[Question] How do you use the ddr extreme 2 + revivals background animations?

Hello, just downloaded the files from the simfiles section and placed the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 and Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 Revivals folders in the BGAnimations Folder. That doesn't seem to have done the trick. What must one do to get the ddr x2 songs to play with the videos?

You have to put all of the videos in the random movies folder of stepmania. Then load up stepmania and select random movies to be played in the settings. Depend on your theme it might be under appearance or something similar. You can set it to load 1-20 movies per song.

wouldn't that cause a random video to play in the background instead of the one that corresponds with its original song?

Most of the official songs in the ZIv simfile database lack BGCHANGES scripts in their .sm, so you'll either have to make the BGCHANGES script using official gameplay footage to determine which video goes with which song, or ask a fellow member for an existing script buried within the forum.

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is there a notable reason I can't just merge the videos in with the song folders?

You have to put the videos into the corresponding song's folder one by one, and then go to edit mode and go to the beginning of the song to have the video start at that point (usually marked by a bpm change on the second measure).

I've commented on the simfiles for a couple of those songs with the BGscripts value so you can just copy paste those into the .sm file and it should work fine. Open the .sm files with Notepad to edit them.