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(c)2001-2002, StepMania team
http://www.stepmania.com
************************************************************
Table of Contents
************************************************************
1. About StepMania
2. Minimum Requirements
3. DirectX
4. Installation
5. Controls
6. How StepMania Loads Songs
7. Connecting Dance Pads
8. Compatibility Issues
9. FAQ / Troubleshooting
10. StepMania Packages - .smzip
11. Questions, Bugs, Suggestions, and Help
12. The StepMania Editor
13. The .SM File Format
14. Background Animations
15. The .CRS File Format
16. Extra Stages
17. Creating an Announcer
18. Creating a Note Skin
19. Creating a Theme
20. How StepMania Loads Textures
21. Building StepMania from CVS Source
22. Thanks
See the file "NEWS" for version history.
************************************************************
1. About StepMania
************************************************************
StepMania game system is capable of playing many game types. Currently, it
supports games similar to Dance Dance Revolution, Pump It Up, and EZ 2
Dancer. In the future, it will support games similar to BeatMania, Guitar
Freaks, DrumMania, Para Para Paradise and more.
StepMania is a rhythm game. Arrows pointing in different directions scroll
up from the bottom of the screen, and the player must hit the corresponding
direction in time to the music. The game can be played with your hands on
the keyboard, but the real fun comes when the arrows are registered by dancing
on a sensor-laden mat. The game is very similar to Konami's Dance Dance
Revolution and Andamiro's Pump It Up games, but while those play only their
own songs, StepMania can play any song that includes a step file.
In Stepmania most popular mode, "dance", the player uses four arrows - up,
down, left, and right - , similar to Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series
of games. In "pump" mode, the player must deal with and five direction of
steps - ala Andamiro's Pump it Up games.
Later versions of StepMania will support steps similar to Amuseworld's
EZ2Dancer games, as well as any that there is a sizable demand for.
************************************************************
2. Minimum Requirements
************************************************************
* Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
* Pentium II, Pentium III, Celeron, Athlon, or compatible processor, 266MHz
minimum (400 MHz recommended)
* 64 MB of RAM
* Video card that supports High Color (16-bit color) and has 16MB video RAM
* DirectX 8.1 compatible video card with drivers
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card with drivers
* DivX 5 video codec (for movie visualizations)
************************************************************
3. DirectX
************************************************************
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.
************************************************************
4. Installation
************************************************************
To install StepMania, download the file stepmania3.exe to a known location
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, dance pad, or other game controller.
The following is a list of special keys.
Anywhere:
* F4 = toggle fullscreen
* F5 = toggle detail
* Hold Tab = increase game speed 4x (useful for moving through menus quickly)
* Hold Tilde (~) = decrease game speed to 1/4x
In menus:
* Arrow keys navigate menus
* Enter = Start
* Escape = Back
In gameplay:
* F8 = toggle AutoPlay
* F9 = decrease offset
* F10 = increase offset
* F11 = decrease BPM of current segment
* F12 = increase BPM of current segment
* Hold Escape = abort playing
************************************************************
6. Playing the Game
************************************************************
This section primarily covers StepMania's most popular game type, "dance".
The various games supported by StepMania are similar, and much of this
information applies to other games too.
Title Menu screen: At the title screen are a series of options.
* Game Start:
Begin playing the game and go to the Style Select screen. Make sure
you've configured your keyboard or dance pad before chosing this
option.
* Switch Game:
Allows you to chose between the various games supported by StepMania
(dance, pump, ez2, etc).
* Config Key/Joy:
This is where you go to assign key presses or pad presses. You'll
want to use this screen before playing.
* Game Options:
This is you can adjust properties of the game, like difficulty
and number of stages.
* Game Options:
This is you can adjust graphic detail and other settings that
the performance of the game.
* Appearance Options:
Here, you can customize the appearance of StepMania by chosing the
announcer, theme, and note skin.
* Edit/Record/Synch:
In this mode, you can edit songs and step patterns, or create your
own step patterns from scratch.
* Exit:
Exits the program.
* At the upper-left corner is the total number of songs found when
StepMania perused your songs foler on startup.
* At the upper-right is your version of StepMania.
Config Key/Joy screen:
This menu allows you to map up to 2 keyboard/joystick buttons to each
function in the game. The third column is the default key mapping, and
cannot be changed. However, you can override a default keyboard key by
simply assigning it to another function. The mappings for player 1 are
on the left half of the screen, and the mapping for player 2 are on right
half.
Appearance Options screen:
* Display:
Toggles between Fullscreen mode, in which StepMania is the only
program visible and takes up the entire screen, and Windowed mode,
in which StepMania runs in a window and can be moved about on your
desktop and minimized or maximized, much like any other window.
Many users have found that one mode or the other is more efficient
and produces a smoother game. This varies depending on memory and
video functionality.
* Display Res:
This switches between various standard resolutions of the screen.
A higher number of pixels implies a sharper image, but requires more
computer power.
* Texture Res:
Adjusts the resolution (pixel density) of video textures used in the
game. More detail requires a more powerful computer.
* Refresh Rate:
Sets the number of times that the screen will be redrawn in 1 second.
Note that this setting will only have an effect in Fullscreen mode.
'Default' uses the system default refresh rate (60Hz on most computers).
* Ignore JoyAxes:
Many dance mat drivers (if you're using a dance mat) map the arrows
as directions on a joystick axis. A joystick cannot, logically, be
in more than one place at a time, such as left but also right. In
the game, it is possible to hit two directions at once (in fact,
required at times) and switching this setting to 'on' will make
StepMania ignore the joystick requirement so that your dance mat
will correctly register two arrows at once. See section in the README
"Connecting Dance Pads" for more information on what adapters to use.
* Menu Buttons:
Toggles whether or not the menus will respond to the gameplay buttons.
If not, dedicated buttons for menu navigation will be required.
* Show FPS:
Displays the current frames-per-second in the upper right side of the
screen.
* BG Mode:
This controls the state of the background behind the arrows.
OFF - Only the background graphic of the song is displayed.
ANIMATIONS - Along with the background graphic, animated graphics
(found in the BGAnimations folder) will dance around behind the
arrows. Keep in mind that the animation files are small graphics,
and must be loaded on the fly. On slower computers, this will
cause jumpiness during the song. If this is a problem, try
changing to Visualizations or even off.
VISUALIZATIONS - Along with the background graphic, movies (found in
the Visualizations folder) will be played. The default StepMania
Visualizations pack (available at www.stepmania.com) contains
swirling and twisting effects, but in theory any AVI or MPEG video
can be used. You must have the DivX codec installed on your
computer for this to work. Keep in mind that DivX decoding is
processor-intensive, and will decrease the framerate. Slower
computers will have a hard time playing StepMania AND decoding
DivX backgrounds.
RANDOM MOVIES - Movie files from the "RandomMovies" folder will be
played as the background for the song.
Sample animations, visualizations, and random movies can be found at
www.stepmania.com.
* BG Brightness:
Adjusts the brightness level of the backgrounds. Since the
backgrounds and the arrows are both brightly colored, darkening the
backgrounds makes the arrows more visible.
* Menu Timer:
Toggles whether or not StepMania will place a time limit on using any
given menu. This limit is usually in the upper-right corner of the
screen.
* Event Mode:
If set to ON, there is no limit to the number of songs played. The
player goes back to the Select Music screen even after failing a song,
and continues to do so until they press Esc to move back a menu. If
set to OFF, the game will end after a number of songs specified in
'Arcade stages', the next option down.
* Arcade Stages:
If Event Mode is OFF, this is the number of songs that can
successfully be cleared before the game over screen is displayed.
* Judge Difficulty:
How accurate the player must be in stepping to get a better score for
the step. A higher number means they must be closer to the actual
timing of the arrow. Those of you who try to get all 'perfect' steps
will have a monster of a time with this setting all the way up.
* Life Difficulty:
How difficult it is to keep the life meter at the top of the screen
up. The higher this number, the less it will increase for precise
steps, and the more it will decrease for poorly timed steps.
* Auto Play:
The game will play as normal, but will hit all the arrows of its own
accord, without the player's input. It also will get a perfect on
every step. This will be saved as a high score for the song.
Appearance Options Menu:
* Announcer:
Select from the installed Announcer packs. Get more at
www.stepmania.com.
* Theme:
Select from installed Theme packs. Themes change the look of Stepmania.
Get more at www.stepmania.com.
* Note Skin:
Change the appearance of the arrows in the game by selecting from the
available packs.
Announcer, theme, and note skin packs can be dowloaded from
www.stepmania.com.
Song Options Menu
Upon selecting a song, the words 'Press NEXT for options' will appear on the screen. If you press the 'next' button (enter by default) you will come to the Song Options menu, which contains a variety of settings for changing the way the song and arrows are played.
Speed: The stream of arrows can be stretched out so that it comes faster, but the arrows are more spaced out. It can be left at 1x (normal speed) or stretched by multiples of .5, .75, 1.5, 2, 3, 5, or even 8 times the original speed.
Effect: Each of the effects changes the arrows themselves in some way, usually in such a way as to make them more obscure. Consider these challenege modes.
Off - No effect, normal arrow scrolling.
Boost - Also known as 'parabolic' in some circles, this makes the arrows start up slowly and accelerate towards the top.
Wave - Arrows alternately speed up and slow down.
Drunk - Arrows sway back and forth as they scroll.
Dizzy - Arrows spin as they scroll.
Space - Similar to the scrolling effect in the Star Wars intros, arrows scroll away from the player.
Mini - Arrows are really small.
Appear: These change the visibility of the arrows.
Visible - Normal arrow visibility.
Hidden - Arrows disappear before they reach the top.
Sudden - Arrows are invisible until close to the top.
Stealth - Arrows are completely invisible. The only way to get them is to either memorize the song, watch another player perform the same song at the same time as you on the same difficulty setting, or be really really lucky.
Turn: These rotate the arrows. The arrows will show up on screen in their rotated positions.
Off - Normal arrows, unchanged from how they are in the step file
Mirror - Steps are rotated 180 degrees. Up becomes a down.
Left - Steps are rotated 90 degrees left. Up becomes a left.
Right - Steps are rotated 90 degrees right. Up becomes a right.
Shuffle - All steps in the step file are randomly shuffled.
Little: Removes any arrows that aren't on the quarter beats.
Scroll: BY reversing the scroll, the arrows will scroll from the top down instead of from the bottom up.
Color: Changes the arrow colors.
Vivid - Arrows cycle colors, and off-beat arrows are at different parts of the cycle so as to be easily identifiable.
Note - Off-beat arrows are a different color from on-beat arrows, but colors do not cycle.
Flat - Off-beat arrows are the same color as on-beat arrows
Plain - Same as flat, with the addition that notes do not cycle colors.
Holds: If this is set to OFF, there will only be a normal arrow in place of any hold arrows that may appear. Some players don't like hold arrows.
Dark: This removes the grey arrows from the top of the screen, so that the player can't use them as a reference as to when to hit the proper arrow.
Life Type: Switch between BAR, where there is a meter that can be increased with accurate steps and decreased with poor steps, and BATTERY, where the player gets a set number of batteries, similar to 'lives' in most games, which are removed as they player misses steps.
Bar Drain: Functional only if Life Type is set to BAR. Switch between three ways the life meter can function.
Normal - Perfect and Great steps increase the bar, any others decrease it.
No Recover: Same as Normal but it can only go down, not up. Perfects and Greats leave it in place.
Sudden Death - Any step score other than Great or Perfect will automatically fail.
Bat. Lives: Functional only when Life Type is set to BATTERY. This sets the number of batteries the player gets.
Fail: If you fail by missing enough steps, this is when the song ends.
Arcade - Song will end as soon as you fail it.
End of Song - As the name implies, you will not fail out until the music end. You miss every step and the song will keep playing until it's finished.
Off - You cannot fail the song.
Assist: Makes a 'clap' sound every time you are supposed to hit an arrow, to help the player acquaint his or herself with the song's rhythmic structure.
Rate: This is the percent of normal speed that the song plays at. Any song can be speeded up or slowed down as much as 30%. This setting is not to correct a song that is misaligned to its steps, as the steps are also sped up or slowed down at the same rate that the song is.
Select Style screen: This is the screen where you choose your style of play.
* Single:
One player, playing on one four-panel pad. Second player need not apply.
* Versus:
Two players each with their own respective 4-panel pad and set of arrows.
Each player can choose their own difficulty, and each has their own set
of arrows to follow. At the end of the song each player will recieve a
separate grade. There is no interaction between players other than
comparing grades and, if you have dance mats, the possibility of crashing
into each other during play :-)
* Double:
Same as single, except that one player uses both player's pads, and must
contend with 8 arrows now instead of only four. The step listings for
doubles mode are separate from single or versus. Only files containing
such a set of steps will be displayed.
* Couple:
Very similar to versus, except that each player has a different set of
steps, and each player must choose the same skill level. Often stepfile
authors use this mode to choreograph a patern between the two players.
* Solo:
One player plays on six panels. Like double, this uses a different step
chart than single or versus or double does, and only files containing
that set of steps will be displayed.
************************************************************
6. How StepMania Loads Songs
************************************************************
All song files for a specific song (data file, music file, banner, background)
must reside in a single folder. This folder must have the following path:
Songs/<group folder>/<song folder>/
For example, the song B4U may consist of the following files:
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u.dwi
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u.mp3
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u-banner.png
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u.png
Songs/Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix/B4U/b4u-movie.avi
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
search fails, StepMania will guess which image is most appropriate.
If a song file does not specify a valid background file, StepMania first looks
for a graphic in the song folder that contains the letters "bg" or "background".
If that search fails, StepMania will guess which image is most appropriate.
If a song file does not specify a valid CDTitle file, StepMania will look
for a graphic in the song folder that contains the letters "cdtitle". If that
search fails, StepMania will guess which image is most appropriate.
Also, for compatibility with DWI, if can reading CDTitles from the .\CDTitles
folder. Song makers are not encouraged to not use this feature and instead
should put the CDTitle graphic in the song folder. Having a separate CDTitles
folder breaks the principle that all files needed to play a song should reside
in the song folder.
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
************************************************************
There are several devices that allow you to connect PlayStation dance pads to
your PC.
* Not recommended: generic PlayStation->USB converter
Using a generic PlayStation->USB converter is not recommended to play any
dancing game on the PC. The vast majority of these converters are not capable
of registering simultaneous presses of Left+Right or Up+Down. This
restriction will cause the player to miss many notes where two buttons must
be hit simultaneously.
* Highly Recommended: Special PlayStation->USB adaptor
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
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.
* Semi-Recommended: PlayStation->Parallel adaptor
PlayStation->Parallel converters do not have the simultaneous button problem
that USB converters do. The disadvantage of these adaptors is that home-made
drivers are required to use these devices. These drivers are often finicky
and incompatible with some sound cards. PlayStation->Parallel adaptors can
be purchased from the StepMania web site or any importer.
For Windows 98 and Windows Me users, the recommended driver is "DirectPad Pro
5.0 for Win9x". For Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the recommended drivers are
NTPad XP 1.x. Both of these drivers can be downloaded from Aldos web site:
http://www.aldostools.com/dpad.html
************************************************************
8. Compatibility Issues
************************************************************
Some video card/driver combinations have visual errors when running StepMania.
If you experience any visual errors, please visit your video card manufacturer's
web site and download the latest Direct3D 8.1 drivers. Below is a list of known
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. Turn the texture detail option to 256 to force textures to
a smaller size.
* SiS cards
Symptom: Garbled fonts.
Explanation: Drivers have errors in handling texture coordinates. Only known
solution is to upgrade drivers.
* Any card older than two years
Symptom: Various graphical glitches.
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.
************************************************************
9. FAQ / Troubleshooting
************************************************************
* The error "Cannot find Dinput8.dll" appears when launching the game.
You need to download DirectX 8.1. http://www.microsoft.com/directx
* StepMania reports "Direct3DCreate failed".
You need to download DirectX 8.1. http://www.microsoft.com/directx
* StepMania reports "Direct3DCreateDevice failed".
This error means that your video card or drivers do not support Direct3D 8.
Download the latest drivers for your video card. If your video card is older
than 2 or 3 years, Direct3D 8 drivers may not be available. Sorry.
* Music rates of over 100% do not work on my computer. Why?
Some very old sound cards do not support sound playback rates that are greater
than the original sample rate. This problem is likely to be corrected by newer
sound card drivers.
* I’m looking to purchase a video card. What works well with StepMania?
Just about any video card manufactured in the last year will run StepMania
flawlessly at 60 frames per second. I recommend any card with an nVidia
GeForce chip or an ATI Radeon chip.
* How can I improve performance with my existing video card
1. Install the latest drivers for your video card.
2. Press F5 in the game to toggle between high detail and low detail modes.
3. Tweak the Display Resolution and Texture Resolution setting in the GameOptions
screen.
* Chris, will you tell me when the next version will be released?
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: 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).
************************************************************
10. StepMania Packages - .smzip
************************************************************
The StepMania package format was created to make the distribution of songs and
other add-ons very easy.  StepMania package files have the extension '.smzip'
and can be installed by double-clicking the .smzip file.
A StepMania package is 'installed' by extracting all files in the package to the
StepMania program directory. This allows songs, courses, themes, and
visualizations to all be installed by the Package Manager.
The file format of an .smzip file is actually the PK-Zip standard.  This means
you can rename any .smzip file to have the extension '.zip', and then open the
file in any compression package (e.g. WinZip).
The StepMania Package Manager (smpackage.exe) can also create song packages
for you. Simply launch the Package Manager
(Start Menu->Programs->StepMania->Package Manager), click the song you want to
create a package for, click the Export button, and a .smzip package will be
placed on your desktop.
************************************************************
11. Questions, Bugs, Suggestions, and Help
************************************************************
If you have a question or problem about StepMania, please try asking your
question to the StepMania message board. A link is available from the StepMania
web site - http://www.stepmania.com.
If you have found a bug, please file a bug report into the SourceForge bug
tracking system (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=37892&atid=421366).  
This will allow the developers to track and fix bugs much more efficiently.  
* In a bug report, please specify your video card brand and model, and your OS
version.
* PLEASE, PLEASE enter your e-mail address on the bug reports. In many cases,
we need more information from the bug reporter.
Please use SourceForge's feature request system to enter new feature requests
(http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=421369&group_id=37892&func=browse). Also,
please discuss feature ideas on the StepMania message board or the StepMania
developers list (stepmania-devs@sourceforge.net).  
If you would like to help with development of StepMania, please send an email
to the StepMania developers list (stepmania-devs@sourceforge.net) or to Chris
(chris@videogamers.com).
************************************************************
12. The StepMania editor
************************************************************
The StepMania editor allows you to edit, record, synchronize, and play back
note patterns. Current, it support saving only in the .SM format. If you save
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.
************************************************************
13. The .SM file format
************************************************************
The .SM song file format was created to be one file format that supports all
game types that StepMania can play (dance, pump, beat, guitar, etc). The .SM
file syntax is identical to DWI except for some different tags and meanings.
These are a list of all supported tags.
All images can be in png, gif, jpg, or bmp format. All sounds can be in ogg,
mp3, or wav format.
#TITLE:...; - The "main title" of the song.
#SUBTITLE:...; - This text will appear underneath the main title of the song
on the Select Music screen. e.g. "-Dirty Mix-", "(remix)".
#ARTIST:...; - The artist of the song.
#CREDIT:...; - Give yourself some credit here for creating a wonderful song.
#BPM:...; - BPM of the music
#BANNER:...; - The file name of the banner image. e.g. "b4u-banner.png".
This image must reside in the song folder.
#BACKGROUND:...; - The file name of the background image. e.g. "b4u-bg.png".
This image must reside in the song folder.
#CDTITLE:...; - The file name of the spinning CD logo. e.g. "b4u-cdtitle.png".
This image must reside in the song folder.
#MOVIEBACKGROUND:...; - The file name of the a background movie. e.g. "b4u-movie.avi".
This movie must reside in the song folder.
#MUSIC:...; - The file name of the music file. e.g. "b4u.mp3". This image
must reside in the song folder.
#MUSICBYTES:...; - The size in bytes of the music file that this song was last
synchronized with. A "Song may be out of synch" warning will be displayed if
the value of this tag does not match the actual size of the music file.
#OFFSET:...; - The time in seconds at which beat 0 occurs in the music. This
is specified as a floating point value. e.g. "2.34".
#SAMPLESTART:...; - The time in seconds to start the music sample that plays
on the Select Music screen. This is specified as a floating point value. e.g.
"32.34".
#SAMPLELENGTH:...; - The time in seconds let the sample music play after
starting. This is specified as a floating point value. e.g. "32.34". Note
that in the last 1 second of playing the music will fade out.
#SELECTABLE:...; - If "NO", the song can not be selected manually and can
only be played as part of a course. If "ROULETTE", the song can can also be
selected via roulette. The default value is "YES".
#BPMS:...; - A value of the format "beat=bpm". Indicates that at 'beat', the
speed of the arrows will change to "bpm". Both of these values are specified
as floating point values. You must specifiy a BPM value for beat 0. Multiple
BPMs can be given by separating them with commas. e.g. "0=160,120=80".
#STOPS:...; - A value of the format "beat=sec". Indicates that at 'beat',
the motion of the arrows should stop for "sec" seconds. Both of these values
are specified as floating point values. Multiple stops can be given by
separating them with commas. e.g. "60=2.23,80=1.12".
#ANIMATIONS:...; - A value of the format "beat=anim name". Indicates that at 'beat',
the background animation should change to the animation names 'anim name'. 'beat'
is a floating point value and 'anim name' is a string. Different animation change
are separated by commas. e.g. "60=falling,80=flower".
Each pattern of steps for different modes have the same basic format:
#NOTES:<NotesType>:<Description>:<DifficultyClass>:<DifficultyMeter>:<RadarValues>:<NoteData>;
NotesType: Must be one of the currently supported types in StepMania:
"dance-single", "dance-double", "dance-couple", "dance-solo", "pump-single",
"pump-double".
Description: This will be displayed on the gameplay screen. This can be any
text, but is most commonly "Basic", "Another", "Trick", "Standard", "SSR",
"Maniac", "Heavy", or "Challenge".
DifficultyClass: This value must be "easy", "medium", or "hard". These values
correspond the levels of difficulty on the Select Difficulty screen.
DifficultyMeter: The difficulty of these notes as a bar rating. The value must
be an integer between 1 and 10.
RadarValues: The values that will be displayed on the Groove Radar as floats
between 0.00 and 1.00. The 5 values must be separated by commas, and are
specified in the order: "stream,voltage,air,freeze,chaos". For MAX300, these
values are "0.95,0.98,0.22,0.12,0.13". These values will automatically be
written when you save the song in the StepMania editor, but you may edit the
.SM file afterward to tweak them.
NoteData: This value requires a longer explanation. The format is pretty
similar to that used in KSF files.
Each note is represented by a character:
1 = a regular "tap note"
2 = beginning of a "hold note"
3 = end of a "hold note"
a-z,A-z = reserved for game types that have sounds associated with notes
Notes are grouped into rows. The number of notes in a row depends on the
NotesType field.
dance-single = 4 notes/row
dance-double = 8 notes/row
dance-couple = 8 notes/row
dance-solo = 6 notes/row
pump-single = 5 notes/row
pump-double = 10 notes/row
For example, a note row for a dance-single pattern may look like "1001" (press
Left and Right simultaneously. A note row for a dance-double pattern may look
like "10010000" (press Left and Right simultaneously on the left pad).
Note rows are grouped into measures. The number of note rows in a measure will
determine the time value of each note. For example, if there are 4 note rows
in a measure, each note will be treated as a quarter note. If there are 8 notes
rows in a measure, each note will be treated as a eighth note. If there are 12
notes rows in a measure, each note will be treated as a triplet note. Measures
are separated by a comma.
Example:
// measure 1
2010
0000
0100
0000
: // measure 2
0001
0100
0001
0000
3010
0000
0000
0000
;
************************************************************
14. Background Animations
************************************************************
\BGAnimations\<anim folder>\<layer files>
Why?
Grouping all of the graphics for an animation into one file would be a pain. If you want your sprites to have animation and you put all the frames for multiple animations into one big graphics file: a) That file would be huge and many video cards can't draw large textures, b) You'd have to create some other text file that says which frames of the graphic belong to which sprite, c) If your sprites are different sizes, there will be a lot of wasted space between the frames of that graphic, and d) It's a pain for the artist to cut and paste a whole bunch of frames from different animations into one graphic (and make sure everything is lined up right).
The BGAnimations folder should contain several folders for individual background animations. Currently, these background animations cycle in order of their folder names, changing every 4 measures of the song.
In an animation folder, each sprite represents one layer. Multiple layers can be specified by having multiple sprites. Layers are drawn from back to front in order of their file name. Different "layer effects" are specified by adding tokens to the file name. Here are an explanation of the currently supported tokens:
usesongbg - Use the song's background file instead of this graphics file. Since this graphics file will not be used, you might want to make this graphic a 1x1 graphic to save space.
add - use additive blending instead of normal blending.
cyclecolor - cycle the color of the layer over the colors of the rainbow
cyclealpha - cycle the alpha channel of the layer over type
startonrandomframe - Start the animation on a random frame. This is mainly useful for Tile or Particle effects.
dontanimate - Stay on the first frame of this animation. This is only useful for layers with multiple frames.
(stretch effects) - These scretch the graphic across the extire screen.
scretchscrollleft,
stretchscrollright,
stretchscrollup,
stretchscrolldown,
- Scroll the layer in a direction
stretchwater,
stretchbubble,
stretchtwist,
stretchspin,
- Deform the background sprite with an effect. Only stretch spin is currently implemented.
(particle effects) - Use the graphic to make individual particles on the screen.
particlesspiralout,
particlesspiralin,
- Spiral particles away from/toward the center of the screen.
particlesfloatup,
particlesfloatdown,
particlesfloatleft,
particlesfloatright,
- Scroll the particles across the screen.
particlesbounce,
- Particles start traveling in random directions and bounce when they hit the edge of the screen.
(tile effects) - Tile the graphics across the screen, forming a grid of graphics.
tilestill,
tilescrollleft,
tilescrollright,
tilescrollup,
tilescrolldown,
- Scroll the tiles
tileflipx,
tileflipy,
- Flip the tiles along the X or Y axis.
tilepulse,
- Tiles zoom in and out.
************************************************************
15. The .CRS File Format
************************************************************
Place holder...
Header section...
#COURSE:...; - name of the course
#LIVES:<0..10>; - An integer between 0 and 10. This line is optional.
#REPEAT:<YES|NO>; - start over after last stage?
#SONG:<group folder>\<song folder>:<description>[:modifiers]; -
group folder - The name of the folder that contains the song folder.
song folder - the name of the folder that contains files for the song
description - BASIC, TRICK, SSR, MANIAC, HEAVY, etc.
modifiers - One or more of:
0.5x, 0.75x, 1.5x, 2.0x, 3.0x, 4.0x, 5.0x, 8.0x
boost, wave, drunk, dizzy, space, mini
hidden, sudden, stealth
mirror, left, right, shuffle
little
reverse
note, flat, plain
noholds
nofreeze
dark
norecover, suddendeath, power-drop, death
0.7xmusic, 0.8xmusic, 0.9xmusic, 1.0xmusic, 1.1xmusic,
1.2xmusic, 1.3xmusic, 1.4xmusic, 1.5xmusic
************************************************************
16. Extra Stages
************************************************************
You can manually specify extra stages for each song group by creating .CRS
files 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 for more information. If a CRS file is not found or
is invalid, the program will choose appropriate songs, notes and options.
Place these course files in the song group folder, not in "Courses".
************************************************************
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".
************************************************************
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
adding "hints" to the file name. Hints:
"no alpha" - This will force a 5650 texture format (5 bits for R, 6 for G, 5
for B, 0 for alpha). 5650 textures cannot have transparency, but have much
better color fidelity.
"1 alpha" - This will force a 5551 texture format. If your graphic has only
"on or off" alpha (like a GIF file), use this hint for better color fidelity.
"dither" - This will dither an image upon load. Dithering will reduce banding,
but can cause transparency artifacts.
Hints can be placed anywhere in the file name, but are usually placed at the
end of a file name in parenthesis. For example:
caution (dither, no alpha).png
Arrows Left 1x4 (1 alpha).png
> 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.
************************************************************
21. Building StepMania from CVS source
************************************************************
CVS is the repository that manages the StepMania source code. Our CVS server is
graciously provided by SourceForge. You can get the absolute-latest bleeding
edge updates to StepMania by taking the source from CVS. Below are instructions
on how to configure your computer to download source code from CVS and complile
the source into a working executable. If you do not have a basic understanding
of how to build a program using Visual C++, then you probably should not attempt
to build StepMania.
* Step 1: Install and configure Visual C++
The StepMania source can currently be built with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 or
Visual C++ .Net. Installing Visual C++ or Visual Studio with all the default
options is sufficient.
* Step 2: Install the Direct X 8.1 SDK
The DirectX 8.1 SDK is a free (but large) download from Microsoft:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/MSDN-FILES/
027/001/771/msdncompositedoc.xml&frame=true. Install it using all the default
settings. The SDK installer will configure Visual C++ with the correct paths
needed to find the DirectX 8.1 libraries and headers.
* Step 3: Create a SourceForge account
In order to commit changes to CVS, you'll have to have a SourceForge account.
Create an account at www.sourceforge.net, then e-mail Chris
(chris@videogamers.com) with your username so he can add you to the project.
* Step 4: 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
(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 5: 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 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
- Your SourceForge user name: -yourusername-
- 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:
rem SourceForge setup stuff
SET PATH=%PATH%;c:\ssh
SET HOME=c:\ssh
IMPORTANT: You must restart after running SF Setup so that the new environment
variables take effect.
* Step 6: Enable SSH access to the cvs machine
Before you can use your account, you must run the following (substituting your
username and projectname as appropriate) before attempting to use CVS from a new
user account. Open a command prompt, and type:
ssh -l username cvs.stepmania.sourceforge.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.
* Step 7: "Checkout" the source code
- Open up WinCVS again.
- In the right pane, you should see the folder "stepmania".
- Right click on that folder and choose "Checkout module...". For the module name
enter "stepmania".
- Click OK.
- If a "chose your home directory" window appears, select "c:\stepmania".
- A minimized console window should appear. Unminimize it, type in your
SourceForge password, and press Enter.
- The source code should begin downloading. This can take a long time depending
on your connection speed.
* Done! Enjoy staying on the bleeding edge of StepMania releases! 
************************************************************
22. Thanks
************************************************************
Thanks to:
Warrior Bob (Dave H) for helping with the readme!
Dj Slash & Tony Thai for the caution graphic
Kyle "KeeL" Ward for his awesome menu music (www.ampcast.com/keel)
Gotetsu for helping track down bugs and other various tasks
************************************************************
End of document
************************************************************
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