NeoLemmix 24-bit/Hi-Res Graphics & Sprites

[WillLem]

I've also done the Stacker; quick question regerding this one, Builder and Platformer - the WinLemm sprites include dark brown 2x8 pixel rectangles to represent the building blocks, but then these are recoloured in the actual game. How does in work in NL, can these blocks be recoloured according to the level type/style? And what is the exact pixel size of a Stacker's building block (in hi-res)?

Yes, these can be recolored in NL. Just pick any color that isn't used for any part of the sprites that shouldn't be recolored, and use that for the builder bricks and destruction particles. To be clear, this color should (a) be the same between different sprites, ie: builder, stacker etc should have the same color for this as each other; and (b) it must not be used for shouldn't-recolor pixels anywhere in the spriteset, not just in these animations; but it is fine if something outside the spriteset (eg. terrain pieces) uses them.

I should have mentioned earlier: Ignore the "_mask.png" files that some sprites have in the existing NL sprites. These are what current versions use to do the recoloring of bricks / destructive particles, but this is changing in the future to the above setup. Therefore, using the unique-color approach will be the right way by the time NL has a high-res feature.

Understood; when I send you the finalised sprite pack I'll make sure all builder bricks and destruction particle colours are unique.

I've attached the final two custom skills: Shimmier and Fencer. Please note that with the Fencer, I've temporarily included a yellow line tracking the movement of the sword - this is just to show you how I've integrated the diagonally-upwards terrain removal behaviour of this skill (note that the sword hits its highest point above the Lemming's head and its lowest point around knee height). I'm hoping the movement of the sword fits with the current mask at least aesthetically; do let me know if any slight adjustments need to be made in this regard. The Lemming then jumps and lunges forward, allowing the Lemming to land one pixel up and however many pixels forward from its starting position.

So, to be clear, this yellow line will be removed from the final version as long as you're happy that the sprite correctly fits with the terrain removal outline/mask of the original Fencer sprite.

So... besides the sprites, is there anything else you'll need at this stage? I'm going to finish up the button set anyway just so that there are options (I still think "clickable" buttons would be best for a hi-res mode), and I'll make sure all other graphics are accounted for either in WinLemm or the Mac version. As far as I can tell, all the default ones are there. Custom graphics can be upscaled as well, but it might be worth doing this on a case-by-case basis.

-WillLem

[namida]

Lemming sprites are really the important thing here - sprites jumping back and forwards between low-res and hi-res during gameplay would be extremely jarring. On the other hand, while we should definitely provide high-res objects where applicable (I should be able to just directly rip these from WinLemm, so no worries there), I think it's okay if some end up falling back to low-res.

In regards to the fencer sprite - it's hard to say for sure without a real-world test, but it looks like it should be good.

[WillLem]

I've finished all default & custom sprites now, and made a few tweaks to get them just right. Couldn't wait to begin so I've started work on the Xmas Lemmings as well.

Here's the Xmas Blocker (L&R) as a taster for now

-WillLem

[namida]

I got around to implementing your low-res Disarmer sprite. It needed a couple of minor tweaks: the last few frames were 1 pixel too low compared to the others, and there were a few pixels where the color was slightly off. These were all minor, easily-fixed issues, and I can now confirm this sprite will be included for NeoLemmix V12.7.X. I also made Xmas versions of these sprites.

Here's your sprite in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YAjHPCRiNE
(This video was taken before I extended the change to the skill panel too - but that HAS been done now!)

[WillLem]

I got around to implementing your low-res Disarmer sprite. It needed a couple of minor tweaks: the last few frames were 1 pixel too low compared to the others, and there were a few pixels where the color was slightly off. These were all minor, easily-fixed issues, and I can now confirm this sprite will be included for NeoLemmix V12.7.X. I also made Xmas versions of these sprites.

Here's your sprite in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YAjHPCRiNE
(This video was taken before I extended the change to the skill panel too - but that HAS been done now!)

Thanks for posting this, this looks awesome!!! How are the other sprites, implementation-wise. Any adjustments needed?

I'll be shipping the hi-res Xmas sprites your way soon.

[namida]

Work on the high-res functionality, so far, has been limited to discussion and planning; I haven't done any actual coding yet - my work on NL lately has been focused on wrapping up the last few details in preparation for V12.7.0's stable release next week. However, as I've mentioned, high-res is one of the features I'm hoping to get in place for NL V12.8.X (expected stable release February 2020, with an RC build about a month before that).

[WillLem]

Here is the complete set of hi-res xmas sprites! I know you're not doing anything with these straightaway, but they're here. Feel free to have a gander and let me know if any changes need to be made.

-WillLem

P.S. All the best for the 12.7.0 release tomorrow! Looking forward to it

EDIT: I've made a couple of changes today (11/11) and re-uploaded the pack.

[namida]

To keep things tidy: Could you upload your entire set of high-res regular sprites as a ZIP? I want to look at starting to actually use these.

(If you've previously sent it to me via PM - could you upload it here? I receive a lot of PMs, so digging through them can be quite time-consuming.)

EDIT: Also, I notice the Xmas ones aren't complete yet (the new skills, and the bomber explosion, are missing). However, with what is there, here's a screenshot of them actually in-game. (There's a fair bit of fixing up needed for them to actually work 100% correctly, but this is definitely a start!)

[WillLem]

To keep things tidy: Could you upload your entire set of high-res regular sprites as a ZIP? I want to look at starting to actually use these.

(If you've previously sent it to me via PM - could you upload it here? I receive a lot of PMs, so digging through them can be quite time-consuming.)

EDIT: Also, I notice the Xmas ones aren't complete yet (the new skills, and the bomber explosion, are missing). However, with what is there, here's a screenshot of them actually in-game. (There's a fair bit of fixing up needed for them to actually work 100% correctly, but this is definitely a start!)

Sure thing, see attached.

I'll get the new-skills xmas sprites done as soon as I get the chance. The hi-res stuff you've posted is looking great btw!

[namida]

When doing the Xmas ones - could you try to make sure they line up properly with the existing graphics (when scaled to 200% via Nearest Neighbour)? They don't have to match in terms of which pixels are or aren't solid, but the overall shape should overlap.

Don't worry about adjusting the existing ones, I'll take care of that - it just makes my job easier if you do this for any new ones.

(If this is not possible to do due to needing extra size in one or both dimensions, please make it line up in the dimension you can do so in (if there is one) and let me know about the other one. I'll take care of the rest.)

[namida]

Okay so, I'm working my way through integrating these ones. I've done (in alphabetical order by your filenames) up to Glider, inclusive; as well as the Stoner terrain (but not the explosion). Most of these seem fine; but a few have issues of varying severity.

- Drowner. It doesn't make sense that the drowner would suddenly gain a snorkel, even for a "cartoony" feel. It's a good idea for the swimmer, but not for the drowner. I don't feel too strongly about this, so if most people like it, it can stay.
- Fencer. This one on the other hand, it's going to need to be re-done (or at least edited). Two issues with it - firstly, the position of the lance during the destruction frames is very far off from physics. Secondly, it lacks destruction particles. (The fact that it needs more horizontal space than the original allows for, when lined up correctly, is not a dealbreaker - I can adjust the low-res sprite's size / positioning to account for this.)
- Stoner (the actual stone, not the explosion). This needs to match up with physics a tad more - but this is an easy edit that I was able to make myself.

Will give comments on the rest when I've finished doing them - along with, most likely, some video footage of them in action.

EDIT: Only one issue among the rest that was noticable during preparing, and it was small enough that I could fix it myself - there was a bit of a mismatch between the two directions in the first frame of the miner. Now, time to get that video footage...

PS: When redoing the fencer, could you match this low-res graphic instead of the stable-version one? (This gives a little bit more room for you to work with horizontally.)

EDIT: Just to be clear; the Drowner (unless there's a strong general consensus in favor of the current sprite) and the Fencer are the ones that actually need attention. I've fixed the Miner and Stoner myself.

[namida]

I've implemented support for recoloring - without requiring any extra colors to be specified by styles that use recoloring. Instead, the lemming sprites themself specify which colors are to be treated as "shades" of other colors, and the rest happens automatically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI0En875kzs

The level is one I made specifically for the purpose of showing off this video; copy attached. I'll probably submit it to the NeoLemmix Community Pack; I don't intend to use it in Lemmings Plus due to the style.

I will probably adjust the sprite colors a bit so the originals are a tad closer (at least for the light shade parts) to the low-res colors; because that will have better results with the recoloring.

EDIT: Okay, what I'm finding is - I notice you're usually using two shades of each color - a light shade and a dark shade. The sprites will work much more nicely with the recoloring system if one of these is the same as the low-res color, and the other has the same hue and saturation (but different luminosity) - or at least extremely close.

With that being said - I'm going to finish tidying up these existing ones; may be best to hold off on any changes until I'm done with that, to avoid doubling-up work on either side? (The exception would be a new low-res digger sprite; feel free to go ahead with that one.)

[Strato Incendus]

The Blocker-direction sign looks quite nice! Does it look the same for the Digger?

[namida]

The Blocker-direction sign looks quite nice! Does it look the same for the Digger?

There's no change to the digger yet. Key word here is "yet" - it's hopefully going to happen (before V12.8.0's release), but just hasn't yet. The blocker sign is also high-res only (low res does have the "only turns his head to one side, instead of switching between both", but not the sign).

[namida]

Okay, so, I'm going through these paying really close attention now (watching them frame-by-frame etc), to iron out the remaining details. I'm fixing most stuff myself, but I'll note here anything that will need WillLem's attention - orange is minor issues, red is serious issues. (Green = no problems.)

Ascender - No problems.
Basher - During the 1st and 4th of the frames where terrain is removed, the lemming's hand probably needs to be slightly further forward.
Blocker - No problems.
Bomber - No problems.
Builder - No problems.
Burner - No problems.
Climber - No problems.
Digger - This one's getting a new sprite anyway; but an issue I noticed - the digger's arms extend too far downwards during the dig animation.
Disarmer - No problems.
Drowner - Earlier point about the snorkel still stands; otherwise no problems here.
Exiter - No problems.
Faller - No problems.
Fencer - Very poor match for physics. I think I've figured out the core "cause" of this - your sprite holds the lance much further forward from his body than the low-res ones.
Floater - No problems.
Glider - No problems.
Hoister - No problems.
Miner - No problems.
Ohnoer - No problems
Platformer - No problems.
Reacher - No problems.
Shimmier - The animation is very "jerky". I don't think this is as simple as shifting the frames left / right either.
Shrugger - No problems.
Stacker - No problems.
Stoner - No problems, for both sprites.
Swimmer - No problems.
Walker - No problems

I'll put up an update to the high-res experimental soon that includes the sprites in their current state, so you can use that as a starting point (and use it to test any new work). EDIT: It's up. You can find the lemming sprites in the "styles/default/lemmings-hr" folder. Note that I've slightly tweaked the colors from the ones you used, so they're more similar to the low-res colors - this is important to keep the recoloring for different styles (eg. the L2 ones) or situations (athletes, selected, etc) working nicely and producing good results; please try to stick to these colors for future sprites for the "default" style. Don't worry too much about colors on the Xmas sprites - I'll fix it up later. If you want to test out / etc your Xmas ones, create a similar folder; "styles/xmas/lemmings-hr".