modding your SM PC installation

[Megaman Z]

UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, ALL OF THESE MODIFY "preferences.ini" ("StepMania.ini" in 3.9), AND SOME OF THESE WILL DISQUALIFY YOUR SCORES ON THE INTERNET!

for the sake of keeping the timing windows unmolested, I won't say how to modify them here.

Change Score Display [4.0 CVS only]:

set the following lines to swap the score display to percentage and also change how the percentage is calculated (this shouldn't, on it's own, affect grade weights, so this shouldn't screw up your online game as well):

PercentScoreWeightBoo=0
PercentScoreWeightGood=0
PercentScoreWeightGreat=0
PercentScoreWeightHitMine=0
PercentScoreWeightMarvelous=2
PercentScoreWeightMiss=0
PercentScoreWeightNG=0
PercentScoreWeightOK=0
PercentScoreWeightPerfect=1
PercentageScoring=1

PercentageScoring=1 enables the percentage scoring. all those weights determine how much (up or down) the percentage score goes. for instace, if you set all the weights to 0 except for PercentScoreWightMarvelous (set to 1), it becomes a Marvelous Percentage tracker. the config shown above tracks the equivalent of IIDX "EX points" (F. Greats = 2, Greats = 1, goods = 0. those are Marvelous, Perfect, and Great, respectively).
the following is the default weights for the percentage score system:

PercentScoreWeightBoo=0
PercentScoreWeightGood=0
PercentScoreWeightGreat=1
PercentScoreWeightHitMine=-2
PercentScoreWeightMarvelous=3
PercentScoreWeightMiss=0
PercentScoreWeightNG=0
PercentScoreWeightOK=3
PercentScoreWeightPerfect=2

grade cut-off points (3.9 in StepMania.ini, 4.0 in THEME METRICS)

the following section contains all the grade percentage cutoffs

GradePercentTier01=1.000000
GradePercentTier02=1.000000
GradePercentTier03=0.930000
GradePercentTier04=0.800000
GradePercentTier05=0.650000
GradePercentTier06=0.450000
GradePercentTier07=-99999.000000
GradePercentTier08=0.000000
GradePercentTier09=0.000000
GradePercentTier10=0.000000
GradePercentTier11=0.000000
GradePercentTier12=0.000000
GradePercentTier13=0.000000
GradePercentTier14=0.000000
GradePercentTier15=0.000000
GradePercentTier16=0.000000
GradePercentTier17=0.000000
GradePercentTier18=0.000000
GradePercentTier19=0.000000
GradePercentTier20=0.000000
GradeTier02IsAllPerfects=1

for IIDX-style grades, remember the following:
8/9=AAA
7/9=AA
6/9=A
5/9=B
4/9=C
3/9=D
2/9=E
2/9>F

convert to decimal format, set GradeTier02IsAllPerfects=0, and you have IIDX-style grading.

of course, you can also modify these to match DDR SuperNOVA as well.

to use all 20 tiers, the theme must support all 20 tiers. the grade image (with the AAAA, AAA, AA, and so forth) and the grade tier names (in the theme metrics, referenced in conditionals) determines what tiers are supported.

SM 4.0 has a per-theme grade system. in the theme metrics:

[PlayerStageStats]
GradePercentTier01=1.000000
GradePercentTier02=1.000000
GradePercentTier03=0.930000
GradePercentTier04=0.800000
GradePercentTier05=0.650000
GradePercentTier06=0.450000
GradePercentTier07=-99999.000000
GradeTier02IsAllW2s=1
NumGradeTiersUsed=7

again, for anything beyond 07, the grade image has to support it. the difference is that the names seem to be hard-coded, in an obscure spot, or dropped altogether (and numbers are used in their place). shouldn't matter in the long run, since I think it is possible to reference the highest grade percent in that stage (memory serving correctly

lifebar difficulty fine-tuning:

(note: use with complete caution! YOU CAN MAKE ALL SONGS UNCLEARABLE IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL!)

[4.0 CVS - my settings]
LifeDifficultyScale=1.000000
LifePercentChangeHeld=0.000000
LifePercentChangeHitMine=-0.160000
LifePercentChangeLetGo=-0.080000
LifePercentChangeMiss=-0.160000
LifePercentChangeW1=0.008000
LifePercentChangeW2=0.004000
LifePercentChangeW3=0.000000
LifePercentChangeW4=-0.040000
LifePercentChangeW5=-0.040000

[3.9 - factory default]
LifeDeltaPercentChangeBoo=-0.040000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeGood=0.000000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeGreat=0.004000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeHitMine=-0.160000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeMarvelous=0.008000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeMiss=-0.080000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeNG=-0.080000
LifeDeltaPercentChangeOK=0.008000
LifeDeltaPercentChangePerfect=0.008000
LifeDifficultyScale=1.000000

take the number (in percentage), divide by 100 (convert to decimal format), and then place it in the corresponding slot. positive numbers increase the bar, negative numbers decrease the bar.

judgement weights

[4.0 CVS - my settings]
GradeWeightHeld=0
GradeWeightHitMine=0
GradeWeightLetGo=0
GradeWeightMiss=0
GradeWeightW1=2
GradeWeightW2=1
GradeWeightW3=0
GradeWeightW4=0
GradeWeightW5=0

[3.9 - Factory Default]
GradeWeightBoo=-4
GradeWeightGood=0
GradeWeightGreat=1
GradeWeightHitMine=-8
GradeWeightMarvelous=2
GradeWeightMiss=-8
GradeWeightNG=0
GradeWeightOK=6
GradeWeightPerfect=2

modifing these will probably DQ you on the internet. you can use these to affect how much a given judgement affects your grade. again, you can use positive or negative values.

enjoy!

[eaglefan101]

grade cut-off points (3.9 only)

:(

Looks like we're not going to be able to get a perfect ITG theme for Stepmania 4.0 after all. Unless I am mistaken

[Wolfman2000]

eaglefan101: Check the metrics. I believe some things have been moved from Preferences.ini to metrics.ini.

[Megaman Z]

Originally Posted by Wolfman2000

eaglefan101 [and probably to me as well]: Check the metrics. I believe some things have been moved from Preferences.ini to metrics.ini.

confirmed this and updated the main post. thank you, Wolfman2000

in the Metrics.ini for the theme:

[PlayerStageStats]
GradePercentTier01=1.000000
GradePercentTier02=1.000000
GradePercentTier03=0.930000
GradePercentTier04=0.800000
GradePercentTier05=0.650000
GradePercentTier06=0.450000
GradePercentTier07=-99999.000000
GradeTier02IsAllW2s=1
NumGradeTiersUsed=7

once again, for anything beyond 07, set NumGradeTiersUsed to the correct value and make sure the grade image supports the number of grade tiers.

[eaglefan101]

Thank you! =D

[Megaman Z]

found out where the grade names come from in SM 3.9. now if only I could find the same (or similar) tags in 4.0 themes...

[Grade]
Tier01=AAAA
Tier02=AAA
Tier03=AA
Tier04=A
Tier05=B
Tier06=C
Tier07=D
Failed=E
NoData=NO DATA

I can only assume that it can be expanded to the full 20 (or more[?]) tiers, with failing and NoData not counting.

can't find this in 4.0, which suggests that they just changed it to numbers or hid it in a hard-to-find spot (possibly hard-coded)

[edit: should've realized this sooner... for 4.0, it's in the language files. EN.ini, etc.]

[Megaman Z]

LOCKING settings (3.9, may still work for 4.0 with some changes) and setting the initial values:

create a "static.ini" file in the DATA subdirectory and copy over the exact settings you want to remain locked to a certain value. additionally, create a "defaults.ini" file to provide a backup for StepMania.ini should it become corrupt or messed up beyond all repair.

(this information is partially guesswork, but the first few lines of log.txt kinda helped with that)

[Seraphin]

ok i gfot a good one for you MZ.

in 3.9, i wanna make it so i can get multiple "toasty"s in the same song (show the animation shows, etc...

also, i wanna make it show stats like it does in the online 4.0

[tweak]

december twenty first two thousand and six

[Seraphin]

bumpi9ng an old topic to get a question answered FTW