Stepmaniax Xbox

	Stepmaniax
General
Author(s)	xport
Type	Music
Version	v12
Licence	Mixed
Links
	Download
	Source

What's New :

- Added the "Show Banners?" option to Graphics options. You need to replace xboxpackage.smzip on your xbox with the new one.
- Recompiled with some better optimizations.  Things should be a bitfaster now.

- JPEG files work now

- Changing screens not randomly crash anymore.
  This was caused by an out-of-memory error because, by default, the current
  screen objects are not freed before loading the new screen objects when
  backing out.  I'm not sure why this is not enabled by default, and why there 
  is no way to configure it in the menus, but it may be because it's buggy.  
  I guess we'll soon find out. :)

- Characters now work.  If you want to use Characters, download the following
  file and put it in your "PACKAGES" directory:

    http://www.stepmania.com/download.php?file=downloads/SM3.9_Characters_DancePC.smzip

  That file contains a set of "bones" that is required for some older character
  sets to work.

- Added controls for menu navigation on all other games types (including Pump)
  If you already switched to Pump mode and cannot control the menus anymore,
  then delete the e:\saves\stepmaniax\keymaps.ini file.
  You will have to configure the input to your liking on the Options screen.

- Core updated to Stepmania 3.9 Final

- SM-LAN support (see instructions below)

- Better support for running from a DVD (see below)

- Should be able to accommodate around 700-1000+ songs depending on how 
  large the stepfiles are and on how many extra themes you have installed.  
  I tested it with 700 average-sized songs and there was still enough space 
  for another few hundred.  I imagine this will be sufficient for 99% of the 
  people out there.  If you're part of that 1% with 239873298324 song files 
  and claim to like/play all of them, then pick up a 128MB XBox.

Important Notes

There have been some miscellaneous updates since v5 and I can't remember what those were or what version numbers they were, so I've just jumped to v10 to avoid any confusion as to what's the most recent version.

I started over from scratch with the 3.9 Final sources. All of the previous XBox-specific updates were already merged into the main codebase. There were some new alterations that needed to be made to get the XBox version working. The full source should be in a separate package alongside this distribution. If someone on the official Stepmania team could update the main codebase with these changes, that would be great.

Movies

Nope, sorry. I had something almost working, but the additional code chewed up about 15MB of memory which is better used for song storage. Since it was using up so much memory and it wasn't working anyway, I decided to just abandon it.

Themes/Characters/Announcers/Etc Packages

Place your SMZIP files in the PACKAGES directory just like you would on the PC version of Stepmania.

DVD Support

All of the files that Stepmania writes will now be written to one location:

E:\SAVES\STEPMANIAX

All the cache files, configuration data, scores, profiles, etc will be written there. This means that you should be able to just unpack this distribution to a directory, add songs to the SONGS directory, burn it to an XBox-compatible disc, and be good to go. I have not tested it myself yet - I'm sure I'll hear about it if it does not work.

SM-LAN Support

The first time you run StepmaniaX, it will create the following file:

E:\SAVES\STEPMANIAX\NETWORK.INI

To play over a network, edit this file in the following way:

To connect to someone else's Stepmania-LAN server use these settings:

[Network] Enabled=1 Server=###.###.###.###

Where "###.###.###.###" is the IP address of your friend's Stepmania-LAN Server.

To have your XBox be a Stepmania-LAN server so that other people can connect to it, use these settings:

[Network] Enabled=1 Server=127.0.0.1

Setting the Server to 127.0.0.1 tells StepmaniaX that your XBox is to be the server.

To start the PC version of Stepmania so that it will act as a server, do this:

stepmania.exe --runserver=myservername --netip=127.0.0.1

To start the PC version of Stepmania so that it will act as client, do this:

stepmania.exe --netip=192.168.1.10

Where 192.168.1.10 is the IP address of the Stepmania server you wish to join.

For information on connecting to/from your XBox to another over the Internet, see here:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=267019

Scroll down to the "Q: I'm trying to netplay and I cannot connect to my friend's xbox. What's wrong?" question. Or you can check out this link:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=415478&st=30#post-main-2798872

I recommend trying to establish a connection between the XBox version and the Windows version running on your home PC. Once you've got the particulars down for a basic connection, you can try something more sophisticated like an Internet connection.

Running from DVD

First off, the ideal way of running StepmaniaX is from the HD. Stepmania loads lots of resource files (sounds, images) so if you are running from DVD media, things will probably stutter/putt along. However, if you are determined to run from DVD, then do the following:

Install Stepmania 3.9 Alpha 7 for Windows on your computer. Set it up and add all the songs you want to put on the DVD. Run Stepmania for Windows so that it reads all the songs and caches the information. After doing so, unpack the XBox package into a directory. Copy the entire contents of these Windows Stepmania directories over the XBox package :

Songs Cache Data

Basically you are replacing the XBox Songs, Cache, Data directories with the Windows ones. Now use an XBox ISO creation tool (e.g. SimpleXISO) to create an XBox compatible ISO image of the XBox directory, burn to a disc and you're done.

I've tested this method and it works for me. However, the playback can be choppy. You might want to change the Options so that textures and sounds are not freed from memory. (Do this from the Options menu)

Months before the official DDR game comes to platform, I give you StepmaniaX!

Please note that this NFO does not contain instructions for how to use Stepmania. If this is your first time playing with Stepmania, then I suggest you download the Windows version first. Consult the stepmania website noted above and read up on the Stepmania documentation. This StepmaniaX package will run without any modifications/additions, but it will only contain one sample dance song. It is up to you do add the songs you desire.

Installation

First, ensure that the StepmaniaX package you have contains lots of graphics and MP3 files. It has come to my attention that some very foolish people have been stripping my original packages of necessary files. They take out the /MEDIA directory sometimes or they will remove BIOS files necessary for emulators to run, etc. If the StepmaniaX package you downloaded does not contain lots of graphics and MP3 files, then *IT WILL NOT RUN*. All of the files are

necessary*.

If your package does not contain all of the graphics/MP3 files, then I suggest that you download the Windows Stepmania 3.0 final file from here:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/stepmania/stepmania300final.exe?download

After downloading it, install it on your PC, then upload the entire Stepmania directory to a directory on your XBox. Now copy the XBE file into the Stepmania directory along with the /MEDIA directory. When you are finished, the directory structure on your XBox should look like this:

<DIR> Announcers
<DIR> BGAnimations
<DIR> Cache
<DIR> CDTitles
<DIR> Courses
<DIR> Media
<DIR> Music
<DIR> NoteSkins
<DIR> RandomMovies
<DIR> Songs
1,404,928 stepmaniax.xbe
<DIR> Themes
<DIR> Visualizations

Please note that as of this time StepmaniaX will only run off the HD - do not attempt to run it from DVD/CDRW media.

LOADING

Simply run the XBE file. When it starts, you will see some text messages on the screen telling you the progress of the files it is trying to load. When it finishes loading the song files, you will be presented with the main StepmaniaX title screen.

HOW DO I USE MY PS/PS2 DANCE MATS?

Get a PS2->Xbox controller adaptor. The one I have is called "Total Control" from Team5 and it works great. I'm sure any others will work just as well.

XBOX CONTROLS

Any controller plugged into any of the 4 XBox ports can perform certain actions while running StepmaniaX:

LANALOG/RANALOG - Use these to adjust the screen.
DPAD U/D/L/R - These correspond to the dance arrows and also menu scrolling
START - Select/Start
BACK - Cancel - hold this button down while playing to back out
BLACK/WHITE - Only used during gameplay. These will adjust the beat offset.

                   If you notice that the dance steps seem to be a bit before or
                   a bit after the actual music, then use these buttons to
                   make adjustments until it plays the way you want it to.

LTRIGGER/RTRIGGER - Only used during gameplay. These will adjust the BPM value.

                   If you notice that the dance steps start off OK, but 
                   gradually drift more and more out of whack, then you should
                   use these buttons to adjust the BPM value until it plays the
                   way you want it to.

RESTRICTIONS

The following restrictions may or may not be removed in a future release :

Does not support OGG files. Only use MP3 files. Does not support AVI/MPG or any other kind of movie file. Can only run from the XBox hard drive. Can not use the Song Edit screens

TROUBLESHOOTING

Q: It used to work, but now I just get a blank screen. What happened? A: The stepmania.ini file was probably changed. Delete it and restart.

Q: I have a PAL XBox and it doesn't seem to work. A: Make sure widescreen and/or progressive settings are off.

  Try both PAL/50 and PAL/60.

Stella, Gnuboy, SMSPlus, FCEUltra, HUGO, NeoPop, DGen, Bochs, HUGO-CD, FMSXBox, Bliss, WinSTon, Gens, Z26, StepmaniaX....what's next?

Enjoy!