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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 is capable of playing many game types. Currently, it supports games
similar to Dance Dance Revolution, Pump It Up, EZ 2 Dancer, and Para Para
Paradise. In the future, it will support games similar to BeatMania, Guitar
Freaks, DrumMania, and more.
The games played by StepMania are rhythm games. Notes scroll up from the
bottom of the screen, and the player must hit the corresponding button on the
controller in time to the music. All games can be played using the keyboard,
but the real fun comes when using specially designed controllers, like a dance
pad or hand sensors.
************************************************************
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 (www.divx.com)
************************************************************
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 stepmania300xxxx.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 keyboard,
dance pad, or other game controller. 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.
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
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.
************************************************************
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 is
NTPad XP 1.x or PSXPAD.
Win98/WinME
"DirectPad Pro 5.0 for Win9x", found at
http://www.aldostools.com/dpad.html
Win2K/WinXP
NTPad XP 1.x, found at
http://www.aldostools.com/dpad.html
PSXPAD 0.8.2002.0606b, found at
http://www.psxpad.com/download/downcnt.php?name=psxp_a020606b
************************************************************
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 expected (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 ([email protected]).  
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]).
************************************************************
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
([email protected]) 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:
redcrusher for help on ez2 graphics
Dj Slash & Tony Thai for the caution graphic
Kyle "KeeL" Ward for his awesome menu music (www.ampcast.com/keel)
************************************************************
End of document
************************************************************
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