@@ -37,12 +37,14 @@ Table of Contents
13. The .SM File Format
14. Background Animations
15. The .CRS File Format
16. Improving Image Quality with Texture Hint s
17. Creating a StepMania a nnouncer pack
18. Creating a StepMania theme pack
19. Building StepMania from CVS Sourc e
20. Version History
21. Thanks
16. Extra Stage s
17. Creating an A nnouncer
18. Creating a Note Skin
19. Creating a Them e
20. How StepMania Loads Textures
21. Building StepMania from CVS Source
22. Version History
23. Thanks
************************************************************
1. About StepMania
@@ -52,6 +54,7 @@ StepMania game system is capable of playing many game types. Currently, it
supports games Dance Dance Revolution and Pump It Up, with future support for EZ
2 Dancer, BeatMania, Guitar Freaks, DrumMania, Para Para Paradise and more.
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2. Minimum Requirements
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@@ -65,6 +68,7 @@ supports games Dance Dance Revolution and Pump It Up, with future support for EZ
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card with drivers
* DivX 5 video codec (for movie visualizations)
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3. DirectX
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@@ -73,6 +77,7 @@ DirectX 8.1 is required before installing StepMania. If DirectX 8.1 is not
installed on your computer, the StepMania installer will display a warning
and abort the installation.
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4. Installation
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@@ -82,17 +87,20 @@ on your hard drive, then double-click the file icon to begin the installation.
The installer automatically remove an older version of the program if one is
present. The default installation directory is 'C:\Program Files\StepMania'.
************************************************************
5. Controls
************************************************************
Use the "Config Key/Joy" option from the Title Menu to configure your
keyboad or dance pad.
keyboad, dance pad, or other game controller .
The following is a list of special keys.
Any time:
* F4 = toggle fullscreen
* F5 = toggle detail
* Tab = increase game speed 4x
* Tab = increase game speed 4x (useful for moving through menus quickly)
* LShift = decrease game speed to 1/4x
In menus:
@@ -107,6 +115,7 @@ In gameplay:
* F12 = increase BPM of current segment
* Hold Escape = abort playing
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6. How StepMania Loads Songs
************************************************************
@@ -124,7 +133,7 @@ For example, the song B4U may consist of the following files:
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u.png
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u-movie.avi
StepMania supports the SM, DWI, and BMS song file formats.
StepMania supports the SM, DWI, BMS, and KSF song file formats.
If a song file does not specify a valid banner file, StepMania first looks
for a graphic in the song folder that contains the letters "banner". If that
@@ -148,6 +157,7 @@ If a song file does not specify a valid movie background file, StepMania will
look for a movie in the song folder that contains the letters "movie". If
that search fails, StepMania will use the first movie in the song folder.
************************************************************
7. Connecting Dance Pads
************************************************************
@@ -168,7 +178,7 @@ be hit simultaneously.
There is just one brand of PlayStation->USB adaptor that functions perfectly
with StepMania. These adaptors are available for purchase at the StepMania
web site (www.stepmania.com) and through some importers (www.liksang.com).
The adaptor is made by “ Boom” , and it small and black with a detachable USB
The adaptor is made by " Boom" , and it small and black with a detachable USB
cable. These adaptors cost about $15 and allow you to attach one dance pad
per adaptor. The primary advantage of these adaptors is that they do not
require special drivers and require no configuring.
@@ -186,6 +196,7 @@ For Windows 98 and Windows Me users, the recommended driver is "DirectPad Pro
NTPad XP 1.x. Both of these drivers can be downloaded from Aldos web site:
http://www.aldostools.com/dpad.html
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8. Compatibility Issues
************************************************************
@@ -197,9 +208,9 @@ issues that are thought to be video card driver bugs:
* S3 Savage family cards (e.g. Diamond Stealth)
Symptom: The right edge of some graphics appears "cut off".
Explanation: Drivers do not properly handle textures > 512x512, resulting in
cropped textures. Please use the Low texture detail option to force texture to
be 512x512 or smaller.
Explanation: Drivers do not properly handle textures >= 512x512, resulting in
cropped textures. Turn the texture detail option to 256 to force textures to
a smaller size .
* SiS cards
Symptom: Garbled fonts.
@@ -208,8 +219,9 @@ solution is to upgrade drivers.
* Any card older than two years
Symptom: Various graphical glitches.
Explanation: These problems are most often video card driver bugs. Please
upgrade to the latest drivers, which will hopefully fix the errors.
Explanation: These problems are most often caused by buggy video card drivers
bugs. Please upgrade to the latest drivers, which will hopefully fix the
errors.
************************************************************
@@ -255,8 +267,8 @@ I'd rather not going to say. Sorry. It's gotten me in trouble before.
* Why won't you tell me? I promise I won't tell anyone else.
The reason I won't tell is because I don't know yet and I don't want to make
anyone angry if it takes longer than I expect (it usually does).
The reason I won't tell is because: a) I don't know yet, and b) I don't want
to make anyone angry if it takes longer than I expect (it usually does).
************************************************************
@@ -281,6 +293,7 @@ for you. Simply launch the Package Manager
create a package for, click the Export button, and a .smzip package will be
placed on your desktop.
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11. Questions, Bugs, Suggestions, and Help
************************************************************
@@ -307,6 +320,7 @@ If you would like to help with development of StepMania, please send an email
to the StepMania developers list ([email protected] ) or to Chris
([email protected] ).
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12. The StepMania editor
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@@ -317,6 +331,7 @@ a song that was originally in DWI or BMS format, the old DWI and BMS files will
be renamed to have ".old" appended to avoid conflicts when the song is next
loaded. All of the commands are listed along the left side of the screen.
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13. The .SM file format
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@@ -539,9 +554,174 @@ Header section...
************************************************************
16. Improving Image Quality with Texture Hint s
16. Extra Stage s
************************************************************
You can manually specify extra stage 1 and 2 by creating a .CRS files in the
group folder called extra1.crs and extra2.crs. These courses must contain
exactly one valid song. Don't forget to specify modifiers - see the CRS File
Format section in the readme for more information. If a CRS file is not found
or is invalid, the program will choose approprite Song/Notes/Options.
************************************************************
17. Creating an Announcer
************************************************************
Announcers folders must reside in the "Announcers" folder inside the
StepMania program directory (e.g. "Announcers\DDRMAX\"). An announcer folder
contains several more folders - one for each announcer "trigger". You can
place as many .WAV, .MP3, or .OGG sounds as you want in a trigger folder.
When StepMania wants to play a sound for that trigger, it will play a
random sound file from your trigger folder.
Sound files in a trigger folder can have any name you want. It's recommended
that you name the sound files according to what is being said (e.g.
"everybodys waiting for you.mp3"). If there are 0 sound files in a trigger
folder, or the trigger folder is missing, then no sound will be played for
that trigger.
************************************************************
18. Creating a Note Skin
************************************************************
Note skins allow you to customize the way notes appear. Note skins must
reside in the folder "Skins\(Game Name)\(Note Skin Name)". Note skins are
specific to a particular game (dance, pump, etc). In the note skin folder,
you must implement the folling files for each note:
<NoteName> Receptor (NxN).<png|gif|jpg|bmp>
<NoteName> Note color part (NxN).<png|gif|jpg|bmp>
<NoteName> Note gray part (NxN).<png|gif|jpg|bmp>
<NoteName> Hold Explosion (NxN).<png|gif|jpg|bmp>
<NoteName> Tap Explosion Bright (NxN).<png|gif|jpg|bmp>
<NoteName> Tap Explosion Dim (NxN).<png|gif|jpg|bmp>
<NoteName> Hold.colors
<NoteName> Tap.colors
"<NoteName>" must be the name of the note (e.g. "left", "upright", "snare").
Look at the example note skins included with StepMania for a complete list
for each game.
"NxN" is an optional string that specifies the dimensions of the graphic.
For example, if there are 6 frames, 3 wide 2 high, in your color part
animation, then you might use the file name "Up Note color part 3x2.png".
For more information on about graphics loading, see the section "How
StepMania Loads Textures".
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19. Creating a Theme
************************************************************
Themes must reside in the Themes folder in the StepMania program directory.
Inside each theme folder, there are up to three directories: "graphics",
"sounds", and "fonts".
Graphics may be .sprites or any file format described in the section "How
StepMania Loads Textures". Sounds can be in .mp3, .ogg, or .wav. Fonts
must use the .font file format.
When StepMania looks to load a font element (graphic, sound, font), it
first looks in the current theme folder for the element. If that element
cannot be found, it will fall back to using the element in the theme named
"default". "default" is sort of a base theme and should not be modified.
This system allows user-made themes to override as little or as many theme
elements as they want. For example, you could create a theme that does
nothing more than override the title menu logo. Such a theme would contain
only one folder ("Graphics") and one file ("Graphics\title menu logo.png").
> What's in a .font file?
Example:
[Font]
Texture=Score Numbers 7x2.png
Widths=5,8,10,17,15,18,15,6,9,9,8,14,5,9
Characters=01234 :56789~.
CapitalsOnly=0
DrawExtraPercent=0.1
Texure: File name of texture file. Must be in same directory as .font file.
Font graphics can be generated by the program Bitmap Font Buider
(http://www.lmnopc.com/bitmapfontbuilder/).
Width: The width in pixels of the character in each frame of the texture.
Characters are specified in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom ordering.
Characters: The characters corresponding to each frame in the texture.
Characters are specified in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom ordering.
CapitalsOnly: 0=false, 1=true. Use "1" if this font implements only
capital letters.
DrawExtraPercent: A number between 0.0 and 1.0 specifying the maximum
amount in percentage of the frame width that a character can hang over
its width. Many italic fonts hang a actually a little bit wider than
base of the characer because of skewing. For these types of font, the
DrawExtraPercent should be > 0. This value takes some playing around with.
************************************************************
20. How StepMania Loads Textures
************************************************************
> What are textures?
"Texture" is simply another name for graphics file. The name "texture"
is more common when taking about 3D graphics. This document uses "texture"
and "graphic" interchangably.
> What types of graphics can StepMania read:
StepMania can use any of the following graphics formats as textures:
png, gif, jpg, bmp, avi, mpg, mpeg. StepMania looks for textures on disk
only by looking at file name minus the extension. For example, when
StepMania wants to load the graphic "title menu logo", it will first look
for "title menu logo.png", then "title menu logo.gif", ... then "title
menu logo.mpeg".
> How to you specify multiple frames in an animation?
Simply add the string "(NxN)". Immediately before the "." that separates
the main file name and the extension. For example, suppose there is a file
called "title menu logo.png" that you would like to turn into an animation.
Now, you create an graphic file with 9 frames of animation - 3 frames wide
and 3 frames high. Name this file, "title menu logo 3x3.png", and stepmania
will play the graphic as an animation with frames in the order left-to-right,
top-to-bottom, with 0.20 seconds separating each frame.
> What are .sprite files?
.sprite files are a way to have even more precise control over how your
graphics animate. Each sprite has multiple "states". For each state, you
may specify: 1) What frame of the graphic to show, and 2) how long to show
this state before moving to the next state.
Let's look at an example .sprite file:
[Sprite]
Texture=dancer p1 8x4.png
Frame0000=0
Delay0000=0.05
Frame0001=1
Delay0001=0.05
Frame0002=2
Texture is the name of the texure file to use. This must reside in the same
directory as the .sprite file. If your texture has multiple frames, be sure
to specify the dimensions in the file name using the convention described
above.
FrameNNNN is the index of the frame number to use for the first state of the
animation. Frame may range between 0 and (total number of frames - 1).
Frame indicies move left-to-right, top-to-bottom over the frames in an image.
DelayNNNN is the time in seconds to show the state.
> My graphics show ugly banding or look washed out. What can I do?
You can use texture hints to have more precise control over how your graphics
are storred on the graphics card.
All are textures loaded by StepMania are 16-bits. The default the texture
format is 4444 (4 bits for R,G,B, 4 bits for alpha), which can cause some
banding artifacts or a washed-out look. You can change the texture format by
@@ -561,20 +741,23 @@ end of a file name in parenthesis. For example:
caution (dither, no alpha).png
Arrows Left 1x4 (1 alpha).png
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17. Creating a StepMania announcer pack
************************************************************
> Why do the graphics look so blurry?
Some 3D graphics cards (the Voodoo3 in particular) cannot handles textures >
256x256. If a texture is larger than the card's maximum texture size, the
image will scaled down internally. Since the card is using a low-resolution
version internally, the output, when scalled back to the original image size,
will be blurry.
Whenever possible:
* Keep your images to dimensions smaller or equal to 256x256.
* Make your images have an even number for each dimension (e.g. 286x120 is
will appear less blurr than 285x119). The reason behind this has to do with
how 3D accelerators represent screen coordinates with floating point numbers,
not integers.
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18. Creat ing a StepMania theme pack
************************************************************
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19. Building StepMania from CVS source
21. Build ing StepMania from CVS source
************************************************************
CVS is the repository that manages the StepMania source code. Our CVS server is
@@ -599,15 +782,19 @@ headers.
* Step 3: Install WinCVS
A CVS client is required to "checkout" the course from the CVS server. Download
version 1.2 of WinCVS here - http://www.cvsgui.org.
version 1.2 of WinCVS here - http://www.cvsgui.org
(or http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=10072)
IMPORTANT: Now, open and close WinCVS once. This will cause WinCVS to create
registry entries, which is required for the next step...
* Step 4: Use SourceForge Setup to install SSH and configure WinCVS
A small utility called SourceForge Setup will greatly simplify the steps needed
to configure SSH and WinCVS. Download SourceForge Setup here - link here. Use
the following settings when prompted by SF Setup:
to configure SSH and WinCVS. Download SourceForge Setup from
http://sfsetup.sourceforge.net/. Use the following settings when prompted by SF
Setup:
- Unpack SSH directory: c:\ssh
- SSH install direcotory: c:\ssh
- Your home directory: c:\ssh
@@ -615,6 +802,7 @@ the following settings when prompted by SF Setup:
- Name of the project: stepmania
- The directory where you will be keeping checked out project sources:
c:\stepmania
IMPORTANT: If you are using Windows 2000 or Windows XP SourceForge Setup will
not correctly write changes to the c:\autoexec.bat file. Verify that the
following lines are present after you run SF Setup:
@@ -626,12 +814,44 @@ SET HOME=c:\ssh
IMPORTANT: You must restart after running SF Setup so that the new environment
variables take effect.
* Step 5: Enable SSH access to the cvs machine
Before you can use your account, you must type the following (substituting your
username and projectname as appropriate) before attempting to use CVS from a new
user account:
ssh -l username cvs.projectname.sf.net
Enter your password, and you'll get a message about how you're not supposed to
be there and the connection will drop. What they don't tell you is that this
creates your home directory and is required for things to start working.
* DONE! Enjoy staying on the bleeding edge of StepMania releases!
************************************************************
20 . Version History
22 . Version History
************************************************************
------------------------CVS after 3.00 beta 6----------------
CHANGE: A game that doesn't have any note skins installed is now invisible on
the Select Game screen. This can be used to selectively disable a game.
CHANGE: Graphics and sounds now more compressed more for a smaller download.
CHANGE: The "Difficulty Banner" (displayed while dancing) is now a graphic
that can be overwritten by themes.
CHANGE: An invalid character in a DWI file is now a warning, not a Fatal Error.
BUG FIX: Fixed "blinky arrows".
CHANGE: Note Skin format has changed. Now supports MAX-style holds.
OPTIMIZATION: Improved font alignment. Scaled fonts now appear less blurry.
BUG FIX: Random Movies no longer upside down.
NEW FEATURE: Extra stage top and bottom bars now reversed
NEW FEATURE: Most graphical elements can be positioned per theme using
metrics.ini in the theme folder. See the theme section of the readme for
more info.
BUG FIX: Autoplay no longer misses the first step if it lies on beat 0.
NEW FEATURE: Support for holds notes in KSF.
CHANGE: KSF title discovery will use song foler name if KSF file contains foreign
characters.
------------------------CVS after 3.00 beta 5----------------
OPTIMIZATION: Much faster song loading.
BUG FIX: New hashing algorithm prevents multiple songs from hashing to the same
@@ -707,6 +927,10 @@ BUG FIX: Browsing past a song that don't have notes for some Difficulties will
BUG FIX: TurnMirror, TurnLeft, and TurnShuffle now work. TurnRight does the same
thing is as TurnLeft temporarily.
NEW FEATURE: Demonstration plays after sitting idle at title screen.
CHANGE: Note Skins can now control both the tap tween colors and hold tween colors
with the files "(ButtonName) Tap.colors" and "(ButtonName) Tap.colors".
CHANGE: Tap colors now interpolated for smoother color animation.
CHANGE: Tweaked Drunk for a more interesting effect.
------------------------Version 3.00 beta 4------------------
BUG FIX: Fixed crash entering Config Joy/Key (duh!)
@@ -1046,12 +1270,13 @@ Bug fix: Good and Boo arrows not being drawn.
-------------------------Version 0.50-------------------------
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21 . Thanks
23 . Thanks
************************************************************
Thanks to:
Dj Slash & Tony Thai for the caution graphic
Kyle "KeeL" Ward for his awesome menu music (www.ampcast.com/keel)
Gotetsu for being a utility player
************************************************************
End of document
Chris Danford