R2?

[lemolii]

hey so like i wanna learn literally all of ffr's history through playing every version but i've hit a snag when it comes to r2. it doesnt seem to be archived anywhere in any form? i was just wondering if there was any way at all to play it since theres literally like 3 videos of it that still exist

[Tru]

Without too much of a history lesson, R2/FFR Resonance was a way to play certain Stepmania simfiles that were uploaded to the site. The simfiles may be resurrected sometime as Synthlight apparently does have the archive somewhere.

The functionality of R2 has been totally replaced by the current FFR file loader.

also https://www.flashflashrevolution.com...php?level=2376

[lemolii]

Originally Posted by Tru

Without too much of a history lesson

can i have the full history lesson i want to learn about the historyz i love the historyz

[Tru]

Well, specific to Resonance, FFR used to host a simfile database. It's primary use was to share simfiles for play in Stepmania. Any user could upload a simfile with the Stepmania know-how (both charting in Stepmania or maybe early versions of ddreamstudio, and exporting to .smzip(I think??)).

For Resonance to work, the simfile had to have a constant BPM. So roughly half-ish of the files uploaded to the database wouldn't be playable in Resonance. But you could play the ones that did work. I don't recall it being an overly pleasant experience to play, but it did allow a sort of preview without needing to download the simfile.

The simfile database as it was back then is not coming back. There were several reasons including hosting/server slowdowns and the potential clash with FFR's permission requirements for songs in the official engine.

Synthlight has made some noise about maybe putting an archive of the simfile database up so folks could download their old simfiles. But no uploads.

You can view what the database looked like back in 2006/7/8/9 on the internet archive. Doubtful any of the resonance links will work properly.
https://web.archive.org/web/20260000...ution.com/sims

Outside of that, FFR was a major central hub for keyboard Stepmania play. Stepmania was more so intended to be a DDR clone/pad focused. FFR very much carried the keyboard scene for some time. While the overall community was somewhat fractured (eg. ODI, Red Fraction, Blue Xoon, SMGroove, potentially others I'm forgetting), notable Stepmania packs were either organized here or had major release threads here.

[lemolii]

Originally Posted by Tru

Well, specific to Resonance, FFR used to host a simfile database. It's primary use was to share simfiles for play in Stepmania. Any user could upload a simfile with the Stepmania know-how (both charting in Stepmania or maybe early versions of ddreamstudio, and exporting to .smzip(I think??)).

For Resonance to work, the simfile had to have a constant BPM. So roughly half-ish of the files uploaded to the database wouldn't be playable in Resonance. But you could play the ones that did work. I don't recall it being an overly pleasant experience to play, but it did allow a sort of preview without needing to download the simfile.

The simfile database as it was back then is not coming back. There were several reasons including hosting/server slowdowns and the potential clash with FFR's permission requirements for songs in the official engine.

Synthlight has made some noise about maybe putting an archive of the simfile database up so folks could download their old simfiles. But no uploads.

You can view what the database looked like back in 2006/7/8/9 on the internet archive. Doubtful any of the resonance links will work properly.
https://web.archive.org/web/20260000...ution.com/sims

Outside of that, FFR was a major central hub for keyboard Stepmania play. Stepmania was more so intended to be a DDR clone/pad focused. FFR very much carried the keyboard scene for some time. While the overall community was somewhat fractured (eg. ODI, Red Fraction, Blue Xoon, SMGroove, potentially others I'm forgetting), notable Stepmania packs were either organized here or had major release threads here.

huh, interesting! i really wish i was around in this place's golden days, but alas i was not even a concept at that point.