Glass
-----------------------------
A SM 3.95 Theme (Based off of Bboy's 3.95 Mod)
-----------------------------
Credits
Before I start on about this, i'd like to give a shoutout to some people that have helped make this theme what it is. I've shamelessly stolen some of the graphics from other existing themes, but I am taking a moment here to give credit where credit is due.
Silent Button Sounds --- Xoon 2
Capsule menu music --- Xoon 2
Main Menu BG, Default BG --- Necros' SM4 Theme
Toasty, Insert Coin SFX --- GLovE
Other SFX --- Insurgency; HL2
Theme Beta/Alpha Testing --- Typh00n, Lain
Theme Commentary, Suggestions, Corrections --- Lain, GLovE, EDEdDNEdDYFaN, Sashiiiii
People encouraging me to finish this --- Everybody who commented on the original idea topic.
Shooting down my initial dream --- shakesoda
-----------------------------
Intro
This started as a basic graphical feature to show the background of files in the song selection screen, but over time, I decided to create a theme out of this after seeing some of the comments from my idea. The theme would pretty much be centered around alternating backgrounds which display the background graphics of the song (my original goal for this) while stripping down the interface so one may be able to enjoy the backgrounds of songs more, since most people here play with BG at 0% brightness, which means they do not get to enjoy the background until the end of the song in the results screen, and that is if they have editted their SM to display it.
The name Glass was derived from the look of the theme's windows, as the majority of the windows used in the theme have become transparent, which in turn lets you see through them and exposes the background more. The default theme was cluttered up with a ton of other stuff and the windows were not transparent, so the bg was nearly always covered up.
Glass aims to provide a minimalistic, but still attractive interface for players who wish to try something new from the usual default theme. Glass holds true to the default theme style in-game by leaving an unchanged interface when actually playing SM, so as to not interrupt actual gameplay; the same can be said for the song results screen as well. The basis of Glass is that it builds off of the backgrounds of the songs that you play, so a song with good graphics will lead to a better looking song selection screen, and vise-versa.
-----------------------------
Info & Features
The Glass Concept
A word of warning, this feature of the theme was the main reason the theme was made. Unfortunately, the feature was not completely implemented. The song BG being used for the background in the song selections screen has indeed been implemented, however, songs do NOT update in real time. I was never able to figure this out so I just had to leave it the way it was. The base concept however, still stands, and I am pretty satisfied with it and how it turned out, even though it could have been better. If the concept was totally completed to update in real time, this would result in major lag due to having to load individual background graphics of each song as you scroll over it, and as shakesoda mentioned, there is no cache for BGs either. The background WILL update when you either;
1. Enter Song Options from the new song you have selected.
or
2. Finish the song you have selected.
I realize that this is not what I had hoped to accomplish, but again, I am satisfied with the way it is now, and seeing the downsides to having it update in real time has swayed me to believe that this is a suitable alternative. That being said, I will now list the features of Glass as a theme.
Main Screen, Others
-- When SM is booted up, it will no longer show the "StepMania" logo, it will appear right at the main menu.
-- Button click sounds, cancel sounds, and transition sounds have been replaced with a silent, low-profile sound aside from the usual.
-- The main menu music and music that is displayed when not selecting a song, has been changed. The music is made by capsule.
-- The main BG for SM has been changed.
-- The main font used for SM has been changed to a sleeker, skinnier font.
-- The buttons on the main menu have been stripped down. Jukebox, Edit Courses, and Select Game have been removed.
-- "Rankings" and "How To Play" screens have been disabled, the main menu will no longer shift to theme after being left idle.
-- Most, if not all windows have become transparent, so you can see the background through them.
-- Most windows and highlighters/cursors have been changed to reflect a neutral rectangular transparent box.
-- There is a new arrow indicator for the Song Options and Main Options screens, it resembles a down-right gray note.
-- The bars and headers on SM have been removed.
-- When pressing "Begin", you will be directed to the Game Selection screen, since this theme does not support 2 player play, the options have been removed. Singles and Solo are now the only options available in the selection screen.
-- The "Loading . . ." box that appears when transitioning to a new screen has been replaced with a simple "Loading..." text.
Song Selection Screen
-- The Song Selection screen has been stripped down to a minimalistic setting.
-- All windows on this screen are transparent to expose the background.
-- The Difficulty Icon that indicates what difficulty you are currently on has been moved up and has been placed next to the BPM display.
-- A new font was made for song grouping feature next to the BPM display.
-- Traditional font for BPM has been kept.
-- The Groove Radar base has been removed, along with the Chaos/Voltage/etc. labels, only the pentagon exists.
-- The color of the numbers indicating record of song, total time of song, and menu timer have been changed to white. (Previously Sea Green colored for 1P.)
-- The Groove Radar is now transparent White.
-- The difficulty foot meter has been centered for 1P. It still is configured to up to 21 feet.
-- Original font has been kept for individual songs in song list, the Pack font has been changed to match the song font.
-- Song banners are now bordered with a 1px black border.
-- Player Options/Settings boxes are small, rectangular transparent boxes.
-- Original difficulty icons from Bboy's 3.95 mod have been kept.
-- Song highlight has been changed to only a white highlight, along with the song highlighted being a more broad white color.
Ingame Transition & Results
-- NEW TOASTY. See for yourself.
-- NEW Mines sound. When you hit a mine, the sound is different.
-- New insert coin sound, press F1 in Stepmania and see for yourself.
-- The "Ready?" and "Here We Go!" animations before you start the song have been eliminated, so the song itself will start a little earlier.
-- When you select a song and confirm it, the BG of the song will fade in for a bit while it loads and fade out as you transition to the gameplay screen.
-- When completing a song, the "Cleared" animation is cut, and you are directed immediately to the results screen to see your score.
-- The results screen shows the background of the song you just played, along with some minor changes to the screen.
-- The banner is now bordered by a thin 1px black border in the results screen.
-- The numbers are now white, instead of sea green.
Stepmania Online (SMO)
-- Minor corrections have been made to the SMO interface along with some graphical features too.
-- Glass song bg for background concept has been applied to SMO.
-- The difficulty meter has been corrected to the center of the screen.
-- Chat windows and Chat input windows are transparent.
-- The BPM display and Difficulty indicator icon have been centered and corrected. The are arranged below the difficulty meter.
-- The font for SMO rooms has been changed to match the songs font.
-----------------------------
Concerns: System Requirements
Since the BGs do not update in realtime, there is nearly no noticable lag that you would encounter versus just using the default theme.
Errors
The theme has been tested thoroughly for errors, but there is still one error that lingers within it to date.
This error with the theme has been known to cause "hanging" while the theme tries to transition out of the results screen, or when it tries to transition to the options screen when pressing "Scr Lock". This error has been observed to make Stepmania freeze for ~5 minutes, maybe even more, before it completely loads and transitions the next screen. I have not had many people to test this currently, and I have observed varied statistics as some people are experiencing this error, and some people are reporting that it works fine. If you experience this, please post, as I am currently looking for a way to fix this.
-----------------------------
Downloads
You can download the theme at the link below, it leads to the topic where I released it on ODI; Just throw it into your Themes folder and you can change to it from Appearance Options in SM. Be aware that this only works with SM 3.95, and only supports 1P play!
Mirrors are welcome but not necessary.
-------------------------------------------------
Hopefully people can enjoy and use this theme as their default.
- nick
Screenshots:
-----------------------------
A SM 3.95 Theme (Based off of Bboy's 3.95 Mod)
-----------------------------
Credits
Before I start on about this, i'd like to give a shoutout to some people that have helped make this theme what it is. I've shamelessly stolen some of the graphics from other existing themes, but I am taking a moment here to give credit where credit is due.
Silent Button Sounds --- Xoon 2
Capsule menu music --- Xoon 2
Main Menu BG, Default BG --- Necros' SM4 Theme
Toasty, Insert Coin SFX --- GLovE
Other SFX --- Insurgency; HL2
Theme Beta/Alpha Testing --- Typh00n, Lain
Theme Commentary, Suggestions, Corrections --- Lain, GLovE, EDEdDNEdDYFaN, Sashiiiii
People encouraging me to finish this --- Everybody who commented on the original idea topic.
Shooting down my initial dream --- shakesoda
-----------------------------
Intro
This started as a basic graphical feature to show the background of files in the song selection screen, but over time, I decided to create a theme out of this after seeing some of the comments from my idea. The theme would pretty much be centered around alternating backgrounds which display the background graphics of the song (my original goal for this) while stripping down the interface so one may be able to enjoy the backgrounds of songs more, since most people here play with BG at 0% brightness, which means they do not get to enjoy the background until the end of the song in the results screen, and that is if they have editted their SM to display it.
The name Glass was derived from the look of the theme's windows, as the majority of the windows used in the theme have become transparent, which in turn lets you see through them and exposes the background more. The default theme was cluttered up with a ton of other stuff and the windows were not transparent, so the bg was nearly always covered up.
Glass aims to provide a minimalistic, but still attractive interface for players who wish to try something new from the usual default theme. Glass holds true to the default theme style in-game by leaving an unchanged interface when actually playing SM, so as to not interrupt actual gameplay; the same can be said for the song results screen as well. The basis of Glass is that it builds off of the backgrounds of the songs that you play, so a song with good graphics will lead to a better looking song selection screen, and vise-versa.
-----------------------------
Info & Features
The Glass Concept
A word of warning, this feature of the theme was the main reason the theme was made. Unfortunately, the feature was not completely implemented. The song BG being used for the background in the song selections screen has indeed been implemented, however, songs do NOT update in real time. I was never able to figure this out so I just had to leave it the way it was. The base concept however, still stands, and I am pretty satisfied with it and how it turned out, even though it could have been better. If the concept was totally completed to update in real time, this would result in major lag due to having to load individual background graphics of each song as you scroll over it, and as shakesoda mentioned, there is no cache for BGs either. The background WILL update when you either;
1. Enter Song Options from the new song you have selected.
or
2. Finish the song you have selected.
I realize that this is not what I had hoped to accomplish, but again, I am satisfied with the way it is now, and seeing the downsides to having it update in real time has swayed me to believe that this is a suitable alternative. That being said, I will now list the features of Glass as a theme.
Main Screen, Others
-- When SM is booted up, it will no longer show the "StepMania" logo, it will appear right at the main menu.
-- Button click sounds, cancel sounds, and transition sounds have been replaced with a silent, low-profile sound aside from the usual.
-- The main menu music and music that is displayed when not selecting a song, has been changed. The music is made by capsule.
-- The main BG for SM has been changed.
-- The main font used for SM has been changed to a sleeker, skinnier font.
-- The buttons on the main menu have been stripped down. Jukebox, Edit Courses, and Select Game have been removed.
-- "Rankings" and "How To Play" screens have been disabled, the main menu will no longer shift to theme after being left idle.
-- Most, if not all windows have become transparent, so you can see the background through them.
-- Most windows and highlighters/cursors have been changed to reflect a neutral rectangular transparent box.
-- There is a new arrow indicator for the Song Options and Main Options screens, it resembles a down-right gray note.
-- The bars and headers on SM have been removed.
-- When pressing "Begin", you will be directed to the Game Selection screen, since this theme does not support 2 player play, the options have been removed. Singles and Solo are now the only options available in the selection screen.
-- The "Loading . . ." box that appears when transitioning to a new screen has been replaced with a simple "Loading..." text.
Song Selection Screen
-- The Song Selection screen has been stripped down to a minimalistic setting.
-- All windows on this screen are transparent to expose the background.
-- The Difficulty Icon that indicates what difficulty you are currently on has been moved up and has been placed next to the BPM display.
-- A new font was made for song grouping feature next to the BPM display.
-- Traditional font for BPM has been kept.
-- The Groove Radar base has been removed, along with the Chaos/Voltage/etc. labels, only the pentagon exists.
-- The color of the numbers indicating record of song, total time of song, and menu timer have been changed to white. (Previously Sea Green colored for 1P.)
-- The Groove Radar is now transparent White.
-- The difficulty foot meter has been centered for 1P. It still is configured to up to 21 feet.
-- Original font has been kept for individual songs in song list, the Pack font has been changed to match the song font.
-- Song banners are now bordered with a 1px black border.
-- Player Options/Settings boxes are small, rectangular transparent boxes.
-- Original difficulty icons from Bboy's 3.95 mod have been kept.
-- Song highlight has been changed to only a white highlight, along with the song highlighted being a more broad white color.
Ingame Transition & Results
-- NEW TOASTY. See for yourself.
-- NEW Mines sound. When you hit a mine, the sound is different.
-- New insert coin sound, press F1 in Stepmania and see for yourself.
-- The "Ready?" and "Here We Go!" animations before you start the song have been eliminated, so the song itself will start a little earlier.
-- When you select a song and confirm it, the BG of the song will fade in for a bit while it loads and fade out as you transition to the gameplay screen.
-- When completing a song, the "Cleared" animation is cut, and you are directed immediately to the results screen to see your score.
-- The results screen shows the background of the song you just played, along with some minor changes to the screen.
-- The banner is now bordered by a thin 1px black border in the results screen.
-- The numbers are now white, instead of sea green.
Stepmania Online (SMO)
-- Minor corrections have been made to the SMO interface along with some graphical features too.
-- Glass song bg for background concept has been applied to SMO.
-- The difficulty meter has been corrected to the center of the screen.
-- Chat windows and Chat input windows are transparent.
-- The BPM display and Difficulty indicator icon have been centered and corrected. The are arranged below the difficulty meter.
-- The font for SMO rooms has been changed to match the songs font.
-----------------------------
Concerns: System Requirements
Since the BGs do not update in realtime, there is nearly no noticable lag that you would encounter versus just using the default theme.
Errors
The theme has been tested thoroughly for errors, but there is still one error that lingers within it to date.
This error with the theme has been known to cause "hanging" while the theme tries to transition out of the results screen, or when it tries to transition to the options screen when pressing "Scr Lock". This error has been observed to make Stepmania freeze for ~5 minutes, maybe even more, before it completely loads and transitions the next screen. I have not had many people to test this currently, and I have observed varied statistics as some people are experiencing this error, and some people are reporting that it works fine. If you experience this, please post, as I am currently looking for a way to fix this.
-----------------------------
Downloads
You can download the theme at the link below, it leads to the topic where I released it on ODI; Just throw it into your Themes folder and you can change to it from Appearance Options in SM. Be aware that this only works with SM 3.95, and only supports 1P play!
Mirrors are welcome but not necessary.
-------------------------------------------------
Hopefully people can enjoy and use this theme as their default.
- nick
Screenshots:
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