Patashu PRESENTS: How to make simfiles (for real guys edition)

[Patashu]

Copied straight from bemanistyle, lolol

Originally Posted by TougaKiryuu

Writing this because I saw we needed one, first off your going to open either notepad or wordpad, and your going to paste the following into it:

#TITLE:;
#SUBTITLE:;
#ARTIST:;
#TITLETRANSLIT:;
#SUBTITLETRANSLIT:;
#ARTISTTRANSLIT:;
#CREDIT:;
#BANNER:;
#BACKGROUND:;
#CDTITLE:;
#MUSIC:;
#MUSICBYTES:0;
#MUSICLENGTH:;
#OFFSET:;
#SAMPLESTART:;
#SAMPLELENGTH:;
#SELECTABLE:YES;
#BPMS:0.000=;
#STOPS:;
#BGCHANGES:;

go on and save the document as all types and save the extension as .sm... now your going to go fill in the following between the : and ; of all those captions

#TITLE:;
the name of the song goes here

#SUBTITLE:;
anything you want written between the songname or arist goes here

#ARTIST:;
artist name goes here

#TITLETRANSLIT:;
if you used japanese for the title, english goes here

#SUBTITLETRANSLIT:;
same if you used a jp subtitle

#ARTISTTRANSLIT:;
aaand once again same if you used a jp artist

#CREDIT:;
you go here.

#BANNER:;
the filename of your banner goes here (ex: banner.png)

#BACKGROUND:;
same as banner, but whatever you have for the bgimage

#CDTITLE:;

#MUSIC:;
the name of the MP3 your using goes here (ex:song.mp3)

#OFFSET:;
#SAMPLESTART:;
#SAMPLELENGTH:;
dont worry with these just yet

#SELECTABLE:YES;
do NOT change this unless your writing it for a course :<

#BPMS:0.000=;
song bpm goes after 0.000 (ex 0.000=120.000; this is for a BPM of 120)

#STOPS:;
#BGCHANGES:;
don't worry with these either

from here, you can take the .sm file you created and plop it into a folder with the MP3, the banner, and the background, and if you choose a video file that will play in the background.. move this folder into the stepmania/songs directory and place it in a group folder. After that boot stepman up and go to the edit songs option, from here you can create new stepcharts with ease using the stepmaker. A couple other things you can know

#SELECTABLE:ROULETTE;
If you want the song to only come up when you pick the roulette option, you can place this in the place of #SELECTABLE:YES; ..but for it to work you need the Hidden Songs option in the operator to be set to yes.

for those of you who have trouble making the basic file OR your just lazy: have a template you can just edit in notepad/wordpad:

http://www.pumpcore.com/tougakiryuu/template.sm

Originally Posted by Patashu

ACTUALLY STEPPING THE SONG

Once you've got the .sm file set up and everything, start up Stepmania, go to Edit/Sync songs and create a difficulty for the song to edit. The very first thing you should do is hit esc, go to song options, turn assist tick and auto play ON and lower the rate to 0.6x or less. (This slows the song down to make accurate stepping easier.)

BEAT 0 OFFSET

Once you've done this, place a single note on the first measure and play. Does the single arrow's clap go at the same time the first beat does? It probably won't. If it doesn't, you can use F11 and F12 to move the first beat along (F11 makes the first beat happen later, F12 makes it happen sooner), and hold down alt while pressing the F-keys for greater accuracy. Once you've got it spot on, you can either go back into song options and lower the rate to 0.3x to make sure it's perfect or you can save it and move on.

BPM

If the song has a nice, constant BPM through it, simply google search for Mixmeister and download it. Put the song in, get the bpm and use F7 and F8 to adjust the bpm to match that. (Again, hold alt for small increments.) And to make sure, put 16 red arrows ahead of you and play the song to make sure it syncs up right. If Mixmeister fails to find the bpm, you can find it yourself by putting down several measures of red arrows, with assist tick on, and playing. If the claps fall behind the beat, the BPM is too low. If the claps go ahead of the beat, the BPM is too high. Adjust and re-play again and again to make sure you've got it, and if it goes off later on in the song just adjust it again. And if it just doesn't fit no matter how hard you try, your song may have a varying BPM, in which case you may want to try a helpful program at http://www.geocities.com/jyris1 known as DDReam.

PLACING THE ARROWS
First thing first, hold ctrl and push down to expand the measures. You'll need the visual aid if you go any finer then 8th notes. The controls are all listed when you push F1. The most important rule of all is make sure every arrow is going to an sound in the song. People hate, hate, hate it when arrows are poorly placed or BSed. And make sure you can recognize the difference between triplets (purple arrows) and yellow arrows; they're placed quite close together. Finally: Save early, save often and include as many difficulty levels as you think you can do and the song can work with (if it's not a song suited for anything below heavy, don't put anything below heavy)

Originally Posted by Patashu

BPM CHANGES AND STOPS
Bpm tricks are cool. Often songs will have a point in them where noise dramatically drops or nothing at all is playing; these are good places to put pauses. Figure out the length the pause lasts for in beats, then subtract anywhere from half of that to a beat or two (since arrows can't come instantaneously after a pause ends). Multiply this number by 60 then divide it by the song's BPM; this is how long the pause will be. Raise and lower the pause's value with F9 and F10 (again, hold Alt for smaller increments) and you're done. If you insert a pause after stepping after it, the arrows will be too far away now; go just after the pause and use the Delete key to remove blank bars until they're at the right distance.

It's possible that a complete pause in a song may last for a duration that isn't a number of beats; if so, just fine-tune the stop's length until the arrows that come after it are on-beat once more, and lower the rate to 0.3x afterwards with assist tick on just to make perfectly sure.

Bpm changes are simple: Find a point where the song sounds faster/slower, use F7/F8 to bring the BPM to double or half of what it originally was, then go to the end of this fast/slow portion and raise/lower the BPM back to what it should be. If it gets reaallly slow or fast you could even resort to a quartered or quadrupled bpm. And whatever you do, don't insert a bpm change that looks bad/unneccesary when playing the song, and make sure it actually syncs up with the song well.

Summary: Rate 0.3-0.7x and assist tick, if it sounds like unsynced effortless crap with assist tick on don't release it plz

[Patashu]

Oh, and if you're still confused:

DON'T make your simfiles anything like this:
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...e=4&simid=4243

Make them like THIS.
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...e=4&simid=3819

If you can't tell why the first one is bad and the second one is good, simfile-making is NOT FOR YOU. Stick to playing the game.

[FFR4EVA_00]

You forgot this detail:
Song Selection-
DO NOT STEP A SONG THAT HAS BEEN STEPPED 100000 TIMES. I find that there are many simfile artists on FFR that make bad simfiles from songs that have already been stepped. DO NOT STEP THE FOLLOWING ANYMORE OR YOU WILL BE CONSIDERED RETARDED:
Max 300
Ageha
Uber Rave
Quasar
Healing Vision (Angelic Mix)
others which I can't think of at the moment

Do not choose popular songs- they will very, very rarely make a good simfile. See Hardware Store for an obvious exception.
Don't step Sharpnel. It's getting old.
Choose a song that few (or no) people have stepped before.

GFX:
Include them.
Make sure they're not retarded.
Make them fit with the song. For example, don't make black GFX for happy hardcore, or rainbow GFX for hardcore techno.
Do not make them in MS Paint unless they're for a joke simfile.
If you can't make GFX, trying asking around for someone to make them for you. This doesn't work often, but give it a shot.
Learn to use Photoshop.

Joke simfiles:
Don't.

[dAnceguy117]

Originally Posted by FFR4EVA_00

Joke simfiles:
Don't.

what's your deal

[xExigex]

Haha, oh wow.

[Patashu]

Uber Rave is over-stepped? Since when?

[Bursurk_Lurk]

nobody will read this if it becomes a sticky so don't

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by Bursurk_Lurk

nobody will read this if it becomes a sticky so don't

^ very important post

[Patashu]

rofl bump

[FFR4EVA_00]

Ever since Uber Rave was stepped by Magna Trick, it has been overstepped. It was not very hardest simfiles.

ALSO:
Hold Notes:
Hold 1, 2, 3, or 4 (depending on the arrow), and press down or up. Voila, you have a hold note. Use them for prolonged sounds or during stops. However, don't go crazy with them. Only NVLM can do that. Don't use uber-short ones either.

Rolls:
I don't see why people shouldn't use them. Hold Shift+the number, as if you're placing a mine, then press down or up. Rolls are for buzzing/repeating sounds. If you use them, warn people. They will crash older versions of Stepmania.

Mines:
Shift+note. Use them in pad files to increase the difficulty of reading the charts. Do not place them closer than a 16th note apart at 150 BPM.

Joke Songs v2:
If it's all you make, you're retarded.

If you want to be retarded, look at this instead:
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=11249

[Yesssss]

Originally Posted by FFR4EVA_00

Rolls:
I don't see why people shouldn't use them.

Only compatible with SM 4.0, which isn't used as much as 3.9. Also rolls glitch the score making it possible to exceed 100mil on a regular size song that's 10+ feet.

Originally Posted by ffrguy

They will crash older versions of Stepmania.

When I played a file with rolls on SM 3.9, the arrows that you initially hit for a roll weren't there, and arrows at the end of the roll were there, but SM didn't account the arrows.

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by Yesssss

When I played a file with rolls on SM 3.9, the arrows that you initially hit for a roll weren't there, and arrows at the end of the roll were there, but SM didn't account the arrows.

If you miss the phantom arrow ends the game crashes. Try it.

[FFR4EVA_00]

Originally Posted by Yesssss

Only compatible with SM 4.0, which isn't used as much as 3.9. Also rolls glitch the score making it possible to exceed 100mil on a regular size song that's 10+ feet.

I'm still going to use them. Hacked ITG2 machines FTW.

Originally Posted by Yesssss

When I played a file with rolls on SM 3.9, the arrows that you initially hit for a roll weren't there, and arrows at the end of the roll were there, but SM didn't account the arrows.

SM 3.9 crashed with the ITG2 steps for !. That's why I put a warning in V1.

[dragoonhead]

Don't step Sharpnel. It's getting old.

.............Stupid............
But stepping some non-stepped Sharpnel is cool.....
Like The Terror of Death from Brain Violation

BEAT 0 OFFSET

Once you've done this, place a single note on the first measure and play. Does the single arrow's clap go at the same time the first beat does? It probably won't. If it doesn't, you can use F11 and F12 to move the first beat along (F11 makes the first beat happen later, F12 makes it happen sooner), and hold down alt while pressing the F-keys for greater accuracy. Once you've got it spot on, you can either go back into song options and lower the rate to 0.3x to make sure it's perfect or you can save it and move on.

If you want an other thing to do a gap,bring Audacity

[Bursurk_Lurk]

Originally Posted by dragoonhead

But stepping some non-stepped Sharpnel is cool.....
Like The Terror of Death from Brain Violation

lmao

[dragoonhead]

Originally Posted by FFR4EVA_00

You forgot this detail:
Song Selection-
DO NOT STEP A SONG THAT HAS BEEN STEPPED 100000 TIMES. I find that there are many simfile artists on FFR that make bad simfiles from songs that have already been stepped. DO NOT STEP THE FOLLOWING ANYMORE OR YOU WILL BE CONSIDERED RETARDED:
Max 300
Ageha
Uber Rave
Quasar
Healing Vision (Angelic Mix)
others which I can't think of at the moment

I considered also:
Lawn Wake I,II,III,IV
A
AA
ITG Songs in general
Paranoia songs and remix
Max and MaxX songs and remixes
Reality

[sonicbhoc]

If you are putting song titles in any language other than English, make sure (of course) that you have the appropriate language pack installed, and that you save the file in Unicode.

Use a Unicode text editor like BabelPad.

[Moogy]

sharpnel touhou

[Patashu]

actually just touhou

[Patashu]

bump