actually implemented (and even more so to be satisfied with how tested something of this scale is), so here's an experimental version that includes the new replay manager (it's accessed via the menu bar):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvj2e7wxw71mcyg/FlexiToolkit.exe

If you want to edit the classifications for a project, you can do so by saving the project, exiting the Flexi Toolkit, and editing the "replays.ini" file in the "replays" folder. Everything before the first blank line is treated as a classification name, and there is no limit on how many of them you can have. I strongly advise against modifying anything after the first blank line, but if you want to experiment, that's your call.

I shouldn't need to remind you of this by now - this is an experimental version, so always keep backups or use some kind of revision control (such as git). In fact, that's a very good idea even when using a stable version.


It should be quite simple to use. If you're wondering "how do I choose which level to attach a replay to?!", the answer is you don't need to - Flexi auto detects it based on the level ID stored in the replay. (Indeed, attaching one level's replay to a different level - which Flexi won't allow you to do, but can be done manually by editing the files or when importing a project from an older version of Flexi - can cause weird stuff to happen, the most common symptom being a replay displays as out of date even when it isn't.)

[namida]

I still haven't got around to getting it ready for a full release, but I updated the experimental version to fix a major bug - namely, that replay data was lost when a level is moved to a different rank (it's retained without problems when merely moving the level within the same rank).

Some known minor bugs remain, but the severity of these is pretty much limited to "sometimes the list doesn't update right away when you change something".

After using this feature quite extensively during work on LPV, I haven't encountered any severe bugs other than the one fixed here, so it's probably pretty safe to use this version. But just to be sure, keep backups!