Screen Cutting

[professer]

After searching around a bit with no results... what is screen cutting?

I have head the term a few times and am wondering what it is. From what I could find its something that some people rely on to play, and was important back before speedmods were around when the game was new. I think its something along the lines of covering up part of the screen so you see less arrows at once... but that doesn't make much sense to me.

[Breakdown16]

Experiment with the speed settings to find one that works best for you!

As a note, the speedmods may not work for you. By restoring the size of your window, you will have less arrows on the screen at any given time, allowing you to focus on the current patterns. This will reduce the amount of confusion among the incoming arrows. This is known as Screen-cutting. It works on a similar principle to that of Speedmods. The higher the speedmod, the less arrows on the screen. When FFR was in it's early stages of development, this method was necessary. Speed mods didn't exist on FFR. In the case that Screen-cutting really does work for you, use it.

It achieves a similar effect to speedmods.

Speed mods = Adjustment of the amount of arrows on the screen + interval of arrows.
Screen cut = Adjustment of the amount of arrows on the screen.

You can use both at the same time.

Source: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=94323

[Archelos]

Hey, cool information. I never played on the level to even understand how this would be useful back in 2004 though, hahya.

[Patashu]

Screen cutting was a technique used before the advent of speedmods to achieve a similar effect; the reduction of on-screen time for each note, aiding in mental processing of patterns by removing notes that do not yet need to be considered and shifting focus to a smaller, more relevant group.

It can be done by taping a piece of paper to your monitor blocking out part of the FFR window. Alternatively, you can find a program with an 'Always on Top' setting or extend the windows taskbar up and drag the FFR window down to hide as much as works for you.

Of course, with the advent of speed mods it is in general a redundant and less effective technique but still usable (I know Tass uses 1x and screencuts still, for instance, likely because he's so used to it that he would lose accuracy changing)

[professer]

Thanks for the helpful information. It looks like I had the right idea of what it was, but its nice to get it all cleared up.

[Archelos]

Originally Posted by Patashu

It can be done by taping a piece of paper to your monitor blocking out part of the FFR window. Alternatively, you can find a program with an 'Always on Top' setting or extend the windows taskbar up and drag the FFR window down to hide as much as works for you.

Couldn't you just click the Restore button (when your window is maximized) and resize the window upwards?

Also, reverse scrollers (such as myself) can simply scroll down in the window until enough of the top is no longer showing.

[GETTING300ZX]

Originally Posted by Archelos

Couldn't you just click the Restore button (when your window is maximized) and resize the window upwards?

Also, reverse scrollers (such as myself) can simply scroll down in the window until enough of the top is no longer showing.

Thats what I do. I used to put post-its on the screen for MP before I found out about opponent masking like 3 weeks ago. And speedmods... just started about 4 days ago and WOW. Accuracy +~25%. I use 1.75x and for easier songs 1.25x (if attempting a AAA). The only thing that became more difficult than before with 1x+screencut are burst with jumps for wacky timed arrows (like in Games We Played and 600AD). Otherwise speedmods ftw, sooo much better than cutting the damn screen on EVERY song then going back to full to find a new song.

[musicdemon]

Originally Posted by Patashu

Alternatively, you can find a program with an 'Always on Top' setting or extend the windows taskbar up and drag the FFR window down to hide as much as works for you.

I use the program "Always On Top Maker". It's the simplest program in the world and is a stand-alone executable (you don't need to install anything). Just double-click the .exe, go to any program you want to remain on top of the others and press Ctrl+Alt+T. That's it

EDIT: Here's the website where you can download it from. It's freeware and is only about 6 kilobytes.
http://www.fadsoft.net/AlwaysOnTopMaker.htm

[rushyrulz]

My accuracy is better with speedmods. They take a while to get used to the higher speeds, but it's better in the long run so you don't get in a hub with screencutting. It's also more convenient and less time consuming to just use speedmods.

[GETTING300ZX]

Originally Posted by rushyrulz

My accuracy is better with speedmods. They take a while to get used to the higher speeds, but it's better in the long run so you don't get in a hub with screencutting. It's also more convenient and less time consuming to just use speedmods.

100% Agreed. In fact it only took me about 10-20 songs to catch up to where I was while screen cutting, now I'm better!