Beta Lemmingsdl V0.9.9

[Miner49er]

Hi there,

I've added two new features that I would really appreciate testing on the pandora. These are:

* Alternative selection mechanism. Toggle with 't'
* progress saving. Happens automatically, stamps a level as 'complete' and goes to current non-completed level on startup

I would be amazingly suprised if my pnd file works, so if it doesn't then please use the binary and the data from the linux or windows versions.

I would love to hear some feedback with these features and anything else. I fear some levels may be impossible to complete, so I need to compile a list really, then adjust (hopefully just) the level data accordingly.

Cheers,

m

 

[Stainy]

Where`s the download link Miner ?

 

[foxblock]

Where`s the download link Miner ?

http://lessermatters.homeunix.com/LemmingsSDL/

Btw, if you are building the PND with PNDTools, here is a small fix which will attach the icon properly (sorry about that - I am working on a bigger release right now, so I did not merge it into any of the branches yet): http://foxblock.pirategames.co.uk/dropbox/PNDTools.exe

Trying the PND in a minute.

 

[Miner49er]

Where`s the download link Miner ?

http://lessermatters.homeunix.com/LemmingsSDL/

Btw, if you are building the PND with PNDTools, here is a small fix which will attach the icon properly (sorry about that - I am working on a bigger release right now, so I did not merge it into any of the branches yet): http://foxblock.pirategames.co.uk/dropbox/PNDTools.exe

Trying the PND in a minute.

Thanks for supplying the actual link foxblck! I did build with pndtools but it still doesn't work properly when running squashfs and chmod. I do that bit manually and then use pndtools to append the xml (I assume that's what it's doing). I'll try the new version now.

 

[foxblock]

Alright tried the PND, it sadly does not run as the file attributes are missing an executable flag for all users (so far it's only set for the super user) - also no icon appended as I suspected. (the PXML is appended fine though)
I re-packaged it and it works fine, so there is nothing wrong with the actual binary, it just seems like PNDTools fails to run chmod properly as you say.

I am sorry about that, keeping the cmd window open so you can actually scout the error is on my ToDO list, but so far I had to time to work on that :S

I will gladly package the new version for you, although that obviously should not the way to go in the long run

 

[Miner49er]

Alright tried the PND, it sadly does not run as the file attributes are missing an executable flag for all users (so far it's only set for the super user) - also no icon appended as I suspected. (the PXML is appended fine though)
I re-packaged it and it works fine, so there is nothing wrong with the actual binary, it just seems like PNDTools fails to run chmod properly as you say.

I am sorry about that, keeping the cmd window open so you can actually scout the error is on my ToDO list, but so far I had to time to work on that :S

I will gladly package the new version for you, although that obviously should not the way to go in the long run

Annoying! I attempted to create another version using your pndtools - I did run the chmod command as well but maybe I did something else wrong. Yeah, please, it would be nice for another foxblock package! I will get to understand that last step eventually

EDIT: I just tried pndtools again, running from the command line and whilst it didn't print anything useful, it did seem to produce a pnd file - can you it please? It's labeled 'attempt 3'

 

[foxblock]

Annoying! I attempted to create another version using your pndtools - I did run the chmod command as well but maybe I did something else wrong. Yeah, please, it would be nice for another foxblock package! I will get to understand that last step eventually

EDIT: I just tried pndtools again, running from the command line and whilst it didn't print anything useful, it did seem to produce a pnd file - can you it please? It's labeled 'attempt 3'

Alright, icon shows up properly now, but the permission problem persists.

But, I got something for you: http://foxblock.pirategames.co.uk/programs/pndtools/PNDTools_beta.zip
I included some batch scripts in that version, which you can run simply instead of the exe files by setting the paths in the PNDTools options menu accordingly (just change the path for chmod, mksquashfs and unsquashfs from *.exe to *.bat) - the Readme.txt has some more information (I forgot to mention that you should not change the default parameter settings for the batch files to work).
That should keep the cmd window open after running the command so we can actually see what's going wrong (hopefully).
Also you can tinker with the batch files to change settings, set-up permission or whatever.

Hopefully that will help
(That last step is actually not that hard, I have no trouble creating PNDs with the tool so it's only a few easy clicks for me. I will try my best to fix those damn bugs and get that working for everyone else, too)

 

[Miner49er]

Annoying! I attempted to create another version using your pndtools - I did run the chmod command as well but maybe I did something else wrong. Yeah, please, it would be nice for another foxblock package! I will get to understand that last step eventually

EDIT: I just tried pndtools again, running from the command line and whilst it didn't print anything useful, it did seem to produce a pnd file - can you it please? It's labeled 'attempt 3'

Alright, icon shows up properly now, but the permission problem persists.

But, I got something for you: http://foxblock.pirategames.co.uk/programs/pndtools/PNDTools_beta.zip
I included some batch scripts in that version, which you can run simply instead of the exe files by setting the paths in the PNDTools options menu accordingly (just change the path for chmod, mksquashfs and unsquashfs from *.exe to *.bat) - the Readme.txt has some more information (I forgot to mention that you should not change the default parameter settings for the batch files to work).
That should keep the cmd window open after running the command so we can actually see what's going wrong (hopefully).
Also you can tinker with the batch files to change settings, set-up permission or whatever.

Hopefully that will help
(That last step is actually not that hard, I have no trouble creating PNDs with the tool so it's only a few easy clicks for me. I will try my best to fix those damn bugs and get that working for everyone else, too)

Cheers for that. I've just tried your pndtools: I'm at work, so didn't try it under my normal environment (an XP VMware image). I downloaded my latest pnd, chucked it in pndtools and re-ran it. I've plonked it here: http://bayfiles.com/file/11ob/n0dWOf/Lemmings.pnd

Please let me know and I'll attempt to update my site and repo if it's successfull!

EDIT: I've put the newly created pnd on my site now.

 

[Chaser]

The 0.9.9 version you just linked, appears to work just fine. My wife is busy with the first few levels and I doubt I'll get the Pandora back for making guncon videos now

edit:

So I made a quick video of her playing. Bad camera and lighting though but at least you can see it in use.


She just played 14 levels through without any issue (apart from rocking to and fro and singing the tunes :wacko: :lol: ) and reckons its the best version of Lemmings she's ever played. Touchscreen has zero issues and is way better than mouse control.

Do you intend to scale to the full real estate of the Pandora screen in a future build? As that would be the icing on the cake and no lie.

 

[foxblock]

Works fine on my end, you finally did it

 

[Miner49er]

Ah, great! At last

I had forgotten about the Pandora's screen resolution - I will have to have a look at that.
I have just noticed that I broke Nuking for 2 player, so I'll have to do another version anyway.

Glad it's working and it's ace to see it running on an actual Pandora! Though, the lemmings look very small - is it really better than mouse?

 

[Chaser]

I'm just relaying her words but it certainly seems to control really well via touchscreen as ZXDunny had said in the other thread, its a game meant for that when it didn't exist back then.

 

[Miner49er]

I have another test request. Can somebody test this version of the pnd please:

http://lessermatters.homeunix.com/LemmingsSDL/LemmingsSDL_Release0.9.9/LemmingsR2.pnd

It (should) only have one difference from the previous 0.9.9 and that is I've fixed 'nuking' in the 2-player mode. Previously it was impossible to do a 'nuke all lemmings' in 2 player. Hopefully a) this has fixed it and B) my created pnd file works!

Oh, there was also a missing tune (tenlemmings.mod) in the data file which means silence for about level 14.

As soon I have confirmation that this works I shall update the repo.

I'm currently working on making use of Pandoras full 800x480 screen resolution - though please bear in mind that the current state of affairs can be tested by passing in -w 800 -h 480 into the executable. It works...sort of, the menus are stuck in the top-left but the game-screen is almost correct.

EDIT: Scratch that - I've realised that I've compeletely broken the two player game!

 

[gp32rich]

EDIT: Scratch that - I've realised that I've compeletely broken the two player game!

Is that scratch the test request?

Tbh I'm not much of a two player fan. I also don't mind it not being full screen.
If you can make it full screen without stretching that'd be okay, but sometimes (not) having to scroll affects how the level plays and feels.
I'll let you know whether I want a 'restrict view' option after playing full screen

 

[Miner49er]

EDIT: Scratch that - I've realised that I've compeletely broken the two player game!

Is that scratch the test request?

Tbh I'm not much of a two player fan. I also don't mind it not being full screen.
If you can make it full screen without stretching that'd be okay, but sometimes (not) having to scroll affects how the level plays and feels.
I'll let you know whether I want a 'restrict view' option after playing full screen

I would still be interested if the pnd works but yeah 2 player is broken right now :-( But if you don't care, it doesn't matter!

I wasn't going to do any stretching but just increase the visible area of the map from 640 pixels to 800 pixels - do you think that would negatively affect the game?
I remember the (official) windows version did something similar - I hated it to be honest but I think that was more due to the fact that you couldn't make it full screen (windowed only)

Anyway, how can you not be a two-player fan???? It's ace fun!

 

[Dunny]

I wasn't going to do any stretching but just increase the visible area of the map from 640 pixels to 800 pixels - do you think that would negatively affect the game?

No, it would be WONDERFUL. Align the action buttons to the left, extend the "minimap" to the right and make the game window 800 pixels wide and occupy the rest of the screen.

To be honest, I was expecting you to stretch from 640x400 to 800x480 using the hardware scaler but making the playfield bigger would be fantastic - not to mention would mitigate any problems you might have scaling the touchscreen input to the new size... you'd not have to scale anything!

Please, please do this

D.

 

[Miner49er]

I wasn't going to do any stretching but just increase the visible area of the map from 640 pixels to 800 pixels - do you think that would negatively affect the game?

No, it would be WONDERFUL. Align the action buttons to the left, extend the "minimap" to the right and make the game window 800 pixels wide and occupy the rest of the screen.

To be honest, I was expecting you to stretch from 640x400 to 800x480 using the hardware scaler but making the playfield bigger would be fantastic - not to mention would mitigate any problems you might have scaling the touchscreen input to the new size... you'd not have to scale anything!

Please, please do this

D.

How could I say no! I've updated my site with a new version that does exactly what you requested

http://lessermatters.homeunix.com/LemmingsSDL/

..only problem is, gee-whizz, I haven't made a pnd file. The problem is, I only have a linux machine at home and the only succesfull pnd creations have been at work on a windows 7 machine. So, unless anyone can help (hint hint) it will have to wait until monday :-(

EDIT: there is a Pandora binary though if anyone can manually get it together (using the linux package for the data directory)

EDIT2: I've added a PND file now!! Please test it for me somebody...anybody!

 

[foxblock]

Works perfectly, here are a few screenshots
Thanks for the countless updates and great game (don't you think it's worthy of a 1.0 now? )

 

[Dunny]

Works perfectly, here are a few screenshots
Thanks for the countless updates and great game (don't you think it's worthy of a 1.0 now? )

No - there's a few things left to do yet ;-)

D.

 

[foxblock]

No - there's a few things left to do yet ;-)

D.

Ah, but there is ALWAYS a few things left to do.