iminashi

Some of my favorites are: Driver's High (Probably my most played CDLC. I was always under the impression that the one made by Anchang-Style was made by you :P ) Lies and Truth (The arrangement is amazing) Fate Lover Boy (I'll try to make a playthrough video at some point) And anything from the Dune album.

@@Berneer I've been reading the tutorial and here are some thoughts: -In Figure 5a, linkNext will not actually be used since the Toolkit ignores it in this case. Also, in the last three pictures (and in many of your other example screenshots), EOF optimizes the notes into a single note when you link one note into another one that has identical techniques (none in this case). -The Toolkit selects the longest sustain of a chord's chordNotes and uses that as the sustain of the chord. In the SNG file, chordNotes do not have the attribute "sustain", so it is impossible for them to have different sustains. If you wanted to do that, linkNext is required (which is pretty much what chordify does): -I tried creating the example in Figure 5 and it crashes the game for me... (and the culprit is not the showlights file ;)) -You can think of masks as on/off switches. In RS, the notes have masks for PALMMUTE, HAMMERON, SLIDE, etc. In the SNG file, linkNext is actually two masks: PARENT and CHILD. PARENT doesn't affect the appearance of a note, but CHILD causes the note to not be drawn. -Open notes glitch: The technical reason for why this happens is that a chord has an open note, but the chordNote doesn't have the OPEN mask. A chord that has open notes, but doesn't have chordNotes will cause this. -As for the example from Tenacious D – The Metal; I don't own it so I can't look at the XML file, but it is not related to the sustain limitation of chordNotes since it doesn't use chords. I tried creating something similar quickly, and interestingly enough, I ran into the linkNext issue in the Toolkit:

I'll need some time to read all that. :) That reminded me of something though: The current implementation in the Toolkit that applies the mask related to linkNext to the notes (the CHILD mask, which causes the note to not be drawn, only its sustain) doesn't check the linkNext status of the chordNotes. It only checks the chord itself. That's why this doesn't currently work: Also, as I mentioned in the issue I posted at Github, Rocksmith will not draw the next note of a linkNext note (note with PARENT mask) even if it doesn't have the CHILD mask in the SNG file, except if the note is an open note. Which makes sense, since I don't think ODLC uses open string notes that are linked to a technique.

In official content, if any of the notes in the chord have linkNext, the chord itself has linkNext. Cases where only some of the notes in the chord have linkNext aren't that common, but I can find no exceptions (there are no chords with linkNext=0 that have chordNotes with linkNext=1). Here are some XML examples: As for chordify, I'm not sure I understand how you're supposed to use it. I apply it on a chord and it makes a chord that has linkNext, but doesn't have any chordNotes, which makes the game crash...

A while back I ran into a bug in the Toolkit's linknext handling. I've rewritten the part to fix the bug, but I think a change should be made in EOF before I commit it. Cases like these should be exported in the same way: <chord time="20.998" chordId="2" linkNext="1" > <chordNote time="20.998" string="1" fret="5" sustain="0.500" linkNext="1" leftHand="1" /> <chordNote time="20.998" string="2" fret="7" leftHand="3" /> <chordNote time="20.998" string="3" fret="7" leftHand="4" /> </chord> I.e. linknext on the chord itself and only on the note(s) that should have it. While doing some tests, I also came across some obscure cases where things aren't working as expected. Here the second chord, with the slide out, doesn't get split into notes automatically. In this case the first chord is split into notes while it shouldn't be. Not related to linknext, but if you import a RS XML that has something like this in it into EOF, the sustain of the single note will be cut short (stops at the first chord).

Ubisoft's character substitution for the sortable fields is pretty inconsistent. &: Artist Name: Grace Potter & The NocturnalsArtist Sort: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals Artist Name: Bill Haley & His CometsArtist Sort: Bill Haley & His Comets Diacritics: Artist Name: MotörheadArtist Sort: Motorhead Artist Name: Frédéric ChopinArtist Sort: Frédéric Chopin I don't think the substitutions matter much, except for some artist names, if one wants them to be sorted together with ODLC (e.g. "B.B. King" is sorted as "BB King").

All the characters (except for ★ and ➨) from the lyrics font texture can be used in artist name and title.

@@raynebc The font texture used for lyrics can be easily found in the game files, but it's not the same font used for the artist/title fields. I agree with Billkwando that when it comes to tilde, it has been tested enough to prove that it doesn't cause problems. As for other characters in the artist/title/album names breaking the game, until someone demonstrates a case where that happens, I remain skeptical. :)

Added a new section about crowd events (9.).

I would guess that it happens because DDC moves the END phrase to the first beat of a bar.

Chords and linknext are a bit of a special case, I guess. In official content, chords that have any chordnotes with linknext always have linknext too. Besides, the current implementation in the toolkit only checks if the chord itself has linknext.

http://i.imgur.com/lh3yRhk.png This is not exported into the XML properly. <chord time="16.998" chordId="3" > <chordNote time="16.998" string="1" fret="5" sustain="1.000" linkNext="1" leftHand="1" /> <chordNote time="16.998" string="2" fret="7" leftHand="3" /> <chordNote time="16.998" string="3" fret="7" leftHand="4" /> </chord> The chord should also have linkNext="1" instead of just the chordNote.

@@raynebc That doesn't work. Chordnotes cannot have different sustains. I can think of two ways to make it work: 1. The simple way Since the problem is caused by how RS draws open notes into the anchor zone, you can simply remove the FHP changes from the slides: http://i.imgur.com/HIBp5Iz.png If the fingering uses the first finger, EOF will give a warning every time you save. 2. The hackish way If you absolutely need to have the FHP changes (why?), it is possible to keep them. Remove the open D note(s) from the chords, then edit it back into the XML as a note 0.001 seconds before the first chord, and set the correct sustain (if you put it exactly on the chord it seems like the chord's linknext messes things up). http://i.imgur.com/F4Xaqjz.png EDIT: Or you could also try to do it in EOF: http://i.imgur.com/r68oVo9.png I'd go with the simple way. :)

@@Alex360 Well, I haven't seen any other notes being used in the DLC that I have, and how quickly you can change the color isn't limited by the song bpm. For example, changing every 0.033 seconds (1/30s) works. ...That gives me an idea to see what it looks like when you make the color changes faster gradually.

@@Rockfirstlast There's no way to shut off all the lights, not that I know of anyhow. The closest thing would be beams off (note 42) and dark purple fog color (35). The strobe effect can be achieved by simply changing between two colors very quickly. For example, in "Cold Company" there is a part where it switches between 28 (dark blue) and 35 (dark purple) about every 0.2 seconds. You'd preferably need an algorithm to generate it, otherwise you're in for some tedious copy-pasting/editing. :P (I've thrown together such an algorithm in Ruby, but haven't tested what kind of crazy stuff you might achieve with it.)

Finally got around to doing a bit more substantial update. :ph34r: Added some stuff about FHPs (1.3) and chord fingerings (1.4). Added links to illustrative animated gifs in 3.2. Added a tip to 4.2 (High density repeats). Might add something about showlights and crowd events later.

Only the leading silence thing I mentioned. I don't think there are any other issues.

Not sure what you mean by that. EOF sets the startBeat and the first beat at the time where the beat map begins, not at 0.000. It only matters if people want to use ODLC-like leading silence (10+ seconds of silence). I've tried it, but haven't noticed any merits in doing so myself. Anyway, Firekorn advises that people do that in his tutorial. And if you move the first beat from 10s to 0s, it will mean that about half of that silence will not be skipped like it is in ODLC.

What's the reason for this? Since in ODLC the first beat is at 10.000. Also, I'd really prefer if DDC didn't move sections/phrases to the first beat of a measure. Having to create workarounds like 1/4 measures to get a section to start at the right place feels silly.

@PC Plum You could use my chordshapes file. That C chord is included. http://customsforge.com/topic/35879-improved-chordshapesxml/

EOF warns that the characters ( ) , in chord names can cause the game to crash, when in fact they can be used. Parentheses are used occasionally in ODLC, but the comma doesn't seem to appear in any DLC I own. The only instance of it I can find is in "RS2 Chord Name Stress" that has chord names like "A7(b5.b9)" and "C7(#5.b9)" (. and , will both produce a comma in the game). This is the texture used for the chord names: http://i.imgur.com/acyxP1e.png Another thing, by default EOF names minor chords as "...min", whereas the game uses "...m". They will be displayed as "...m" during the song since there is no "in" in the above texture. But if you look at the chords of a song the name will be "...min": http://i.imgur.com/hwT6DDr.jpg Also pictured is a chord named "Gm&$". ;)

Don't know if this has been discussed before, but it is possible to make an arpeggio using a handshape and display the chord name by making a chord with one note: http://i.imgur.com/jWLIAoO.jpg What do you think of such a contraption? Looks a bit weird when you're not used to it. The abridged XML for that's pretty simple: <chordTemplate chordName="A" displayName="A-nop" fret1="0" /> <chordTemplate chordName="A" displayName="A" finger2="1" finger3="1" finger4="1" fret1="0" fret2="2" fret3="2" fret4="2" /> ... <chord time="11.996" chordId="0"> <chordNote time="11.996" string="1" fret="0" /> </chord> ... <handShape chordId="1" startTime="11.996" endTime="15.246" />

Customs that are made with a really old version of the toolkit (v2.2 I think) also may not be affected. And if an arrangement doesn't have any chords, it won't be affected by the mastery bug regardless of the version of the toolkit used.

Updated with 16 more shapes.

Well, I took a peek into the game's executable and found this list: Play_VR_Start_0 E2Play_VR_Start_1 A2Play_VR_Start_2 D2Play_VR_Start_3 G2Stop_VR E12 Play_GenericCheer_0 E0Play_GenericCheer_1 A0Play_GenericCheer_2 D0Play_GenericCheer_3 G0 Play_ShoutOut_0 E1Play_ShoutOut_1 A1Play_ShoutOut_2 D1Play_ShoutOut_3 G1 Play_Ambience_0 E4Play_Ambience_1 A4Play_Ambience_2 D4Play_Ambience_3 G4Stop_Ambience_CT E14 E3 Play_CrowdBookEnds_Start_1A3 Play_CrowdBookEnds_Start_2D3 Play_CrowdBookEnds_Start_3G3E13 Play_Misc1_0 E5 Play_Misc1_1 A5 Play_Misc1_2 D5 Play_Misc1_3 G5 Play_Misc2_0 E6 Play_Misc2_1 A6 Play_Misc2_2 D6 Play_Misc2_3 G6 Play_Misc3_0 E7 Play_Misc3_1 A7 Play_Misc3_2 D7 Play_Misc3_3 G7 Play_Misc4_0 E8 Play_Misc4_1 A8 Play_Misc4_2 D8 Play_Misc4_3 G8 Play_InGame_Click B1 Play_InGame_Click_Accent B0 e0 e1 e2 I tested some of them. E0-G0 seem to be a short applause that ends automatically (some might check for accuracy like D3). A3 and G3 also work and start an applause that E13 ends. Ambience is likely for the loft (main menu). The shoutouts didn't seem to do anything. Also, looks like E3 can be used multiple times in a song after all. Dunno why it didn't seem to work when I last tested it.