StepMania 5.0

Thanks to Fenrir we've got a new captcha and I've turned registration back on again. Hopefully it helps!

I've also started building a new backend for the site. There should be a lot of new features to go along with future game updates, improvement to basic stuff like the download page and some visual updates, but it won't be ready this year. All current accounts and posts will be carried over to the new system when it's ready.

Due to the amount of remaining work needed, the scope of changes, and in response to feedback about difficulty with new systems: StepMania 5.1 is now going to be postponed to 5.2, and to bring some of 5.2's less invasive and more demanded features to people we're going to be backporting things onto 5.0 for version 5.1.

Features planned for 5.1 include:

* Loading songs from profiles on USB drives
* PacDrive support
* Updated default theme
* Profile improvements (including switching stats XML to an SQLite database)
* Mouse support for all platforms (may not be used in the default theme - but available for others)
* Stencil-based masking by default instead of zbuffer masking, so masking 3D objects behaves better without resorting to render to texture.

Further, to address compatibility concerns, this release should be almost entirely compatible with 5.0 content, so long as it doesn't depend on an already-deprecated API or the default theme (fallback will be fine). Small updates may be needed due to changing behavior of things like masking, but we don't intend to break anything major for this one.

EDIT: Also, help wanted with maintaining the website. It's PHP/SilverStripe, and the source is on GitHub. If anyone is interested in working on anti-spam measures or being a forum moderator so I can re-enable the registration form, please contact me via #stepmania-devs IRC or Twitter (@shakesoda).

Latest StepMania 5.1 release is 5.1.-3.
Read the release notes for info on updating themes and noteskins.

Notable changes:
* Default noteskin is now similar to 5.0 default
* When picking songs for edit mode, they are displayed in a menu, instead of one at a time. Also, you can use page up and page down in the menu.
* Menu of recently edited charts for quick navigation when returning to editing.
* Loading autosaves temporarily disabled.
* More control over the notefield in edit mode, allowing you to adjust the noteskin, zoom, and other fields. (zoom 0.2, y offset 0. Smaller notes, and receptors are in the center. http://i.imgur.com/kwAlIJT.png)
* Practice and Edit Courses temporarily inaccessible.

StepMania 5.0.12 is out!

This post is a bit late, but the fixes in this build are pretty minor. Includes some crash fixes and should not break compatibility with any existing content, so all users are encouraged to update.

Note that the pause menu is enabled in this build to fix accidental backing out on soft pad. To access the menu, press back twice.

As for the forum: registration is temporarily disabled until...

1) We get some new anti-spam measures on reg/posting
2) Password reset emails are fixed
3) I've enabled SSL on the server (this is a longstanding todo, I feel like it's rather irresponsible to still not be using it in 2016)

Sorry for the inconvenience, I'll try to get it all sorted out soon.

In a couple weeks, the 5_1_0 branch on the stepmania repository will be merged into the master branch.
Anybody that maintains a forked project based off of stepmania's master branch should switch to using the 5_0 branch instead of master.
No more releases are planned in the 5.0.x line, and there probably won't be any further commits made to the 5_0 branch.
The 5_0 branch exists only to allow backporting of fixes if someone other than the main stepmania team wishes to do so.

StepMania 5.1.0 Alpha 2 release notes
Bugfixes, NewField improvements, and a new fullscreen backend for linux.

StepMania 5.0.11 release notes
This will probably be the last release in the 5.0.x line. Maintaining two separate branches is a hassle, and the 5.1 branch is in good shape.

Everything melted after an awesome showing from Staiain at AGDQ, thus giving me a marvelous afternoon, but we seem to be back in order now...

Welcome to all the new and returning players, and have fun smashing those arrows!

EDIT: I see we've also been brought up by PC Gamer, further hammering the server, but the load stats point to us being just fine!
EDIT 2: Now we're trending on Facebook. Hi everyone!

A special dual release this time:
1. The mainline stable release of StepMania 5.0.10, with many bug fixes and a few new features. Some of the bug fixes and features relate to compiling for those that compile StepMania from source.

2. An alpha release of StepMania 5.1.0, which has the beginnings of structural changes to StepMania. This is for noteskin and theme authors who want to create or port noteskins or try out the new modifier system.

Make sure you put the right treat in your bag, and have a happy Halloween from the StepMania team!

KNOWN ISSUE: When upgrading from an older version of the game, uninstall manually. If it's too late and the game crashes at startup, uninstall and delete the _fallback folder, then reinstall.
This is being looked into

StepMania 5.0.9 has been released, with various minor changes, mostly bug fixes from 5.0.8.
You can read the release notes on GitHub for more details, and the downloads are below the release notes.

Happy Father's Day from the StepMania team!

Since 19th June 2005, Stepmania 3.95 has enriched the lives of over 9,999 stepmania players around the globe - players and developers alike - with features such as 717x616 resolution support, the goodest default theme and noteskin, and GLORIOUS XML BGanimations!

Stepmania 3.95 has also been an absolute haven for developers of both themes and gimmick simfiles, providing HOURS of fun when creating even the most simple things that you just don't get with any other version of stepmania - you just don't know what that WaCkY stepmania engine will do next!!! What will happen when you pick that option in the edit menu? WHO KNOWS! Fun for the whole family guaranteed!

And not only that, but making a cool gimmick simfile in stepmania 3.95 renders you a PRO! Why use something easy and BORING like stepmania 5 where everything's pretty much done for you, when you can be a REAL MAN like the machine code programmers of the past and write your code in the number one programming language - XML!

So let's all raise our glasses to ten years of the greatest version of Stepmania ever to exist - Stepmania 3.95!

Anyone that's been even remotely paying attention saw this one coming.

I never was that frequent of a contributor. I was just kind of there, but because the project was so dead, I was still one of the primary influences on StepMania.

That has changed. GitHub has been a very positive influence on StepMania, not only pulling new contributors out of the woodwork, but also motivating old developers to take a more active role. Today, there is frequent, even daily work being done on refactoring the code and moving SM forward. I've faded into the background, and in the past year-ish have contributed little more than causing the occasional drama in the IRC channel.

So, it's time to formalize what de-facto happened months ago. I'm leaving the StepMania project, in pursuit of other things. I'm making this news post not out of some kind of conflated self-importance, but historcally, SM has suffered from numerous people simply disappearing with no explanation, and I don't want to be one of those people. I'd like to at least still be in the background in case people have a question about the codebase that I can answer, and not a ghost in the code that has long since faded into obscurity.

If you have any questions for me, I'll try to keep my GitHub account and this account up to date and take a peek occasionally. In addition, I'll probably still idle in the IRC channel, and there's a few people that know other channels to reach me.

You guys have fun now!

StepMania 5.0.8 has been released, with various minor changes, mostly bug fixes from 5.0.7.
The Windows installer was generated slightly wrong. Make sure to install to "C:/Games/Stepmania 5.0", do not install to Program Files.
You can read the release notes on GitHub for more details, and the downloads are below the release notes.

Happy Shakesoday Mother's Day from the StepMania team!

StepMania 5.0.7 has been released, with various changes to speed up loading and a few other features.
You can read the release notes on GitHub for more details, and the downloads are below the release notes.

Happy April Fools from the StepMania team!

This is a release candidate

There have been some changes to file loading to speed up startup time, and autosave has been added to edit mode. With those two additions affecting critical features, it is possible that some detail was missed (maybe a particular rare tag in simfiles doesn't work anymore, or maybe files aren't saved or loaded correctly)

Thus, this release candidate build is so that people can test things on non-critical systems to make sure simfiles that worked fine in 5.0.6 also work fine with the changed loader. (non-critical systems just means don't go stick it on an arcade machine where someone might get pissed if a song doesn't load or there's a crash)
If you encounter any problems related to song loading or saving with this build post on the forum or submit an issue with as much info as you have. If it's a particular song that doesn't load right, that simfile will probably be needed to solve the problem.

Next release

If there are no serious bugs in this build, the next release will be in 3 weeks (April 1st), along with any changes that occur between now and then. Work on improving startup time is still ongoing.

Note on loading time

Because this release includes a cache version bump, the first time you load will take much longer than normal because it has to rebuild the song cache. After that, it should be measurably faster. People using SSDs or on modern hardware or with small song collections might not be able to see any difference in loading time.

Github release page

I (Kyzentun) made a mistake when fixing a crash bug the night before release that broke bpm editing.
This fixes that mistake.

Other fixes:

Backslash key can be mapped.
Deleting steps no longer crashes.

Get it from the downloads page.

Note for linux users:
The path used by make install has changed to /opt/stepmania-5.0 from /opt/stepmania-5. Check ~/.stepmania-5.0/Logs/log.txt to make sure the version you're running is actually up to date.