Gameplay on the PrismRhythm theme using the EyeCandy noteskin. You can get those things - among many others - here.
StepMania Stuff Page Contents & Quick Link List
These subsections are split by divider lines. If you know what you came for, and don't need to read info, you can click the links in this quicklist. If you're not sure what you want, scroll down to read the info first.
* StepMania Itself Pick from a loaded starter bundle or just the basic installer.
-> Starter Bundle (No Songs) | Starter Bundle (with Exceltastic Four Pack) | Official Installer Only
* Noteskins Don't like the way the arrows look? Download some new skins for them!
-> VIP Noteskin Pack (2D) | VIP Noteskin Pack (3D) | EyeCandy Noteskin
* Themes Think the default graphical theme is ugly? I've got several far better choices for you.
-> ITG 2: Velocity | In The Groove 3 | PrismRhythm ver. 6.0
* Ogg Length Patch An indispensable tool for stepchart authors like myself.
* StepMania 5 Alpha 1 Think you're hot stuff and wanna go online to prove it? Or maybe you just want to see the future?
* Playing StepMania Online StepMania 4 and 5 alphas/betas can do SMO; I'll teach you how.
These subsections are split by divider lines. If you know what you came for, and don't need to read info, you can click the links in this quicklist. If you're not sure what you want, scroll down to read the info first.
* StepMania Itself Pick from a loaded starter bundle or just the basic installer.
-> Starter Bundle (No Songs) | Starter Bundle (with Exceltastic Four Pack) | Official Installer Only
* Noteskins Don't like the way the arrows look? Download some new skins for them!
-> VIP Noteskin Pack (2D) | VIP Noteskin Pack (3D) | EyeCandy Noteskin
* Themes Think the default graphical theme is ugly? I've got several far better choices for you.
-> ITG 2: Velocity | In The Groove 3 | PrismRhythm ver. 6.0
* Ogg Length Patch An indispensable tool for stepchart authors like myself.
* StepMania 5 Alpha 1 Think you're hot stuff and wanna go online to prove it? Or maybe you just want to see the future?
* Playing StepMania Online StepMania 4 and 5 alphas/betas can do SMO; I'll teach you how.
StepMania Itself
If you want to play rhythm game simfiles on your computer, you'll need StepMania. Get it, and you'll be chasing arrows around in no time! Once you download it, unzip and double-click the executable.
If you need to add downloadable elements yourself, and don't know where they go:
* Simfile (Song) Packs go in: StepMania CVS -> Songs
* Themes go in: StepMania CVS -> Themes
* Noteskins go in: StepMania CVS -> Noteskins -> Dance
If you need to add downloadable elements yourself, and don't know where they go:
* Simfile (Song) Packs go in: StepMania CVS -> Songs
* Themes go in: StepMania CVS -> Themes
* Noteskins go in: StepMania CVS -> Noteskins -> Dance
StepMania 3.95 CVS Starter Bundle (May 2012)
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The song select screen of the PrismRhythm ver. 6.0 theme (the default theme for this starter bundle). Don't think you'll like it? Don't fret. You also get the ITG3 and Velocity themes with the starter bundle; you can see screenshots in their entries in the Themes section. Think you might like it? Check out more PrismRhythm theme screenshots in its section.
Gameplay as seen on the PrismRhythm ver. 6.0 theme, using my EyeCandy noteskin. Again, if you don't like EyeCandy, don't worry; you get a ton of noteskins with the Starter Bundle. For more noteskin pictures, check out the Noteskins section below.
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Download LinksStarter Bundle (May 2012) [No Songs]
Contains: Program, 3 alternate Themes, Noteskins Size: 182 MB (Single-Segment) Starter Bundle (May 2012) [with Exceltastic Four Pack] Contains:Same as above, plus one song pack (20 songs) Size: 280 MB (in 2 Parts) Have nothing for some reason, and want one download that will take care of everything? Forget the official installer then: this Starter Bundle comes with better themes and noteskins, plus when you unzip it, it's already ready for action! You can choose to download only the base bundle with no songs, or a version that has a small song pack to start off with. ^.^ Exceltastic Four? The version containing the Exceltastic Four simfile pack isn't much bigger, but contains a small pack of 20 songs that have all 5 difficulties for those who want to try out a small pack before deciding on bigger downloads. It's a recently-released pack, so in addition to catering to new players who need easier difficulty settings, it also caters to hardcore players by having Expert charts that go up to 15 feet in difficulty, some of which contain footswitch. There are other simfile packs are available on the Simfiles page for you to pick and choose from. Other Recommendations? For those who want a whole bunch of simfiles with all five difficulty levels and don't afraid of big downloads, I recommend my own pack (140 songs), plus the In The Groove series; particularly ITG 2 and Rebirth 1&2 (mostly around 80-ish songs each); see the Simfiles page. Features * The default theme for this Starter Bundle is my own PrismRhythm ver. 6.0 theme, but you can also get into the Appearance Options to switch to the Velocity or ITG3 themes. * This starter bundle is already set up with Event Mode already on and Menu Timers off, so you can jump right in. * The Life DIfficulty is set to its default of 4; however, my arcade uses - and I recommend - setting it to 3 to make things just a bit easier for yourself. (It's in the Machine Options menu.) So You Know The StepMania.exe file itself is located in the Program folder. |
Official StepMania 3.95 CVS Installer
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Gameplay screenshot; this is the default graphical theme that comes with the game, playing with a default noteskin. I recommend getting a new theme, and maybe some new noteskins; I've got some below. (For those curious, the song is "Doki Doki" [Expert].)
 Song select screen.
 Mod menu.
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DownloadFor those who are unfamiliar with it, StepMania is a computer emulator for arrow-based rhythm games. It's free, the download is pretty small (as it doesn't come with any songs, and only the default theme/noteskins) and you don't have to register in any way to play it. |
Noteskins
If you don't like the way your arrows look, your problem is with the noteskin; that's what determines the arrows' onscreen appearance. Personally, I'm not a fan of the DDR noteskins that come with StepMania; they look very basic. So if you want to add to your noteskins, I aim to help you fix your problem.
How to Add Noteskins
1) Unzip the file.
2) Move the noteskin folders you unzipped to the StepMania CVS -> NoteSkins -> Dance folder.
3) Start StepMania. Nothing further needs done - new noteskins are detected automatically.
How to Add Noteskins
1) Unzip the file.
2) Move the noteskin folders you unzipped to the StepMania CVS -> NoteSkins -> Dance folder.
3) Start StepMania. Nothing further needs done - new noteskins are detected automatically.
Noteskin Pack
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The "Metal" noteskin, played on the ITG2: Velocity theme. Along with Cel, it is one of the two most popular ITG noteskins, though several other noteskins are included in the pack. (For those curious, the song is "Cirno's Perfect Math Class" [Expert].)
 The "EyeCandy" noteskin, played on the PrismRhythm theme; this was pieced together from the SM3.9 noteskin "Delta," plus hold and roll image elements (both seen here; the roll is the spiky purple thing, and the hold is the solid blue one) from the SM5 noteskin "Vintage" and mine textures from the SM5 noteskin "Cyber."
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Download 2D Noteskins
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Themes
If you're tired of looking at what looks like DDR Max 2 (what the default graphical theme is modeled after), this section is for you. I currently offer 2 themes that are compatible with StepMania 3.95 CVS, and both are far nicer than the default theme, in my opinion. You'll also see screenshots of the music select and mod menus, along with a gameplay screenshot, so you can have some idea what you'll be looking at before you download it.
How to Change the Theme
1) Unzip the file and put it in your StepMania CVS -> Themes folder.
2) Start the game. (The theme will currently still be the last one you used.)
3) Go into the Option Menu.
4) Hit "Appearance Options."
5) Change the theme to the one you want to use.
6) Go to the bottom line and hit "Done."
7) After a moment, the theme will switch over.
How to Change the Theme
1) Unzip the file and put it in your StepMania CVS -> Themes folder.
2) Start the game. (The theme will currently still be the last one you used.)
3) Go into the Option Menu.
4) Hit "Appearance Options."
5) Change the theme to the one you want to use.
6) Go to the bottom line and hit "Done."
7) After a moment, the theme will switch over.
In the Groove 2: Velocity Theme
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Song select screen.
 Mod menu. Sorry for this being an arcade-version screenshot, though the only difference in the Home version I'm offering here is the noteskin list, which still jibes with the noteskin downloads I offer.
 Gameplay screenshot. (For those curious, the song is "Every Morning.")
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DownloadThis theme was originally created by Hate Crew, who apparently reside in Brownsville, Texas (I had to remove a LOT of Brownsville easter-egg references from the theme).
It is, as you can see, very much a green-based theme. I've worked on modifying this theme to look nicer and include more information (as you can see in the screenshots if you remember what it used to look like). Far's I can tell, this is finished. If you manage to find anything that's still funky, let me know. * If you acquire this theme individually, it does not reference the EyeCandy noteskin, but if you want it to, you can tell it to if you know how. (Get in touch with me for info on that.) |
In the Groove 3 Theme
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Song select screen.
 Mod menu.
 Gameplay screenshot. (For those curious, the song is "Sweet Bitter Beauty Song" [Expert].)
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DownloadThis is a beta version of the official theme for In the Groove 3.
As you can see, it's full of shades of blue. It's very sleek and sexy, with tons of neon outlines that glow. It's actually the nicest theme I've ever seen; no other theme that I am aware of is this freaking awesome (though many other themes, such as ITG2: Velocity, above, clearly are of great quality also, having had a lot of effort put into them). I modified this theme for home-version StepMania use, added tons of speed mods for those who like to be exact with their arrow speed (though the default is still 1.5x), and the Noteskin list on the mod menu is the choices I offer in the Noteskin Pack above. If you acquire this theme, you must also download the Noteskin Pack above; this theme references them. * If you acquire this theme individually, it does not reference the EyeCandy noteskin, but if you want it to, you can tell it to if you know how. (Get in touch with me for info on that.) |
PrismRhythm (ver. 6.0)
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Song select screen. The new fonts and chart info pane with graphical reminders are new as of version 6.0 (the graphical reminders can be removed; see the theme's "Pane Choices" folder for directions how to put the "blank" pane back). The difficulty select frame and the labels were introduced as of version 4, as was the new background animation.
 New as of version 6.0 is the font used on this screen; the mod screen's "Message Log" bacground was new as of ver. 2. The name pane was changed in ver. 4.
Evaluation screen; the new fonts were added in version 6.0; the new judgment name tags got added in ver. 2.
 Gameplay; version 6.0 basically sees a new font for the time & title bar. Version 5 introduced the current life gauge and title/time bar. The elements introduced in ver. 3 are on this screen also: the combo counter was new, and so was the BPM display pane. (Noteskin is EyeCandy, song is Original.)
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DownloadVersion 6.0 Changelog
(As always, please entirely delete your old PrismRhythm theme folder before unpacking a new version in case of graphical changes that otherwise may not take properly and cause problems.) * New standard fonts. These look much nicer. All of them have been changed (largely to the same font, though the size varies) from song select wheel, to mod menu, to gameplay, through to evaluation screen. (Font was taken from the ITG3 theme, but it looks really nice in PrismRhythm.) I believe these fonts give the theme a slightly more friendly atmosphere in addition to just being a crisper, cleaner font set. (I was going to use my own font bitmap made from the "Hand Me Down" font, but that was nowhere near as nice, and ended up not getting used anywhere despite being a decent job on my end.) * New font for pane's difficulty numerals. * Fix for song folder name width; they're no longer always stretched to the max width, and look far nicer. * New screen title fonts (now has a nice blue glow; also taken from ITG3 theme). * New step info pane that has graphical elements, although you can put the old blank one back in (see the PrismRhythm -> Pane Choices folder in this version). * Fix for the difficulty numerals used in the info pane. * Fixed the combo counter being off-kilter vertically. * Slight fix for the BPM display; it was slightly off vertically. Description This is a pet theme of mine that I crafted after playing PrismRhythm. I won't lie; though I've changed many graphical elements and the soundset (and some necessary metrics to get certain things to look right), it should be pretty clear that this was based off of Velocity's metrics, and that it borrows some elements from nearly every other theme I have. Still, it's a workable theme and unique in its own right. You can see that I also crafted my own judgment graphics and numbers as well (those are 100% my own original work). If you enjoy themes with a charming, adorable look, and like my WordArt work, you might actually like this theme. One last note: this is meant for use on StepMania with Event Mode on; I didn't change anything more than was necessary for screens seen when playing that way - if you turn Event Mode off or something, you'll start seeing lots of Velocity graphics. |
Ogg Length Patch
The Ogg Length Patch
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My simfile for "Soyokaze Life," in the editor. This song is about 3 1/2 minutes long; without the length patch, it cannot be played as a USB card custom song on an ITG machine.
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DownloadIf you are a stepchart author and write stepcharts that are meant for play on an ITG cabinet, this tool is absolutely indispensable for songs that are 2 minutes or more in length (i.e., nearly everything you're ever likely to chart). What it does is, it fools ITG machines into thinking the song is 1:45 long, which circumvents the 2-minute cutoff for USB card songs (and fools ITG2 machines you hack the song onto into thinking it's a short-version song).
Once you unzip the .exe file, just leave it somewhere you can find it until you need it; you don't run the patch by double-clicking it: to patch an .ogg file, drag it onto the executable. Note: OpenITG cabinets and r23-build ITG2 cabinets catch and bypass this patch; r23 is just evil like that, wheras OpenITG cabinets bypass it because OpenITG has a menu that allows the operator to choose how long they want the long and marathon version cutoffs to be - options that don't appear on official ITG builds. |
StepMania 5 Alpha 1
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The future is now.
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DownloadIntroduction
This is the new alpha for what now calls even itself StepMania 5. Much progress has been made since the last "SM4" alpha was released, and negative BPM warps have been reintroduced (they were initially taken out), and not only does this theme do Lifts, it also does another new note type called Fakes (whatever those are). Features of StepMania 5 * SM5 supports two new arrow types: Lifts and Fakes. * SM5 can count every tap in a roll toward your combo, which can be set on or off in the options. (If you have a song with tons of rolls, you can rack up positively huge combos.) * Since speed mods are not part of theme metrics in SM5, it is far easier to add speed mods - once you know where you do it. Go into your Application Data folder for StepMania 5 and add whatever you want to SpeedMods.txt (C: -> Documents and Settings [Your Name] -> Application Data -> StepMania 5 -> Save -> Machine Profile -> SpeedMods.txt). SM5 supports all speed mod types (x, C and M), and it is not necessary to add them to any of the metrics or language files anywhere (as was necessary with 3.95); just add them in that one place and you're good. Already Have SM 3.95? * If you're already running SM 3.9 or 3.95, this will not interfere with it; it goes in its own "StepMania 5" folder. * If you don't want to be bothered to move your songs from 3.95 to SM5 every time you want to play online, get into your SM5 Application Data folder (as described above regarding adding speed mods), and in the Save folder is a file called Preferences.ini. Open that, and add to the line "AdditionalSongFolders=" your StepMania CVS's Songs directory. (So it will probably be AdditionalSongFolders=C:\Program Files\StepMania CVS\Songs.) * SM5 is not compatible with any of the noteskins or themes I offer on this page for SM 3.95. * If you liked the 3.95 EyeCandy noteskin, here's a specially-modified version of it crafted from the SM5 elements that make it up: Download EyeCandy for SM5 (Note that the rolls are cut ever so slightly short; they look okay, but basing it off the skin I did, I couldn't think of a good-looking way to make the end-cap exactly the proper length). |
Playing StepMania Online (Jousway Server)
1) Get SM4 or SM5.
First of all, 3.95 (the version that I offer so many themes and noteskins for above) apparently doesn't work as well as it used to online anymore due to changes to the online server, so if you intend to play online with me (or anyone else), you should download either the SM5 alpha I'm offering in the section right above this one, or download an SM4 beta from the official StepMania website (any of them will do).
If you're also a 3.95 player, you can bother to move your song folders from there to SM4/5/whichever you're using, or if you know how, you can tell SM5 to look for additional song folders so you don't have to move them (I'll put in details how to do that once I remember myself how it's done).
2) Make a profile and use it.
To sign on to SMO, you obviously have to use an in-game profile.
3) Sign on to the server.
Here's how it works. There is no webpage for Jousway SMO, so your free account is created automatically when you first log on to the server using your profile.
3a) Go to StepMania's main menu, hit "Options," and hit "Network Options."
3b) Hit "Connect." You'll be asked for the server name (which is "smo.jousway.co.uk"); type it in and hit Enter.
3c) You should get a confirmation message at the top saying you are now connected. Scroll down and Exit from the network options menu, and go back to the title screen.
3d) Hit "Game Start" (and choose "Single/1 Player").
3e) You'll then be asked which profile is playing; highlight your profile, then scroll down and hit "Sign In." You'll be asked your password (if it's your first visit, you'll be creating your password); type that in and hit Enter.
If everything worked properly, you should now be in the actual SMO lobby, which looks very much like the song select screen, except instead of the banner/difficulty display, there will be a chatbox, and instead of song names (at least, for now), the wheel will display room names.
Note: There is another temporary server hosted by SpookyMagician at IP 74.141.242.243 (which, of the two temporary servers, actually came first, before Jousway's) that has formal rooms set up for different types of players, if you'd rather. (His server does not require a password, and you connect the same way you do to Jousway.)
Something to remember once you're online:
Since you can chat, your controls are different for selecting music and rooms.
* Chatting: Type, then just hit [Enter] to talk.
* Selecting Rooms/Songs: Left/Right, then [Ctrl]+[Enter] together to confirm.
(You will still use your assigned keys when actually playing songs.)
5) Enter or Create a Room.
At this point, you'll be online, and will see a list of rooms with various names. The color of the text indicates the room's current status:
White text rooms are on the song select screen. It's fine to enter these, though you might want to pay attention to the title & description of the room, which might indicate what kinds of songs they're playing.
Red text means they're playing a song now. It might be possible to enter the room, depending on their settings, but since they're playing, you won't get responses if you try to talk, and you won't be able to pick any songs until they're finished anyway.
Pink text means the room is password-protected: if you try to enter, you'll be asked the password, and of course, if you don't have it, you ain't gettin' in.
Green text is special for the "Create a Room" option.
6) What You Can Do In a Room
Once you're in a room, whether you're an Operator or not (more on that below), you can browse your song list (remember to use [Ctrl]+[Enter]), and you can chat with the other players in the room. If you are the room's Creator or an Operator, or if the room is in Free Mode, you can select a song. There are a few things to remember about SMO rooms:
* Songs must be confirmed twice, because everyone has to have the chosen song(s).
When you confirm a song the first time, SMO will check to see if everyone has it - if they don't, there will be a Lack message in the chatbox telling you who doesn't have that song. You can pick something else, demand they go get it, or boot them from the room. (Another reason songs must be confirmed twice is so players have a chance to go to the Mod Menu after they know which song is about to be played.) If a song is chosen and everyone passes the Lack check, then it can be confirmed a second time to play it.
* Mod Menu/Difficulty Changes
The Mod Menu and changing your difficulty works a bit differently online. It takes some getting used to, but it's still really easy to do. Either of these can be done at any time while you're in a room, whether a song has been requested yet or not.
-> You can hit [Up] to go to the Mod Menu. (Nobody can re-confirm a song while anyone's still in the mod menu.)
-> You can hit [Down] to change your difficulty level (it cycles around from Novice -> Easy -> Medium -> Hard -> Expert -> back to Novice). Your current difficulty and available difficulties are displayed in the lower-left corner when online. As far as I can tell, unlike previous SMO builds, SM5 does not display the BPM anywhere while you're online (at least, not on the Jousway server); you'll just have to make your best guess.
Room Commands
If you're the room's creator, you are always an Operator, and can use all these commands (even if you're not, there are a few you can still use; I think you can tell which ones). Type a slash followed by the command name, then a space, followed by the name of the player, and hit [Enter] to enact it. SM4/5 have new commands that 3.95 didn't have that come in handy, so read this list even if you've played SMO previously. Type the command exactly as it appears here, slashes, quotes and spaces you see included, and it will work properly.
/c(color)
Changes the color of your chat text. Currently available colors include blue, pink, red, green, cyan and yellow.
/kick PlayerName
Boots them out of the room. They can still re-enter. Great for use as a warning.
/ban PlayerName
Boots them out of the room, and they won't be able to get back in. Use when people just won't listen or obviously lack tons of songs you're trying to play.
/msg "PlayerName" blah blah blah blah
Sends a private message to that player; they're the only one who will see that message.
/op PlayerName
A new command: we no longer have to play round robin for song picking. Stick this command in, and you make that person another room Operator, which enables them to also pick songs and use room commands. Operators have a "+" symbol next to their name so you know who they are.
/deop PlayerName
Takes Operator status away from someone who has it.
/free
Enables Free Mode for your room, which enables everyone to pick songs. Just type the same command in a second time to disable Free Mode.
/mute PlayerName
Silences that player; nobody will be able to see what they're saying. Muted players are labeled with a "-" next to their name (that they won't be able to see, but everyone else will).
/unmute PlayerName
Retracts the mute order on a player.
/noenter
Makes it so nobody else can enter your room. Players already in will not be booted. Like /free, you can just enter this same command again to disable it.
/title New Title
Changes the title of your room on the fly. Helpful in case your room is named after song packs you're playing and you've decided to change what you're playing, or for any number of other reasons.
/description New Description
Changes the description ("subtitle") of your room on the fly. This too is helpful if you've changed your mind on which songpacks you're playing or want to tell potential entries where you got your songs.
First of all, 3.95 (the version that I offer so many themes and noteskins for above) apparently doesn't work as well as it used to online anymore due to changes to the online server, so if you intend to play online with me (or anyone else), you should download either the SM5 alpha I'm offering in the section right above this one, or download an SM4 beta from the official StepMania website (any of them will do).
If you're also a 3.95 player, you can bother to move your song folders from there to SM4/5/whichever you're using, or if you know how, you can tell SM5 to look for additional song folders so you don't have to move them (I'll put in details how to do that once I remember myself how it's done).
2) Make a profile and use it.
To sign on to SMO, you obviously have to use an in-game profile.
3) Sign on to the server.
Here's how it works. There is no webpage for Jousway SMO, so your free account is created automatically when you first log on to the server using your profile.
3a) Go to StepMania's main menu, hit "Options," and hit "Network Options."
3b) Hit "Connect." You'll be asked for the server name (which is "smo.jousway.co.uk"); type it in and hit Enter.
3c) You should get a confirmation message at the top saying you are now connected. Scroll down and Exit from the network options menu, and go back to the title screen.
3d) Hit "Game Start" (and choose "Single/1 Player").
3e) You'll then be asked which profile is playing; highlight your profile, then scroll down and hit "Sign In." You'll be asked your password (if it's your first visit, you'll be creating your password); type that in and hit Enter.
If everything worked properly, you should now be in the actual SMO lobby, which looks very much like the song select screen, except instead of the banner/difficulty display, there will be a chatbox, and instead of song names (at least, for now), the wheel will display room names.
Note: There is another temporary server hosted by SpookyMagician at IP 74.141.242.243 (which, of the two temporary servers, actually came first, before Jousway's) that has formal rooms set up for different types of players, if you'd rather. (His server does not require a password, and you connect the same way you do to Jousway.)
Something to remember once you're online:
Since you can chat, your controls are different for selecting music and rooms.
* Chatting: Type, then just hit [Enter] to talk.
* Selecting Rooms/Songs: Left/Right, then [Ctrl]+[Enter] together to confirm.
(You will still use your assigned keys when actually playing songs.)
5) Enter or Create a Room.
At this point, you'll be online, and will see a list of rooms with various names. The color of the text indicates the room's current status:
White text rooms are on the song select screen. It's fine to enter these, though you might want to pay attention to the title & description of the room, which might indicate what kinds of songs they're playing.
Red text means they're playing a song now. It might be possible to enter the room, depending on their settings, but since they're playing, you won't get responses if you try to talk, and you won't be able to pick any songs until they're finished anyway.
Pink text means the room is password-protected: if you try to enter, you'll be asked the password, and of course, if you don't have it, you ain't gettin' in.
Green text is special for the "Create a Room" option.
6) What You Can Do In a Room
Once you're in a room, whether you're an Operator or not (more on that below), you can browse your song list (remember to use [Ctrl]+[Enter]), and you can chat with the other players in the room. If you are the room's Creator or an Operator, or if the room is in Free Mode, you can select a song. There are a few things to remember about SMO rooms:
* Songs must be confirmed twice, because everyone has to have the chosen song(s).
When you confirm a song the first time, SMO will check to see if everyone has it - if they don't, there will be a Lack message in the chatbox telling you who doesn't have that song. You can pick something else, demand they go get it, or boot them from the room. (Another reason songs must be confirmed twice is so players have a chance to go to the Mod Menu after they know which song is about to be played.) If a song is chosen and everyone passes the Lack check, then it can be confirmed a second time to play it.
* Mod Menu/Difficulty Changes
The Mod Menu and changing your difficulty works a bit differently online. It takes some getting used to, but it's still really easy to do. Either of these can be done at any time while you're in a room, whether a song has been requested yet or not.
-> You can hit [Up] to go to the Mod Menu. (Nobody can re-confirm a song while anyone's still in the mod menu.)
-> You can hit [Down] to change your difficulty level (it cycles around from Novice -> Easy -> Medium -> Hard -> Expert -> back to Novice). Your current difficulty and available difficulties are displayed in the lower-left corner when online. As far as I can tell, unlike previous SMO builds, SM5 does not display the BPM anywhere while you're online (at least, not on the Jousway server); you'll just have to make your best guess.
Room Commands
If you're the room's creator, you are always an Operator, and can use all these commands (even if you're not, there are a few you can still use; I think you can tell which ones). Type a slash followed by the command name, then a space, followed by the name of the player, and hit [Enter] to enact it. SM4/5 have new commands that 3.95 didn't have that come in handy, so read this list even if you've played SMO previously. Type the command exactly as it appears here, slashes, quotes and spaces you see included, and it will work properly.
/c(color)
Changes the color of your chat text. Currently available colors include blue, pink, red, green, cyan and yellow.
/kick PlayerName
Boots them out of the room. They can still re-enter. Great for use as a warning.
/ban PlayerName
Boots them out of the room, and they won't be able to get back in. Use when people just won't listen or obviously lack tons of songs you're trying to play.
/msg "PlayerName" blah blah blah blah
Sends a private message to that player; they're the only one who will see that message.
/op PlayerName
A new command: we no longer have to play round robin for song picking. Stick this command in, and you make that person another room Operator, which enables them to also pick songs and use room commands. Operators have a "+" symbol next to their name so you know who they are.
/deop PlayerName
Takes Operator status away from someone who has it.
/free
Enables Free Mode for your room, which enables everyone to pick songs. Just type the same command in a second time to disable Free Mode.
/mute PlayerName
Silences that player; nobody will be able to see what they're saying. Muted players are labeled with a "-" next to their name (that they won't be able to see, but everyone else will).
/unmute PlayerName
Retracts the mute order on a player.
/noenter
Makes it so nobody else can enter your room. Players already in will not be booted. Like /free, you can just enter this same command again to disable it.
/title New Title
Changes the title of your room on the fly. Helpful in case your room is named after song packs you're playing and you've decided to change what you're playing, or for any number of other reasons.
/description New Description
Changes the description ("subtitle") of your room on the fly. This too is helpful if you've changed your mind on which songpacks you're playing or want to tell potential entries where you got your songs.
