Wiki (Documentation) priority requests

If I'm not mistaken, we didn't have a thread dedicated to these yet :p
So I'm making this one for my current and future requests, inviting everyone else to share theirs here as well.

For now I think it'd be great to have some documentation on the .sm/.ssc format. Personally I'd especially like extensive documentation about the .sm format in case there might some small details or neat tricks that I haven't been aware of so far. Cheers :)

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Current list of requested documentation:
- .ssc format
- .dwi format
- A translation tutorial
- A USB Axis Problem troubleshooting guide
- Documentation on how to install songs, courses, etc.

List of existing documentation that could be improved:
- .sm format suggestions by Thumbsy

The section for file formats has been started at least, it just needs content: http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/file-formats/.

It needs to be written somewhere that you don't have to (and shouldn't) install songs into the stepmania folder anymore, but into the appdata folder. It stops a whole pile of issues related to editing on recent versions of Windows (newer than Vista).

I see, I myself don't edit/create simfiles in SM5 though so I guess I don't have to worry about that. Kind of a bummer that it's AppData though, it's such an obscure and (relatively) hard-to-reach location, which is especially tedious for files that you regularly want to access in your file explorer.

Thanks in advance for the .ssc/.sm documentation btw! Is it okay if I'd bring up any points or additional questions regarding these formats that could help expand the documentation after you've finished them?

Bring up anything that needs it. Documentation can always be better.

Hey shakesoda, I was wondering if you could give me access to editing the wiki? I could be helpful. For years I have maintained FAQ on the biggest Polish sm community website.

I would also like to see some documention on the DWI, SM and SSC formats. I'm writing an "indexer" that parses these files and the what goes (and supposed to show up) where is not cristal clear.

I could dump out all the data, but I want it to make some sense.

http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/file-formats/sm Here's the current doc for the .SM format.

Nice! Thanks!
A couple of suggestions for things that could be added:

-#DISPLAYBPM
It's also possible to do the two numbers in a range thing by separating the values by a colon (e.g. #DISPLAYBPM:90:270;)


Some more SM3.9+ tags (at least, I believe they were introduced in 3.9+):

-#METERTYPE
You can use it to set whether the ratings in the file are on the DDR, DDR X or ITG scale. I assume it changes the threshold for displaying the song in red in the song select screen. By default it's set to DDR so if the file has a Hard rated 10 or higher, it appears red. If set to DDR X, it happens for 15 or higher if I'm not mistaken. Not sure what the threshold is for ITG.

-#LISTSORT
No idea how this one works, the only thing I know is that it's got something to do with sorting, judging from the name haha.

-#MENUCOLOR
I think it would be useful to add some examples to make clear how it actually works. I recall seeing a somewhat extensive thread about it on the old forums. I know for sure that it supports the RGBa format (e.g. 255,0,0,1). I think it supported a few keywords as well (red, green, blue, etc. ) but I'm not sure about that.


It might also be useful to note that, even though not supported by the default theme, there are SM5 themes that DO utilize these 3.9+ tags.
The sentence "Though these aren't supported by StepMania, they're good to know." implies that the tags aren't supported by SM5 entirely, which is not quite correct.

Edit: Oh and I'll try to keep the first post updated with a list of things that people requested to be documented, that'll probably make it easier for you lol