sm-ssc Beginner's Guide
Written and edited by the spinal shark collective
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Table of Contents
1       Introduction
2       StepMania
 2.1.   Terms and Concepts
  2.1.1 Notable StepMania Versions
  2.1.2 StepMania Components
 2.2    StepMania Configuration
  2.2.1 Frequently Asked Questions that can be
        Solved by Changing the Configuration
 2.3.   Installing Content
  2.3.1 Installing Song Files
  2.3.2 Installing Noteskins/New Gametypes
  2.3.3 Installing Themes
3.      sm-ssc
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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Welcome to the sm-ssc Beginner's Guide. This guide is primarily meant for people
who do not have any previous experience with StepMania, but also includes
information on how sm-ssc differs from StepMania. If you already know what
StepMania is, and the basics of adding things to an install, you can skip ahead
to Chapter 3: sm-ssc. Otherwise, read on.

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Chapter 2: StepMania
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StepMania is an open-source rhythm game/engine, used by many projects, both
commercial and free. It is the software from which sm-ssc is derived, and as
a result, must be learned before using sm-ssc if you're not already familiar
with how it works.

Some of the things an average sm-ssc user is expected to know includes the
meanings/"proper names" of certain things, as well as how to install content
and configure the program to suit your playing style.

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2.1: Terms and Concepts
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Like many other video games, StepMania has a rich lexicon of words which may
confuse others. The most important of the terms has to do with versions of
StepMania, as backwards compatibility is pretty much nonexistent between major
versions.

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2.1.1: Notable StepMania Versions
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Knowing the versions of StepMania is helpful, as it will help you deduce what
you can and can not install. (Most songs are version-agnostic, though the
background animations may not be. Themes, Noteskins, etc. are tied to
specific versions.)

* StepMania 3.9
StepMania 3.9 is currently considered the stable version of StepMania. It dates
back to 2005, and is the version for which the bulk of content is produced.

* StepMania 3.9 Plus/StepMania 3.9 Plus Redux
3.9 Plus/Redux is a fork of StepMania 3.9 that adds features from
later StepMania versions (such as rolls), as well as new features.

* StepMania 3.95/StepMania Online
Generally, when people talk about this version, they refer to a CVS build of
StepMania from around June-August 2006. It was not an officially supported
build of StepMania.

* OpenITG
OpenITG is a fork of the StepMania CVS code from around the time In The Groove 2
was released. OpenITG's goal is to produce a replacement executable for ITG2
machines with enhanced features, though it can also be used at home as well.

* StepMania 4.0 CVS
This term is used to describe versions of StepMania 4 that appeared after "3.95"
up until January 2008, when the last build that could be categorized as "CVS"
was released.

* StepMania 4.0 SVN/alpha
The current development version of StepMania. This is the version that sm-ssc
is forked off of. If you wish to port something to sm-ssc, it had better work
for this version first, unless you like working hard to port the theme past
various generations and default theme assumptions.

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2.1.2: StepMania Components
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Despite the title, this is a bit more broader-reaching, as it covers terms that
you may see in StepMania communities and online.
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* Courses
  Courses exist in many different forms, but in general, they take you through
  multiple songs without a break in-between. There are multiple types of courses:

 * Nonstop Courses
   Nonstop courses use the regular lifebar and typically have 4 songs per
   course, though this isn't always the case. It is the easiest of the
   course modes.

 * Oni/Challenge Courses
   The Oni/challenge courses are quite difficult, usually giving you 4 lives
   over multiple songs. If you get less than a Great, you lose a life. Once
   you lose all your lives, the game is over.

 * Survival Courses
   Survival courses go by time. Each step judgment is worth something on the
   timer, with most of the values being negative by default. If you run out of
   time before you complete the course, the game is over.

 * Endless Courses
   Endless courses are like the name suggests. They don't end until you fail or
   decide to quit. Like Nonstop courses, they have a normal lifebar as well.
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* Event Mode
  Typically used during events, this disables the concept of stages and lets you
  play songs until you decide to stop. It is quite useful in Home Mode, and this
  guide recommends you enable it.

* Gametypes
  Gametypes are the different game modes StepMania can play. They generally
  change things like number of default receptors, number of judgments, and more.
  Gametypes are directly related to noteskins and unrelated to the different
  play modes (Normal, Nonstop, Challenge, and so on).
  Examples of gametypes include "dance", "pump", "beat", "techno", and so on.

* NoteSkins
  NoteSkins are the appearance of the notes. Most noteskins are bound to certain
  gametypes, though some noteskins are easily adapted for other gametypes.

* Pack/packs
  A pack is a group of songs for StepMania. The term originated from the
  community of StepMania keyboard creators, and can be seen prominently in
  certain release names, such as Community Keyboard Mega Pack (CKMP).
  When used as a single word question, e.g. "packs?", it is a request for what
  packs you have installed.

* Songs
  StepMania songs contain a few files, but mainly the steps (.sm, .dwi, .ksf,
  .bms, among many other formats) and song file itself (.mp3, .ogg, .wav). In
  order to get the most out of StepMania, you'll need to know all about songs
  and how to install them.

* Themes
  Themes are skins for StepMania. They change the look and feel, and in post-3.9
  versions, can also change elements of gameplay (scoring, grading) as well.

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2.2: StepMania Configuration
or "How to use the Options Menu"
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Learning how to properly configure StepMania can save you headaches.

Most themes will have the Options menu in plain sight on the Title Menu.
From there, it depends on which version of StepMania you have, as the options
menus were re-shuffled around for the StepMania 4 alphas.

The typical StepMania 3.9 Options Menu:
* Appearance Options
* Background Options
* Bookkeeping
* Center Image
* Coin Options
* Config Key/Joy Mappings
* Input Options
* Gameplay Options
* Graphic Options
* Machine Options
* Sound Options
* Profile Options
* Other Options
* Reload Songs/Courses
* Test Input

The StepMania 4.0 alpha 4 Options Menu:
* Config Key/Joy Mappings
* Test Input
* Appearance Options
* Graphics/Sound Options
* Advanced Options
* Network Options
* Profiles
* Reload Songs/Courses

sm-ssc changes this up again, making the "Options" item on the Title Menu go
to System Direction (mostly-used options), leaving the normal options menu to
the Scroll Lock key. Blame Midiman. :)
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2.2.1: Frequently Asked Questions that can be Solved by Changing the Configuration
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With that in mind, it's time to answer some questions using this knowledge.

Q: How do I disable the menu timer?
A: Where you go depends on the version of StepMania you use.

[3.9] Machine Options
[4.0 alphas] Advanced Options
It will be the first option on each.

Q: How do I play forever, without game overs?
A: Turn on Event Mode. Where you go depends on the version of StepMania you use.

[3.9] Coin Options
[4.0 alphas] Advanced Options, a bit down the page.

Q: What the heck is this thing that says "Toasty" and how do I get rid of it?
A: It's a reference to Mortal Kombat 2, where Dan Forden would pop out from
the side of the screen randomly after an uppercut.
In order to get a Toasty in StepMania, one must get a 250 combo without any
Greats. The number 250 is a reference to how many VS games of MK2 you had to
play before you could play Pong.

As for turning it off, turn Easter Eggs off.
It appears in different locations between StepMania versions:
[3.9] Gameplay Options
[4.0 alphas] Advanced Options, a bit down the page.

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2.3: Installing Content
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This is the most important section you will read, as all the time that you spend
not playing with StepMania will be adding/removing things to it. Well, not
completely, as you have other things to do.

Before we touch on the specifics, there are a few skills you should learn.

* Mac Users of StepMania 4.0
Most of the game content is packaged in a file called StepMania.smzip. This has
the pros of not cluttering things up, but the con is that people don't know
where to put things.

Wherever you have StepMania installed, make the following folders:
 * Songs
 * Themes
 * Noteskins
  (and the various gametype folders, which are optional. You need at least one
  non-lights gametype in order to play.)
  * Noteskins/dance
  * Noteskins/pump
  * Noteskins/para
  * Noteskins/techno
  * Noteskins/beat
  * Noteskins/popn
  * Noteskins/ez2
 * Announcers
   (but at this point, no SM4 announcers have been released)
 * Packages
   (optional, but recommended)

and then you can follow the rest of this guide.

* Not on Windows and want to deal with .smzip files?
There are multiple ways to deal this.
 1) Put the SMZip file in the Packages folder.
 2) Rename the file to have an extension of .zip and extract in the root
    StepMania folder.
 3) Pass the smzip's filename to StepMania on the command line/terminal.
    Dragging and dropping the .smzip may or may not work; we have not tested it.
    Also, this may or may not exist in your version of StepMania.

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2.3.1: Installing Song Files
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Song files are distributed in many ways. The concept of packs was explained
above, in which multiple songs are included in one archive.

For .smzip files, the section "Not on Windows and want to deal with .smzip
files?" details all possible ways of installing .smzip files, but the most
common ways are as follows:

1) For operating systems with a filetype handler (Windows), you can double
   click on the .smzip file and the StepMania tools will handle it.
2) Putting the .smzip file in the Packages folder, where it will be automatically
   read by StepMania.

If it's not a .smzip file, you'll have to do some detective work.
Open up the song archive and see how the files are laid out.

The easiest single song installs will have a folder structure similar to this:
Group Name\
 Song Name\
  song file.sm
  song file.ogg/mp3
  song file-bg.png
  song file-bn.png

With a setup like this, you can just extract it to the Songs folder with
directory structure intact.

Sometimes, simfile authors don't package their file with a group name,
leaving you with a file structure like this:
Song Name\
 song file.sm
 song file.ogg/mp3
 song file-bg.png
 song file-bn.png

You will need to extract this into a song group folder that exists already.

An uncommon setup will only include the song files, without any folders at all.
These need to be put into the {Group Name}\{Song Name}\ folder in order to work.

For packs, you follow the same logic. If there are multiple song folders, but no
group folder, you will have to make a group folder. (Flightmix 4 is an example
of a pack that exhibits this behavior.)

Overall, the setup should look something like this:

StepMania\
 Songs\
  Song Group 1\
  Song Group 2\
  Song Group 3\
  Song Group 4\
   Example Song\
    Example Song.sm
    Example Song.mp3/ogg
    Example Song-bn.png
    Example Song-bg.png

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2.3.2: Installing Noteskins/New Gametypes
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NoteSkins change the appearance of the arrows. They are also linked with getting
other gametypes supported in StepMania.

The noteskin installation process looks something like this:
StepMania\
 NoteSkins\
  (gametype)\
   (noteskin for gametype)\
   default\
  (gametype2)\
   default\

"gametype"/"gametype2" etc. can be any one of the following:
dance (typically 4 panels)
pump (typically 5 panels)
para (5 receptors)
techno (4, 5, and 8 panel modes)
beat (5 and 7 key modes with a turntable on each)
popn (5 and 9 line modes)
kb7 (6 or 7 keys depending on when you try to use it)

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2.3.3: Installing Themes
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Depending on if the theme is packaged in a SMZip or not, you have a few options.

If it is in a .smzip, you can put it in the Packages directory:
StepMania/
 Packages/
  MyTheme.smzip
and StepMania will automatically read it.
On Windows, you can double click on the .smzip file to install it in your user
packages directory. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED BECAUSE IT CAUSES CONFUSION.

Since .smzip files are really .zip files, you could also extract them in the
StepMania root folder.

If the themer has not packaged the theme in a .smzip, then you have to look
inside the archive to see how the directory layout looks.
1) Themes folder
   If it has a themes folder when you open it up, extract in the StepMania root
   folder, like you would a .smzip file.
2) Theme name as a folder
   This one will have to be extracted in the Themes directory. You will get a
   new folder with the files.
3) A bunch of folders + metrics.ini
   The themer was lazy; you're going to have to make a folder in the Themes
   directory and extract the theme in there.

When in doubt, read any documentation that comes with the theme for proper
installation instructions.

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Chapter 3: sm-ssc
================================================================================
sm-ssc is a fork of the current StepMania codebase. It is focused on adding
features for theming, but also tries to make the process of dealing with
StepMania a little easier.