Basically there is no need for collosion detection; the game plays in a grid, and the lemmings just follow it. Blockers have their own code in the grid itself (this is still buggy).
It's nice to see that people like it!
It's been a bomb since the link got out, and I didn't do it. My homepage generated 3GB datatraffic just yesterday (against a normal 30/40MB daily) so I started looking.
As for the images: I am using the levels as a background image and CSS doesn't let me resize backgrounds.
I might be able to put those in a layer as an image, that would indeed save a bunch. Thanks for the tip!
Why not simply double the size of the images by changing there width and height attributes ? If you don't want to store the value of those attributes for each image, you can retrieve them once an image is loaded and then double them. It works from NN4,IE+ to any recent browser.
BTW, if your server is not yet crawled, I think your games would find a place of choice on http://www.javascript-games.org/
I already updated the current version reducing the image sizes by more than 50% and added some music and sound effects as I went along :)
My server as a matter of fact was crawled - 7GB in just 2 days which is over my limit, but my friends at tweakers.net where happy to host it for me: http://crew.tweakers.net/crisp/lemmings/
I changed the link to point to the new location. Look at all the people linking/talking about your lemmings:
http://www.google.com/search?q=dhtml+lemmings
It's truly amazing what is happening here; I've got a couple of hundred sites linking to it now and I get a lot of mail these days; the old games still rule... ;)
I'm currently working on 6 new levels which are also a lot harder than the current ones. It takes time though to rework the graphics and setup the levelcode; around 3 hours per level.
I've tested this thing in Mozilla1.3+, Opera7, IE5.5 and IE6 so browsersupport should be ok. All other browsers that don't work for this probably lack some support or are just buggy.
Music support is another thing; IE for windows is no problem, but getting it to work in any other browser is a real pain (plug-in sniffing and such).
And then offcourse there's still some bugs to fix; especially in the more complex levels imperfections start to show.
Remember that this is just a work in progress; the entire publicity it got was totally unintentional and way too early.
Apparently it doesn't work on Mozilla/Linux nor on Konqueror. But I haven't test those platform myself.
For the music support I suggest you to in touch with Scott SCHILLER ( http://www.schillmania.com ) would did a really good conversion with his DHTML ARKANOID. AFAIK he uses FLASH 5.0 to handle the sound.
Regarding the creation of the levels, I'm sure you could make an API ( even in PHP with GD ) that reads an in image of the level with a color by type of material ( void, blocker, soft, lava, water ... ) and generates the strings you use in Javascript. Don't bother to contact me if I can be of any help and save you some hours on that topic.
Don't worry, I know this is a work in progress. A good one indeed.
I have reports from people running it without problems in linux with a recent mozilla version.
Konqueror as well as Apple's Safari which is based upon Konqueror's rendering engine (KHTML) is apparently lacking some CSS2 support and maybe some javascript-HTML bindings I'm using. I neither have a linux nor a Macintosh platform available to test what exactely it is though, so I don't know if I can work around it.
I'm still looking for better ways to support sound in alternative browsers, but flash is out of the question because it is not in the spirit of this project ;)
I already do have a script that generates the level code for me (actually it is PHP with GD ;) ) but the screenshots still need a lot of work, and I have to fit in the animations pixel-precise, creating smaller images to block off parts of the animation that should not be visible and putting these images on top of it.
I would understand if they complain about the sprites or the sound track but the code ... ? I guess those companies have a whole department dedicated to the protection of their rights and registered trademarks but they didn't managed to prove hey actually owns the Lemmings(TM)
I've always wanted to port Lemmings but never found the time and energy.
It even features some keyboard shortcuts.
I'm curious to see how he managed the collision detection.
It's nice to see that people like it!
My curiosity had already guided me to the data structure of the levels :p clever encoding BTW.
I wonder if a particular reason urged you to pre-zoom the images by 2. Coz there's ~540 Kb of pictures which could be shrinked to ~270 Kb.
As for the images: I am using the levels as a background image and CSS doesn't let me resize backgrounds.
I might be able to put those in a layer as an image, that would indeed save a bunch. Thanks for the tip!
Why not simply double the size of the images by changing there width and height attributes ? If you don't want to store the value of those attributes for each image, you can retrieve them once an image is loaded and then double them. It works from NN4,IE+ to any recent browser.
BTW, if your server is not yet crawled, I think your games would find a place of choice on http://www.javascript-games.org/
My server as a matter of fact was crawled - 7GB in just 2 days which is over my limit, but my friends at tweakers.net where happy to host it for me: http://crew.tweakers.net/crisp/lemmings/
I'll have a look at that link of yours! :)
http://www.google.com/search?q=dhtml+lemmings
knock yourself out! ;)
I've tested this thing in Mozilla1.3+, Opera7, IE5.5 and IE6 so browsersupport should be ok. All other browsers that don't work for this probably lack some support or are just buggy.
Music support is another thing; IE for windows is no problem, but getting it to work in any other browser is a real pain (plug-in sniffing and such).
And then offcourse there's still some bugs to fix; especially in the more complex levels imperfections start to show.
Remember that this is just a work in progress; the entire publicity it got was totally unintentional and way too early.
For the music support I suggest you to in touch with Scott SCHILLER ( http://www.schillmania.com ) would did a really good conversion with his DHTML ARKANOID. AFAIK he uses FLASH 5.0 to handle the sound.
Regarding the creation of the levels, I'm sure you could make an API ( even in PHP with GD ) that reads an in image of the level with a color by type of material ( void, blocker, soft, lava, water ... ) and generates the strings you use in Javascript. Don't bother to contact me if I can be of any help and save you some hours on that topic.
Don't worry, I know this is a work in progress. A good one indeed.
Konqueror as well as Apple's Safari which is based upon Konqueror's rendering engine (KHTML) is apparently lacking some CSS2 support and maybe some javascript-HTML bindings I'm using. I neither have a linux nor a Macintosh platform available to test what exactely it is though, so I don't know if I can work around it.
I'm still looking for better ways to support sound in alternative browsers, but flash is out of the question because it is not in the spirit of this project ;)
I already do have a script that generates the level code for me (actually it is PHP with GD ;) ) but the screenshots still need a lot of work, and I have to fit in the animations pixel-precise, creating smaller images to block off parts of the animation that should not be visible and putting these images on top of it.
Thanks for thinking with me, I appreciate it! :)
I would understand if they complain about the sprites or the sound track but the code ... ? I guess those companies have a whole department dedicated to the protection of their rights and registered trademarks but they didn't managed to prove hey actually owns the Lemmings(TM)
You've had a really pragmmatic attitude. Bravo.
Now, I can't wait to play Brainless!