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Lunar Magic suggestions and discussion (LM v3.40)

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The only thing I can think of is that you won't be able to run an SA-1 ROM with LMSW (the in-editor emulator).
Could the Layer 3 image display be updated so that it actually reflects how it appears in-game based on the initial X/Y position setting? It's kind of trial-and-error as it is.

Also, there should be a Variable 2 setting for Layer 2 scrolling. It would be useful when, for instance, you have a Layer 3 background that's supposed to go above Layer 2 rather than below it.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
The recent additions to the Layer 2 BG Scroll options made me think of something: why not make them to be chosen to each Horizontal and Vertical settings individually? That would give more variety to the settings without having to use the preset ones.
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2021 TRENO vibe check thread
I think I found some kind of bug with Lunar Magic. You should probably take a look at this. Neither me nor Noivern know what's going on.

This problem seems to occur in Version 3.01 and 3.00. The weird thing is, Noivern doesn't seem to be having any issues at all, only I am.

Click the character on the right side of my layout to visit my Discord server and discuss and play and look at and get updates and sneak peeks of the games and other things I'm making.

The authors of these 2 My Little Pony fan games have removed their games from the Internet.
Rise of the Clockwork Stallions has been updated! Download My Little Pony: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions DX: Director's Cut and My Little Pony: Magic Shards now! Spread this link!

So I solved that issue I just posted. It really confused the heck out of me, so I would suggest that, for Lunar Magic 3.02, the people in charge of Lunar Magic read the tips I suggested in that thread I linked to in my last post.

Click the character on the right side of my layout to visit my Discord server and discuss and play and look at and get updates and sneak peeks of the games and other things I'm making.

The authors of these 2 My Little Pony fan games have removed their games from the Internet.
Rise of the Clockwork Stallions has been updated! Download My Little Pony: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions DX: Director's Cut and My Little Pony: Magic Shards now! Spread this link!

Well, it's probably been brought up before.

But how about the option to use palette rows after palette 7 for overworld foreground graphics and what not? There's already a patch to do that, and I think a few ASM heavy hacks in the past did something similar.

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=35727
For gaming news and Wario discussions, check out Gaming Reinvented and Wario Forums respectively.

As for Mario's Nightmare Quest? Well, it's currently on Fusion Gameworks, ROM Hacking.net or the GCN at the moment.
Originally posted by imamelia
Could the Layer 3 image display be updated so that it actually reflects how it appears in-game based on the initial X/Y position setting? It's kind of trial-and-error as it is.


No plans for it currently (and there's no reason I can think of to do it for X).

Originally posted by imamelia
Also, there should be a Variable 2 setting for Layer 2 scrolling.


There already is.

Originally posted by Shiny Ninetales
The recent additions to the Layer 2 BG Scroll options made me think of something: why not make them to be chosen to each Horizontal and Vertical settings individually? That would give more variety to the settings without having to use the preset ones.


It's crossed my mind a few times before, but separating them means adding yet another table to hold the separate settings for all levels. Probably unnecessary for most people given that there's still free entries in the existing scroll table to play with.

Originally posted by DPBOX
So I solved that issue I just posted. It really confused the heck out of me, so I would suggest that, for Lunar Magic 3.02, the people in charge of Lunar Magic read the tips I suggested in that thread I linked to in my last post.


Will consider it, though most people will have "Auto-Set Number of Screens" turned on anyway.

Originally posted by cheat-master30
But how about the option to use palette rows after palette 7 for overworld foreground graphics and what not? There's already a patch to do that, and I think a few ASM heavy hacks in the past did something similar.


Sounds like the patch in that thread does no more than what enabling the custom palette option for the overworld does in LM.

Also, palettes 8-15 are for sprites. That's a hardware limit for that mode.
Originally posted by FuSoYa
Originally posted by imamelia
Also, there should be a Variable 2 setting for Layer 2 scrolling.


There already is.

Only for vertical scrolling, not horizontal.

Also, are there any plans to fix Layer 3 interaction? Currently, the location of its interaction field seems to be partially determined by the position of Layer 2, not to mention it uses the entire level for Map16 tile checking despite the fact that the graphics repeat and therefore are only 2 screens wide.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
Could it be that manual ExAnimation triggers are broken? Writing to $7FC07x does not change the animation frame. (or if it does, it only works once every couple of seconds or so?)

I'm well aware I may be messing things up one way or another, but:

  • I tried this on a clean ROM, using only a simple four-frame animation (manual trigger 0) and an uberASM code that said LDA $14 : LSR : AND #$03 : STA $7FC070
  • According to the debugger, the address is written to correctly, and nothing else is writing to it
  • The help file doesn't mention anything about having to do something special to apply the change, apart from just writing to the address

If you @FuSoYa could confirm that (or anyone else if it happens to them as well) or let me know what I'm blatantly missing, that'd be great. #tb{:)}


edit: looks like I was missing something after all. Apparently $7FC07x is only read by an animation when its animation slot updates (i.e. every 8 frames). I thought I could use one slot and update the animation whenever I want, but I guess this makes sense. Just had a slightly different intuition about what "manual" was supposed to mean.


 
I found an easy way to crash Lunar Magic by loading a Map16 file. More specifically, the Map16 editor has to be opened per background editor and the background remap window must be open when you load a Map16 file. That easily crashes Lunar Magic.
Originally posted by imamelia
Only for vertical scrolling, not horizontal.


Just edit one of the free entries in the scroll table. All the scroll speeds for vertical are also usable for horizontal.

Originally posted by imamelia
Also, are there any plans to fix Layer 3 interaction? Currently, the location of its interaction field seems to be partially determined by the position of Layer 2, not to mention it uses the entire level for Map16 tile checking despite the fact that the graphics repeat and therefore are only 2 screens wide.


If by "fix" you mean upgrade/expand, not at the moment. See the posts a couple pages back on tides and vertical scrolling.

Originally posted by MarioFanGamer
I found an easy way to crash Lunar Magic by loading a Map16 file. More specifically, the Map16 editor has to be opened per background editor and the background remap window must be open when you load a Map16 file. That easily crashes Lunar Magic.


Seems to be caused by the increased Map16 capacity in 2.50. Thanks, it'll be fixed for the next version.
You've probably been asked some of these before, but I didn't see it mentioned in the original post.

I've been told that the SNES is capable of having 5 ground layers, but that they can only use 8 4 colours per 8x8 tile instead of 16 (I could be wrong). If this is true, could 5 layer levels be built with Lunar Magic in a future update?

If those layers had parallax scrolling, it might make really cool scenery for levels set in the woods, caves, under sea, et cetera.

As for events and 2 extra exits being possible; I'm not sure if there's a way to have secret exits 1 to 3 trigger events independently. Can they? Also, will there be more than 77 Hex (119) events for those big projects?

Room/Level addresses; rooms outnumber levels about 4 to 1. Is there any possibility that levels could use addresses 0 to 1FF? Collaboration hacks could be huge.

Probably already asked most of all; could there be additional maps in future? Or increased sizes of existing maps, let's say if a submap could possibly become the size of the overworld, or Bowser's Valley, Special World & Star World had extra width.

Transparency in a map layer, this might be useful for creative placement of things like cave gems, water with rocks under it, clouds, shadows, reflections.

I'm ignorant about the technical parameters here though.



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Originally posted by Conal
I've been told that the SNES is capable of having 5 ground layers, but that they can only use 8 colours per 8x8 tile instead of 16 (I could be wrong). If this is true, could 5 layer levels be built with Lunar Magic in a future update?

Well...
Originally posted by Conal
(I could be wrong)

^this

The SNES has got the ability to use mode 0 which allows the SNES to displays up to four background layers and they can carry only four colours per tile. Five layers with 8 colours would be too much for the SNES.
Yeah, the supposedly fifth layer would actually be the sprite layer, so you would be already using the maximum SNES layer capacity in mode 0.
Originally posted by MarioFanGamer
The SNES has got the ability to use mode 0 which allows the SNES to displays up to four background layers and they can carry only four colours per tile. Five layers with 8 colours would be too much for the SNES.

Ahh, that sounds about right.

But yeah, with 4 colours on additional layers, I can envision it being used in 8-bit-esque style hacks (here's a beautiful example) and vanilla style hacks; where Layer 3 is used as part of the background, another layer could parallax scroll the clouds behind layers differently, for example.

Originally posted by Colines
Yeah, the supposedly fifth layer would actually be the sprite layer, so you would be already using the maximum SNES layer capacity in mode 0.


So basically you get just 1 extra layer and a quarter of the tile colours? Even so, 8 bit style hacks and vanillas could take advantage of it.

Perhaps you could have those Layer 2 interaction levels with a normal looking background, leaving layer 3 to do something else.



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Is there a possibility for there to be a setting to change the level LM loads when it opens a ROM?
I noticed the Tileset Specific Object 33 of the Forest/Cloud tileset doesn't work correctly in the new level size modes when you expand it, maybe this info should be added to the object tooltip (or either fix it... if it's possible).

Originally posted by Yoshin
Is there a possibility for there to be a setting to change the level LM loads when it opens a ROM?

Despite it sounds really simple, it could be an useful feature, definitely not a bad idea at all.
Layout made by MaxodeX
2021 TRENO vibe check thread
Has there been some code/change that newer LM messes with in regards to the decompression routine at $0FF900? BSNES/Higan don't seem to like when you access that routine while using LC_LZ3 compression or the LC_LZ2 for speed for your graphics. It just freezes the game. If you use the default LC_LZ2 routine its fine however.
Originally posted by Conal
As for events and 2 extra exits being possible; I'm not sure if there's a way to have secret exits 1 to 3 trigger events independently. Can they? Also, will there be more than 77 Hex (119) events for those big projects?

Room/Level addresses; rooms outnumber levels about 4 to 1. Is there any possibility that levels could use addresses 0 to 1FF? Collaboration hacks could be huge.


It looks like someone already answered the first question for you in another thread, and pointed you to the patch that takes care of the other 2.

Originally posted by Conal
Probably already asked most of all; could there be additional maps in future? Or increased sizes of existing maps, let's say if a submap could possibly become the size of the overworld, or Bowser's Valley, Special World & Star World had extra width.


It's not impossible, but the overworld has a bunch of little tables all over the place that makes it annoying to work with and expand. Not really something I have any plans for at the moment anyway.

Originally posted by Conal
But yeah, with 4 colours on additional layers, I can envision it being used in 8-bit-esque style hacks (here's a beautiful example) and vanilla style hacks; where Layer 3 is used as part of the background, another layer could parallax scroll the clouds behind layers differently, for example.


I'm not sure that LM really needs to do anything extra to support it. The fourth layer would just be a tilemap background, which you don't need to see in LM to make your level. And LM already has an unofficial 2bpp display mode that would likely let you see what you're doing to build the level (though perhaps I should tweak it to show the right palettes for layers 2 and 3 if people are using it for that).

Then again, I suppose there might be the 8x8 tile 0x300-0x3FF thing too. I wonder if I should add space for those in that mode, just to better allow seeing what you're doing...

Originally posted by Shiny Ninetales
I noticed the Tileset Specific Object 33 of the Forest/Cloud tileset doesn't work correctly in the new level size modes when you expand it, maybe this info should be added to the object tooltip (or either fix it... if it's possible).


Yeah, I think I'll just fix it. In fact if I have to touch the code at that location anyway, I might just go and make the object work for any Y value.

Originally posted by Shiny Ninetales
Originally posted by Yoshin
Is there a possibility for there to be a setting to change the level LM loads when it opens a ROM?

Despite it sounds really simple, it could be an useful feature, definitely not a bad idea at all.


Maybe someday.

Originally posted by mario90
Has there been some code/change that newer LM messes with in regards to the decompression routine at $0FF900?


No, nothing has changed there in the last few years.
Originally posted by FuSoYa
Originally posted by Shiny Ninetales
Originally posted by Yoshin
Is there a possibility for there to be a setting to change the level LM loads when it opens a ROM?

Despite it sounds really simple, it could be an useful feature, definitely not a bad idea at all.


Maybe someday.

If that someday comes, may I suggest it be a per-ROM setting? For things like easter eggs and messages to people who open others' hacks in LM, it'd be great if hackers still had control over what level opens first. (The setting doesn't need to be saved in the ROM, maybe just have LM remember based on the file path or something and fall back to 105 as a default.)


 

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