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[SM5 W.I.P] DDR X3 Theme

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Post #1 · Posted at 2014-12-01 03:22:51am 9.3 years ago

Offline Towlesy27
Towlesy27 Avatar Member
232 Posts
Canada
Reg. 2014-07-31


Last updated: 2014-12-05 01:30am
Hello! So ive made this official thread to show what Im going to be working on. Soon, I will be learning all about theming, and will be working on making a DDR X3 theme because there aren't any good ones out there that have been released (if there are, let me know lol). So, updates on the theme will be posted in this thread! As always, if you would like to offer any suggestions, please do so as I am more than willing to listen! Keep an eye out for updates! (:

Thank you for visiting!
DDR is awesome! (:

Post #2 · Posted at 2014-12-01 04:26:02am 9.3 years ago

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

Quote: Towlesy27
Im kinda new, but willing to try and willing to work hard! A lot of things are just graphic updates, but I will need some help with other things.

If you are genuinely interested in making (or "fixing") a theme, you will have to learn the basics of programming with Lua. It is absolutely unavoidable.

If you don't know Lua but can already program, Lua is fairly easy to pick up. If you don't know how to program, you're in a bit of a bind, because virtually no one else on these forums does either. Furthermore, those that do (Kyzentun, AJ187, Mad Matt, me) have no interest in recreating existing DDR themes, and are rather more interested by the possibility of taking StepMania in new and innovative directions.

Finally, the existing X3 theme that you linked to (credited to Gene2008 and Reiaya) is a veritable mess of stray files and duplicated code. The inclusion of raw WAV audio and PSD files suggests a lack of concern for release. That most of the lua in ./Scripts/ was copied out of the _fallback theme suggests a lack of understanding how theming works (and could very easily be causing problems). The theme contains at least eight different copies of Metrics.ini in various spots. As a whole, it appears to be woefully disorganized.

Good luck and godspeed!

Post #3 · Posted at 2014-12-01 04:59:23am 9.3 years ago

Offline SoulEdge5000
SoulEdge5000 Avatar Member
229 Posts
United States
Reg. 2014-01-26

"Simfiling"
SoundFX09 made a hybrid X3/X2 Stepmania 5 theme. You can use some of the codes/graphics from this theme to help you recreate yours. Cheers!

https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/simfiles/Soul%27s%20Vault%202ndMIX/How%20You%20Like%20That%20%28WAP%20Remix%29/How%20You%20Like%20That%20%28WAP%20Remix%29.png?t=1609148570https://40.media.tumblr.com/8fe57356cd4c197c56f908e8e3cf30b9/tumblr_nplbhbBS981tgr9uxo1_400.png

Post #4 · Posted at 2014-12-01 08:23:50pm 9.3 years ago

Offline Towlesy27
Towlesy27 Avatar Member
232 Posts
Canada
Reg. 2014-07-31

SoulEdge 5000: yes I am familiar with that theme (DDR Fusion: X3 vs X2) and is one of the themes I am working with currently as well! thankyou for posting though!

dbk2: yeah from what I can see there is alot of misplaced and misused files, and stuff that I have no clue why it is there. I have some friends that are familiar with programming who im asking for help, and will try my hardest to learn the basics of Lua. Thankyou!!
DDR is awesome! (:

Post #5 · Posted at 2014-12-01 09:10:52pm 9.3 years ago

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

"I'm honestly pissed off."
You're effectively crippled if you don't know how to program and haven't spent time using Lua in a simple environment.
The best thing to do is to pick up the "Programming In Lua" book and a standalone lua environment suitable for running command line programs. Then work through the book writing simple programs to learn how to use the language. After you're proficient at the language, then you can go back to making the theme and start by deleting everything that's not an image file. (seriously, you do not want to be hampered by someone else's mistakes and bad structure)

Stepmania comes with a Docs folder, inside it is Themerdocs and Luadoc. Themerdocs has a bunch of text files on random parts and a few examples, but all the examples assume that the reader is already proficient with Lua and just needs to know how to use the stepmania environment. Luadoc has Lua.xml, which lists every function for every actor class or singleton class and almost all of the global functions that stepmania provides. (somewhere over 1321 functions total, I ran a search last night for a random idea and came up with 1321 actor functions, not including global functions) You don't have to memorize Lua.xml, just learn how to look through it to find the part that does what you need.
The docs could use a lot more examples to help people get started, but I'm not really motivated to write more examples when so far it looks like the people that would be reading them don't even know how to write good code or understand the language, and thus probably wouldn't understand the examples.

If you choose not to go the route of learning programming first, have fun stumbling around blind for several months gradually making a barely functioning theme that survives only by using Konami's graphics.
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 #6 · Posted at 2014-12-01 10:04:11pm 9.3 years ago

Offline Towlesy27
Towlesy27 Avatar Member
232 Posts
Canada
Reg. 2014-07-31

Thank you so much for the advice Kyzentun! I have actually been wanting to theme for awhile, but could never find any info about it. I actually just ordered the book and it is on its way. I am willing to take the time to read through it, and create an lua environment to work with. I appreciate all of the comments so far.

AND YES, it is extremely annoying to deal with someone else's poor work. Im getting a bit frustrated with them theme at the moment due to how many things are missing and how many errors there are. I will come to you if I have any more questions so thank you!!
DDR is awesome! (:

Post #7 · Posted at 2014-12-01 10:21:32pm 9.3 years ago

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

"I'm honestly pissed off."
One thing I don't know how to do is set up a standalone lua environment on Windows. You'll have to tackle that yourself.
(on linux, it's just a matter of installing the lua package, then running "lua some_file.lua" in a terminal to execute a lua standalone program)
Don't worry about making minor adjustments for stepmania because stepmania uses Lua 5.1 and the book is written for Lua 5.2. The list of differences that will matter (section 8.2 in the manual) is so small it can mostly be ignored. (module, setfenv, getfenv, loadstring, the package table, and bytecode verification are probably not things useful in Stepmania theming, os.execute is not available (nor is anything else in the os or io tables, Stepmania has alternatives), table.maxn doesn't have a good use case anyway, and using "unpack" instead of "table.unpack" is easy to remember (and the only one of these that has affected my theme))
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 #8 · Posted at 2014-12-05 01:19:47am 9.3 years ago

Offline Towlesy27
Towlesy27 Avatar Member
232 Posts
Canada
Reg. 2014-07-31

yeah ill experiment, and look up how to do it as well. I have different plans for this theme and I think its gonna be awesome! itll just take awhile lol
DDR is awesome! (:

Post #9 · Posted at 2014-12-05 01:12:24pm 9.3 years ago

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

I just hope it wont't happen like other casual themers where all they know is showcasing part of the new but boring updates. It's been the trend since Lirodon started. I prefer making a thread when the theme reaches about 90% progress.

Post #10 · Posted at 2014-12-06 05:09:05am 9.3 years ago

Offline Towlesy27
Towlesy27 Avatar Member
232 Posts
Canada
Reg. 2014-07-31

I do kind of agree with you razor, but I wasnt planning on updating like every 2 weeks or whatever. Just mainly at the 50-65 % mark, and a little bit before it is finished
DDR is awesome! (:
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