Stepmania 3.9 (Aldo_MX)

[Aldo_MX]

If you speak Spanish I suggest you read the mxpumpers' thread instead.

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Description
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StepMania AMX (SMA) is a fork of StepMania Plus REDUX which focuses in improving the gameplay with features such as:

- Separate TimingData per chart (aka "Split Timing" aka Splits)
- Pump It Up's Holds (aka LongNotes), Stops (aka Delays) and Speed Changes
- Step Multiplier for Hit and Miss Tiers (multiplies Combo, Score and Lifebar values)
- Fake Areas to ignore blocks of steps (to use mostly with Negative BPMs)
- Editor focused in step making with shortcuts such as F3 to change TimingData

Some features are also intended for power users and theme makers:

- 100+ new preferences (via StepMania.ini), 300+ new theme metrics and some new noteskin metrics
- Numeric metrics can parse LUA Strings but can only deliver 1 or 0 (its the same basic LUA you can use with SM 3.9, nothing fancy)
- Also, you can use LUA in Commands using cond,lua_string,command_if_true example:
cond,GetSecond()>30,diffusealpha,0;cond,GetSecond( )<=30,diffusealpha,1;
Potential issue: don't use LUA Strings with commas such as GetEnv("LookIHasAComma") == "o,o"

A lot of code has been optimized, some 3.9's and even redux's bugs have been fixed, unfortunately betas from 3.0 are kind of unstable, since I just added new features instead of fixing code, so the most stable version (with most new features) is 2.7

Since youtube blocked the gameplay video I use to promote SMA you can download it from here:

I'm open to feature requests and also feel free to send me bug reports (use http://pastie.org/ to copy/paste the crashinfo.txt in case of crashes please), just consider that I don't have enough knowlede of recent DDR versions since I have not been able to find a DDR in Mexico City (at least not a newer than Extreme), so please include gameplay videos, guides for dummies, any other helpful resource, etc. with your request.

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Download Links
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SMA 2.7 (Full Package, includes SMA, Test Songs and SMNX2 Theme):
http://aldo.mx/stepmania/SMA4-Beta2.7.rar

SMA 3.0 (Includes SMA and SMNX2 Theme):
http://aldo.mx/stepmania/SMA-Beta3.0.rar

Patch from 3.0 to 3.1:
http://aldo.mx/stepmania/SMA-Beta3.0-a-3.1.7z

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Instructions
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1a. Unpack to a new folder if its a new installation of SMA
1b. Unpack and replace in the same folder of SMA if you are patching

2. Run the desired .bat:

Patcher.default.bat.- Keeps REDUX behavior and enables new features
Patcher.pump.bat.- Use Pump It Up's specific behavior with legacy themes and enables new features
Patcher.redux.bat.- Keeps REDUX behavior, disables new features
Patcher.vanilla.bat.- Keeps Original 3.9 behavior, disables REDUX and SMA's features

NOTE: Not every new feature (such as the new editor) gets disabled even if using vanilla patcher

3. No step 3, just add some songs, themes, noteskins, etc. and open StepMania :)

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FAQ
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How do I edit BGChanges?
Press F3 in the editor and pick Background as the editor mode. Please be aware that the game uses two different TimingDatas at the same time, one for steps and one for song, the background uses the song's TimingData so if you have different timings it may lead to confusion the first times. Until I figure a more intuitive way to edit BGChanges, if you don't get used to this behavior I suggest you use another 3.9 based build to design background animations.

Where is paymode/Can I Haz SRC?
In an effort to help Andamiro to prevent piracy, pay mode has been completely removed and I have closed the source. I won't release a version with paymode in the future neither open source the game, so please retrain yourself from requesting it.
No matter if you cry, start a flamewar, make/upload funny photoshopped photos of me, bribe me with $65,535.00 USD, hack my server and upload my private videos to a pr0n site, etc. will make me accept to give you the source or a version with paymode enabled. Any request will be posted at http://bit.ly/HPrifa (mxpumpers.com's flamezone) so at least be creative.

Can I save a song as .SM instead of .SMA?
Not yet :(, its a planned feature, but until that day comes here is a workaround: Disable "Save timing in rows" in editor preferences and you will get a SMA with the same timing format as legacy SM's, so you can copy/paste the portions you need to a new .SM

Whoa, I have seen xxx feature of SMA in SM-SSC are you helping them?
Occasionally I share some of my achievements with the Spinal Shark Collective (SSC) in the way of concepts, ideas, portions of code, etc., so not everything I code is lost, SM5 is the future anyway :wink:

How often do you release updates?
There is not a fixed date for updates, usually I release them when a critical bug has been detected/fixed or I have coded something new.

[Sniper257]

I like this. Good job.

[ShakkA]

Congratulations Aldo, I'll say it everywhere I can.

[MdX MaxX]

Can you do something in your build Aldo_MX? This really bugs me about this simfile I made.

Okay, so I have this simfile (Speedcore Sunday, it's in the Stepmaniashare Songs forum) with a lot of really short freezes. There are so many freezes that changing all of them by a few thousandths of a second will throw the rest of the song following those short freezes too offsync.

Now the thing is, I have to manually edit the SM in notepad to make all the freezes accurate so that the song will be onsync (EXACTLY 0.0375 seconds). But that's the problem, 4 decimal places. SM is stupid and rounds them all to 3 decimal places (0.038 seconds). Now, it wouldn't make much difference in an ordinary sim, but in my sim, it throws the entire last minute or so of the song offsync.

To make matters even worse, in SM 3.9+, SM rounds all the freezes up to 3 decimal places, not in the SM file, but in the Cache file. So the only way to keep it onsync without deleting the cache each time you boot, is to find the cache file and edit that in notepad, changing all the 0.038 stops back to 0.0375. I have close to 2000 songs, so finding the individual cache file is close to impossible. Therefore I have to deal with an offsync file.
(I don't know 3.9's, 3.95's, or 4.0's behaviors, but I assume they do the same thing.)

So basically I'm asking for you to stop SM from rounding BPMs and Stops up to 3 decimal places, because it will throw some sims like mine offsync.

[shakesoda]

IIRC, SM4 does go out another decimal place by default.

[Aldo_MX]

@MdX MaxX: Well, its an unusual request, so let me see what can I do to help you, but by now I only ask you... and what about alternating freezes? I mean 0.037 0.038 0.037 0.038 etc.

[MdX MaxX]

@MdX MaxX: Well, its an unusual request, so let me see what can I do to help you, but by now I only ask you... and what about alternating freezes? I mean 0.037 0.038 0.037 0.038 etc.

That's exactly what I am going to do today as a workaround. It seems to be my only option.

Yeah, I know it's a bit much to do for one sim, so if the workaround works then I guess you can just ignore it.

[djaydino]

hi, aldo i use my own build dance pad with coin slot as a piggy bank and on your build i can't chose pay mode anymore, is there a way to enable this pls

i tried to enable in stepmania/data/stepmania.ini ( coinmode 2)

but then when the song starts the buttons are not working anymore.

(btw the coin from my piggy bank i commonly use to play on the original PIUNX :)

[Aldo_MX]

As I answered in PIUSM:

Sorry, I wont re-enable pay mode anymore and for build 4 it will be completely removed since there is people in Mexico that sells Stepmania Arcade like original PIU NX

[kurisu]

well, the taking out of pay coin pay mode makes this basically useless to me.