Releases: Simply-Love/Simply-Love-SM5
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.7
About
This is the v4.7 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes bug fixes.
It will (hopefully) be the final release of Simply Love for SM5, barring the discovery of any onerous-yet-easy-to-fix bugs in the next month or so.
Please note that this requires StepMania 5.0.12 or StepMania 5.1-beta1 to function properly. Future releases of SM5.1 should also work fine.
Older versions of SM5 are not supported. SM5.2 is not supported.
Bug Fixes
Allow StepStatistics When Center1Player Is Enabled If Using Widescreen
Multiple users posted in various places (Facebook, Reddit, etc.) asking how to enable StepStatistics, not realizing that it wasn't an available option when Center1Player was enabled. The reasoning for this (laziness on my part) was not especially compelling, since there seemed to be adequate space to either side of the screen when StepMania was played in Widescreen.
It is now possible to see live StepStatistics while Center1Player is enabled IF you are using WideScreen. 16:9 and 16:10 are both supported. Visually, it's a bit cramped, but it works.
Prevent NoteSkins with Lua Errors from Breaking ScreenPlayerOptions
Commit 4d4ecf7 introduced NoteSkin previews to ScreenPlayerOptions under the assumption that end users' NoteSkins would be free of Lua errors. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to not be true.
With this release, NoteSkins with Lua errors don't get previews but also don't halt the rest of the Lua in ScreenPlayerOptions, preventing players from choosing a speed mod. Additionally, users are alerted via a SystemMessage which NoteSkins they have contain errors, if any.
Enough people reported confusion surrounding this issue (on Reddit, on ZIv, on GitHub, on Facebook, etc.) that it was worth addressing.
ColumnFlashOnMiss Fixed for Double
Previously, the alignment of column flashes for Miss judgments was off in double mode. It's fixed now. (I'm surprised this bug went unnoticed for so long.)
EventMode Timer in Header Now Displays Hours
@andrewipark fixed the EventMode timer in ScreenSelectMusic's header to display hours. See pull request #102.
Fix SpeedMod Type Switching When RateMode Is Also Being Used
Previously, switching to Cmod or Mmod from xmod would not factor in MusicRate. @andrewipark fixed this via pull request #103.
Misc. Cleanup
As always, files have been cleaned up and comments have been added and clarified.
Other
Simply Love Is Now Under the MIT License
Simply Love's code was previously listed on GitHub as having "no license." @andrewipark pointed out in issue #101 that this actually meant no one was allowed to reuse any of the code! Oops.
Simply Love now uses the MIT open source software license. You can basically do whatever you want with this code as long as you don't hold me liable.
With that established, I strongly encourage everyone reading this to stop working on Simply Love. Please, take this code and use it to make something new and exciting. I implore you.
It has been an honor to work on this project and serve the post-ITG community across the last five years, but it is time to move on.
If you are interested in learning more about SM5 theming, here are some resources to get you started:
- The Story of How I Learned to Theme
- My Lua Scripting For SM5 Guide
- StepMania Theming Wiki Page
- TutorialsPoint Lua Guide
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.6 and v4.7, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.6
About
This is the v4.6 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes new features and bug fixes.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 or StepMania 5.1-beta1 to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported. SM5.2 is not supported.
New Features
Manage CustomSongs Preferences via Operator Menu
Loading custom songs from player profiles (i.e., from USB) is a new feature of SM5.1 beta 1.
If you are using SM5.1, a subscreen in the operator menu for managing related settings will be available. This will not appear if you are still using SM5.0.12.
Please note that you will need to configure your operating system for StepMania to read profiles from USB. Configuration guides are available for Linux and Windows, but this is quite outside the scope of Simply Love.
Performance Improvements
StepStatistics
Issue #89 pointed out that the StepStatistics feature could result in a drop in framerate on very long songs. While one "solution" to this problem was to use a PC with a dedicated (not onboard) graphics card, even that would eventually degrade on very, very long songs (like 24 Hours of 100bpm Stream).
Thus, @andrewipark went above and beyond to improve the performance of the StepStatistics feature. Those interested can dig into the details in the discussion for pull request #93.
Bug Fixes
Fix Scatter Plot Alignment
Issue #77 demonstrated that ScreenEvaluation's scatter plot seemed to be misaligned (and that this is more obvious on very short songs). The specific cause is still somewhat unclear, but @andrewipark seems to have resolved the problem well enough via pull request #94.
Fix Alignment of MenuButtons Font
@andrewipark fixed the alignment of the START (green) menubutton in pull request #92.
Misc. Cleanup
As usual, files have been cleaned up and more comments have been added.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.5 and v4.6, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.5
About
This is the v4.5 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes a few new features and bug fixes.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 (or a custom build from StepMania's 5_1-new branch) to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported. SM5.2 is not supported.
New Features
Optional Grades in MusicWheelItems
This feature was requested a number of times over the years by a number of users and GitHub user @dougshell was kind enough to do most of the work to make it happen.
This feature is disabled by default, but you can enable it under Simply Love Options in your operator menu. It is additionally worth noting that grades are only displayed when a profile (either local or USB stick) is in use. Grades for machine high scores are not displayed because that wouldn't make sense in the context of a public arcade machine.
Show Session Time in SelectMusic Header In Event Mode
Several people requested a quick way of gauging how long they'd been playing in Event Mode as part of their workout/exercise routine. This release adds a timer that counts up into the header of ScreenSelectMusic if Event Mode is enabled.
It is a general timer in that it includes time spent picking a song on ScreenSelectMusic, choosing mods in ScreenPlayerOptions, playing in ScreenGameplay, and basking in success/failure on ScreenEvaluation. This is in contrast to the time that appears on ScreenGameover, which only factors in time spent in Gameplay.
Bug Fixes
Chart Parser Fixes
GitHub user @Kauhsa fixed an issue with the chart parser that stemmed from charts that contained measures that were 0 seconds in duration. These can occur due to negative BPMs, negative Stops, and warps. See pull request #79 for more info.
Additionally, the chart parser should no longer completely break down when a simfile directory only contains a .dwi file (no .ssc, no .sm). .dwi files will not be parsed, but at least they won't cause the entire UI to break.
If you have a simfile (like the original Vertex Beta, apparently) that only contains a .dwi file, you can generate an .ssc file that will be properly parsed for the MeasureCounter and NPS Density Histogram by opening the file in SM5's editor and saving it.
Continuing Shouldn't Be Possible Outside Pay Mode
I discovered that Freeplay and Home mode (with Event Mode disabled) always branched to ScreenPlayAgain (the "Continue?" screen) after the last song of a set had been played.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about this at first, but realized that the continue system checks credits remaining, and that credits don't have any meaningful context in Freeplay and Home mode. Thus, I opted to specifically check for Freeplay/Home mode and handle their branching differently than Pay mode.
No one has mentioned this as a bug to date, but it's probably better this way. Probably.
Gameover's "Time Spent This Game" Now Displays Hours
I saw someone share a screencap of ScreenGameover because he was proud of the total time he'd played that session – "202min. 53sec." I paused for a moment to mentally calculate how many hours that was and immediately understood that the UI could be improved. I didn't anticipate people regularly playing for > 60 minutes!
Thus, this release adds a calculation for hours to ScreenGameover. It doesn't appear if the session was < 60 minutes.
Smaller Fixes
GitHub user @ianklatzco fixed some kerning issues with MenuButton fonts. See pull request #85 for more info.
GitHub user @andrewipark fixed a sizing inconsistency with the text in SelectMusic's header. See pull request #83 for more info.
@andrewipark also added a drop-shadow to the subtractive scoring text so that it would be more legible for players who aren't using a ScreenFilter but are using SubtractiveScoring.
The README that accompanies this project has been updated to provide more helpful links to those just getting starting with StepMania, and also more thoroughly document what this theme does and does not do.
Misc. Cleanup
As usual, several files have been cleaned up and more comments have been added.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.4 and v4.5, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.4
About
This is the v4.4 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes a few new bug fixes and features.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 (or a custom build from StepMania's 5_1-new branch) to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported. SM5.2 is not supported.
New Features
Allow ScreenShots on Hardware without a SELECT Button
If you are using a traditional DDR cabinet (or only have three MenuButtons per player for some other reason), you should enable ThreeKeyNavigation under Input Options. With that done, you can save screenshots by pressing MenuLeft and MenuRight simultaneously on ScreenEvaluation and ScreenEvaluationSummary.
Bug Fixes
Operator Menu Cleanup / Input Options
The Operator Menu now has an Input Options submenu.
If you are playing StepMania using a physical dance pad of some kind (arcade pad, homepad, etc.) you should check to ensure that your Input Debounce Time is set to 50ms. This can help mitigate "ghost steps" that commonly cause erroneous judgments.
Fix Final Measure of Stream Not Being Counted in MeasureCounter in Some Cases
It was previously possible for the MeasureCounter to not include the last measure of stream in its count in certain circumstances. This has been fixed by @Kauhsa in commit 231552d.
Fix Lua Errors Regarding HideScore
If two players were joined and one or both of those players opted to hide their score during gameplay, Lua errors would occur when the other code that brightened the winning player's score was unable to find the score! Thanks go to @Kauhsa for pointing this out and submitting a pull request to fix it.
Remove Random from MusicWheel
@ianklatzco demonstrated that the engine's Random feature can break input on ScreenSelectMusic fairly easily. For now, I am opting to remove Random from the MusicWheel. See issue #70 for more discussion and potential patches (if you're into that sort of thing).
Misc. Cleanup
A few files have been cleaned up and more comments have been added.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.3 and v4.4, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.3
About
This is the v4.3 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes new features and bug fixes.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 (or a custom build from StepMania's 5_1-new branch) to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported. SM5.2 is not supported.
New Features
NoteSkin Previews
Players can now see what their currently-selected NoteSkin looks like on ScreenPlayerOptions.
MusicRate on ScreenSelectMusic
SelectMusic now factors in the current MusicRate when displaying the BPM (or BPMs) and duration of the current song/course.
Bug Fixes
Apply Modifiers From Player Profile Without Visiting ScreenPlayerOptions
This issue has been pointed out many times, and was mentioned in the previous release's notes as an open issue. It should (finally) be resolved for all modifiers as of d3e0309.
If you're using a profile, once you establish your modifiers, they should be applied (behind the scenes, when your profile is loaded) without ever needing to visit ScreenPlayerOptions again.
AxisFix Preference Added
@FishamanP added an OptionRow for the AxisFix preference within Advanced Options. (Other themes have had such an OptionRow for quite some time; that Simply Love didn't was an oversight.)
If enabled, the AxisFix will attempt to address the up-down/left-right single-axis issue introduced by many USB adapters for homepads. This will only attempt to address the issue for Windows users.
CourseMode
ScreenEvaluationSummary was using the title and banner from the last song in the last course played. This has been fixed to display the title and banner from each course played.
ScreenNameEntry was only displaying HighScore info from the most recently played Course, ignoring other Courses that may have been played if EventMode was on. This has been fixed to cycle through all HighScore info from all Courses played.
Scatter Plot
The judgment scatter plot that appears on ScreenEvaluation would sometimes incorrectly categorize individual judgments on the edge of a particular TimingWindow. This could result in scenarios like a player earning all W1 judgments ("Fantastic" in ITG) but seeing the occasional W2 judgment ("Excellent" in ITG) being rendered in the scatter plot.
This was addressed by @andrewipark in commit 8cbb6f2 by factoring TimingWindowAdd into the function that categorizes judgments, and also by me in commit cfaa310 by fixing a rounding error.
Note that these now-fixed oversights would not have impacted scores in any way. The bugs only lay within my visualization code that rendered the scatter plot.
Bring Back Player Profile Names to ScreenEvaluation
The previous release broke this; it's fixed now.
Fix Judgment Colors Appearing "Dimmed" After First Song
See c86ce68 for more information.
PeakNPS in Step Statistics Factors in MusicRate
Fixed as of 3c6a5d5.
Case-Insensitive File Search for Chart Parsing
The chart-parsing routine used by the MeasureCounter and Step Statistics Density Histogram was previously written to look for .ssc or .sm files with lowercase file-extensions only. It now performs the search in a case-insensitive manner and will find .SSC or .SM files, should you have some...
Misc. Cleanup
A few files have been cleaned up and more comments have been added.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.2 and v4.3, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.2
About
This is the v4.2 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes bug fixes not present in the previous release.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 (or a custom build from StepMania's 5_1-new branch) to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported.
Bug Fixes
Fixes for NPS Histograms
Clipping Issues
The notes-per-second histograms introduced in release 4.1 exhibited some buggy behavior. The right side of the graph representing the end of the chart would often be clipped off due to a masking issue. This would result in graph being inaccurate.
This should be fixed now.
NPS Histograms Fixed for CourseMode
Step Statistics, including the NPS histograms, have been fixed to work in CourseMode.
BPM Display in Gameplay
The BPM Display that appears in Gameplay has been fixed to accommodate Courses with "split BPMs." Previously, CourseMode was hardcoded to display only the BPM from the MasterPlayerNumber.
Surround Lifemeter Matches SL3.95, Visually
I realized that the Surround Lifemeter didn't match its SL3.95 counterpart visually and fixed that.
Misc. Cleanup
A few files have been cleaned up and more comments have been added.
Open Issues
It was pointed out that players using profiles should have their modifiers set from their profiles without ever needing to visit ScreenPlayerOptions, but that this does not actually happen. Some modifiers are applied but not all.
Some discussion surrounding this matter occurred here with a solution being offered, but that fix appears to not work for all modifiers.
I need more time to think about how to do this properly, and I don't have that time right now, so this remains an open issue.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.1 and v4.2, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.1
About
This is the v4.1 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes some new features and bug fixes not present in the previous release.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 (or a custom build from StepMania's 5_1-new branch) to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported.
New Features
The primary two new features have been slavishly recreated from inspired by Rhythm Horizon.
Judgment Scatterplot for ScreenEvaluation
ScreenEvaluation now has a scatter plot of judgments received during gameplay.
- Early judgments are represented as dots "below the middle."
- Late judgments are represented as dots "above the middle."
This can offer insight into how a player performed over time. Did the player gradually hit notes earlier and earlier as the song wore on? This feature can help players answer such questions.
This scatter plot does not appear on ScreenEvaluation for CourseMode.
Step Statistics for Gameplay
Gameplay now has an option for "Step Statistics" as an alternative to the Pacemaker graphs. Enabling this will toggle a pane for single-player gameplay to show
- how many of each judgment the player has earned so far
- a notes-per-second density histogram of the current stepchart
- a "lifeline" over the density histogram representing the player's LifeMeter at that point in the stepchart
This can offer insight into how a player's LifeMeter corresponded to changing note density over the span of gameplay.
Due to this taking up half the screen, this feature is not available for 2-player/versus or double gameplay, and is not available when "Center1Player" is enabled in Preferences.ini.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.0 and v4.1, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v4.0
About
This is the v4.0 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes a few new features and bug fixes not present in the previous release.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported.
New Features
Judgment Histogram for ScreenEvaluation
ScreenEvaluation now has a new fourth pane of information – a histogram of judgment density. This feature is intended to help newer players assess whether they are more often hitting notes early or late.
Bug Fixes
Fixes for CourseMode
The MeasureCounter has been fixed to work within CourseMode.
Additionally, ScreenSelectMusic has been updated to display a list of the songs that will be played in each course, making it similar, visually, to Simply Love for SM3.95.
Get Out of ScreenSelectMusic in EventMode without a Keyboard
I added the traditional ITG MenuButton code for exiting ScreenSelectMusic when EventMode is enabled at the request of a few users who own their own private machines. The code is MenuLeft,MenuLeft,MenuRight,MenuRight,MenuLeft,MenuLeft,MenuRight,MenuRight
Fix Per-Column Judgment Pane for Double Play for 4:3 Monitors
This previously spilled offscreen.
Misc. Small Changes
I have continued to add lots of inline comments for the sake of other themers and people who like to poke at my code.
Change Summary
For a summary of changes between v3.0 and v4.0, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for SM5 - v3.0
This is the v3.0 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It is intended to be the final release that will target the StepMania 5.0.x series. Future releases of Simply Love will hopefully support StepMania 5.1.x.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported.
This release contains many new features as well as plentiful bug-fixes not present in the v2.1 release.
New Features
GameModes
Players can now choose between four GameModes
- Casual – No fail/LifeMeter, no NameEntry, simplified modifier menu, no ScreenShots, Percent Score does not go down with misses. This mode was designed with novice/casual players in mind.
- Competitive – In the Groove as we know and love/hate it.
- ECFA – Similar to Competitive, but with tighter Timing Windows; can be used to qualify for the ECFA tournament.
- StomperZ – Emulates Rhythm Horizon features.
Competitive, ECFA, and StomperZ GameModes can be played in "regular" or "marathon/course" style gameplay. Casual GameMode goes directly to "regular" SelectMusic.
New Theme Features
- Multiple Panes of Information on ScreenEvaluation – these can be toggled with the MenuLeft and MenuRight buttons on ScreenEvaluation
- RainbowMode – add some color to Simply Love!
- Arrows or Hearts as visual theme – contributed by mute
- New Menu Music – contributed by mute
- Added (toggle-able) HeartRateEntry and SelectLocalProfile screens
- lots more!
New Gameplay Modifiers
- Surround LifeMeter
- IIDX-styled Pacemaker – contributed by DJ Jack
Conveniences For Public Machine Operators
- MenuTimer Options – Set the MenuTimers for various screens.
- Long/Marathon Song Cutoffs – The cutoffs for songs that cost 2 and 3 rounds can be set in Arcade Options
- If the MenuTimer is enabled, it will not reset when players go back and forth between SelectMusic and PlayerOptions screens. If the player runs out of time on SelectMusic, they will be forced into PlayerOptions without the option of returning to SelectMusic.
For a summary of changes between v2.1 and v3.0, check GitHub's comparison of the two.
Simply Love for U.P.S. Tournament
This is the v2.1 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It is intended for the U.P.S. Tournament in January 2016.
This includes a few minor bug fixes not present in the v2.0 release and adds a proper Measure Counter for StreamZ™.
For a summary of changes between v2.0 and v2.1, check GitHub's comparison of the two.