Lemmini - Lemmings for Java - public Alpha

[ccexplore]

Yes, it looks like in WinLemm. Unfortunately, not all the Hires Graphics look good. Indeed most of them were just upscaled and look horrible. I fixed some things here and there, but it would took me too much time to fix all tiles. Also the size of the patches would dramatically increase.

Maybe instead of patching, another possible approach would be to take a low-res version of the graphics and then scale it up w/ some sort of anti-aliasing interpolation (geoo89 mentioned 2xSAI as an example). &#A0;Then for each individual graphics piece, the game now has a choice of either using the hi-res or the scaled-up lo-res version, which hopefully will minimize the need to directly patch the graphics.

This for example would sound like a good solution for the horns in the hell exit.

[Proxima]

OK, I've had a bit of a play on version 2. Much improved, and SO MUCH FUN!

A couple of points I notice:

-- "All lemmings accounted for" should have a full stop at the end. Yeah, I'm picky. Sue me.

-- I played quite a few levels without crashing, and then got the crash when I tried to increase the RR again. Tame 8 this time.

-- I don't agree with ccexplore that the 2 and 8 in the "number of skills" font are hard to distinguish; 8 and 9, on the other hand.....

-- The toolbar should say that number of lemmings currently under the cursor after "WALKER" or whatever. And the IN percentage shouldn't have a leading zero if it's under 10%.

-- Steel detection seems to be too wide; on 7 Crazy you now need pixel perfect accuracy to break the ceiling and avoid the steel. You should be able to bash even if a few pixels of the bottom of the steel are within the basher's field.

-- I love, love, LOVE the slower screen scroll movement. Don't change it.

[ccexplore]

-- I love, love, LOVE the slower screen scroll movement. Don't change it.

I don't. &#A0;Sounds like this could be a user-configurable setting.  Or see suggestion in another post below.

[Proxima]

Anyway, it is the true Amiga version of ONML Tame 1, so, um, too bad, unless someone bothers to create an alternate MOD from scratch.  (And frankly, while I'm not exactly crazy about the Amiga version, I can't help but think maybe this is just a case of you being used to a particular version.)

Yes, of course it is    As you see, I had second thoughts and deleted that comment (namely, as soon as I noticed all the other ONML musics are different from what I'm used to too, I realised they must just be different on the version he's using).

[Proxima]

-- I love, love, LOVE the slower screen scroll movement. Don't change it.

I don't.  Sounds like this could be a user-configurable setting.

In fairness to you and other people who've complained about this maybe I should explain why I'm so enthused. Firstly I'm not sure whether it's Cheapo or other version I've played, but I've definitely been annoyed in the past at versions that scroll too fast. Secondly I love the feeling of exploring the level, taking in its design and not just zooming past everything before you get a chance to notice it. Thirdly you do have the mini-map for when you need to jump straight to a particular place, and most of the time when your builder is heading off-screen and you need to catch up with him, you will only want to scroll a short distance. The slower scroll makes it much easier to do that and stop exactly where you want.

[0xdeadbeef]

15) When shrugging (builder finishing 12th brick), visually the shrugger's drawn position seems to be off, although the actual position (as is apparent if you interrupt the shrugger by assigning another skill) appears to be correct.  Visually it looks like the lemming suddenly shift to the edge of the build brick, shrugs, then suddenly shift back to the correct position and start walking.

I will check, but at first look it doesn't look to bad for me.

16) somewhat nitpicking, but in the level mini-map at bottom right corner, often the lemming red dots look like they are floating off the ground they are walking on, even when they are really walking on flat ground.  Should be fairly easy to fix by shifting your calculation of the red dot positions down slightly.

The dots are already extended to the right and lower side. I added rounding, but this will not "fix" this as it's a matter of loss of precision that has to be expected.

17) Exit detection (and possibly detection of other interactive objects, I haven't checked) does not seem to work for builder.

True, only walkers, bashers and miners were allowed to exit. I now added builders and diggers.
Other interactive objects are not limited.

18) Diggers do not detect exits or water

For exists see #17, they should drown on water however. I just drowned one. but it's not easys to do as the water mask is a little to small.

19) Tricky 28 is also good to repro the following visual bug. [...]  

Yeah I know. It's an optimzation issue. To fix minimal visual issues like this I had to copy the draw background with bitmask transparency.
I think the performance loss on low end systems would be substantial. Anyway, this is low prio IMHO.

20) Lemmings come out of the entrance at too low a height.  
(edit: this affects Tricky 12, Mayhem 1 and Mayhem 21: the fall from the entrance should be fatal)

Ok. Will be fixed (I hope)

21) This is a little hard to repro, but I have seen cases where a lemming who is about to explode walks towards a cliff, then start falling even though he is also "shuddering" (yelling oh-no etc.) I think it happens if the falling occurs at or near the same frame that the lemming is converted to a "shudderer". That shouldn't happen, either he starts falling and skips the shuddering, or he shudders before the falling happens. Note though that it is correct for a shudderer who wasn't falling to start falling if the ground underneath him is somehow removed by another lemming.

I'm not even sure if I understand the problem. Should not affect gameplay though, right?

22) Also somewhat nitpicking, but I think when nuking in Lemmini, the assignment of exploders might be happening a little too fast.

Very likely. I'll assign every second frame.

23) I'm definitely able to repro Mindless's bug about nuking not assigning exploders to every lemming, and I verified it has nothing to do with cheat mode. Fun 8 is good for this.

Hell, you're right! Should be fixed in the next release.
 

24) The explosion graphics when a lemming blows up is not clipped at the level's bottom boundary

True, will be fixed.

25) You will see that the blocker frees itself (as if about to fall), but then seems to turn itself around instead of falling.  The clincher:  the blocker field remains, so even though no blocker lemming is actually there anymore, the lemmings cannot pass through the field as if the blocker is still there.

Couldn't reproduce this with my current version. I would think this is the same issue as your #0 "The lemmings don't fall into the gaps".
If so, it will be fixed in the next release.

[0xdeadbeef]

OK, I've had a bit of a play on version 2. Much improved, and SO MUCH FUN!

Sounds good. Let's hope you like the next version even more.

-- "All lemmings accounted for" should have a full stop at the end. Yeah, I'm picky. Sue me.

Will be fixed in the next release. I will rework all the "debriefing" screens later. Lots of messages are missing.

-- I played quite a few levels without crashing, and then got the crash when I tried to increase the RR again. Tame 8 this time.

Damn, I hoped it was a memory issue. I'm a little puzzles what this could be. Maybe the sound?
Did you try to start the JAR from the command line. Exceptions of the runtime environment (out of mem etc.) can't be 100% catched by the program, but there should be a error text printed on the command line.

-- I don't agree with ccexplore that the 2 and 8 in the "number of skills" font are hard to distinguish; 8 and 9, on the other hand.....

If the more important issues are fixed, I will have a look if I can improve the font or find another one. This was coming with Lemmings for Windows (though it's obviously not used).

-- The toolbar should say that number of lemmings currently under the cursor after "WALKER" or whatever. And the IN percentage shouldn't have a leading zero if it's under 10%.

The Amiga version definetely has a leading zero. E.g. it display "00%" at the start of each level.
The "under cursor" thing will be completely reworked including priority etc., but this might take some time.

-- Steel detection seems to be too wide; on 7 Crazy you now need pixel perfect accuracy to break the ceiling and avoid the steel. You should be able to bash even if a few pixels of the bottom of the steel are within the basher's field.

I'm not sure what you mean here. Screenshot? "Pixel perfect accuracy" is something that nearly impossible with the high resolution and all. Steel detection will be a little bit tweaked in 0.3.

-- I love, love, LOVE the slower screen scroll movement. Don't change it.

There are more important issues anyway. Maybe I'll make it customizable...
Or what about speeding it up when pressing space, shift or whatever?

[Proxima]

I will check, but at first look it doesn't look to bad for me.

Does to me; I noticed this problem too.

The Amiga version definetely has a leading zero. E.g. it display "00%" at the start of each level.

Needless to say, I want everything to be faithful to the Mac version  

I'm not sure what you mean here.

First you need to know the solution to Crazy 7. One lemming climbs/floats to the left, builds up to the wall holding the lemmings, bashes right the way across. On the actual game, you have to be a bit precise in where you place the bridge -- you need to strike the wall about one lemming's height below where the crowd are contained, so that you're not too low that you don't release them, and not too high that the steel stops you bashing at all -- but because of what I said, you can still bash if a few pixels of steel overlap the bash tunnel, you don't need pixel precision. On your current version, you do, which is bad news if as you say the high resolution makes the required precision impossible!

[Proxima]

There are more important issues anyway. Maybe I'll make it customizable...
Or what about speeding it up when pressing space, shift or whatever?

Speeding it up when you press shift is a good idea.

[ccexplore]

15) When shrugging (builder finishing 12th brick), visually the shrugger's drawn position seems to be off, although the actual position (as is apparent if you interrupt the shrugger by assigning another skill) appears to be correct. &#A0;Visually it looks like the lemming suddenly shift to the edge of the build brick, shrugs, then suddenly shift back to the correct position and start walking.

I will check, but at first look it doesn't look to bad for me.

I think this is most noticeable when building to the right. &#A0;I'm less sure about building to the left

16) somewhat nitpicking, but in the level mini-map at bottom right corner, often the lemming red dots look like they are floating off the ground they are walking on, even when they are really walking on flat ground. &#A0;Should be fairly easy to fix by shifting your calculation of the red dot positions down slightly.

The dots are already extended to the right and lower side. I added rounding, but this will not "fix" this as it's a matter of loss of precision that has to be expected.

Well, as long as it works most of the time I'm ok with it. &#A0;The main thing was that right now you could see the dots floating quite often.

17) Exit detection (and possibly detection of other interactive objects, I haven't checked) does not seem to work for builder.

True, only walkers, bashers and miners were allowed to exit. I now added builders and diggers.
Other interactive objects are not limited.

To avoid repeating variations of this at later times, I think detection should be added for lemmings in pretty much every state except possibly those related to dying. &#A0;That's pretty much how it works in the real game for example. &#A0;(edit: &#A0;Falling lemmings should probably also be excluded from exit detection actually)

18) Diggers do not detect exits or water

For exists see #17, they should drown on water however. I just drowned one. but it's not easys to do as the water mask is a little to small.

It still looks to me though that when the digger drowns, he's floating at a lower elevation than a lemming that drowns after falling into water, which doesn't seem right to me.I think the problem was actually due to the digger's vertical position being lower than it should when switching from one action to another.  Since you fixed that problem, it has appeared to fix the drowning issue I striked out.

21) This is a little hard to repro, but I have seen cases where a lemming who is about to explode walks towards a cliff, then start falling even though he is also "shuddering" (yelling oh-no etc.) I think it happens if the falling occurs at or near the same frame that the lemming is converted to a "shudderer". That shouldn't happen, either he starts falling and skips the shuddering, or he shudders before the falling happens. Note though that it is correct for a shudderer who wasn't falling to start falling if the ground underneath him is somehow removed by another lemming.

I'm not even sure if I understand the problem. Should not affect gameplay though, right?

Basically one should only see these 2 cases:
&#A0;1) Lemming walks towards cliff, reaches countdown 0 before falling, stops walking, shudders, explodes.
&#A0;2) Lemming walks towards cliff, falls before reaching countdown 0, explodes immediately w/o shuddering.

I'm reporting that I'm seeing a case of mixing up 1 & 2
&#A0;3) Lemming walks towards cliff and falls, but nevertheless still shudders first (while also falling at the same time) before finally exploding.

I guess this arguably doesn't affect gameplay too much since you need good timing to repro. &#A0;Still, it can be noticeable when nuking. &#A0;Anyhow, I'm ok with leaqving this as low priority.

Also, maybe this bug is just another manifestation of #0. &#A0;Let's hope. [edit: looks like it is, so I think it's fixed.]

[ccexplore]

There are more important issues anyway. Maybe I'll make it customizable...
Or what about speeding it up when pressing space, shift or whatever?

Speeding it up when you press shift is a good idea.

That was in fact what I was going to proposed before being interrupted by work.  The shift idea is simple and doesn't require writing code for a config UI, so I think it's ideal.

[Jazzem]

http://www.rocketsoft.gm-school.uni.cc/uploads/Lemming%20jip.JPG

I know it's not very clear in that picture, but if you look the lemmings don't seem to respond to the bridge. It seems that starting a builder lemming on a downwards slope will have them start a pixel to the left of the surface.

EDIT: Also: http://www.rocketsoft.gm-school.uni.cc/uploads/Lemming%20Oh%20no!.JPG

The digger lemming there is actually stuck, he's going through his animatipn but he won't budge :-/

[0xdeadbeef]

Before I get my well deserved sleep, here's another version.

FIXED 0.2 -> 0.3
#  Walkers now turn to fallers immediately if the fall distance is far enough (solves problems in e.g. Mayhem - All or Nothing
#  Fun 9 renamed from "I have a cunning plan" to "As long as you try your best"
#  Digger now stop (again) if they hit steel.
#  When converting a digger to another skill, the new type is no longer starting 4 pixels too low
#  A lemmings assigned to digger skill, will immediately apply the diging mask
#  Blockers affect builders now (also bashers and miners if someone managed to create such a situation)
#  Assigning a skill (successfully) to a lemming unpauses the game if it was paused
#  Builders can exit a level
#  Improved error output
#  Blocker status is not cleared when the blocker is about to explode, but only when it has exploded
#  Fixed position at which lemmings enter the level (a little higher and 2 pixels to the right)
#  Nuke assigned to new level only every 2nd frame to compensate for higher frame rate
#  No more lemmings should survive a nuke
#  Explosions clipped to level area
#  Small congratulations text (preliminary) instead of crash when last level of a difficulty level was won.
#  Newer versions of MOD files (?)
#  Changed order of music files played. Most probably still not 100% correct.

[ccexplore]

Wow, that's a lot accomplished in one day!  Thanks! [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=party.gif]

I should note that I will be on vacation in the upcoming 2 weeks with little to no internet access, so you can rest assure that you will have breathing room for that long before the buglist explodes again. ;D

[tseug]

Just some information about the builder mask: Building to the right, the leftmost pixel of the step is exactly where the lemming is. Building to the left, the rightmost pixel is one pixel to the right of where the lemming is.

EDIT: Still haven't tried it, no winlemm files.