I've started replaying JJ2 using the JJ2+ modification. When in the Weirder Science level (the first one), various environment options are missing. Namely, the conveyer belts near the beginning of the level, and the junction points for the tubes aren't visible. There's other things missing, such as the animations for the computer screens. This can inadvertently cause a pit that's impossible to get out of later in the level. If I revert JJ2+, these features come back. However, though, I'd like to play with the JJ2+ modification installed.

I have tried this on two different computers, both running Win10. The one is a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, with Win10 20H2, the other is my Desktop which I'm unsure of the version right now, but I think it's also 20H2. Both exhibit this problem.

I'm using the version of JJ2+ that is available in the GOG Beta channel selection, being v5.8 (2021-05). I noticed there's an update for v5.9, but I'm guessing this hasn't propagated through to GOG yet, as I know the installer offered for JJ2+ is incompatible directly with the GOG verison.

Is it a case of that the Weirder Science level gets overwritten with a corrupt version or something of the sort?

Please let me know if any other details are needed, or if this is simply a known problem. I tried looking around the JJ2+ issue tracker, but didn't appear to notice anything to what I was describing.

I dug out my retail copy of the game, applied the latest version of the JJ2+ modification (v5.9 2021-05), and it appears that the Weirder Science level works as expected. I've attached a screenshot to show it.

I can supply save files if that would help anyone.

EDIT:

As a minor oddity, it appears as though the GOG Galaxy client doesn't list v5.9 as the latest update (still only v5.8). Going through the website for GOG, the download for TSF offers it with JJ2+ v5.9. I downloaded and installed overtop of the Galaxy install of v5.8 and confirmed I was now running v5.9. But the issue in Weirder Science is still there, unfortunately.

Hello! I'll try to help you. This is indeed very strange. I looked at the images and i've noticed that it's not just any tiles missing, but specifically animated tiles. From here I can't be sure what caused it, i've tried reinstalling the game a few times in different ways (site/client) and I can't replicate this.

Some questions I have: Did you install the game in a fresh folder? Does it happen to all animations in all levels or is it just Weirder science? For example: Carrotus has small waterfalls in the background and often a dancing flower on the grass, do these show up? Does manually copying the level files of Weirder Science over from the vanilla version to the jj2+ folder work? (Labrat1.j2l and Labrat1.j2t)

I am also an admin on the biggest unofficial Jazz jackrabbit discord group, I am sure with the help of the community we can fix your problem. You could also contact me through tag Japie#5190 to send me your level files so I can take a closer look. (Labrat1.j2l and the and Labrat1.j2t)

Sorry for the delay.

In terms of installing, yes. The game was downloaded in a blank folder, initially, on both machines, and both exhibited the issue.

In terms of the animation specific tiles, I sped through to the level "Tossed Salad," and found that it does in fact have the dancing flowers in it. I assume that's enough to determine the animated tiles/sprites are loading correctly elsewhere?

I tried copying the files from my retail copy to the GOG version (both of which have the JJ2+ modification installed; my retail copy is the vanilla Jazz2 if that matters), and the GOG version still has the issue when loading up my save at Weirder Science. Being that a copy of these files was done, I don't think it's the levels themselves, rather something weird with however JJ2+ operates.

The other component here is that I tried starting the "Jazz2_NonPlus.exe" instead, and found that, at least, the conveyer belt loaded up fine. If you still want me to send any kind of files directly via Discord, please let me know.

I tried looking to see if JJ2+ has some kind of debug flag to enable logging, but didn't see one when looking at the documentation.

Also a little delay here.

You can still send me the files on discord on user Japie#5190, then I could take a look at it.

Before that though try to not load up any save files during testing, but cycle through the levels by typing in the jjnext cheat method. Loading save files from different or old level file versions could potentionally not show a difference while in fact there is.