FFR is divided up into 30 frames per second, and every note in every song in the game is rounded to the nearest frame. You have 6 frames to hit a note, like this:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
{Good-miss*} (late)
*I don't really count a good miss as hitting a note, since it will still break your combo, so try not to hit notes late enough that this happens.
Now, let's say there is a minijack, so two notes are really close together. If they are 6 or more frames apart, their timing windows do not overlap at all. If they are 5 frames apart, then it's like this. [Note1] [Note2]
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[[Good*]] / [Average]
[[Average*]] / [Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
{Good-miss} (late)
*If you hit the first note too late, you will hit part of the timing window of the next note, which is covering up the part of the timing window of the first note that I colored red. Even after hitting the second note, you can still potentially hit part of the timing window of the second note, but you will still get a miss on the first note when this happens. Also, where good-miss would normally be will give you an average instead if you've already hit the next note.
Now, one more frame of the first note's timing window is blocked for every frame closer the two notes are. So, if the notes are 4 frames apart, you are reduced to this:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[[Perfect]] / [Average]
[[Good]] / [Good]
[[Average]] / [Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
This makes things even worse, since you're reduced to only 2 frames to get a perfect on the first note, so many players will try to hit jacks early to avoid hitting the second note and breaking their combo.
If you thought that was bad, it gets worse. When two notes are only Three frames apart, you are reduced to only one frame for a perfect, like so:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[[Perfect]] / [Average]
[[Perfect]] / [Good]
[[Good]] / [Perfect]
[[Average]] / [Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
It gets even worse than that. Any song that has 2 frame jacks is not AAAable, since the entire timing window to get a perfect on the first note is covered up by the second note, like so:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[[Perfect]] / [Average]
[[Perfect]] / [Good]
[[Perfect]] / [Perfect]
[[Good]] / [Perfect]
[[Average]] / [Perfect]
[Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
There is currently only one song with 1 framers, the dreaded crowdpleaser. Any 1 frame jacks are so hard that you only have 1 frame to hit them and keep your combo, and you have to hit them way early and get an average to do so. The wicked timing window of 1 framers looks like this:
[Average] (early)
[[Good]] / [Average]
[[Perfect]] / [Good]
[[Perfect]] / [Perfect]
[[Perfect]] / [Perfect]
[[Good]] / [Perfect]
[[Average]] / [Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
Now, there's still a couple more things. If there are too notes so close together that they are in the same frame, then it seems like a bug. It is then impossible to combo, even though you can hit what looks like one note twice, and get points and combo for both, but it will still give you a miss for it afterwards. This is currently only in the buggy level known as Chrono Trigger.
Finally, if there are patterns like the jacks in AIM Anthem, or the trills in FotBB, it gets to where each note covers up some of the timing window of the previous note, so it allows for a lot less time to keep your combo going on each note, and potentially very few frames to get a perfect on each note, making songs like AIM Anthem extremely hard to AAA.
Edit: Here is some more interesting stuff just in case someone asks:
Q: Why can't you add up the number of perfects, goods, averages and misses when you play through an entire song to get its number of notes?
A: You can get get good-misses, or the kind of misses where you hit the second note of a jack, then hit the first, and still get a miss on the first. Either one will make the total not add up to the number of notes.
Q: How fast must a note be in order to not be AAAable?
A: Q: Which songs can't be AAA'd? How what's the best possible score on them?
A: All of that can be found here: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=34509
Q: Are there any songs with, say, 1 frame jacks that you can get a higher score on in any way other than getting an average on the first note, then hitting the second one?
A: I believe this is only true on songs that have 1 frame jacks at the very end of the song, which there are none of currently. Synesthetic used to be this way, but it was changed because of this.
Q: Is there any difference between the timing window in single player, compared to multiplayer?
A:
Questions? Comments? Screw-ups or ways I can improve this? All is welcome.
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
{Good-miss*} (late)
*I don't really count a good miss as hitting a note, since it will still break your combo, so try not to hit notes late enough that this happens.
Now, let's say there is a minijack, so two notes are really close together. If they are 6 or more frames apart, their timing windows do not overlap at all. If they are 5 frames apart, then it's like this. [Note1] [Note2]
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[[Good*]] / [Average]
[[Average*]] / [Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
{Good-miss} (late)
*If you hit the first note too late, you will hit part of the timing window of the next note, which is covering up the part of the timing window of the first note that I colored red. Even after hitting the second note, you can still potentially hit part of the timing window of the second note, but you will still get a miss on the first note when this happens. Also, where good-miss would normally be will give you an average instead if you've already hit the next note.
Now, one more frame of the first note's timing window is blocked for every frame closer the two notes are. So, if the notes are 4 frames apart, you are reduced to this:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[[Perfect]] / [Average]
[[Good]] / [Good]
[[Average]] / [Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
This makes things even worse, since you're reduced to only 2 frames to get a perfect on the first note, so many players will try to hit jacks early to avoid hitting the second note and breaking their combo.
If you thought that was bad, it gets worse. When two notes are only Three frames apart, you are reduced to only one frame for a perfect, like so:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[Perfect]
[[Perfect]] / [Average]
[[Perfect]] / [Good]
[[Good]] / [Perfect]
[[Average]] / [Perfect]
[Perfect]
[Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
It gets even worse than that. Any song that has 2 frame jacks is not AAAable, since the entire timing window to get a perfect on the first note is covered up by the second note, like so:
[Average] (early)
[Good]
[[Perfect]] / [Average]
[[Perfect]] / [Good]
[[Perfect]] / [Perfect]
[[Good]] / [Perfect]
[[Average]] / [Perfect]
[Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
There is currently only one song with 1 framers, the dreaded crowdpleaser. Any 1 frame jacks are so hard that you only have 1 frame to hit them and keep your combo, and you have to hit them way early and get an average to do so. The wicked timing window of 1 framers looks like this:
[Average] (early)
[[Good]] / [Average]
[[Perfect]] / [Good]
[[Perfect]] / [Perfect]
[[Perfect]] / [Perfect]
[[Good]] / [Perfect]
[[Average]] / [Good]
[Good-miss] (late)
Now, there's still a couple more things. If there are too notes so close together that they are in the same frame, then it seems like a bug. It is then impossible to combo, even though you can hit what looks like one note twice, and get points and combo for both, but it will still give you a miss for it afterwards. This is currently only in the buggy level known as Chrono Trigger.
Finally, if there are patterns like the jacks in AIM Anthem, or the trills in FotBB, it gets to where each note covers up some of the timing window of the previous note, so it allows for a lot less time to keep your combo going on each note, and potentially very few frames to get a perfect on each note, making songs like AIM Anthem extremely hard to AAA.
Edit: Here is some more interesting stuff just in case someone asks:
Q: Why can't you add up the number of perfects, goods, averages and misses when you play through an entire song to get its number of notes?
A: You can get get good-misses, or the kind of misses where you hit the second note of a jack, then hit the first, and still get a miss on the first. Either one will make the total not add up to the number of notes.
Q: How fast must a note be in order to not be AAAable?
A: Q: Which songs can't be AAA'd? How what's the best possible score on them?
A: All of that can be found here: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...ad.php?t=34509
Q: Are there any songs with, say, 1 frame jacks that you can get a higher score on in any way other than getting an average on the first note, then hitting the second one?
A: I believe this is only true on songs that have 1 frame jacks at the very end of the song, which there are none of currently. Synesthetic used to be this way, but it was changed because of this.
Q: Is there any difference between the timing window in single player, compared to multiplayer?
A:
Questions? Comments? Screw-ups or ways I can improve this? All is welcome.
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