The handling of the MM1 custom mansions in MM1 HD

[brell]

Now we have 1-2 weeks until the MM1 HD will go on sale in the Mac App store and soon after that it will be available at Actionsoft's website.

I have thought a lot about how we handle the MM1 custom mansions or cm's.  I will share my ideas with you but since I am soon quitting as an admin I'd rather have those admins, that will be active in the future, to make the final decisions.

First of all, while Vern and Actionsoft retain copyright over included mansions, the cm builders are IMO entitled to the copyright of the cm's.  This means that if we need to make any changes to make the cm's playable in the HD we should ask the authors for license to do so or, best of all, ask them to it themselves.

I propose that we try to reach all authors of the accepted MM1 cm's and ask them to play through their mansions and make all possible changes needed for the HD.  If we cannot reach the authors we must check those mansions ourselves or, perhaps, ask other players to test them for us, like SoItBegins, which seems to be an enthusiastic and thorough player.  In these cases, if a cm needs any changes to make it playable, we must make a decision whether we do that without the author's consent.
If the authors, however, are contacted but they don't want to be bothered with the cm check we must ask them for permission to check their mansions and make possible changes.  Of course all changes we may make will not affect the playing value intended by the author.
Of course, if the author refuses to co-operate and refuses to allow us to make possible changes we must respect that.

I have already checked my cm's and all of Freddy's cm's except

Oline's Coffeehouse

because it has some custom background graphics and frankly I don't know how to handle any kind of custom graphics.  I will contact him regarding those few changes I had to make and ask him for permission to release those cm's as HD ready.

Since we can have up to three attachments in one post I propose we simply add the cm HD versions to the appropriate places in the CMs subforum.  It goes like this:
1. Open the post with the old cm and click on Modify.
2. On the bottom left of the message window is the attachments handling.  Click on the +.
3. In attachment 1 choose

Keep old file

.
4. In attachment 2 choose the new file and upload it
Just take good care that you don't override the old cm.

The names of the converted cm's should have the ending HD to distinct between them and the old versions.  Like

The Pirate Invasion HD

When MM1 HD is released we must announce how we are handling the cm's.  We must make a list of those cm's that are already HD ready and add to that list as we upload more.  I think that the names in the list should be links to the appropriate CMs subforum posts.

We will also ask players to test some of the mansions (if we can't reach the authors or they don't want to do the testing).

Of course we will only be testing the playability, not any

glitches

that may be leftovers by the authors or HD related.  Repairing of such glitches is totally up to the authors, IMO.

A few questions:
1. Shall we explain how to use Rezycle to convert mansions?
2. Shall we explain how to make cm's with custom graphics work in the MM1 HD?
3. Do we make a new category for general discussion of the MM HD and included mansions? I vote yes.
4. Do we make new categories for the discussions of upgraded cm's? I vote no, let's use the current cm categories.

What do you think?

[brell]

Note that so far I have only found five types of changes that I have had to make:

1. If Jack jumps from one ghost platform to another in another room both platforms have to be of the thick type.

2. Freddy experimented a lot with ladders. Sometimes I had to make minor changes to make them work in the HD.

3. Levers now need to at the same ground level as Jack so he can pull them.

4. In some very old mansions signs have to be replaced with new signs so they are readable.

5. Sometimes but not always the pict resource has to be removed.

[RobSeegel]

To add to what Brell has already mentioned, there are a few other considerations...

If any designer has upgraded to OS X Lion, then that designer will be unable to modify his or her mansions with the Mansion Level Builder until Vern releases the updated Builder which may be several months off, still. Many of the conversion modifications can still be done without the builder.

Another possibility is that a designer might allow an admin or other willing volunteer to make temporary modifications until such time as the new Mansion Level Builder was reworked.  At this time, the original designer could then update their mansion if they wish.

Speaking directly to point #5 that Brell made:

If a custom mansion contains any room preview images, the conversion process will translate these to 'Pict' resources. These are images that are displayed in the Level Builder instead of a ? when you look at the Map View, and are created whenever you save changes to a room, or if you use the

Create Preview PICTs...

feature in the Builder. These preview images must be removed at some point in the conversion process otherwise the new game will not load the mansion.

If a mansion has custom graphics, these too will need to be modified or removed or the mansion will not load. We will provide instructions on this in the coming days or weeks.

[brell]

Anybody know what to do if the custom graphics is only the background picture?

[RobSeegel]

Another issue that hasn't been mentioned much is the use of shadows in a mansion.

Some background: If you followed Vern's blog entries about the new game, then you know that one feature he added was the use of game-generated shadows. An early look at the shadows can be seen in this blog entry.

MM HD will generate shadows when a room uses a black background, and won't when a room uses any other background. This is to prevent shadows from monsters or items from being cast on the

sky

which can be seen in some of the screenshots in Vern's blog entry.

There are two varieties of game-generated shadow: static and dynamic. 

Tiles that aren't in layer 0 will cast static shadows. These are a lot like shadows that designers have added themselves manually be using a darker tile color when they wanted shadows in a room. These shadows will not move regardless of Jack's position in the room, and will be unaffected by candles or torches in the room. The nice thing about these shadows is that they are cast onto any surface -  even those where there is no darker tile available.

Dynamic shadows are cast from most Sprites (levers, sacks of gold, monsters, etc). Unlike static shadows, these shadows will move depending on Jack's position in the room. Also, they conform to the outline of the item that is

casting

the shadow.

These shadows go a long way to adding extra depth to rooms, and save developers time from having to generate them manually. There are a few downsides, though:

Rooms that already have designer shadows and a black background will also get game generated shadows on top of the existing shadows, making the

shadow

area much darker than what a designer originally intended. In some cases, the effect can be jarring. Also, and this may be because I've become conditioned to look for it, but going from a room that has generated shadows and one that doesn't can also be a bit surprising especially if the two rooms appear to be mostly the same.

What can be done? There are a few options - unfortunately pretty time consuming ones that require designers to go room-by-room through their mansions. I did this for all the original built-in mansions in MM HD.

When I did it, I had the following goals:

- Use game-generated shadows as much as I could
- Make the behavior as consistent as possible
- Try and preserve as many artistic flourishes as possible.

Basically, I had to remove most drawn in shadows for each room. In most cases this was easier than it sounds.  I used the the square painting tool which made the work generally go faster. Also, I ended up adding some shadows where they weren't before - mostly in areas where game-generated shadows could not be used to maintain overall consistency.

You can also disable game-generated shadows, by switching the background image. This can work fine if the background isn't exposed, otherwise it requires that black or other tiles be used to cover up the background image elsewhere. This wasn't that big a deal for the mansions in MM HD, but I predict that it will be a much bigger challenge for MM2, which makes significant use of non-black background images in some mansions - even underground.

[brell]

Rob, do you think that shadows should be taken into consideration when making the old cm's playable in the HD version? This is something that should be left to the authors, IMO.

[RobSeegel]

Brell, I completely agree. I just wanted to get the info out there is all. It might not have been the best thread to do it in, though.

It's kind of funny - I play some of the custom mansions now, and see those shadows, layer 6 issues and other misc things, and it's tough to restrain myself from making changes. However, I agree that these things are best left to the designer of the mansion.

[RobSeegel]

3. Do we make a new category for general discussion of the MM HD and included mansions?  I vote yes.

I think this would be a good idea - the sooner the better. This gives us a good place to start getting information out.
Do you think we should also just create additional categories under the Custom Mansion Area, or create a separate top-level one for MM HD (and eventuall MM2 HD)? Otherwise, I think there's potential for great confusion with some of the changes.

1. Shall we explain how to use Rezycle to convert mansions?

Yes. I think that's good general knowledge to have out there, because we can leave it up to users to decide whether they wish to convert an existing mansion to play it if they want.

I think for some amount of time, we're going to have a separate list of MM HD mansions that are playable. These are mansions that are verified to run under MM HD. These are either resubmitted mansions are those converted by Admins (with permission). If admins do the conversion, they should do the minimal steps necessary to ensure that the game can be played but no more than that.

If someone wants to take the risk involved in converting and playing a game that hasn't been converted, I think it ought to be allowed. It should be pointed out somewhere that they do this at their own risk, since there are no guarantees that the mansion will be playable.

2. Shall we explain how to make cm's with custom graphics work in the MM1 HD?

Yes.

4. Do we make new categories for the discussions of upgraded cm's?  I vote no, let's use the current cm categories.

Also agree.

updated for clarity... (hopefully)

[brell]

112C2110262624262F430 wrote:

3. Do we make a new category for general discussion of the MM HD and included mansions?  I vote yes.

I think this would be a good idea - the sooner the better. This gives us a good place to start getting information out.
Do you think we should also just created additional areas under the Custom Mansion Area, or create a separate one for MM (and eventually MM2) HD?

Even if we create a separate area, I think the area ought to have a sticky topic that has links to the original mansion area.

I'm not sure which is the best approach here. Let's wait and see Anthony's and Semi-Native's opinions.

You are referring to general cm talk, not the categories about individual cm's, of course.

[RobSeegel]

7B6B7C7575190 wrote: You are referring to general cm talk, not the categories about individual cm's, of course.

Yes - that's right.