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[SM5] Themers should use new Error Reporting.

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Post #1 · Posted at 2014-06-20 08:18:36pm 9.7 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."

Last updated: 2014-08-27 09:14pm
There have been many changes to SM5 since beta 3, particularly in the Lua API. For active themers looking for ways to do new things, it can be useful to use a nightly build, since any changes in the nightly build will be in the next release.

API change list

For Windows, you can get nightly builds from smnightly.
For OS X, you can contact dbk2.
For Linux, if you absolutely cannot build from source yourself, you can use a binary from me. (not updated automatically, remind me to update it if you try it and there's something missing)

Bump for a change that needs a volunteer tester:
http://www.stepmania.com/forums/stepmania-development/show/430


Bump:
sillybear found a bug in scaletoclipped where it doesn't actually clip the sprite when scaling it. I'm planning to fix this, but it will change the behavior of that function, so I'm looking for themers that will be affected so people don't get an unpleasant surprise.

Bump:
The method for setting speed mod outline earlier has been merged and is in the latest nightly build. I want someone to test it to give feedback on whether it's confusing. (I know it works) Just download that build, set your speed mod, and play a few songs.

Bump:
On screen error reporting is being added to SM5. This means that when an error occurs, it will be reported on screen in stepmania, pop up a dialog box, and record the error in the log file. Previously, if you wanted to know if there were errors in your theme, you had to open up Logs/log.txt and look at it. Adding on screen error reporting should make finding theme mistakes much easier.
Errors will appear at the top of the screen, wait a few seconds, then scroll off the top. If more appear before existing errors are dealt with, more of the screen will be covered.
Keys will be added to the debug menu for showing/hiding the backlog of errors, in case they scroll off before you finish reading them.
This is now in the latest nightly build. Have fun.
Some themes may become completely unusable due to the quality of their code.

Bump:
Better BG fitting support added.
Go to the service options menu and choose "Set BG Fit Mode" and you will see this screen:
http://i.imgur.com/kvfOm8Al.png
This screen shows how a bg will be distorted with each setting and the setting should affect bgs in all themes.
Some themes may not have the "Set BG Fit Mode" option in the service options menu. The option can also be set from the "Appearance Options" section under "BG Fit Mode". If it's not there, you'll have to switch to the default theme to set the option, or edit %APPDATA%/StepMania 5.0/Save/Preferences.ini directly and set "BackgroundFitMode" to "CoverDistort", "CoverPreserve", "FitInside", "FitInsideAvoidLetter", or "FitInsideAvoidPillar".
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #2 · Posted at 2014-06-21 12:01:00pm 9.7 years ago

Offline CrzP
CrzP Avatar Member
36 Posts
China
Reg. 2014-02-21

Yeah,scaletoclipped has already annoyed me.....If it is fixed,it will be a nice one.

And I found that 'croptop,1' cannot work usually....

Post #3 · Posted at 2014-06-21 04:10:55pm 9.7 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."
Quote: CrzP
And I found that 'croptop,1' cannot work usually....
The cropping functions take a fraction to crop away from that side. So "croptop(1)" means "crop away the whole thing, from the top.". "croptop(.5)" means "crop away the top half'.
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #4 · Posted at 2014-06-21 04:18:59pm 9.7 years ago

Offline Th3_Ov3rHell_3XoduZ
Th3_Ov3rHell_3XoduZ Avatar Member
313 Posts
Chile
Reg. 2012-09-13

"ITG, The Best Dance Machine!"
Well I am using that function in some of my Themes, at least for me works fine. Since I uses that one like BannerOnCommand=scaletoclipped,400,120 (as a example).

Eyyup, I use that function a lot on my themes.
Quote: Released Themes for SM5 Beta 3
Quote: Released Themes for SM5 Beta 4 & 5.0.7
Quote: Simfles Packs Released

Post #5 · Posted at 2014-06-22 01:10:57am 9.7 years ago

Offline riskofsoundingnerdy
riskofsoundingnerdy Avatar Member
140 Posts
Australia
Reg. 2011-12-18

"Yeah, nah."
The croptop and scaletoclipped functions have always worked fine for me. I use them in the same way as Th3_Ov3rHell_3XoduZ.
What will the be the effects of the fix? Will themers have to change the syntax or anything or will the behaviour of the function just change?
Commissions for music and cover art are now open ✨
Heck, I'll even do simfiles if you want.

Post #6 · Posted at 2014-06-22 03:45:45am 9.7 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."
croptop won't change, that was just crzp bringing up something completely unrelated and confusing you.

scaletoclipped didn't do the right thing at all when I tested it (screenshot). In the screenshot, it should have clipped away the excess so that the aspect ratio of the image was preserved. Instead, it just scaled the image in each direction to make it fit, and ruined the aspect ratio.
CropTo (completely different function from croptop) has the same problem (and is practically identical). It seems strange and wrong that CropTo doesn't actually crop the image to the size, and instead changes the scale.

The change I'm talking about would change scaletoclipped to correctly scale the image to make the smaller dimension fit and clip off the excess of the larger dimension. CropTo would clip the edges of the image away (on all four sides) to fit inside the size given.

silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #7 · Posted at 2014-06-22 03:49:09am 9.7 years ago

Offline riskofsoundingnerdy
riskofsoundingnerdy Avatar Member
140 Posts
Australia
Reg. 2011-12-18

"Yeah, nah."
Oh I see, thanks for explaining that.
I'm looking forward to this change.
Commissions for music and cover art are now open ✨
Heck, I'll even do simfiles if you want.

Post #8 · Posted at 2014-06-27 03:44:28pm 9.7 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."
Bump for speed mod change being merged into the latest nightly build.

silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #9 · Posted at 2014-06-27 04:41:29pm 9.7 years ago

Offline razorblade
razorblade Avatar Member
1,099 Posts
Not Set
Reg. 2011-03-01

I just tested the new speed mod option and I find it more hassle (and sometimes confusing and more time-consuming) than the previous set-up.

Post #10 · Posted at 2014-06-28 12:34:01am 9.7 years ago

Offline DJ OMiY
DJ OMiY Avatar Member
1,768 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-08-22

3DS Friend Code: 184820672999
"Mage Evangelist"
I actually find the new speed mod setup to be kind of neat, maybe it needs to be presented in a slightly different fashion (maybe moving cmod/mmod/xmod to a different line?) but I really really like the concept and would not mind seeing more of it in future builds.

The one thing that I was not a big fan of was the increment/multiplier settings in advanced options, and that was simply in that they were not explained very well. They are not very intuitive to use and perhaps could use either more explanation or a different style of presentation to the end user.
https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/simfiles/PROJECT%20CRYSTALLINE/PROJECT%20CRYSTALLINE.png?1549654414
PROJECT CRYSTALLINE is a thing!

Post #11 · Posted at 2014-06-28 01:35:40am 9.7 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."
Moving cmod/mmod/xmod to a different line is not cleanly possible with the way OptionRows work. It's possible, but it's a pain in the ass and difficult to write simple code for, so I'm not going to do that.

The explanations for the increment/multiplier settings are just what I was able to come up with after writing the code. They're simply how it works. If you can come up with a better explanation, post it.
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #12 · Posted at 2014-07-04 08:42:27pm 9.7 years ago

Offline Rakuen
Rakuen Avatar Member
19 Posts
United States
Reg. 2013-07-05

"Power in My Melodies"
Wow, this change does everything I wanted and more for speed mods. I understand what the options do, but I can also see where some people might be a little confused. I can also see where the functionality might be expanded a bit, provided it's feasible using the current framework. Here's what I propose.

Small Speed Step - Works as Speed Increment does now.
Description: Minimum speed mod adjustment in BPM.

Large Step Type - Changes how the Large Speed Step works and the options it contains. Options are Static and Multiple, and the description changes based on which is selected.
Static Description: Large Step is a separate, static adjustment.
Multiple Description: Large Step is a multiple of Small Step.

Large Speed Step - If the type is static, it works like Small Speed Step with a minimum of SSS+1. If the type is multiple, it works like Speed Multiple does now; if you want to be extra fancy you could throw in the calculated BPM as a subscript.
Description: Maximum speed mod adjustment in BPM.

This change does three things:
1) Makes the options and their descriptions more... descriptive.
2) Lets the user to define their speed mod in a way that makes sense in their head.
3) Provides more flexibility in speed mod adjustment. One setup I'm thinking of is 10 & 25.

Thoughts?

Post #13 · Posted at 2014-07-17 09:35:20am 9.7 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."

Last updated: 2014-07-17 09:35am
I think changing the large increment to not be a multiple of the smaller one would fix a lot of the confusion, I'll change it that way after I finish my current project. I don't think it's necessary to provide switching between multiple mode and static mode, so I won't do that part.
Calling them steps instead of increments is probably better too.

Bump:
See first post for notes on Error Reporting.
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #14 · Posted at 2014-07-17 09:45:22am 9.7 years ago

Offline dbk2
dbk2 Avatar Member
332 Posts
Not Set
Reg. 2012-04-30

Quote: Kyzentun
On screen error reporting is being added to SM5. This means that when an error occurs, it will be reported on screen in stepmania, pop up a dialog box, and record the error in the log file. Previously, if you wanted to know if there were errors in your theme, you had to open up Logs/log.txt and look at it. Adding on screen error reporting should make finding theme mistakes much easier.

Thanks, Kyzentun! I think this change will help SM5 themers locate and fix errors much more easily.

Post #15 · Posted at 2014-07-21 04:00:04pm 9.6 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."
Error Reporting is now in a nightly build.
All themers should download this new nightly build and use it.
http://smnightly.katzepower.com/job/StepMania%205/827/
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #16 · Posted at 2014-07-23 10:05:45pm 9.6 years ago

Offline raoh
raoh Avatar Member
28 Posts
United States
Reg. 2012-02-20

I noticed the change to Speed Mods in the latest nightly I am trying out (I have an old style cabinet with a Minimaid, so since the Minimaid lights driver got merged in I wanted to check it out), and I am finding it doesn't really work very well with an old style DDR cabinet in mind. Arcade Style Navigation does not move on from the Speed Mod line in the options menu, it simply confirms and stays put. As well, I felt a bit confused using it with 2 players; there seemed to be a 1x that stayed that way, and a 3x that I had changed and reflected changes as I made them with the increments, and there was no really good way for me to see what my Speed Mod was doing other than to go back to the changing one which was next to the seemingly static 1x entry in the list, confusing things further. Which one was I changing again? As a user, I would absolutely prefer the choice to use either the old or new style of Speed Mod setting, and at minimum need that selection to work properly with Arcade Style navigation, but the way things appear in my setup it's really just confusing and at worst not working.

Post #17 · Posted at 2014-07-24 09:26:16am 9.6 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."
Quote: raoh
I noticed the change to Speed Mods in the latest nightly I am trying out (I have an old style cabinet with a Minimaid, so since the Minimaid lights driver got merged in I wanted to check it out), and I am finding it doesn't really work very well with an old style DDR cabinet in mind. Arcade Style Navigation does not move on from the Speed Mod line in the options menu, it simply confirms and stays put.
This one will take some time to fix, as there isn't currently a good way to inform stepmania that you only have 3 buttons for navigating menus. Unless I've made a mistake in my testing, you probably can't navigate the options screen past the Acceleration option row either.
I plan on fixing it by adding another option to the "Input Options" section of the service menu, where you can select whether you only have 3 keys (L, R, Start) for menus, so that menu screens can set their navigation mode correctly. I'm actually surprised you were able to get past ScreenSelectProfile, unless you only selected the first profile and didn't try to pick a different one.
As a stopgap until it's fixed better, you can open up _fallback/metrics.ini, find the "ScreenOptions" section, and change "NavigationMode" to "toggle". Then open up _fallback/Languages/en.ini, find the "OptionNames" section, and add an entry for NextRow like this: "NextRow=&MENUDOWN;".
That will force all the option rows to have a "next row" element at the beginning which will move the cursor down when used. It'll also throw off the code in ArbitrarySpeedMods that uses the choice index to know what you intended to do, so the options will be off by one and do what the one to the right of what you have your cursor on says.
Quote
As well, I felt a bit confused using it with 2 players; there seemed to be a 1x that stayed that way, and a 3x that I had changed and reflected changes as I made them with the increments, and there was no really good way for me to see what my Speed Mod was doing other than to go back to the changing one which was next to the seemingly static 1x entry in the list, confusing things further. Which one was I changing again? As a user, I would absolutely prefer the choice to use either the old or new style of Speed Mod setting, and at minimum need that selection to work properly with Arcade Style navigation, but the way things appear in my setup it's really just confusing and at worst not working.
The option that is set for a player is underlined by a bar the same color as their cursor. This is true for the speed mod and all other options.
So here's what it looks like with two players:
http://i.imgur.com/eZ7cx3l.jpg
Player 1's current speed mod is underlined with a red bar, and Player 1 has a red cursor.
Player 2 has a blue cursor, and Player 2's current speed mod is underlined with a blue bar.
If you have a better idea for how to communicate each player's current status, feel free to describe it. The current design is hampered a bit by the OptionRow system, and not what I personally prefer either. Consensual (my theme) has speed mods and options the way i really prefer to present them.
I implemented the new system because I was sick of multiple threads asking for help from people who couldn't figure out how to edit SpeedMods.txt correctly, or even find it. So I implemented ArbitrarySpeedMods so that people could set whatever preferred speed and mode they like without needing to edit some text file.
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #18 · Posted at 2014-07-24 03:43:19pm 9.6 years ago

Offline raoh
raoh Avatar Member
28 Posts
United States
Reg. 2012-02-20

Ahh, I understand now, I completely failed to mention that I am using DDR style themes that display single elements of the mod menu at a time rather than the full list with color coded indicators. It's a lot clearer in the screenshot you have there, and I do like it. The reason I've been able to get this far in seeing how things are working is my testing things on a laptop first before I go committing anything to my machine that I'd rather have Just Working. Given that the themes I like to use are also unfortunately rife with errors, I'm probably going to go with one of the intermediary nightlies that has the new features I like without being disruptive to my playing for now, as far as my machine goes. That being said, I'm super stoked about these developments either way and I'll certainly be testing things out as they are built upon.

Post #19 · Posted at 2014-07-24 04:45:58pm 9.6 years ago

Offline Kyzentun
Kyzentun Avatar Member
3,209 Posts
United States
Reg. 2008-02-20

"I'm honestly pissed off."

Last updated: 2014-07-24 04:45pm
Quote: raoh
Ahh, I understand now, I completely failed to mention that I am using DDR style themes that display single elements of the mod menu at a time rather than the full list with color coded indicators.
That's a problem for the author of the DDR style theme to solve. The previous CustomSpeedMods system still exists for themes that want to use it.

Quote
machine that I'd rather have Just Working
Probably best to not waste your time with DDR style themes not made by AJ then.
silenttype01: Kyzentun is never harsh. He says it how it is.

GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

Post #20 · Posted at 2014-07-24 05:22:52pm 9.6 years ago

Offline raoh
raoh Avatar Member
28 Posts
United States
Reg. 2012-02-20

Gotcha, I'll just muck around with things until I get them working the way I desire, I'm no stranger to theme metrics but I'm not a themer either, I'm just a player with barely above zero knowledge about the inner workings of these things. I would love to simply go with that last option if there were more DDR themes than a DDR 5th mix theme by him (is there? I looked and there doesn't seem to be). Maybe it's time I just learned how to do this stuff, clearly the tools to do it properly are present and expanding. At the risk of derailing things any further, if anyone can point me in the direction of any really good theming/LUA resources, I'd be grateful.

Anyway, everything I have any "problem" with is not rooted in the program and is pretty much my problem and no one else's, so that'll be enough out of me. Thanks for answering my questions!
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