Working towards a release

[Edward_Lii]

Hello all,

I think we should start making levels for the default levelpack.
My idea was to make some levels and if it fits the difficulty level we can include it in the levelpack.
The difficulty should start from where the tutorial left of and slowly get harder.

And then we can release the release candidate.

[KroArtem]

Sounds rather reasonable, I'll try to do something not very complicated, but I don't promise anything
Btw, how can I edit pages on the wiki? There are some typos here and there

[Edward_Lii]

Hello KroArtem,

Sounds rather reasonable, I'll try to do something not very complicated, but I don't promise anything

Looking forward to them.

Btw, how can I edit pages on the wiki? There are some typos here and there

The previous wiki had trouble with spam, to prevent this the permission of user are restricted.
Only users and sysops can create new accounts, therefor I'll need an e-mail address.

If you don't want to give an e-mail address I'll temporary give permission to create accounts
- OR - choose a temp password for you, but that isn't save.

BTW, the typos are probably because I'm trying to get a draft version of the pages in first.

[KroArtem]

Hello Edward_Lii ,
I thought I can send you a PM with email address but this feature seems to be removed. In this case, can you create an account with feeblehamster [at] gmail [dot] com email?

[Edward_Lii]

Hello KroArtem,

I thought I can send you a PM with email address but this feature seems to be removed. In this case, can you create an account with feeblehamster [at] gmail [dot] com email?

Done, there should be mail sent to you with a random password.
You can change it the first time you login.

[acme_pjz]

Hi,

Maybe I'm overlooked, but where is the level properties dialog? (to set level name, etc.)

[Edward_Lii]

Hello acme_pjz,

Maybe I'm overlooked, but where is the level properties dialog? (to set level name, etc.)

There's no button for, you'll have to press the Tab key.
Perhaps we should add a button for it, and one for the Levelpack editor, which currently is Shift+Ctrl+s.

[MCMic]

The tutorial text says "you can jump using the spacebar", but jump is mapped to the "up" button of the keyboard, not the spacebar.

[MCMic]

Also, the "Message" title white box should have the same black border than the message box. (at list for up border and sides where they does not overlap)
And there should be some white space before and after "Message" (one character).

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

The tutorial text says "you can jump using the spacebar", but jump is mapped to the "up" button of the keyboard, not the spacebar.

Fixed, thanks for reporting.

Also, the "Message" title white box should have the same black border than the message box. (at list for up border and sides where they does not overlap)
And there should be some white space before and after "Message" (one character).

Also done, the white space isn't one character wide but a bit less.

Thanks again for your feedback.

[MCMic]

The help screens can be simplified:
- The "moving block" screen can be replaced by "Some blocks are moving" in the block screen
- There are not 3 types of trigger, only two : the ones that you can use multiple time and the ones that you can use only once. At least it's what the player will see. Either if a trigger stop a block or make it move is not important.
- You should make appear somewhere the feature "hit spacebar twice to cancel record". An other key should be available for doing this, like "backspace" for instance (double tapping is annoying and dangerous : if we're slow the record is validated)

About the game itself:
- The message should disappear when I hit either space, escape or enter. It's annoying to search for the right key.
- It's annoying not being able to record while the shadow is moving, I often try to start recording to soon at the end of the movement and the record does not start. Maybe "record mode" and "shadow is moving" mode should be more obvious, If I don't move I can't see the little squares telling me if I'm recording or not.
- Once dead, hitting R seems complicated. Enter or Space should make it, no? (Enter is used by Xmoto)
- I installed the cloudy theme in the addon menu, I selected it in the option menu and unchecked "theme level", I still see the default theme while in game. :-(

Besides this, the game has made great progress! The tutorial is good, a bit long though, some levels are useless (really, a level to explain that spikes can move??)

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

- The "moving block" screen can be replaced by "Some blocks are moving" in the block screen
- There are not 3 types of trigger, only two : the ones that you can use multiple time and the ones that you can use only once. At least it's what the player will see. Either if a trigger stop a block or make it move is not important.
- You should make appear somewhere the feature "hit spacebar twice to cancel record". An other key should be available for doing this, like "backspace" for instance (double tapping is annoying and dangerous : if we're slow the record is validated)

Your right, it's important that the help pages are written from a user's point of view.
The help screens were made according to the code, internally there are three moving block types and three trigger types.
I'll change them soon.

- The message should disappear when I hit either space, escape or enter. It's annoying to search for the right key.

I'll try to add the keys you mentioned, I'm afraid that the escape key will also trigger the exiting of the level.

- It's annoying not being able to record while the shadow is moving, I often try to start recording to soon at the end of the movement and the record does not start. Maybe "record mode" and "shadow is moving" mode should be more obvious, If I don't move I can't see the little squares telling me if I'm recording or not.

I once tough of that too, but other things had priority.
I'll see what I can do.

- Once dead, hitting R seems complicated. Enter or Space should make it, no? (Enter is used by Xmoto)

Not sure, first of all the spacebar isn't possible since that's already used for recording.
And changing it to the enter key. I'm afraid it will be too easy to hit.
When I played Xmoto and failed constantly on the start of a level I would press enter, even if I made it. (Or that's just me )

- I installed the cloudy theme in the addon menu, I selected it in the option menu and unchecked "theme level", I still see the default theme while in game. :-(

Have you saved the settings by pressing the save button in the options menu?

Besides this, the game has made great progress! The tutorial is good, a bit long though, some levels are useless (really, a level to explain that spikes can move??)

Thanks, about the tutorial, it is probably the first levelpack a new user will play and some extra training won't hurt.

I really appreciate your feedback.
Sometimes you can miss the obvious when your developing it.

[MCMic]

It's true in Xmoto I sometimes hit enter by mistake.
But the space and enter keys should only restart the level if we're dead (ie on the same condition than showing the "press r to restart level" msg)

[MCMic]

Hello MCMic,

- I installed the cloudy theme in the addon menu, I selected it in the option menu and unchecked "theme level", I still see the default theme while in game. :-(

Have you saved the settings by pressing the save button in the options menu?

Yes, it still does not work.
I also tried adding a folder with different images in the theme folder, it appears in the theme choice, but the game does not use the images that are inside when playing levels.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

Yes, it still does not work.
I also tried adding a folder with different images in the theme folder, it appears in the theme choice, but the game does not use the images that are inside when playing levels.

Strange, I'm not sure what could be causing this.
Perhaps renaming/deleting your ~/.meandmyshadow helps.

But I would like to know the cause of this problem.
Make sure the folder ~/.meandmyshadow/themes/Cloudscape/ exists.
And in the config file ~/.meandmyshadow/meandmyshadow.cfg there should be a line like this:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

theme = %USER%/themes/Cloudscape

And when running meandmyshadow one of the first lines of output is:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

User preferences will be fetched from: <path>

Is that path correct for you?

[MCMic]

The folder is here, the config file fits, and the path is correct too.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

The folder is here, the config file fits, and the path is correct too.

Strange
The Theme system is designed to always have the default theme loaded, as a fallback theme.
Then upon loading it will load other themes, configured and/or leveltheme.
What I noticed is that once it encounters an error while opening the file or parsing it, it will stop loading and skip that part of the theme.
This way if there's a typo in the theme file for the normal block it won't load it and use the fallback (default theme) for the normal block.

But if a bracket is missing a chain-reaction can occur causing the theme to be completely ignored and only showing the default, fallback.
There's almost no warning/error output in the ThemeManager, I'll try to add some.

BTW, could you post the content of the theme.mnmstheme file of the Cloudscape theme?

[MCMic]

The theme.mnmstheme : http://pastebin.com/gff8V1pP

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

The theme.mnmstheme : http://pastebin.com/gff8V1pP

It looks okay and I tested it and it works fine.

I haven't got a clue what it could be.
Just to be sure:

* Your running a recent revision of svn.
* Nothing modified (run svn st in workpath to check).
* The image files aren't corrupted?
* Running the latest svn doesn't give you any warning/errors?

What you should try is a clean checkout (new working copy) and new .meandmyshadow folder.
Then compile meandmyshadow, start it, install the theme and configure it.
Hope it works!

[MCMic]

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

libpng warning: Ignoring bad adaptive filter type
libpng warning: Ignoring bad adaptive filter type
libpng error: IDAT: CRC error
ERROR: Can't open image file /home/mcmic/.meandmyshadow/themes/Cloudscape/background.png
ERROR: Unable to load background for theme /home/mcmic/.meandmyshadow/themes/Cloudscape/theme.mnmsthe
me
ERROR: Failed loading theme /home/mcmic/.meandmyshadow/themes/Cloudscape/theme.mnmstheme

I get this with the last revision.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

...
I get this with the last revision.

It looks like the image is corrupted -OR- there's something wrong with your libpng.
Can you view the image ~/.meandmyshadow/themes/Cloudscape/background.png with an image viewer?
Which version of libpng do you have installed?

[MCMic]

It's true files are corrupted in my user folder. (in the Cloudscape theme folder)
But I removed it and install it again with the addon manager I got the same corrupted files.

Besides, some of the files are here, like the player sprites, why aren't this ones used?

[EDIT] libpng version: 1.4.8-1

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

It's true files are corrupted in my user folder. (in the Cloudscape theme folder)
But I removed it and install it again with the addon manager I got the same corrupted files.

Strange they work fine for me.
Are they also corrupted when you download it from here:
meandmyshadow.sourceforge.net/game/themes/Cloudscape.zip

Besides, some of the files are here, like the player sprites, why aren't this ones used?

I made a slight mistake in explaining how the thememanager works.
It will only use the fallback when a certain part is missing from the theme.mnmstheme file.
In case of an error it will ignore the complete theme.

Perhaps it's better if it will ignore only the troublesome part?

[MCMic]

I don't know.
The 18th level, "the road", can be finished without using the shadow, is that normal?
No, the zip is not corrupted. I think the addon download manager have a problem.
The 22 level is kind of impossible as we can't see the left of the level where we need to guide the shadow.
Attached is a theme I made with gnu and linux as characters. (I took them from Smack : http://opengameart.org/content/smack-game-sprites )
There are some problems with the hitbox, a debug mode with hitbox displayed would help theme maker to ajust their work.

Me And My Shadow really needs nicer sprites IMO.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

The 18th level, "the road", can be finished without using the shadow, is that normal?
...
The 22 level is kind of impossible as we can't see the left of the level where we need to guide the shadow.

These levels are the original levels made by Luka Horvat before the source was released.
Although they could contain some "bugs" I don't think we should change them.
As for the 22th level, I've noticed it before and I'm thinking adding a button that will allow the player to center the camera on the shadow.
What do you think?

No, the zip is not corrupted. I think the addon download manager have a problem.

It can be the downloading (done by curl) or the extracting (done by libarchive).
Which version of curl have you installed and which version of libarchive?

One way to check if the downloading is working is looking in the ~/.meandmyshadow/tmp/ folder.
There should be a file Cloudscape.zip, is that file corrupted?

Attached is a theme I made with gnu and linux as characters. (I took them from Smack : http://opengameart.org/content/smack-game-sprites )

Nice, not sure about the background though.
Would you like me too add the theme to the addon manager? (You might want to add a LICENSE file to the theme).

Me And My Shadow really needs nicer sprites IMO.

I agree and disagree, the current theme is ugly but on the other hand has its charms.
But from a new user's point of view the graphics are the first impression.

Perhaps we can ask for sprites on OGA?