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InfiniPicross 2.0: The Missing Manual

By Arno

This guide will show you how to navigate the InfiniPicross 2.0 interface; it's not fully complete yet (because I haven't figured out what everything does), but it should be enough to get you well on your way.

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Created by

Arno
Online

Category: Gameplay Basics

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

30 Jul, 2020 @ 7:49pm

5 Aug, 2020 @ 9:51am

133	Unique Visitors
1	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Summary

Main menu

Puzzle generator

Picture puzzles

Settings

Background music

Theme chooser

Game window

Keyboard shortcuts

Comments

Summary

When I first started playing this game I knew I was going to sink a lot of time into it, once I figured out how the actual Picross game is played. However, I had a lot of trouble navigating the program around the Picross gameplay; this guide aims to be the instruction manual I wish I'd had when I started. It's intended to supersede the following two existing guides that the developer has provided (which did get me started and able to play the game, but unfortunately are still missing a lot of stuff):
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1438305120
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1460988201
I'm hoping that once this guide exists, with all the "FIXME" parts that I don't know easily shown, I can get with the developer to fill in the blanks. :)

What this guide will not teach you is how to actually play Picross. That's a whole other tutorial and there's plenty of information on the game itself out there already.

Thanks to the following for helping confirm the rest of the stuff I wasn't sure of (in the comments below the guide):

Shax
JMA (one of the devs)

Main menu

This is the main menu that you get when you launch the game. The choices are:

A. Puzzle generator: Procedurally-generated puzzles (you choose the dimensions, from 3x3 to 100x100).
B. Picture puzzles: Hand-crafted puzzles that render a picture once complete; these range in size from 5x5 all the way to 100x100.
C. Settings: Configure InfiniPicross 2.0 how you like it.
D. Background music: Manage the background music.
E. Theme chooser: Select a color/icon theme.
F. Exit game

Puzzle generator

This is the procedural level generator, that lets you play new Picross games forever. It appears to have a way to let you specify a seed value, so that multiple people can be sure they're getting the same puzzle (as long as you both set the same dimensions, of course, although maybe that's contained in the seed value?).

Item

Description

Puzzle dimensions

Use these sliders to set the size of the puzzle; the top slider controls the width and the bottom one controls the height.

Level generator seed value

These two fields give you a way to see the current seed value (top field) and interval (bottom field) used by the level generator. You can also enter your own values here, to use a specific seed that someone else has shared. I don't know what the significance of the "interval" value is, or how it differs from the primary seed value, but I hope to clarify that with the devs soon.

Seed randomizer

Click this to generate a new, randomized seed value for the level generator (the "interval" value will be unchanged).

Picture puzzles

This is where you solve the handcrafted puzzles that make pictures. You don't have to do them in order (although it's a lot easier to find a puzzle you left and came back to, if you do!), and there are several filtering options so you can find the sizes of puzzles you like.

Once you've solved a puzzle once, it will remain "solved" (e.g. with the picture showing) even if you start it over again. The game will still save your progress like it normally would, but in the list the puzzle will still show as solved.

Item

Description

Dimensions limiters

The three "grid icons" across the top and down the sides let you filter the list of puzzles to those of a certain size range. The 2x2 icon limits to 3-15, the 4x4 icon limits to 16-50, and the 8x8 icon limits to 51-100. The buttons are per-axis, so for example you can click the 2x2 icon on the left (the one that the "A" arrow is pointing at) and the 8x8 icon on the top and get puzzles that are 3-15 boxes tall and 51-100 boxes wide.

Toggle completed puzzles

Click this to hide all the puzzles you've completed (in other words, only show puzzles that are unfinished or completely unstarted)

Puzzle dimensions

Each puzzle icon shows what its dimensions are. In this case, the dimensions of the "C" puzzle (the one that the "C" arrow is pointing at) are 6x7. The puzzles on the top row are all 5x5, and the middle one on the bottom is 10x6.

Settings

This is where you set things up so the program works the way you like it. Items F-J are all about highlighting the rows/columns of the puzzle as you hover/click/drag in it; I tried to explain it as best I could but it's probably easier for most people to just open up a puzzle, bring up the settings, and try changing one thing at a time to see what it does.

Item

Description

Fullscreen toggle

Switch between windowed and fullscreen mode.

V-Sync toggle

Turn V-Sync on and off (this implies turning the FPS cap on and off).

Toggle grid coordinates

Enable/disable grid coordinates in puzzles.

Toggle current column/row display

Enable/disable the display of the current column and row (in the lower left of the screen) in puzzles. This feels redundant with small puzzles but once you start pushing the boundaries of your monitor you may start depending on it (otherwise the information may be off-screen).

Show current draw length

This controls the display of the length of the line of boxes you're currently dragging. With the "Mouse/2" setting (as shown in the picture), the game will show a dynamic counter of how many squares you've moved away from the starting square next to your mouse, as you drag a line across the puzzle. The "2" setting (without a mouse next to it) will show the same number in the bottom left, next to the grid coordinates. The "-" setting hides the display completely.

Show advanced display settings

Clicking anywhere in this big center area will enable the rest of the advanced settings, as well as show an animation that appears to be a demonstration of what things look like with the current settings.

Toggle row highlight

Enable/disable highlighting of the active row.

Highlights on hover/click only.

Toggles whether row/column highlights appear just by hovering the mouse, or only when you click.

Toggle column highlight

Enable/disable highlighting of the active column.

Toggle off-axis highlights on drag

If this is disabled, column highlights won't be shown while you're dragging a row, and row highlights won't be shown while you're dragging a column. In other words, while you're dragging it'll only highlight on the axis that you're dragging on.

Save

Apply changes.

Background music

OK, seriously? This thing could be its own program and people would love it. It took me a while to figure out that it wasn't broken and how to use it, but it's a really clever audio companion once you realize how it works. It's basically a really simple audio mixer with a bunch of preloaded samples.

Item

Description

Master volume

This slider controls the overall volume level for everything that's playing.

SFX toggle

For each item in the list, clicking on the picture will turn that sound on and off; each sound will loop forever as long as it's active. Scroll down, there are a lot of sounds here...anybody should be able to find something they like. Although, I will say...considering how many choices there are, I was surprised there wasn't one for Tuvan throat singing. :) You can tell which SFX are enabled because their pictures will be pulsing.

Per-SFX volume

This is where the "simple audio mixer" comes in. The slider next to each individual SFX controls its relative volume with the rest. This allows you to, say, enable a waterfall SFX for some white noise and also enable the seagulls, but turn the seagulls down so they're not just squawking all over the calming waterfall the whole time. You adjust the per-SFX volume controls relative to each other, then use the master volume at the top to control the overall volume.

Theme chooser

This picker lets you pick from a bunch of different color/icon themes.

Item

Description

Theme menu

This drop-down is where you click to choose which theme you want.

Refresh

Clicking this will activate any additions/modifications to the contents of ".../steamapps/common/InfiniPicross 2.0/Themes".

Sample puzzle

An interactive area where you can take the new theme for a spin. Fun fact: this is actually a valid Picross puzzle that a newbie can practice with. No picture at the end, though. ;)

Game window

This is the main game window where you'll be clickin' your boxes.

Item

Description

Show/hide controls

Clicking this button will toggle the info/controls display in the upper left.

Controls

This is referring to the whole row of buttons, not just the red X. In order from left to right, the buttons are:

Exit puzzle
Reset puzzle
Undo last move
Redo last move
Settings (hidden behind the "C" arrow)
Background music
Next puzzle

Notes:

Resetting the puzzle will also reset the timer.
The "next puzzle" button will take you to the next consecutive unfinished puzzle in the game from the one you're currently on if you're currently doing a picture puzzle; if you're doing a generated puzzle then it will generate a new puzzle for the current seed value, after incrementing the "iteration number".

Puzzle info

This section has information about the puzzle. From top to bottom, left to right:

Level generator seed value that created this puzzle
Puzzle dimensions
Current seed interval (in parentheses)
Time spent on the puzzle

Puzzle display controls

The outer up/down/left/right arrows will pan the puzzle around, and the inner -/+ buttons will zoom in and out. This becomes necessary as you start solving larger puzzles, since if the whole puzzle is on the screen at once it's too small to read if you don't have a 300-inch monitor.

Current column display

This refers to the column of numbers "1 2 5" and is an alternate display of the puzzle numbers for the column your mouse is currently in. For small puzzles you don't really need this, but once you get to big puzzles that aren't all on the screen at once, this might be the only way you can see it without having to play with the zoom/pan controls (and risk losing your place!).

Remaining helper uses

This is both the display of remaining hints and the button to activate them. When you click this (assuming you have at least one hint left), the game does the following:

If there is at least one mistake in what you've filled out so far, the game will choose a mistake at random and correct it.
If there are no mistakes, the game will choose a box at random and change it to the correct state.

Current grid coordinates

This shows you which box the mouse is currently in. In this screenshot it says "4.9", which means my mouse is in column 4, row 9 (the box 4 columns from the left and 9 from the top). You can't see the mouse in the picture because of the software I used to take the screenshot, but that's where it was.

Current column display

This is the same as (E), but for the current column instead of row. Right now it just says "9" because that's the only puzzle number for the row the mouse is in.

Keyboard shortcuts

This is shamelessly cribbed directly from the developer's guide. ;)

Key/mouse

Function

Arrow keys, WASD, scroll wheel

Pan the puzzle grid

+/-, Ctrl-scroll wheel

Zoom

Enter, Return

Next puzzle

Tab

Use helper

Backspace

Reset puzzle

Esc

Close settings windows

6 Comments

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Dohi64 4 Jan, 2021 @ 7:35pm

the game has some of the worst interfaces I've ever seen, made even worse by absolutely no in-game explanation about anything.

Arno [author] 5 Aug, 2020 @ 10:08am

Thanks for all the help! JMA, I have a couple of clarifying questions for you on two points, but I'm going to start a discussion thread on it instead of using these comments so we're not restricted by the character limit on Guide comments. :)

JMA [developer] 4 Aug, 2020 @ 4:44pm

Game Window
B – Your suggestion was a good one and now the time is set back to 0 on reset! An additional note is that the next button in a generated puzzle will keep the same seed and increment the iteration number by one to give you a fresh new puzzle.
C – You got it: The long number is the seed. As it stands, the best way to copy the seed is from the generation screen, but that idea of adding a shortcut to do it from the puzzle screen in the future is a great one. As for the small number in parenthesis after the dimensions, that is the iteration number for the generated puzzle.
F – The hints will build up over time to a cap of 5. Using a hint will improve your grid by one move. If there are mistakes, it'll correct one at random, otherwise it'll fill a random empty cell with its proper value.

JMA [developer] 4 Aug, 2020 @ 4:43pm

Picture Puzzles
A – Please let me clarify one small thing about the filters; they will show you any puzzles you have in the ranges of 3 – 15, 16 – 50 and 51 – 100. I only mention this because InfiniPicross 2.0 has a tool that can create new custom puzzles of any valid dimensions (as well as 2 DLCs).

Theme Chooser
B – Shax was quite correct in that the refresh button is primarily for detecting changes inside the themes folder. Someone altering those files, or using the tool, to add/modify a new theme can refresh to see the changes reflected.

JMA [developer] 4 Aug, 2020 @ 4:43pm

What a wonderful guide you've put together! Thank you so much for the time you spent figuring it out and writing it down. As for the questions you had and blanks to be filled let's see if we can fill those.

Puzzle Generator
B – You’re right that this area is where you can specify a seed for the puzzle. We generate puzzles based on the dimensions of the puzzle, the seed number (in the top field) and the iteration number (the bottom field). The iteration is 0 by default and will only go up if you change it manually (by editing that text box), or by clicking the next button in the game window after finishing a generated puzzle (increasing it by one). That way, you get to keep playing without changing the seed number, while still being able to easily share the good puzzles you find.
C – Indeed! This does randomize the seed number in the text field.

Shax 4 Aug, 2020 @ 7:51am

B in picture puzzles, is a toggle that hides completed puzzles (so you can only see puzzles that are unfinished or not started)

B in theme chooser, it is possible that it refreshes and checks the folder where the themes are stored if there is a new one or not. Not entirely sure about this.

F in game window is a hint that fills up a box in the puzzle. If I remember correctly it regenerates over time.

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