How viable are soft pads?

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: How viable are soft pads?

The way I would describe the progression on ITG difficulty is:
- Soft Mats: 1-9
- Precision Dance Pad: 10-13
- Metal Pad (standard sensors) or Load Cell Pad (e.g. StepmaniaX Stage): 14+

At a certain point, soft mats just stop registering altogether. As an example, I tried playing MAX Period on a soft mat and I got a miss on almost all the jumps in the beginning. Precision Dance Pads are a gamble on speeds above 180. With a metal pad, you can at least try to adjust the panels (e.g. using foam tape), or in the case of load cell pads do some manual adjustment with the sensors.

I thought Impulse would be out right about now but I guess they got delayed? Wasn't it touted as coming out Winter 2018 at one point?

There isn't a tentative date as to when they are releasing. It's mostly vague updates about "hey we made some improvements" but then no roadmap as to what a tentative release would be. What would help is if they were a bit more transparent about the work. For example:
- 2019 First Quarter: Continue QA
- 2019 Second Quarter: Initial assembly line for first 10 impulse platforms
- 2019 Third Quarter: Release first versions of pad
- 2019 Fourth Quarter: Improve assembly line

Here was their January update:

Hi again, here's the update for January:
This past month, we worked on some of the essential software as well as preparing the platforms for production.
The sensor designs are finished. It's important to understand that bringing a product into the manufacturing stage requires a lot of work and careful planning. However, we've developed a way to create the sensors that will now dramatically reduce assembly time. We have also been able to eliminate "flex". In the past, when we stepped on the panels, we introduced stress into the platform. The sensors attached to other panels would pull towards the area we introduced stress, with the panel holding the sensor group together, causing the other sensors to record pressure as well. This limited the sensitivity we could offer in commercial units. And that issue is now fixed.
We worked on the step recognition system and produced the software to prevent two scenarios. Unexpected sensor behavior changes can no longer cause panel step recognition breakage. Essentially, result there is where other sensors 'stick', our sensors will break out of that stuck state, and be able to record the next step without failure, and correct the error to prevent further sticking.
The second scenario covered is sensor breakage. Just a back-up system for the rare broken sensor (we've found none in all 200+ sensors used in earlier testing). Lets the panel continue functioning by turning off the broken sensor, and alerts the user to the issue, so they can arrange replacement without extensive troubleshooting.
We will be back next month with another update. Thanks for reading, and thank you for your patience

[aperson]

Re: How viable are soft pads?

What can I do once I get past 16s? (Might not happen)

Time to buy yourself an arcade cabinet.

Breaking into 17s requires you to be able to do stuff like 64 measures of 200 bpm 16th notes, so you'll probably be set for a while.

[Superbearhands]

Re: How viable are soft pads?

Took a 6 months break before I tried the Polish pad and I broke or tied old records on my first playthrough, so I'd say it's pretty dang priceworthy.

[ToonE156]

Re: How viable are soft pads?

Just gonna bump this thread and say that I use a Wii soft pad and I have passed 17s on it. if you want a soft pad, GET THE WII ONE, don't get any third party one (unless it's RedOctane)

They are crap but they aren't unusable

[katanaeyegaming]

Re: How viable are soft pads?

Just gonna bump this thread and say that I use a Wii soft pad and I have passed 17s on it. if you want a soft pad, GET THE WII ONE, don't get any third party one (unless it's RedOctane)

They are crap but they aren't unusable

OK WUT

Softpads really just are ass though wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole let alone a 100 foot one.

[Tantive72]

Re: How viable are soft pads?

I bought a softpad off Amazon back in the summer of 2020 as I was bored out of my mind during quarantine. It's not bad, the only real problem I have with it is that it moves all over the damn place when I'm playing pretty much anything. I actually ended up taping it to the floor sometimes lol.

I really want to mod it and make it somewhat decent. Also, the pad I bought came with a StepMania 3.9 installer CD, idk why but it was pretty cool. Came with a bunch of ooooold pad packs.