Stepmania 4 is the (not so) brand new installment of Stepmania. Its development is ongoing, but has been so for a a few years thus the current version is perfectly playable. Right now I am playing with Stepmania 4 alpha 4, and I am happy with it. I will not do a complete review of Stepmania 4, a lot of things are the same as in 3.9. Report to Stepmania page for the details, I will focus on the differences between 3.9 and 4.
The link to download Stepmania 4 is http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/StepMania_4.0. You are given the choice between alpha 4 and an intermediate release which is a little dated. Features are, I guess, more complete in the alpha 4 while the intermediate release should be more stable. I have been playing the intermediate release for a while, without any trouble, and
I have just switched to the alpha4.
To begin with, the new start screen. Stepmania 4 comes with big design change as you can see.
This picture is from the so called "last intermediate release". There has been another huge design change with the alpha 4, look !
Basically the options are the same as in 3.9, thus I do not go back on this. On the other hand keyboards shortcuts have been modified, press F3 to display them.
F8 to F12 are still used to adjust the gap and the bpm of the song. Finally, just as 3.9, there is an advanced setting tool you can launch from the start menu of Windows, or from Stepmania's sub folder Program. The name of this tool is Smpackage.exe and Tools.exe in the alpha 4. Its main utility is to open the .ini configuration file.
This works just as in 3.9, you must put the files in the subfolder Songs. The configuration file Stepmania.ini is replaced by preferences.ini, and this file is very well hidden in : C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\StepMania 4/Save. Beware that Application Data is an hidden folder in Windows. In this file you can fill "Additional Song Folders" in order to load songs from, for instance, Stepmania 3.9 Songs folder.
While the song selection of the intermediate release is very similar to 3.9, the alpha4 looks quite different. There is as a whole the same information but not at the same place. Compared to 3.9 you get more information about the selected song. Kanjis for difficulty levels have vanished on favor of plain letters. The number of feet is given numerically, 5 in the picture below. You still have to press up-up or down-down to change difficulty, and the special option screen is still there too. First picture is intermediate release, second is alpha4.
The design of the main game screen has also changed a bit compared to 3.9. Note that the arrows change colors if they are in half or quarter time. This was the case in Stepmania 3.9 if you switch note skin to note in the option, now this is default. n the first picture the blue arrow is in half time. Apart from this you will feel at home.perfect
grade has transformed to excellent and marvelous tofantastic!, but this is minor change.
One little bad point, the combo indicator is smaller and hidden behind the arrows, making it much less readable.
Assist ticks are still available with F7.
Big news with Stepmania 4, network play is implemented in the official software. No more tweaked version from stepmaniaonline, you find directly the network mode in the title screen.
I tried to review this network mode and could not do it. I found no way to create a server, thus I guess only online play via stepmania online is available. If this the case, it sucks.
if you know something about this, send me a mail please !
