Beat2x Tutorial


Awesome. I've been wondering if something like this might come up.

Thanks, Miq.

Pariah B)
 
Hello beatmaniacs

I'm trying to make a pack with a song of mine in Beat2X but I got a strange bug due to my custom pack.

The hi-score table is created, I can choose between the two songpacks but when I select the difficulty the game froze.

beat2x.gpe
music.raw
README.txt

[data]
boardtext.bmp
buttonset.bmp
charselector.bmp
cleared.bmp
countdown.ogg
energybar.bmp
failed.bmp
font.bmp
gamebackground.bmp
go.ogg
intro.ogg
mainmenubackground.bmp
menubackground.bmp
messages.bmp
press.ogg
scores.dat
splash.bmp
do_not_delete.txt

[packs]
[ccMixter]
[Bbz] > Mine !
BudBurNerZ are The Leader-Synthetic.bxe > with just a sequence*
BudBurNerZ are The Leader-Synthetic.ogg > a 2 580KB Stereo 96kbps Ogg
settings.dat
songlist.bxs >with "BudBurNerZ are The Leader-Synthetic " inside of it.

* My simple sequence :
def 1 START
X 3620
Y 3861
X 4105
X 4590
X 5062
A 5538
X 6019
X 6501
X 6978
end

use 1 7465
use 1 11305
use 1 15144

I'm using Firmware 1.4.0.
The original pack is still working. Even a copy of it. But mine refuse to launch.

Any any of what I'v done wrong here ? Thanks in advance !
And congratulation for your game Miq01, you converted me to those "dance dance karpet makina" game thing :lol:
 
How about adding a record mode where you send beat2x an ogg file and tell it to record your button presses on the gp2x as the song plays and then it will just save that to a bxe file? That would be way easier.
 
@virusx
The folder structure and the file contents seem to be right. But do both 'songlist.bxs' and 'BudBurNerZ are The Leader-Synthetic.bxe' end with a line feed? If so, I'll ask you to send me your pack to check what is wrong.

@whiskthecat
I started a very basic and ugly looking editor and maybe I'll try finish it sometime, but in order to record button presses you really need to know the song very well and to press them in sync, so I don't think that's the way to go here. The perfect recorder would let you re-edit your button presses once they've been recorded for the first time with a rewind feature and such, but it's not easy to implement.

Does anyone want to start implementing it? :)
 
@miq01
I PM'd you for this. thanks !

@whiskthecat
This could be a nice feature but I like the accuracy of editing it in ms format too.
 
virusx posted on Mar 8 2006 at 04:37 PM said:
@miq01
I PM'd you for this. thanks !
Ok. After an hour of wondering why it didn't work, I found the problem and it's easy to solve.

First of all, which text editor are you using to create bxs and bxe files? And which OS? My guess is that you're using Notepad on Windows.

Depending on the OS you're using, newlines are by default represented in different ways:
- Windows: CR+LF
- Unix: LF
- Mac machines previous to OS X: CR

Beat2X expects LFs and your editor writes CR+LF instead. Same will happen if you try to write a script for GP2X from Notepad. It won't probably work because of the same reason.

So all I can do is to recommend you an editor that lets you change how newlines are represented. There's a nice one called Programmers Notepad (don't be scared about the word "Programmers" as it is a very good and simple replacement for Notepad.exe). Once installed, open both bxs and bxe files and go to Tools->Line Endings and select Unix. It will work fine on Windows, but most important, it will work fine on GP2X.

Here is a capture of Programmers Notepad showing the differences between your version and the one after converting CR+LF into LF:

Check more info about how line endings work on different systems at the Wikipedia.
 
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miq01 posted on Mar 8 2006 at 05:23 PM said:
First of all, which text editor are you using to create bxs and bxe files? And which OS? My guess is that you're using Notepad on Windows.
You're guessing well Miq01 :p

Thank you very much for taking your time to look at this problem and answering us (I mean me and the others :D )

This is clear now. I was wondering if it had nothing to do with file format.
I'm not scared of using the Programmers Notepad, just have to prepare myself to :ph34r:
:lol:
I'll update a pack of songs for Beat2X as soon as I've finished it.
Thanks again :)

EDIT : and it works now !
 
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Thanks for the tutorial guide ^_^ I just have to find time to sit down and make my own pack!

The way new lines are handled between OS's are quite a pain sometimes it seems, huh?
The way I deal with it is hex edit out the CR s after writing something in notepad... probably not the most sensible way of doing things...
 
I'm testing out just now... but intial results not amazing. I'm not sure which difficulty it converts from the DWI. It doesn't like my BPM changes or pauses... lol

I'll see what I can put together that works.

One good thing is the early DDR mixes should be easily convertible with DWI2BXE...

OMG SOLOMix songs would be ideal for the button layout of Beat2X ^____^

EDIT: Unfortunately it seems all my current, self-made DWI stepfiles, seem to be too complex for DWI2BXE to convert sucessfully. I won't be able to do an easy convert and distribute, after all. I'll see what I can do to adjust the timings, but don't hold your breath for a pack from me.
 
I'm working on it, this version took me less than a hour to make so it's not very good :/
Tomorrow i'll have time to correct the BPM change problem and the half beats, also it converts only the "BASIC" level steps, the rest is ignored.

I tried it on "Celebrate Nite (PLM)" (no BPM changes) and it works great.
On other songs, the steps get out of sync at the beginning. Sorry for the slowness...
 
Sorry, I wasn't meaning to sound unappreciative of your util. I'm glad someone has made a conversion util. I was more upset that my files were too complex and I couldn't make a pack! ;)

I think it's quite handy as it is, but obviously if you improve it to handle the advanced aspects of DWI files it will rock!

Suggestion: have a difficulty selector to choose which deifficulty to convert!
suggestion2: You should probably start a new thread for your app... as this has gone quite far off topic!
 
You didn't sound unappreciative, i'm actually happy that a so little utility is well accepted :)

Thanks for your suggestions!
Like I said, I'll create a new thread (sorry for going off-topic) and add some options tomorrow.
 
furrtek posted on Mar 8 2006 at 11:45 PM said:
You didn't sound unappreciative, i'm actually happy that a so little utility is well accepted :)

Thanks for your suggestions!
Like I said, I'll create a new thread (sorry for going off-topic) and add some options tomorrow.
Hey Furrtek, that's really cool! Thanks!

Btw, just in case anyone else finds the same problem, I've had to put VB6FR.DLL inside my Windows\system32 folder before executing it.

Haven't tried to convert any DWI yet, but I hope I can try it tomorrow.
 
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Yes, sorry for having the french vb6 runtimes in the .rar, you maybe also have to get comdlg32.ocx thought here it works without.

It's cool I can finally help a little the gp2x scene :)
:lol: for the next beat2x version!
 
Well, I used the converter for the basis of one of the songs, it was so hard, i had to tone it down a bit. Nobody i knew could beat it.
 
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