MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

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Eizzoux
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MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Eizzoux »

As we all know, in the element properties, we can see amount of such elements placed in the level and the percentage of playfield they occupy. It works as intended, until we come to MM and DF walls, since these are such kind of element which usually exist in 15 (technically, 16) combinations of their layout among all 4 sub tiles. In other words, when you place some DF steel walls on the playfield and check the properties of that wall, we can see it saying that it's placed nowhere. Technically, such walls can't ever be placed since they're just items to place other elements, which are usually not intended to be seen in editor, so df_steel_wall, df_wooden_wall, mm_steel_wall, mm_wooden_wall, mm_ice_wall and mm_amoeba_wall will never show at least '1' after the line "In this level:".
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I think this can be fixed if you hardcode these elements instead to count sums of their in-game variations being df_steel_wall_2-16, mm_steel_wall_2-16, etc. (considering mm_[any]_wall_1 is just empty, it should be ignored), where four of all combinations should count as '1' each, then six of them as '2', four of them as '3' and last one as '4'.
Here are all combinations:
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And speaking of properties, something silly is going on with the properties of DF/MM elements overall. Obviously, they don't list their functionalities as they're not supported outside of MM engine, so that's why, for example, MM Pacman has no properties despite being able to move around and eat amoeba walls, or MM steel wall having no properties despite being presumably (?) indestructible. Well, to be real, that tag lists only "standard properties", and MM doesn't really have any "standard" properties aside from pacman movement, which is, again, restricted just to MM, so that might be pretty much faithful to the title.
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Holger
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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Holger »

I nearly forgot that I fixed/extended this, too, in an even more generic way: The "INFO" tab on the level editor's element properties page does not only support counting "real" MM style "small wall tiles" now, but I have added something even more useful (I think): This tab now has another (optional, if different) line "Similar tiles: ..." which displays the number of "similar" game elements. That is, all elements of the same "element group" (the same one that can already be used to assign sound effects to more than one element, like "[player].exploding") are counted and displayed if different from the already existing number.

This came to my mind immediately when looking at your screenshot with the pac man when talking about element count. If you have pac man elements for all four directions, currently only the one that is selected as the drawing element gets counted, but not the pac man elements for all other directions -- but often one wants to know if there are any pac man (or whatever) elements in that level, regardless of specific direction. This will also be displayed (if different from the exact element count) in the next version.
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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Eizzoux »

Holger wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 9:09 am This came to my mind immediately when looking at your screenshot with the pac man when talking about element count. If you have pac man elements for all four directions, currently only the one that is selected as the drawing element gets counted, but not the pac man elements for all other directions -- but often one wants to know if there are any pac man (or whatever) elements in that level, regardless of specific direction. This will also be displayed (if different from the exact element count) in the next version.
I guess this also applies to some other things like active states?
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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Holger »

I guess this also applies to some other things like active states?
Yes, exactly. So, things like "dynamite" and "dynamite.active" or "lamp" and "lamp.active" will be counted together, as they are both in their own element groups "dynamite" and "lamp".
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MM/DF walls not highlighted with Alt button

Post by Eizzoux »

Continuing this topic, there's still one thing which is not exactly... perfect, I guess?

Remember that when you hold down an Alt button, all of the elements matching the left palette slot will be highlighted with white borders? Well, I think you know what I'm leaning here to. If you draw any of the mini tiles and then hold down Alt, they, obviously, won't respond, because it's technically a different element.

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I think that could be avoided if there will be another type of highlight related instead to the "similar tiles" which was added few updates ago but with different highlight color.

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Also, I'm not sure if that's a possibility to make it highlight mini tiles even individually like that.

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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Holger »

Continuing this topic, there's still one thing which is not exactly... perfect, I guess?
Indeed! :D

I really like your idea of both highlighting exact and similar game elements, just as it is displayed on the game elements properties page, so I implemented it right away -- including highlighting individual MM style mini wall tiles!

To make things nice and easy, you get what you got before when pressing the "Alt" key (plus having MM wall tiles highlighted individually now, matching the first count on the properties page), and you get all similar tiles when pressing the "Alt" and "Shift" key together (this time highlighting MM wall tiles as "full game elements", matching the second count on the properties page).

I think that's a really useful addition! Thanks for this cool idea! :)
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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Eizzoux »

Holger wrote: ...(plus having MM wall tiles highlighted individually now, matching the first count on the properties page).
But does that mean that it also highlights mini empty spaces when empty space is selected?

Also, off-topic, but speaking of empty space, there's a certain topic in Bug reports below related to it applying custom artwork.
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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Holger »

But does that mean that it also highlights mini empty spaces when empty space is selected?
No, if empty space is selected, only "full empty space tiles" are highlighted.

Not sure how to do this consistently with the "empty space" parts of MM style wall elements... And not too sure if this is really that important. However, if you have a good idea how to handle this, just let me know. :)
Also, off-topic, but speaking of empty space, there's a certain topic in Bug reports below related to it applying custom artwork.
Thanks -- just wrote an answer over there!

And sorry, there are some other posts that still wait for an answer, I'm afraid... :-(
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Re: MM/DF walls not counting in the editor

Post by Eizzoux »

Holger wrote: Wed May 24, 2023 3:39 pm Not sure how to do this consistently with the "empty space" parts of MM style wall elements... And not too sure if this is really that important.
Yeah, to be real, it's not that important if it's technically not an empty space anyways.
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