Hi, folks.

I'll be using this thread to maintain the latest versions of EOF in one place. To start, download and extract EOF 1.8RC13:
https://ignition4.customsforge.com/eof

You can keep that zip file handy to avoid downloading it more than once. When I release a new hotfix, all you have to do is replace the files from the above zip file with the ones from the hotfix.  The latest hotfixes get posted in the same place:
https://ignition4.customsforge.com/eof

*If you use a non QWERTY US English keyboard layout, and keyboard controls/shortcuts aren't working for you, please make a post describing what keyboard shortcuts aren't working, and what the Info panel says the "CODE" and "ASCII" values are after you use each of the keyboard controls in question.

I used to make Mac releases, but Apple dropped support for 32 bit applications so the user base dwindled away and I can't port the entire application to 64 bit at this time.  The latest Mac build (2-7-2025) is here:
https://ignition4.customsforge.com/eof/download/17
Unless you have oggenc and LAME installed (these don't come with the Mac build for licensing reasons), you won't be able to have EOF automatically convert from MP3 to OGG when you create a new chart. If you have trouble getting those set up on your system, here is a package that should get them installed and usable by EOF:
http://www.t3-i.com/apps/eof/downloads/eof_utilities.pkg

Please provide any and all feedback, including bugs and feature requests. If possible, also please review the included documentation (manual, tutorials) and let me know if you find any room for improvement there. Eventually I plan to add a Rocksmith authoring section to the pro guitar tutorial, but the community's knowledge of the Rocksmith songs' makeup changes pretty quickly so it's hard to know when particular features are considered fully known. For any features that ARE fully known (like anchors), please feel free to remind me if they aren't incorporated into EOF yet, in case I missed any information being passed around on this forum or the Google group.

Note: If you are reporting a bug, please specify which hotfix (date) you're using. I release hotfixes on a somewhat random schedule, sometimes more than once per day, so the issue being reported may have been fixed in a release you haven't tried yet.

Maybe it's the official equivalent of the "dummy chord" mechanism that @@Berneer has been proposing.Berneer: Would you have time to do any quick tests to see if using a "-1" chord template reference gets the same or similar results to the dummy chord templates you've been testing with? If it works the same way, I'd rather use the "-1" chord reference because it would likely be simpler to program into EOF.

My pleasure. Yes. In fact I was planning to do this tomorrow morning. @@Chlipouni, can you provide the name of the Official song that uses the concept so I know what to mimic exactly.

Hi guys,

 

Test Results! Sexy dummy chord box, no fingering, no chord name. All as predicted by raynebc!

 

http://i.imgur.com/B3PH1DG.png

 

What I meant to say in the image is that the dummy chord will only register if I play the A5 power chord. No other power chord or note will score in-game. So we must put the right notes of E5/A7 in that box.

 

I ran out of time. Hopefully tonight I can perform the follow-up example of manually adding note tags at the same time stamp as the dummy chord and then the dummy chord mechanism would work.

 

 

Note that I unpacked every single on of my 200+ ODLC and the On-desk songs and after sifting through over 1900 XML's I have found no hits for the search string----> chordId="-1"

Maybe @@Chlipouni could reveal which official DLC uses this mechanism?

1-21-2016 is visually extremely different from 1-16-2016.

 

The clause you introduced effects everything

 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2oZs0ta32KyOFpmeGhaVjNIdTg/view?usp=sharing

 

 

There are notes outside FHP from the outset.  I don't think that was the intended action?

 

 

 

 

I loved the way it did it before, and would have been happy to manually create a few bars of FHP.  If it's easier go back to the old way, but I can feel the momentum already...

There was an FHP bug reported in another post earlier today:

http://customsforge.com/topic/25808-error-generating-ps3-xbox-files/?do=findComment&comment=197166

 

Basically, in the right circumstances, an FHP wouldn't be set until quite a ways into the chart, and a large portion of an arrangement's notes may not have any fret hand position in effect. I've fixed that problem, please let me know if the issue you're describing is different.

Maybe @@Chlipouni could reveal which official DLC uses this mechanism?

 

 Yes, I can, but it is not an official DLC : Faith No More - A Small Victory (the Bass arrangement)

 

 I detected it because DDC is not able to manage this case and generates an error.

 

 For now, DDC needs the chordTemplate to generate the lower levels of difficulty. If this feature is added in EOF, it will be hard for me to manage it in DDC...

 

 As the dummy chord must be played in RS2014, is there any advantage to manage it like this ?

v2 was hell on earth.

 

V3 got fixed by using (even a .eof save created by 1-21-2016) 1-16-2016 to load the project and re-save the XMLs manually.

 

 

FHP bug...  :D

For now, DDC needs the chordTemplate to generate the lower levels of difficulty. If this feature is added in EOF, it will be hard for me to manage it in DDC...

 

As the dummy chord must be played in RS2014, is there any advantage to manage it like this ?

I suppose we'll scrap the -1 chord ID idea for now then. I guess the benefit to dummy chords is that it offers some possibilities like authoring a chord/handshape with no fingering or a single note that has a chord box?

 

FHP bug... :D

There's another FHP generation issue I need to fix, but hopefully it will be working better than before soon.

I've never noticed any FHP issues before, and maybe I was hyper sensitive cause its one of the phrases I could actually pick out from the last few pages.

 

I watched a few old vids at work today and I say FHP does not need much attention.  I am even sorry for highlighting what I did, like I say I was overly sensitive because I don't really understand all this chord handhshape stuff.

 

There has been consistency for 2+ years with regards to the main aspects of FHP, it needs changed not now  Everyone is used to it.

 

Don't mess with it too much man :D

The last hotfix's seemingly minor logic change had much larger consequences than I'd planned, which is why it led to some major bugs. But I think it's fixed now. It now works nicely with your original example (chord slide, FHP change, chord, repeat, FHP change, chord slide, FHP change, chord, repeat, FHP change, etc.) and even reduces redundant changes I'd seen in another project. Best of all, it generates 137 FHPs for that guitar arrangement of your "Angels of the Silences" chart, and spot checking it seems like they are identical to the ones created by the 1-16-2016 hotfix so things seem like they're in order again and even better than before. Sometimes making improvements is a rough process.

Hi, folks. The latest hotfix (1-22-2016) is in the first post. Changes are as follows:

*Fixed bugs with the previous hotfix's FHP generation.

*Improved FHP generation to prevent adding redundant changes setting the position already in effect. The effective position is still placed again at the beginning of each RS phrase as intended.

 

For now, DDC needs the chordTemplate to generate the lower levels of difficulty. If this feature is added in EOF, it will be hard for me to manage it in DDC...

 

As the dummy chord must be played in RS2014, is there any advantage to manage it like this ?

I suppose we'll scrap the -1 chord ID idea for now then. I guess the benefit to dummy chords is that it offers some possibilities like authoring a chord/handshape with no fingering or a single note that has a chord box?

 

 

I'm a bit OCD so I had to continue the testing just a little to confirm a couple of things:

 

1. Those chordID=-1 dummy chords can have single notes superimposed upon them at the exact same time stamp. See below.

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad41/Berneer/CustomsForgeStuff/Questions%20for%20CF/Handshape%20with%20-1%20chordid/Handshape%20-1%20Test%20Results%20-%20Example%202_zpse7qaocvr.png

 

2. To avoid the scoring problem (aka How-do-you-play-what-you-cannot-see) in-game I tried making a handshape with no notes (or equivalently, with ghost chords on the handshape, as shown in the picture below). It turns out that the chordID=-1 dummy chord box won't show up unless a real chord (or presumably a single note) is authored in the handshape at that same time stamp. So just the XML manually added single notes show up.

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad41/Berneer/CustomsForgeStuff/Questions%20for%20CF/Handshape%20with%20-1%20chordid/Handshape%20-1%20Test%20Results%20-%20Example%203_zpsom6hqxnf.png

 

So as long as the intended single notes (identical to the authored but vanished chordnotes) are superimposed over the chordId=-1 dummy chord, then this mechanism is viable, but then it causes problems with DDC so it seems unworthwhile to continue with this.

 

So I'd like to make a distinction here before with decide to do without such as thing as 'dummy chordboxes'.

 

There are two types of dummy chordboxes:

 

• "Handshape chordId=-1 Dummy Chords" which is what is shown in the 1st image at the top of this post.
• "Dummy Chords associated with a Dummy Chord Template" (for short I will just call this one "Dummy Chords")
  • The latter dummy chord, which has been the subject of very extensive testing in another thread (I link to a summary post, after which, extensive testing began) works by associating a <chordtime> tag containing no <chordnotes> with a dummy <chordTemplate> tag containing only blank names and -1's for fingerings and frets. (See code below the following image)
  • It is currently only doable by tweaking the XML manually with the code shown in the image below.
  • In fact is has reliably proven to be the *only known way* to author the sequence shown below of a chord played and followed with a HOPO on one of it's strings.
  • The LinkNext Tech note splits up the chord into single notes as well as it's typical duty of removing the subsequent note head. 
  • Admittedly I wish I could find a way for this dummy chord to look like  |_|  as does the "Handshape chordid=-1 dummy chord". But it's not a deal-breaker in my opinion.

 

http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad41/Berneer/CustomsForgeStuff/Questions%20for%20CF/HOPOonSomeStringsOfChord-GitHubIssue153/Example%202k_zpsbsnxfaij.png

 

Code that generates the dummy chordbox in the picture above:

<chordTemplate displayName="" chordName="" fret0="-1" fret1="-1" fret2="-1" fret3="-1" fret4="-1" fret5="-1" finger0="-1" finger1="-1" finger2="-1" finger3="-1" finger4="-1" finger5="-1" />
...
<chord time="82.983" linkNext="0" accent="0" chordId="34" fretHandMute="0" highDensity="0" ignore="0" palmMute="0" hopo="0" strum="down"/>

I hope I am not being too pushy. If you guys don't want this then that's a legitimate choice I'll respect. But HOPO's on select strings of a chord has no way to be authored without this and it sounds pretty cool on the guitar (listen to Blaze intro in my sig for an example). I thought it might be good to summarize all this here since we are talking about discarding the idea of "Handshape chordId=-1 Dummy Chords" while "Dummy Chords associated with a Dummy Chord Template" are still a worthwhile consideration.

About chord templates, sng generator filter some of them, I need to check what exactly it filter...

@@Berneer, @@raynebc,

 

 The DDC limit is only about the generation process of chordTemplates for lower levels of difficulty.

 

  For specific usages in which there are no chord and only one note at the same time position, I can add this easily in DDC.

  Both existing examples we are studying for now (Faith No More CDLC, and Berneer test case) are in this case.

 

  So in DDC, I am going to implement the following rules :

  - "chordId=-1" only for handShapes to avoid the usage of a dummy chordTemplate (no finger hand position and no fret position)

  - these handShapes will appear in the game when the associated note is selected for a level of difficulty

  - if a chord or several single notes are included in this handShape, a warning will be generated in the log file and these events will be fully displayed when they will appear in a level of difficulty

@@Berneer, @@raynebc,

 

 The DDC limit is only about the generation process of chordTemplates for lower levels of difficulty.

 

  For specific usages in which there are no chord and only one note at the same time position, I can add this easily in DDC.

  Both existing examples we are studying for now (Faith No More CDLC, and Berneer test case) are in this case.

 

  So in DDC, I am going to implement the following rules :

  - "chordId=-1" only for handShapes to avoid the usage of a dummy chordTemplate (no finger hand position and no fret position)

  - these handShapes will appear in the game when the associated note is selected for a level of difficulty

  - if a chord or several single notes are included in this handShape, a warning will be generated in the log file and these events will be fully displayed when they will appear in a level of difficulty

 

1) I forgot to summarize in my last post that only one dummy <chordTemplate> need exist to be invoked by as many dummy <chordtime> tags as authored.

2) I had also confirmed that "dummy chordId dummy chords" will score per the single notes superimposed on them which is a flexibility not afforded by the "handshape chordId-1 dummy chords" which need to have identical superimposed single notes and vanished chordnotes in order to score properly in-game. Setting ignore = 1 on the "dummy chordId dummy chords" <chordtime> tag doesn't prevent the single notes at the same time stamp from scoring. So it seems there is no difference with setting ignore = 0 or 1.

3) if it is of any use, I can test if "dummy chordId dummy chords" with no single notes superimposed can be appear in-game without having to be played. Not sure if there's any use for that.

4) probably the only status of use for "dummy chordId dummy chords" is the "accent"status in the <chordTime> tag.

 

Questions for @chlipouni:

1)"For specific usages in which there are no chord and only one note at the same time position, I can add this easily in DDC."

Why do you specify "one note" instead of "one or more notes"

2) " these handShapes will appear in the game" I guess you mean in a difficulty where a single note is slated to appear that corresponds to a dummy chord box you will make sure the "handshape chordId =-1 dummy chord" appears in game? If so, I thought instead the dummy chordbox would appear in a difficulty level where at least two single notes appearing to be a chord or partial chord would appear in game. I probably misunderstood you here.

 

Sorry, you know your DDC and I don't mean to question other than to help in case you were wanting feedback from us. No need to respond if you weren't needing feedback.

Let me know when the decided implementation for dummy chords is decided on. If I'm understanding things correctly, it sounds like the new DDC will tolerate references to invalid chord IDs, but that using a dummy chord template allows for the best in-game functionality.

@@Berneer, @@raynebc,

 

  DDC v2.9 allows the use of handShapes with "chordId=-1".

  In this case, the handShape appears at a level of difficulty if at least one of its notes is selected for this level.

  If two single notes in this handShape share the same time position (something like a chord) they will be considered as standalone notes.

Let me know when the decided implementation for dummy chords is decided on. If I'm understanding things correctly, it sounds like the new DDC will tolerate references to invalid chord IDs, but that using a dummy chord template allows for the best in-game functionality.

 

OK. It seems that both types of dummy chords, really can do the trick. Let me run a few more tests on both types of dummy chords to see if one should be the dominant choice to implement. I think to avoid potential confusion in the community it is probably important to perform the following robustness tests. I could then list the pros/cons of each and then we could decide on one.

 

The things I'd like to test to ensure robustness:

1. Can  "dummy chordTemplate dummy chord" author with a chord name and/or accent? If so then it might be a choice to have EoF author a new dummy chordTemplate for each different chord. Perhaps the chord name is to much trouble for EoF code change but if accent works, then maybe it might become a combinable status with a "dummy chordTemplate dummy chord"

2. Can both types of dummy chords appear with only 1 note inside? (Related to Test 7 at the end of this post)

3. Test whether the last image of Post 1488 can be authored with the "handshape chordid=-1 dummy chord" since that was the main purpose of introducing dummy chords.

4. Since the "handshape chordid=-1 dummy chord" is after all  handshape based on a range of time as opposed the the "dummy chordTemplate dummy chord" which is applicable for only a point in time, I'd like to test if in a long handshape with a myriad of various events, if anything unsavory happens.

5. In case one wants to author a "handshape chordid=-1 dummy chord" with a duration of 1ms, in order to avoid a range in time, I might as well check if that works.

6. Sometimes the "dummy chordTemplate dummy chord" is shown in game as a shorter box that is shorter than the tallest single note in the chord, which is maybe intuitive enough but inelegant. I wouldn't find seeing if there is something I could manually tweak in the XML that could avoid that and keep the box high, or ensure the box is low. High Density status was one thing that shortened the box.

 

Any thing else you want me to test/verify?

 

@@Berneer, @@raynebc,

 

  DDC v2.9 allows the use of handShapes with "chordId=-1".

  In this case, the handShape appears at a level of difficulty if at least one of its notes is selected for this level.

  If two single notes in this handShape share the same time position (something like a chord) they will be considered as standalone notes.

 

@@Chlipouni I think I failed to express myself properly in my first question to you earlier today. Your statement that "handShape appears at a level of difficulty if at least one of its notes is selected for this level." sounds like the "handshape with chordId=-1 dummy chord" would author a box around 1 note single at lower DD levels. I don't think I've ever seen DD do this. Am I misunderstanding you?

 

Test 7: Might as well therefore test this last sentence above on whether the "handshape with chordid=-1 dummy chord" will create a chord box |_| around 1 note.

 

Gimme a few days. I just noticed below my avatar that I have 0 warning points. I am expecting a brevity warning any time now... LOL

@@raynebc -

 

There are some songs that I'm working on with a swing feel in parts of them, but I've noticed that while normal eights are treated correctly, triplet eighths are not (they seem to be tripleted again, if that makes sense). It also seems to mess up things that occur after the triplet eighths in the same measure.

 

This screenshot shows the tab and how things look upon import into EoF. It's not too terrible to fix manually since the off rhythm notes stand out pretty clearly and dragging them into place with a 1/12 grid snap, but it would be awesome if things imported 100% on rhythm for these. Thanks!

Can you make a minimalistic, simplified example GP5 file with an accompanying EOF file that shows the correct rhythm? Depending on how complex it is to program for, adding handling for triplets inside of a triplet feel measure may be a little too inception for me to make a priority.

Alright, here's a folder that has what I made up to test it. It doesn't exhaustively test all possibilities of alternating triplets and eighths, but I think it's a pretty good test. Selecting all of the notes and resnapping them to a grid snap of 1/12 put all of the triplet notes in the right place but some of the regular eighths that occur later in a measure after triplets were put in the wrong place.

 

PART REAL_BASS_22 is how things import, while PART REAL_BASS is how things should look.

I added some logic to allow the GP file to import the way that it appears in PART REAL_BASS.

Apparently I started replying to this a while back & then switched tabs & forgot about it. XD

 

@@th1rtyf0ur, Given the recent major changes in the ability to author different chords inside of a handshape phrase, do you think it's still worthwhile to have EOF try to substitute chord templates with blank names as a default behavior? I would think EOF would allow the author to manually name chords inside the handshape to have an empty name (one space character) and it would export that way if desired.

 

I'd say they should be blank by default, unless the overall handshape fingering changes. So something like

E                        A           A4 A  A2 A   (*A4 = Asus4)
0--------0--------0--0-|-0-----------0--------0-
0--0-----0--------0--0-|-2-----2-----3--2--0--2-
1--1--------1--1--1--1-|-2--2--2-----2--2--2--2-
2--2--2-----2--2--2--2-|-2--2--2--2--2-----2----
2-----2-----2--2--2--2-|-0--0-----0--0----------
0--------------0--0--0-|------------------------
[handshape...........]   [handshape...........]

Even in the 2nd case, the Asus/A2 could be left blank (and only show 'A' as the chord, w/ notes shown only at the changes) unless manually defined by the user. I don't think the first measure should show 'E E E E E E E E' (or worse, some combo of partial & inverted chords).

 

Although, it looks like the official DLC for Learn to Fly just flat out omits the chord names in the handshape/arpeggio sections, and doesn't display any chord names, just the handshape & notes (I would've preferred to see the chord names there). Section in question starts at :18.

I reckon Ubi can do what they want (turn the names on or off at will), and regularly try different things out.  I think that they are on a journey like us.

 

I think the way in the vid is better and chord names there would only add confusion.

 

 

 

On another matter, I was wondering if you could have a look at something?

 

I had a "sustain bug" before in a U2 custom, many EOFs ago.  It would draw in game a chord sustain (chord handshape) up to the next note, even when there is no susstain in EoF.  I found a very similar situation with what seems like the same setup, E chord onto a muted open E.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2oZs0ta32KybjJ5RnVqdjNfdzA/view?usp=sharing

 

I've left notes in there.  If you need any other files or more info just ask.

 

 

 

If you find some time, thanks man :D

Yeah, you can find many different way of showing the same kind of thing in ODLC too, at one point it's really up to you to decide what you wanna do.

 

I don't think displaying different chord name when the handshape doesn't change as a "normal thing" because one handshape will tend to correspond to one chord with only one name.

 

Anyway at the moment you can always blank out the name of chord you don't want to appear manually so if you really wanna work on a clean chart you have the option you need.