V0.5 Preparation thread

Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 01 Sep 2018, 04:58

Hello all,

I'd like to release the V0.5 RC (Release Candidate) version next weekend, i.e. Sept. 8 or 9. There is still one week to catch more bugs or propose minor improvements.

There are still some addons with unclear license, though:


@Edward_Lii, what is the progress in contacting them?

I assume that Tedium also uses OpenGameArt, but I can't find him.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby GunChleoc » 03 Sep 2018, 20:27

I have filed a couple of i18n bugs that don't necessarily need fixing for the RC. I also have a pull request ready with some added context for translators.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 04 Sep 2018, 09:36

GunChleoc {l Wrote}:I have filed a couple of i18n bugs that don't necessarily need fixing for the RC. I also have a pull request ready with some added context for translators.


I have already replied on Github. I think there is only one issue which can't be fixed for V0.5. Others are quite OK.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Wuzzy » 06 Sep 2018, 22:53

Hey!
I have a suggestion. How about moving to hosted.weblate.org for the translation system?

Sadly, Transifex is proprietary and cannot be used without running proprietary software (JavaScript) and I am slowly walking away from Transifex.

See also:
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8059
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 07 Sep 2018, 04:32

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Hey!
I have a suggestion. How about moving to hosted.weblate.org for the translation system?

Sadly, Transifex is proprietary and cannot be used without running proprietary software (JavaScript) and I am slowly walking away from Transifex.

See also:
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8059


I have just submitted the application form to them. Waiting for response.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Edward_Lii » 07 Sep 2018, 05:49

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:@Edward_Lii, what is the progress in contacting them?

I assume that Tedium also uses OpenGameArt, but I can't find him.

Sorry for the late response. I have still to receive a response to my emails to them. I'll try one more time, but if there's no response again, I'm afraid we have no definite answer and will have to remove those addons :(

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:I'd like to release the V0.5 RC (Release Candidate) version next weekend, i.e. Sept. 8 or 9. There is still one week to catch more bugs or propose minor improvements.

I would like to cram in one level in the tutorial for the pushable blocks. I'll try to get that done today, as it would be quite weird to not have a level for it in the tutorial.

EDIT: Actually, thinking about it, that might not be the best idea. It would require a translation for both the title of the level and the explanation inside the level.
Now we don't have pushable blocks in the default levels/levelpacks, so perhaps not having it in the tutorial isn't too bad. :-/
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 07 Sep 2018, 13:56

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Hey!
I have a suggestion. How about moving to hosted.weblate.org for the translation system?


The Hosted Weblate project have just been set up: <https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/me-and-my-shadow/>. Some other things are also need to be setup yet, e.g. auto-update of .pot file from Github and auto-upte translations to Github. Maybe one or two days later the web translation will officially moved to Hosted Weblate.

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:I would like to cram in one level in the tutorial for the pushable blocks. I'll try to get that done today, as it would be quite weird to not have a level for it in the tutorial.

EDIT: Actually, thinking about it, that might not be the best idea. It would require a translation for both the title of the level and the explanation inside the level.
Now we don't have pushable blocks in the default levels/levelpacks, so perhaps not having it in the tutorial isn't too bad. :-/


OK, I think it's fine. Maybe you can keep your new levels in a separate branch and we can merge it after V0.5 is released. :)
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby GunChleoc » 08 Sep 2018, 18:36

Found a typo in the weblate project:

https://hosted.weblate.org/translate/me ... e901eb63e2

It says "Me And My Shadow / traslations" -> translations

Better fix that before you start automating stuff ;)
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 09 Sep 2018, 01:07

This one is not under my control :| Maybe I should write an email to the Weblate guy again. The URL is correct, though.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 09 Sep 2018, 09:59

@Wuzzy,

I have a problem about Hosted Weblate. I hope you know the solution before the Hosted Weblate guy replying my email.

I was pushing a .pot file changes onto Github master, and the Hosted Weblate pushes translation changes back. However, the newly added strings in .pot file don't appear on the web translation system, the languages which were 100% are still 100% after I push .pot changes.

What should I do now?
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 10 Sep 2018, 11:21

Oops I think I made a huge mistake :( which erases half of the translations :(

The old translation file has "charset=CHARSET" which causes problems on Hosted Weblate, which erases all of non-ASCII characters :( I have restored old translations from earlier commit, except for de and gd translations which are changed recently.

@GunChleoc and @Wuzzy, could you recheck the de and gd translations to see if any non-ASCII characters are eaten and need to be restored? Sorry for the inconvenience :( :(
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Wuzzy » 10 Sep 2018, 14:55

Thanks for moving to Weblate, highly appreciated!

I'm only an user of Weblate, so I can't help with technical problems.

I have checked the German translation on Weblate again and I did not see any broken non-ASCII characters. But you can easily check for yourself, just grep the PO files for “ä”, “ö”, “ü”, “Ä”, “Ö”, “Ü” or “ß”. If none of these characters appear anywhere, then something probably went wrong. :)
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 10 Sep 2018, 16:05

OK, I have checked and it looks like that de and gd translations are not affected. :)
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 12 Sep 2018, 12:30

Hi all,

I have just released the V0.5 RC version. :) You can find the files here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/meandm ... les/0.5rc/ . Currently there are Win32 and Linux64 binaries as well as source packages.

You can read the announcement here: https://acmepjz.github.io/meandmyshadow ... eased.html .

Tasks to do before the V0.5 version:

  • Ask the translators to update the translations.
  • Fix the OSX build and packaging.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 13 Sep 2018, 05:13

@SanskritFritz,

I found that some characters in Hungarian translation are missing. This is not your fault, but missing characters in our font files.

I think the only way to fix it in V0.5 version is use another font for Hungarian translation. Currently I use the font Source Sans Pro Italic (licensed under SIL Open Font License) Open Sans Italic (licensed under Apache 2.0) in the 0.5.1-dev branch. But this will make the English text looks less nicer (for example in Russian and Chinese translation). What do you think?

[EDIT] Finally I decided to use DejaVu Sans Condensed Oblique (https://dejavu-fonts.github.io/ licensed under Bitstream Vera Fonts Copyright, etc.) which provides slightly more characters, including Cyrillic, ő and the character which looks like 7 in Scottish Gaelic. This unfortunately adds the data by roughly 900KB. Also, I have already modified Russian, Scottish Gaelic and Hungarian translations on Weblate so you don't need to worry about the fonts used.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Wuzzy » 13 Sep 2018, 20:38

This music track might interest you:

https://opengameart.org/content/depressed-of-happytown
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 14 Sep 2018, 04:50

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:This music track might interest you:

https://opengameart.org/content/depressed-of-happytown


I think this music is great :) . Let's ask @Edward_Lii for opinion.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby GunChleoc » 14 Sep 2018, 11:19

Thanks for the font fix!

BTW notifications in Weblate are completely non-functional - I have subscribed to everything and did not receive an e-mail about the new strings you pushed.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 15 Sep 2018, 15:20

GunChleoc {l Wrote}:notifications in Weblate are completely non-functional - I have subscribed to everything and did not receive an e-mail about the new strings you pushed.


OK, indeed I don't know about the notification system; currently the string on Weblate will be updated automatically if .pot files on Github master branch is updated. Maybe you have to ask the Weblate guy :|
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Wuzzy » 19 Sep 2018, 15:48

Some levels need cleanup in 0.5 RC:

- The final level in Classic (level 24, credits) has no exit and thus cannot be completed. So technically, it is impossible to beat Classic. This is dumb. Either add an exit or remove the level
- It seems Tutorial level 15 is impossible to win with gold. In 0.4.1 I was able to beat the time, but not in 0.5 RC. Maybe the moving platform became slower?
- I am not sure, but Tutorial level 9 (Fragile) seems to be impossible to beat in gold either. The only way it seems to beat it is to jump on the upper fragile block and jump straight to the exit, but no matter how hard I try, a just cannot cross the gap. Is it just me or is it impossible?

Stuff to add for tutorial:
- Pushable blocks
- Camera control / How to view your shadow when it's far away


EDIT:

Editor bugs:
- You can resize teleporter, collectible, swapper, checkpoint, fragile. They render as multiple teleportes/collectables/etc., but act as a single one
- You can resize the player and shadow starting position, which doesn't make sense

Translation problem:
- The string “Swap” is used in 2 different contexts, but you can only translate it once. First context is in the level editor, to refer to the swap map tile. The other context is in the level set screen of the level editor. When you want to move a level, there is the option “swap”. To fix this, look up “context” in your Gettext manual.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 19 Sep 2018, 17:11

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:The final level in Classic (level 24, credits) has no exit and thus cannot be completed. So technically, it is impossible to beat Classic. This is dumb. Either add an exit or remove the level


This was already contained in V0.1. I don't know if we should modify it. Maybe we can ask Edward_Lii for opinion.

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:It seems Tutorial level 15 is impossible to win with gold. In 0.4.1 I was able to beat the time, but not in 0.5 RC. Maybe the moving platform became slower?


I think there are some changes in code which breaks this. The 0.4.1 replay on my computer doesn't work in 0.5 RC. Probably caused by the code changes in determining the block player is standing on (see here). However I'm not completely sure, maybe you need to compare the 0.4.1 and 0.5RC replay frame by frame to make sure that the moving platform has the same speed, but only the player is moving slower.

I think it's not a good idea to change it back. Probably we should modify the target time for this level?

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:I am not sure, but Tutorial level 9 (Fragile) seems to be impossible to beat in gold either. The only way it seems to beat it is to jump on the upper fragile block and jump straight to the exit, but no matter how hard I try, a just cannot cross the gap. Is it just me or is it impossible?


I managed to finish it, here is the replay:



Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Stuff to add for tutorial:
- Pushable blocks
- Camera control / How to view your shadow when it's far away


At first Edward_Lii wants to design a tutorial for pushable blocks. However we give up and prefer to include it in next version since the core levels don't use pushable blocks yet. Scroll up several screens you can find the post by Edward_Lii.

If you are interested, you're welcome to design these two tutorials :)
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 20 Sep 2018, 06:17

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Editor bugs:
- You can resize teleporter, collectible, swapper, checkpoint, fragile. They render as multiple teleportes/collectables/etc., but act as a single one
- You can resize the player and shadow starting position, which doesn't make sense


I think this is mainly the problem of the theme, since previously the theme is not designed for sizable blocks. The resizable teleporter, collectible, swapper, checkpoint, fragile are a little bit weird in current theme (I'll try to fix current theme but most of them are non-trivial to fix without artist) but if you have proper theme file they do make sense.

As for the player and shadow start position I'll also fix the theme file (and I think that only certain blocks can be resized sounds weird and introduces additional checks in code).

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Translation problem:
- The string “Swap” is used in 2 different contexts, but you can only translate it once. First context is in the level editor, to refer to the swap map tile. The other context is in the level set screen of the level editor. When you want to move a level, there is the option “swap”. To fix this, look up “context” in your Gettext manual.


I think change the name of the swap tile to "Swap block" is resonable (I remember that somehow it was called "Swapper" in older versions; do you think this name is OK?). Or change the phrase "Swap" in move level screen to something else? However, I think this can only be added for next version since it will introduce new strings.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Wuzzy » 20 Sep 2018, 15:25

I think the term “swapper” is most reasonable. It's short, intuitive and clear what it means.

EDIT: I think just found a bug: There is no application/window icon for the MaMS window on GNU/Linux. It's not a new bug, it was there in 0.4.1, too.

EDIT 2: I finally won Tutorial level 9 (Fragile) at gold, but it was a real pain. xD It's really difficult to get that jump right. I have no idea what I did different. I try to walk as far as possible to the edge of the fragile block, then jump, but it still fails 99% of the time. I have to be really lucky here.
And even when I make it, I often immediately accidentally jump again when I reach the block, which costs valuable milliseconds before hitting the exit. Anyway, it's doable, but really annoying. But hey, it's gold, right? XD

EDIT 3: Another bug, maybe? In the tutorial the golden orb is called “key” but it does not look like a key at all. Hmm … I like that orb appearance, however.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby acme_pjz » 21 Sep 2018, 10:33

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:I think just found a bug: There is no application/window icon for the MaMS window on GNU/Linux. It's not a new bug, it was there in 0.4.1, too.


We don't write the code to set the window icon yet. However, on Windows there is in fact an icon, because SDL2 will fetch the first icon in the resource file which is embed into the executable.

Wuzzy {l Wrote}:Another bug, maybe? In the tutorial the golden orb is called “key” but it does not look like a key at all.


Maybe previously we use a key texture for collectibles in development version, who knows... By the way, there are some addon themes whose collectible is displayed as a key.
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Re: V0.5 Preparation thread

Postby Wuzzy » 21 Sep 2018, 14:28

Yes, in Orange the key is a key, but I am pretty sure I grabbed the texture from an old version of the Cloudscape theme (i.e. the DEFAULT theme). Anyway, right now, under DEFAULT settings, either the texture or the tutorial text needs fixing. Or should the word “key” be more read as a metaphor? :)



I just took some time to review the level editor.
Level editor / level format
Nice work! The level editor looks quite powerful and its mostly convenient to use, too. The GUI is solid and does its job well most of the time.
It's a noticable improvement compared to the previous version.

Still, I have a ton of smaller usability complaints here and there, but overall, it's good.

Bugs:
- Testing a level seems a bit broken. Nothing happens if you hit the exit (not even a message). There are a lot of render problems, too. The starting positions still render when you test a level. A broken fragile block leaves behind a trail of pixels. And a lot of other ugly things
- If you create a new level, then set goal recordings to 1 and the goal time to 10 seconds, then save, then set time to 0, then save again, then you playtest the level, you will notice the goal time is still 10 seconds.
- If there are multiple blocks overlapping, and you rightclick it, the block names might be too long for the context menu. For example, in German, the block name “Beweglicher Schattenblock” / “Bewegender Schattenblock” is too long. The context menu should be wider.

Toolbox:
- The toolbox is a bit hidden, it should be more discoverable. The arrow is a bit small. It's weird there is no button at the bottom toolbar. I think if an additional button in the toolbar is added, then it will probably OK.
- Would be nice if the available keyboard shortcut is written in the tooltip

Context menus:
- The context menu which shows the list of layers uses checkboxes wrong. As you can only activate one layer at a time, checkboxes are wrong here. Replace the checkboxes with radio buttons, i.e. circles with a black dot inside if selected.
- The entries “Delete selected layer” and “Configure selected layer” don't work when you have selected the block layer. Either gray them out or hide them when the block layer is selected
- Very good you thought of the case when multiple blocks overlap.

Level settings:
- It's not clear that setting the goal time to 0 means there is no goal time (and the recording goal is ignored as well).
- Ideally, is should be possible to disable goal time and recordings goal with a checkbox individually. Forcing the user to remember “magic” values is not good.

Scripting:
- In the scripting window, there should at least be some note or pointer to a manual of some kind, as this is not self-explanatory at all.

Resizing blocks:
- Nice feature, but might be overlooked by people

Missing features:
- Resizing the level. The level size automatically increases by placing blocks, but it appears you can never shrink it.
- There is not even a warning when starting positions or the exit are missing.

Layers:
Oh, layers. This is a big one.
The level format now appears to support layers. Apparently it is now “legal” to place normal blocks as scenery. They look EXACTLY like real blocks, except they act like empty space. I don't like this concept. It doesn't seem to be (ab-)used yet, but I can already see a future of low quality troll levels with many fake blocks, since they are in the background layer. This is a bad idea, trying to figure out which blocks are fake in a level would be just a chore and not fun at all.

I think the layer system is interesting, but it should not be trivially possible for such abuse. Using normal-looking blocks as scenery is just evil. Foreground and background layers should really only allow scenery blocks, not fake blocks that look like you can walk on.

Still, having this background layer will certainly allow for good background decorations in future. Like that brick wall. I can already imagine some nice “interior” levels.

The way to determine whether a layer is foreground or background is weird. Why does the name matter at all? Also, apparently capitalization matters as well, which is even more confusing. This means the layer “g” is a foreground layer, but the layer “G” is a background layer. Can't this nonsense just be abstracted away from the user? Maybe by adding these “magic” letters automatically at the start of the layer name, but hiding them in the editor. I.e. layer “Alpha” is internally saved as “bAlpha” (background) or “fAlpha” (foreground).

Finally, apparently you can now also make blocks invisible and even give them a completely different (fake) appearance. This is truly evil. This means you can make spikes invisible, and turn normal blocks into shadow blocks, etc. and all sorts of nasty things. I really see no reason for having such a feature that only serves to make levels more annoying. This basically means, technically, players cannot trust anything they see. Any open space might hide spikes or the exit, and any block they see might not be what it seems to be.
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