When's BM6?

[ranatalus]

arise from your grave

[BLueSS]

arise from your grave

What is the status of Simfile making these days? I've been pretty much removed and preoccupied with life since BM5 ended.

[Valex]

arise from your grave

What is the status of Simfile making these days? I've been pretty much removed and preoccupied with life since BM5 ended.

I don't really know what's going on with DDR-style stuff, I think Zenius-I-Vanisher is the home for that now?

For ITG stuff most if not all discussion is found on Facebook, particularly the Simfile Showcase FB group

(If you're curious, I'm here because someone on FB asked me how long I've been stepping and this gave me some dates to go off of lol)

[t7r]

Surprised to see a new post in the latter half of the 2010's let alone 2020

Now that 2020 is nearing a close, the ZIv contests lately tend to have ITG-style charts dominate the competition where it is legal to enter both ITG and DDR chart styles.

We could use more BM that separates ITG and DDR lmao

[chewiiii]

Classic DDR style is mostly dead. :(

[Oni-91]

arise from your grave

The machine in Nottingham, UK that you had the EuroMix 2 Hard 2 course record on has sadly been removed. I figured that you'd best know.

But yeah, BM6 sounds like it'd be a great idea.

[BLueSS]

For anyone trying to post the last month or so, my webhost updated PHP breaking the login.
It's working again!

If we really want to make this happen, I'm going to need all of your help.
I'm really just diving back into DDR after 3 kids, a house, career, yard work, etc...

Forums are dead, and rarely get used anymore as they're not mobile friendly.
Do we continue to use some forum (here or ZiV?), or something like a 'live' Discord hybrid?

Do we focus on DDR only, since ZiV seems to have ITG popularity handled?
What version of Stepmania is everyone using these days, or does it matter anymore?

Would we submit simfile artwork designed for "PRE-DDR A" or DDR-A style? (Not sure if the artwork dimensions are different, but they seem to be?)

If you guys want BM6 to happen, please help say what should it be!

[t7r]

Would absolutely love BM6 to actually happen if there is enough demand.
If so I guess Discord would be the way to go in 2020...

There is (surprisingly) a DDR-exclusive ZIv contest ongoing now though so I’m thinking if this were to happen maybe 2021-ish?

EDIT: Oh yeah and new user registrations are still closed? I think there may be a few new simfile authors interested.

[ranatalus]

arise from your grave

The machine in Nottingham, UK that you had the EuroMix 2 Hard 2 course record on has sadly been removed. I figured that you'd best know.

But yeah, BM6 sounds like it'd be a great idea.

this is a crime against humanity

i miss nottingham

[Lisek]

Heh, I have been checking this forums earlier this year but wasn't sure if I want to post or not.

Both discord and forums are okay option. It feels really old school to write on phpBB again :) If discord certainly new one - not shared with other groups.

I would be all for contest with old style being the focus.
So basically difficulties 1-10 for DDR, 1-13 for ITG. None of this weird diff 20 nonsense by Konami.

I wonder. Personally I use 5.0.11 (with slight personal modifications), last one in main branch was 5.0.12 I think. There is defunct 5.1, there is some weird 5.1-2. There is 5.3. Some people are still on 3.9 (!!), some people on notITG. Eterna is a thing? I'm pretty sure that 3.9+, 3.95, cvs, aldo sm, openITG and Online are dead for most of pad players.

min. 512x160 bn, 512x512 jacket, 720p+ background (we have era of 4k, 320x240 backgrounds won't be enough anymore :D). Audio in OGG/MP3 as always (192kbps+ or equiv in var?), video in AVI (once again, 720+?). Basically - don't save space on files, make them quality instead.

Requirement for 3-5 diffulties, altough I would strongly suggest 4 minimum - beginner files don't take that long to make you lazy butts <_< (ziv contests are allowing single diff files now -shrug-).

Not sure about public votes/reviews. Stuff on ZiV went circlejerk way and before they changed system a lot of people tinkered with votes to shuffle around scores.

[cpubasic13]

Huh, I checked my spam and saw this. What a time capsule, eh?

Do we continue to use some forum (here or ZiV?), or something like a 'live' Discord hybrid?

Both can work. ZIv probably has the userbase for it, and as long as there is a given timeframe for things it could work out.
I'm not sure how Discord would work.

Do we focus on DDR only, since ZiV seems to have ITG popularity handled?

There is so little difference between DDR and ITG at this point I think it's irrelevant to even separate them. Modern day DDR has some charts that are harder than some ITG Experts, and many of its Basic/Difficult charts are more reminiscent of older Heavy charts while the Expert is something else. ITG has also kind of went from "Just harder stuff" to being things like stamina charts and very very technical charts, as well as stuff that is "more traditional." It's hard to really state what is and isn't "ITG" anymore.
And ZIv has a combination of contributors. Some do DDR, some ITG, some... whatever else they want. The contests have been a combination of all and has been fine until this year possibly more due to how many people were trying to compete every week. There were some questionable decisions that led to drama (surprise, that still happens).
(Nobody was tinkering votes, by the way. Certain users voted for others based entirely on the style of simfile they contributed and somehow that was seen as manipulating votes.)

What version of Stepmania is everyone using these days, or does it matter anymore?

Usually SM5 is all you need in this day. I think any version works, as none of the updates completely break stuff on the chart side. This includes warps and stuff. I think the only thing affected might be visuals if you use Lua but I have nothing to really test that out.
This is coming from someone that has been using SM5 since it was called sm-ssc, which I think I used when I made stuff here...

Would we submit simfile artwork designed for "PRE-DDR A" or DDR-A style? (Not sure if the artwork dimensions are different, but they seem to be?)

The real differences are widescreen backgrounds and the inclusion of jackets. Jackets are a completely different file, so banners and backgrounds can be consistent. SM5 themes even adjust anything if something is missing or not sized like everything else.

This kind of shows it off. The simfiles on the left don't have jackets so it just pulls from the background (a setting I chose for this theme, it can be set to banners too).
This works with backgrounds too. Setting a widescreen background when you play 640x480 can be set as fitting to the screen or being cropped, and smaller backgrounds can be stretched, centered, or filled on higher resolutions.

Although I'm of the mindset of not caring about graphics just because it's just a thing to gatekeep more than anything. The less restricting the better, really. This includes chart styles.

I'm just for "let people make the charts they want" more than anything. Times have changed, and I'd rather have some cool creative charts than something that restricts itself based on an already existing game from over a decade ago. I know I'm probably one of two people that think this way, so it is whatever. I just do whatever I feel like, to be honest.

[MixMasterLar]

Saw the email, decided to check in. I'm pretty removed from every dance community these days with the exception of FFR and they haven't been a DDR forum in decades.

I work in a few hours and need to sleep but thought I'd say hey. I'll back the SM5 recommendation and if we do BM6 I'm all in to do something oldschool.

On the issue of forums, I'm fine using these but Discord is the new hotness and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to move it. I just also like pretending it's 2008 sometimes.

[Hainaut]

I have to be brutally honest, I tried getting back into simfile contests last year with a Z-i-V summer contest, and it went so badly that it kind of killed my remaining nostalgia for Dance Dance Revolution. I got last place in my bracket after previously doing generally well in step contests here and on DDREvolved. I also strongly disagreed with the rest of the results.

It felt like the general philosophy of what made good step charts had changed dramatically. People had a preference for more difficult and complicated charts, often with much heavier use of double-steps and step-jumps than I was used to. Simfiles that traditionally would have been considered amateur outmatched my file, which I put meticulous effort into but just not in the right style.

I felt really old, out of place, and unwelcome. I wasn't exactly gracious in defeat and got flack for it, but considering how much a part of me simfile contests used to be, I really couldn't help myself. I almost tried again this past summer, but the ugly feeling hadn't shaken off yet and I just didn't feel any attachment.

If Best-Mix #6 is happening, then sign me up. I've hated the bitter aftertaste from my bad experience last year and want to mend my relationship with simfiles again. Best-Mix was a delightful event that I would always look forward to, and another go in a more familiar setting, I'm hoping, will restore the warmness that this part of my life always brought me.

[forcednature]

As someone who has never participated in a BEST-mix but always has wanted to, I would be very interested to do so if BM6 would happen!

[t7r]

If this gains any traction I could add some color/additional designs.