About
This is the v4.5 release of Simply Love for StepMania 5. It includes a few new features and bug fixes.
Please note that this release of Simply Love requires StepMania 5.0.12 (or a custom build from StepMania's 5_1-new branch) to function properly. Older versions of SM5 are not supported. SM5.2 is not supported.
New Features
Optional Grades in MusicWheelItems
This feature was requested a number of times over the years by a number of users and GitHub user @dougshell was kind enough to do most of the work to make it happen.
This feature is disabled by default, but you can enable it under Simply Love Options in your operator menu. It is additionally worth noting that grades are only displayed when a profile (either local or USB stick) is in use. Grades for machine high scores are not displayed because that wouldn't make sense in the context of a public arcade machine.
Show Session Time in SelectMusic Header In Event Mode
Several people requested a quick way of gauging how long they'd been playing in Event Mode as part of their workout/exercise routine. This release adds a timer that counts up into the header of ScreenSelectMusic if Event Mode is enabled.
It is a general timer in that it includes time spent picking a song on ScreenSelectMusic, choosing mods in ScreenPlayerOptions, playing in ScreenGameplay, and basking in success/failure on ScreenEvaluation. This is in contrast to the time that appears on ScreenGameover, which only factors in time spent in Gameplay.
Bug Fixes
Chart Parser Fixes
GitHub user @Kauhsa fixed an issue with the chart parser that stemmed from charts that contained measures that were 0 seconds in duration. These can occur due to negative BPMs, negative Stops, and warps. See pull request #79 for more info.
Additionally, the chart parser should no longer completely break down when a simfile directory only contains a .dwi file (no .ssc, no .sm). .dwi files will not be parsed, but at least they won't cause the entire UI to break.
If you have a simfile (like the original Vertex Beta, apparently) that only contains a .dwi file, you can generate an .ssc file that will be properly parsed for the MeasureCounter and NPS Density Histogram by opening the file in SM5's editor and saving it.
Continuing Shouldn't Be Possible Outside Pay Mode
I discovered that Freeplay and Home mode (with Event Mode disabled) always branched to ScreenPlayAgain (the "Continue?" screen) after the last song of a set had been played.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about this at first, but realized that the continue system checks credits remaining, and that credits don't have any meaningful context in Freeplay and Home mode. Thus, I opted to specifically check for Freeplay/Home mode and handle their branching differently than Pay mode.
No one has mentioned this as a bug to date, but it's probably better this way. Probably.
Gameover's "Time Spent This Game" Now Displays Hours
I saw someone share a screencap of ScreenGameover because he was proud of the total time he'd played that session – "202min. 53sec." I paused for a moment to mentally calculate how many hours that was and immediately understood that the UI could be improved. I didn't anticipate people regularly playing for > 60 minutes!
Thus, this release adds a calculation for hours to ScreenGameover. It doesn't appear if the session was < 60 minutes.
Smaller Fixes
GitHub user @ianklatzco fixed some kerning issues with MenuButton fonts. See pull request #85 for more info.
GitHub user @andrewipark fixed a sizing inconsistency with the text in SelectMusic's header. See pull request #83 for more info.
@andrewipark also added a drop-shadow to the subtractive scoring text so that it would be more legible for players who aren't using a ScreenFilter but are using SubtractiveScoring.
The README that accompanies this project has been updated to provide more helpful links to those just getting starting with StepMania, and also more thoroughly document what this theme does and does not do.
Misc. Cleanup
As usual, several files have been cleaned up and more comments have been added.
Change Summary
For a full summary of changes between v4.4 and v4.5, check GitHub's comparison of the two.