Official StepMania Help, Bug, Error, Fix, News thread

DPsx7 · Basic Member Joined: 08 Jul 2005

Whew, at least I know someone is reading this thread. Ha.

I suppose I can try it, although it sounds like a quick fix rather than the solution. I have over 1200 songs and no banners show up - might take a while. I've also realized that the health bar doesn't appear either. It stays fully blackened until you get near danger, then it flashes red. I'm not sure what the hell happened. I had the buzzing audio/lag problem in RC2 and thought RC3 might have some needed fixes. Seems like it caused more trouble so far.

Loogaroo · Trick Member Joined: 06 Feb 2002 Location: Glendale, CA

For some reason, my grading tiers seem to be all wonky. I can get 99% on a song and it'll give me a B. Grading tiers and weightings appear to be fine in the .ini file, so I have no idea what the problem is.
_________________

The Game Show Rules Wiki
Before Gambit was an X-Man, it was hosted by Wink Martindale.

coolforever · Trick Member Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Location: The earth.

and of course, no one answers my question.

DPsx7 · Basic Member Joined: 08 Jul 2005

I'm still looking for answers too. I dunno if this is the 'official' help forum since this is where SM directs me. I found that the banners show normally for the groups (before I choose all songs). Once it gets past there, nothing.

Banners should be easy, just put the .png file in the song folder I think. The movie also goes there and needs to be added someplace in the steps file (.dwi or whatever the SM extension is). Best bet would be to view a chart for a song that has a movie and just copy/paste, changing names as needed. Even though it doesn't work for me right now SM should find everything it needs.

SakeLoverReturns · Trick Member Joined: 04 Mar 2005

OK...ima TRY to help you guys.

#1 For the banner problem make sure your banner is the exact right size (i can't remember what that is right now but I'll look and check back with you later) If it's even abit over the alloted size your banner won't show. If that doesn't work then it might be a problem with the pic being used.

#2 For Loogaroo what kind of judge are you set on? If it's set really high (like I think your's might be) then it will grade you alot harsher. As in miss 4 steps and you'll fail. Also you might be using the 5th version of scoring instead of the 8th (i think that's what it's called) Do your jumps register as one step? if so then your on the 5th score and you might want to change that. You should be able to change those settings in options under gameplay....i think

#3 For DPsx7 don't get upset that people don't come here. Most people who play SM use the SM forums....if you really want help go to stepmaniaonline. They have plenty of people there willing to answer your questions as fast as you want. >.> of coarse you do know nobody's sitting around here just to answer your questions, right? This isn't Dell...

#4 for N'cha ~For Extreme~ run a search on google for Para and Ez2 support for stepmania. If I can find the links I used then I'll send them to you.

Just to let anyone else with questions know this isnt the speedy answer thead and it's not a chat room with people standing by to help you. Some things take time. There are plenty of sites around that can help you faster then this one. To be honest I don't even think alot of the people on this site even play Stepmania. I check these boards every once in a while but im no SM expert. Try sites like archOwl.com or stepmaniaonline.com because those sites have more active forums dealing with SM.

OK?
_________________

Hmmm a good drink and DDR... What more could I ask for in life?

DPsx7 · Basic Member Joined: 08 Jul 2005

Like I said in the other thread, I don't expect everyone to be the answerman. It was more of a bump than anything. Not like I'm demanding answers if that's how readers took my post.

Alright then. The banners should be fine, they worked in past versions. All of them. Regardless, you were a huge help because I didn't know there was an alternate SM forum. The site I got SM at directed me here (their link didn't even work). I also ran a search for SM not too long ago and got a ton of crap. Thanks.

Um, does it matter that the site you mentioned is dealing with a different version of the program? I'm using the basic SM, not an online version.

SakeLoverReturns · Trick Member Joined: 04 Mar 2005

Yeah SMO and SM are basically the same thing (SMO being an online beta version of SM) and the people there know how to use both so they should be able to help. ^.^ im glad I coud help you with your problem.
_________________

Hmmm a good drink and DDR... What more could I ask for in life?

Backslider · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jul 2005

Ok..

So awhile back I got one of the rc's (whichever was the newest one at the time) and I downloaded it and tried to install it.. it would always try to install it to program files>stepmania. Whenver trying to install it.. an error would show up saying that instructions.txt was bad or something and it wouldn't finish installing after that. So finally I get it to install by changing the directory to Program files>Stepmania CVS. However.. after installing it.. when I would go to play it, it would take EXTREMELY long to load my songs (1743 songs, probably an hour to finish loading). I thought, well maybe the first time it will load like this and then it will be as fast as it use to be. (it use to load in about 30 seconds after loading it the first time) However...each time I've played it since then.. it's been loading extremely slow. So I tried uninstalling it and I installed alpha 20 on it.. same speed.. then I tried alpha 16.. same speed. Finally I went and downloaded 3.0 final. I installed that and ran the program and the songs loaded super fast like they use to... but... at the end of the loading there was an error (don't remember what it was now) and it wouldn't let me play.

Does anyone know what could be wrong or what I could do to fix it?

Also note that this has all happened in the past 3 days, and computer hasn't been turned off or restarted in about a week. (but I figure if it has to do with restarting my computer, then why was 3.0 final able to load fast?)

AceJay · Trick Member Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Location: Princeton, NJ

....1743? WTF!

Damn I thought my 318 was a lot...

Well.

First off, empty all cookies, saved passwords, temp files, temp internaet files, etc, do a defrag, do a virus scan, delete those things again, THEN you can shut down your computer and let it cool down.

Turn it back on 10ish minutes later.

Empty all those temp files again, then download StepMania 3.9rc3.

You will also need some .dll files, scroll up (go back a page) for links.

Put the two .dll files into the "Program" folder of StepMania.

Install your damn 1743 songs! =(

Empty temp stuff, THEN play.

AND STOP USING v3 FINAL. Give up the Pump support. You can still play PIU-style 5 Panels on 3.9.
_________________

DPsx7 · Basic Member Joined: 08 Jul 2005

I have near 1300 myself. Never took an hour though.

Seems a lot of people have probs with this version. Did they gank it or something? Still haven't fixed mine.

Backslider · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jul 2005

I'm not using 3.0 final for pump support! It's the only one that loads my songs within 2 minutes.

When I had alpha 22 it would do the same thing... 1600+ songs would load in less than a minute.. it was only until I downloaded one of the rc's that it started screwing up. :\

Hmm.. but I'll keep trying.

Backslider · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jul 2005

YAAY!

I got it work again (without restarting.. mwahaha)

1744 songs loaded in 10 seconds exactly.

!!

coolforever · Trick Member Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Location: The earth.

uhhh....no one answered my question. How can I make custom background movies and put it into a stepmania song file?

AceJay · Trick Member Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Location: Princeton, NJ

Hmm, I dont think you can actually make a bg movie for a single song, bu you can delete everything in anims and bg movies and just have that one vid. That might work.
_________________

Backslider · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jul 2005

Actually.. one time I wanted to add a movie for one of my songs (the ff8 opening for liberi fatali)... and I added a line in the song file to tell it background video..or animation..or something that it was that file and not the picture that they had.. and it played during the song.. but it was really weird looking...like it showed the picture that was in the background, but all the parts of the picture that was white was removed and the video was playing in those parts... '

now that I think of it... I should have just made a blank background image...maybe that would have worked.. :X

AceJay · Trick Member Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Location: Princeton, NJ

Oh, I didnt see any movie line in the .sm or .dwi files...weird.
_________________

wolfspawn · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:22 pm Post subject:

uhm.. how do you add themes?

cause first it was in a zip file i extracted the folder and i dont know what to do next.. and it also has a lot of folders inside it too..
_________________

Backslider · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jul 2005

say you were adding the DDRextreme theme...

When you unzip the folder, there should be the main folder labeled DDRExtreme or whatever you have, and inside there should be sub folders and such. You take the main folder and put it in the themes folder

(c:\program files\stepmania\themes)

AceJay · Trick Member Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Location: Princeton, NJ

Well, I gave a lot of answers, now I need help.

What file/folder do I need to copy if I want to take my scores and preferences over to another computer?

Cause I'm finally getting a new one!
_________________