Archive: 10 posts

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After hitting the max thermo in my last two levels, a problem that forced me to remove objects, cannibalize materials, and/or go without important things like checkpoints, I have decided to make a template level to use whenever I started a new level. I wanted to give myself a buffer so that once I hit the ceiling, I could finish and add all the little extra things that are needed after final play-testing. Before I tell you what’s in it, I wanted to share what I have learned about being maxed in thermo. I’m sure many of you already know these things, but I though it may help explain why I added what I did to the template. I’ll also give a few tips for surviving hitting the thermo wall before your finished. First, when working in the editor, it does not give you an accurate account of how much thermo you are using until you save and reload the level. Normally this isn’t a problem but if you’re almost at the max it can cause major issues. The biggest problem is that you can save your level after doing a lot of work thinking you have a click or two to spare and come back to a level you can not add anything to. So this template level has things to use like checkpoints, an exit if you just have a few last touches. Or, you can just delete everything and free up some much needed thermo to add what you want. It also has some tools and objects people may want to use in their level ready to be copied like, Invisible wood material in 2 layer, 1 layer and thin layer Invisible Dissolve material in 2 layer, 1 layer and thin layer w/ switch attached Invisible glass material in 2 layer, 1 layer and thin layer 4 bubble emitters for hidden points 4 destructible brains for removing sections to free up thermo 1 single bubble attached to invisible material for easy placement 1 3x bubble attached to invisible material for easy placement 1 3rd layer material glitch emitter attached to a switch to make all you need An assortment of switches attached to emitters.(I will explain how this can be used later) Extra strips of material to use to create finishing touches Numerous speech mouths to be recycled for use in your level. Tips, Hints and tricks for dealing with thermo. The first thing you need to do when you start getting close to the top of your thermo is to start backing up and saving often since the game tends to lock up more at this point. Then you'll need to make a written list of all the things you need to add before the levels complete like sounds, music, checkpoints, stickers and all the little things that you may have been pushing off up until now. Finally you’ll need to figure out whether or not you have enough thermo left to finish you level. If you do, then that is great. If not, I have a few things you can try. THE POWER CREATE SESSION Since there is a lag of how much thermo you are using and what is currently detected, you can try to finish up your level in one single session. This is how I finished up my last level which was about 70% done with only 15% thermo free. This does take a lot of planning so I’d suggest putting pen to paper to make sure you don’t forget something. Also it’s a great time to make a copy of your level just in case things go bad and a workshop level to work out any complicated devices before you begin. Once you start make sure you avoid doing things that can lock up your PSP such as corner editing large materials. If you do lock up in the middle you’ll have to start from scratch. You should not be un-pausing the editor at all if possible. You can do all your testing and fine tuning once you’re finished. It may be a good time to make a few extra emitters connected to sensor switches for adding things you may have forgot.(more on this later) Here are some suggestion to help make your level easier to deal with when it's overheated(they are good practices in general) Try to make it as modular as possible. Attaching pistons to large pieces of material or attaching multiple mechanics to the same piece of material can lead to problems if you have to make changes or if a device flakes out. This happens more often than it should. An example of a modular component would be to attach a piston to small base hidden behind a thin layer of material. Make sure you are careful when corner editing. The corner editor does a horrible job of detecting collisions and will let you draw into other objects. If they are just two simple pieces of material that you do not have to select or adjust then there is no problem. However, if you select either piece of material they will shift to separate. The real problem occurs if you have any mechanics attached to them especially wobble or sprung bolts which just start going bananas. I do notice this happens to glued items as well. A solution would be to attach such devices to a small thin static invisible layer instead of the larger material. Try not to test pistons in create mode, especially at their full speed. If you do need to make adjustments, you can set the time to something really slow like 20 seconds and make sure the path of the object is not obscured. The reason for this is that pistons tend to get misaligned during operation particularly when they are set to high speed. Once the piston's direction get messed up in edit mode, the settings are saved. The only way to restore them is with a rewind which is something you don't want to use. Try to avoiding gluing or attaching items whenever possible. When you try to edit items that are glued or attached bad things can happen. Often things get wonked up without your knowledge because its happening off the screen. If you do need to attach groups of objects together to something like say a brain to free up some much needed thermo, make sure its one of the last things you do. Once you do it, be careful not to select items in the group because it could mess things up. The best Method would be to attach items is with invisible rods. That way, if you do need to make some changes, you can just delete the rods and take the item out of the group before selecting it. Once you are over the limit… Things you CAN’T do when maxed in thermo Create or copy objects, materials, stickers, music, sound, ect Move stickers(once picked up you can only delete) Attach switch wires(once removed from device you can only delete) Move piston, rods, strings, and wenches Things you can do maxed out in Thermo Move switches, emitters, sound effects and music w/ switch wires attached. Edit settings in objects like emitters, switches, pistons rods, ect Resize, change dimensions of materials and corner edit materials. Change material Glue/detach Change emitted item - This is huge! You should have multiple backups at this point. I would suggest at least 4-5 five changes deep. Save before making any changes to devices or corner editing. That way if something flakes out or locks up you will have saved what you did up to that point. Play test the whole level when you’re checking out your changes. PSP LBP seems to distort information sometimes during saves. It would be horrible to find out that one area level gets trashed while you were fixing up another. If you notice this is happening, you can create two copies one for testing (copy A) and one for when your finished (copy b). Do all the configuring, testing and tweaking in A, taking notes of changes and settings. Then you go into B and make all the changes in a single edit. USING EMITTERS This is by far the most useful thing to use when your maxed in thermo. The only stipulation is you must have emitters to spare in your level already to use them which is why I have so many in my template. They also need to have a switch attached so they don’t emit an item that will lock up the PSP. (you can not attach a switch to it at this point) Having them emit while in edit mode is almost a guarantied red screen of death. As always, make sure you are in pause mode before working with emitters. Tip: Because your level is already pushing the poor PSP over its limits, you will have to use the unprotected-brain/ 1-shot-switch trick to free up some thermo before these items can be emitted. You may be able to get away with emitting a few things without freeing up some heat. I have been able to emit a couple items during testing without removing anything. However, since it is so easy to use the Creature/Brain trick, why take the chance? Make sure the player can not get back to the area where stuff is being removed. Emitters work like normal except when you hit the button to place the item, you will not get the hard sound that it has been placed but the image will appear and dissipate. I have only experimented with static single items. I’m pretty sure if you have freed up thermo multiple objects shouldn’t be a problem. The last thing that you may need to know is how to move an emitter without picking up the switch wire. Now would be a good time for a backup just in case you pickup the wire, since it can’t be re-attached. Place the selector circle next to it and slowly move it until the emitter highlights, half of the circle should be over the emitter. Then press X to select the emitter, Y to remove it from where it’s attached, and finally X to place it where you want. Once you do it a few times it’s easy-peasy. I’m sure emitting while maxed on thermo was already known but I didn’t see anything on it so I wrote it up. I hope people find it helpful and maybe get a little more out of PSP LBP. I know I’ve made typos and messed up numerous times typing this, since I rushed through it. If you see something that needs to be corrected, PM me or if you have any questions, post and I’ll be happy to answer them. Template level info(I'll post it in the level showcase soon) Level: TemplateStrPak PSNenonHMW 1.01 - edited for comprehension

2010-11-11 23:12:00 Author: Xenon Posts: 306

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Wow, I'll thank that post because of how much you typed.

2010-11-11 23:34:00 Author: The-Questor Posts: 1328

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Thanks invizible stuff is hard to come by. ps "somthing that needs corrected" should be "something that needs to be corrected" or "something that needs correcting"

2010-11-11 23:41:00 Author: unXpectiD Posts: 1132

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Thanks invizible stuff is hard to come by. ps "somthing that needs corrected" should be "something that needs to be corrected" or "something that needs correcting" Thanks. My mind is much faster than my hands.

2010-11-11 23:46:00 Author: Xenon Posts: 306

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Ugh,my brain hurts.You lost me at "The first thing". Thanks man!

2010-11-12 00:27:00 Author: Balgarino Posts: 377

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Hey Xenon, This is fantastic! Thanks for putting this together, and I'll be sure to add it to the Tutorial Spotlight when I get to an actual computer. Max thermo for dummies like me, jeffcu28

2010-11-12 00:43:00 Author: jeffcu28 Posts: 648

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WOW thanks xenon you've made my life better!

2010-11-12 07:08:00 Author: jimydog000 Posts: 813

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Steven fry should of said all that in a video tutorial

2010-11-12 07:10:00 Author: jimydog000 Posts: 813

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@ The-Questor - I'll take it @ Balgarino - Ha @ jeffcu28 - Thanks for adding it to the Tutorial spotlight. I wasn't going to do this because, I suck at English... But, I thought it might help some people. @ jimydog000 - Happy to hear that. You can just read it with an English accent

2010-11-12 15:51:00 Author: Xenon Posts: 306

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Fantastic post, Xenon! I wish I could thank you multiple times for it, this is the best post on dealing with the thermometer I've ever seen Like seriously brilliant, thanks for taking the time to share your mastery of the thermo with us

2010-11-15 22:58:00 Author: SeekingTruth86 Posts: 151

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