[SM 5.1-new / OutFox LTS and Alpha V] DDR A3 / DDR WORLD Theme.

Hello everyone. I took the theme as a base and made several modifications that you can see in the video. I’m not an expert in theming, but I’m pretty good with Antigravity and Claude haha. Thanks to that, I was able to implement things I never thought I’d be capable of doing.

First of all, I want to clarify that this modification was made with the goal of adding new features and improving the experience, not recreating the arcade flow 100%.

I removed the language selector and added a profile selector instead, since you can now level up and rank up. I also added folders or “channels” similar to DDR World: you select a folder and the game only shows songs from that category. As you add more folders inside the Songs directory, they get added automatically. Each folder can also have its own `description.txt` file for descriptions, and you can add a custom banner as well.

I tried to make the difficulty display somewhat similar to the original one, although I still think it needs more design work. Once I learn more about how to customize that part, I think I’ll be able to make it look almost identical.

Below the difficulty section, I added a progress box/bar. That was completely my own idea; I like the feeling of leveling up and progressing. There’s even a notification when you level up, and honestly, it feels really rewarding.

I hope to keep adding more features. The theme I used has a really solid foundation, so thank you very much for sharing it. Once I finish my version and make sure everything is stable, I’ll share it too. I also have other ideas that are not directly inspired by World but could make the gameplay experience much richer and more enjoyable.

Also, if anyone has ideas for new features or knows what could be modified to add something interesting, feel free to leave it in the comments. I’ll try to implement it with Claude if possible.

And don't forget of the FLARE GAUGE LEVELs system.

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You vibe coded?

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Yes, I have some idea of ​​how Stepmania and .lua files work, but I never really understood them completely. I think it's important to understand how they work a little in order to give Claude a good instruction. I hope it's not a problem; I'm just trying to contribute.

First of all, thanks so much to Curilang for this theme, I've been using it nonstop for years.

I am working on porting over some features to bring it in line with official 20240402. My goal is to merge the fork, but it's still pretty buggy right now.

Download
- https://github.com/broidmode/DDR-A3-THEME/tree/feature/A3-final
- Make sure you're on branch A3-final
- No release yet, will be actively making changes
- Use stepmania or itgmania. Bunch of graphics are broken on Outfox, probably gonna take me forever to debug that environment

Changelog
- Flare gauges: Flare I-EX, Floating Flare, badges on song select showing flare gauge completed
- Level folders: Press MenuLeft+MenuRight to switch between category folders and level folders. Level folders include songs from different difficulties
- QoL menu: Rebuilt the song select screen, new scripting lets it sort by Romaji/DDR A3/DDR WORLD style, add Romaji titles over Japanese. BPM displays Minimum - Median - Maximum to make it easier to tell apart soflan
- Judgement timing adjustments: Like Simply Love, the theme forces timing to be A3 arcade accurate. This includes smaller shock arrow windows in A3/WORLD (WORLD songs seem designed around these). Compatible with Simply Love, so you can switch back and forth between the themes and get DDR/ITG judgements quickly.
- Accurate arcade scores: DDR and stepmania scoring is different, had to use custom scripting, very close to arcade now, combos are correct


Screenshots

Well done on all this stuff, broidmode.

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Wow, that's some real dedication to making A3 even better.
You even fixed the music wheel!

Can I implement your fixes into my fork which is even more AC accurate?

Now try it in DDR WORLD theme, please.

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Of course, feel free to use any part of the implementation. If you are editing the stepmania code itself, it may be easier to refactor the wheel there directly.

I usually implement things in Lua, unless it's engine limitations that can't be bypassed with them, then I turn to editing C++.

Great theme. Really keeps the actual A3 AC style.

While the latest version is good, there are a few things that I wish they return - just my opinions.

The noteskins options is not avaliable in 3.0, which troubled me at first.
This is maybe just me only, but some scores don't save in my SM program. I used the same program since old version, but when it comes to latest, some charts do not appear unless I restart that song in the next stage.

If you need proof, let me know so you can try to check it and refix if you can.

Other than that, best theme to go. 10 out of 10.

This new fork of the A3 theme looks quite promising with the FLARE GAUGE and expanded BPM display in the options! I still have a couple of issues, nitpicks, and suggestions with all variations of the theme so far:

1. Why are we still using the Impact font for the theme? IIRC DDR A3 officially uses Helvetica Compressed for mosts of its graphics and UI (no Impact font to be seen anywhere), and Impact might look similar, but it's also too different (notably with the numbers and capital letters). Also, the DFGHSGothic font should be used for the BPM display numbers on the song select screen (already used in piotr's fork).
2. Curilang's theme currently still lacks the 000-999 random BPM animation that piotr's fork of the theme has (after I specifically requested it). This random BPM animation is used for EXTRA EXCLUSIVE songs or any song with "#DISPLAYBPM:*;" in their .sm/.ssc file.
3. The BPM display should also change depending on the chart if Split Timing is present (e.g. when selecting Monsters Den, BPM should be shown as 160 for / or 80~160 if // are selected). This behavior is seen only in DDR WORLD but I would still be happy to see it backported to this theme as a QoL feature regardless.
4. The READY-HERE WE GO animation timings are not consistent with Split Timing songs or other songs that are officially scripted to have the "HERE WE GO" message pop up at a different time from the usual behavior (e.g. 鳳, Superior MAXXX Challenge, DDR TAGMIX -LAST DanceR-, and Over The “Period” showing "HERE WE GO" just 0.5 beat before the first note). AFAIK this might require a modification of the XX Gameplay.lua file to also account for specifically defined special cases like the aforementioned songs and charts.
5. I know that DDR A3 only supports up to Kaiden/Grand Master (皆伝) for the Dan rank, but it would be nice to add the new Dan ranks from DDR WORLD, namely Chuuden/Master (中伝), Okuden/Secret Master (奥伝), Ashiryu/Step Dragon (足龍), Ashikami/Step Legend (足神), and Shin Ashikami/True Step Legend (真足神). Fun fact: some of these rank titles were previously used for the MY GROOVE RADAR feature that was last seen in DDR 2014.
6. (DanceStages add-on only) Having the different Rinons be automatically selected as the main background dancer during the Replicant D-action or Replicant D-ignition songs is quite inaccurate with regards to the songs themselves when played outside of their respective events. DDR MEGAMIX also should not automatically select Afro's DDR 1st model as the dancer, as this behavior is never used in official DDR. The only official songs that automatically select a specific character outside of those with special choregraphies are HOW TO PLAY (selects X Afro/Disco) and Yuni's Nocturnal Days (selects X2 Yuni).
7. (DanceStages add-on only) The dance stage and character slow-motion behavior during stops only works on Song Timing and not Split Timing. In official DDR, this behavior works on songs with Split Timing. In the case of Versus mode with two players, one each on a different difficulty (e.g. CHAOS Terror-Tech Mix, with 1P and 2P on and , respectively), the slow-motion behavior follows the higher difficulty (i.e. the slow-motions are synced with the charts' stops rather than -'s stops).
8. (DanceStages add-on only) Would be nice to have the DanceStages work properly with Course Mode if that hasn't been implemented already, with the character cut-ins working similarly to DDR SuperNOVA2-X3 where the "50%/90%" cut-ins don't show up at all.

And one more small thing, the "－" character used in the title of the song Junpaku rejiendo -fuyu- (純白レジエンド －冬－) does not show up properly in-game when this theme is used, only showing up as a "(?)".