Dancing Monkeys: Automatically Generate step files for DDR

Michael Scofield.Stg · Trick Member Joined: 25 Jan 2004

Well I have the full song it's about 3 minutes if anyone would help me out by syncing it I would be glad to make the banner and do the steps by hand. The only reason I needed DM is to sync.

splunge · Trick Member Joined: 17 May 2004 Location: Atlanta, GA

Im running win2kpro. Hmmm. i could try it on my xp machine.

Cyan Garamonde (Nosaj) · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:55 pm Post subject:

Vyse · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:30 pm Post subject:

just tried 2 songs and it didnt work for either, saying that it couldnt confidentally find the BPM.
for the record, the songs were the War of The Worlds theme, and Duality by Slipknot.
maybe i should try something with a bit more of a regular beat, although i thought the WOTW theme would work.

pity there isnt a way to make it know that it cant find the BPM before you take the time to re-encode the file and all the time consuming stuff.

once i find a song that it works with, genius program! so many songs that i wanna play DDR to, but too lazy to make my own steps for it

_________________

If you don't like someone, try walking a mile in their shoes. If you still don't like them, you're a mile away and have their shoes!

Rona · Basic Member Joined: 11 Jun 2004

C:\Documents and Settings\Cameron\>cd\

C:\>cd DancingMonkeys

C:\DancingMonkeys>cd bin

C:\DancingMonkeys\bin>cd win32

C:\DancingMonkeys\bin\win32.dancingmonkeys.exe "C:\Music\sbtechno.mp3"
Initialised.
Can't init outfile '..\..\Temp Music\Temp Song.wav'
ERROR: Error decoding music.

Umm. Yea I am brand new to DOS and I have no clue what is wrong. I looked through all the pages and saw nothing about this so help would be greatly appricated.

Cyan Garamonde (Nosaj) · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:50 pm Post subject:

icywindow · Basic Member Joined: 29 May 2004

Senoir Salsa · Trick Member Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Location: BelAir, MD

It said it couldnt find the .fid file

Green Eye Infection · Basic Member Joined: 09 Jun 2004

well, here's a question that I will probably not get an answer to, because I don't think anyone has tried it before, but is there a degree of randomness involved in the calculation of the song that would cause it to be different if I DMd it a second time around? Also, an idea (even though I understand its not a very feasible one, so please don't flame): Would it be possible to have a version of DM in which you basically fed it songs (ie put songs in a folder, have it running in Kazzaa type form) where it compiled the information and learned how to put in the arrows more accurately? That would help a ton, and if there is any way I could help with this (even though I suck and programing) I'd do all I could. Anyways, cya later (btw, strongbad techno?)

_________________

PINK eye is Dangerous. GREEN eye is lethal

Nightime · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: anywhere else

I'd like to give this program a run for it. After all, if all else fails, it would easier to edit a DWI than make one for scratch. I do have a couple of questions/suggestion though...

QUESTIONS:

Q1. Does it handle beats other than 4/4?

Q2. Does it handle 1/3 notes, like in blues music, or abstract songs like "Burning Heat!"?

Q3. Can it toggle between these different styles, readily?

Q4. How consistent is the consistency (IE: does it do similar LR-flipped sections, or L/R-rotated patterns at all; or is it all copy-paste)?

Q5. Can it compose for medley-type stages, such as the DDR Solo Nonstops?

Q6. If so (each), to what extent?

Q7. Does it only make single sets, or does it do Solo/Double/Couple as well? *never mind, saw on the site... change to "no it won't", or "no it doesn't quite yet"?*

Q8. Can it do more than one difficulty rating at a time, and when will it support Beginner/Challenge?

Q9. Can you add an additional argument to half or double the tempo for a song, for gameplay purposes?

Note that I'll probably learn this and more the hard way as I attempt a file for "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas; I hope I'll remember to comment on this...

SUGGESTIONS:

S1. Perhaps a Groove-Radar-like setting can be used to toggle the type of action preffered to be used, more specifically than a foot rating. Maybe add a "Spin" and "Consistency/Randomness" tag as well.

S2. Maybe add an option that plays the audio, and users simply tap buttons to approximate where they'd like the input. For example, pressing 2 at once will indicate jumps/skips, holding a key down would trigger a freeze, etc. The machine would simply edit the directional sequence, and fine-tune the details later.

S3. Could add a "demonstration stepset" argument to the program, to use patterns similar, but not identical, to an example. Thus, if a player likes lots of pivots (runs where one foot stays on a single arrow), they can sample from "Wonderland", "Gimme Gimme", or "Furuhata's Theme"; if they want twisty runs and skips, they can sample "Rhythm & Police" or "Speed Over Beethoven"...

Another EDIT: Q10. How well does it represent the difficulties, and does it support multi-digit ones (like 10's)? IMHO... difficulties are as follows:

1. (As per beginner mode) Any sequencial steps are identical to those before it, and any change gives a full beat in between. Only A (DU) and B (LR) jumps appear.

2. Sequencial steps may be added in simple go-round patterns, but breaks are often still given.

3. More continious action, sometimes even measure-long. Spin patterns are introduced (not just "U L D R" ones, but more creative ones like "L D U L" as well).

4. Half-beats are introduced, but only used between 2 arrows at a time, and never right before or after a jump; OR "Corner Jumps" are introduced (7 9 1 3). Some stages do 3/8 beats at this point too. (I'm Alive BASS version is the only L3 I've seen do that)

5. Both elements of 4 are used together; 3/16 note patterns are introduced (Well, 1/16's, but not consecutively so).

6. Half-beats can be used consecutively up to 7x, or in simple repeating patterns. IMHO, simple run patterns COULD go here, but official DDR ain't quite that way. Triplets can include jumps at the start/end.

7. Can be simple runs (Kick the Can, Dream A Dream, etc.), more note-based steps; simple skipping patterns (Together & Forever, 1.2.3.4.007, etc.). Beat action is more jump-focused.

8. Runs can have points where you use your left foot on right/vice versa (Boom Boom Dollar, Wonderland), and can include occasional jumps on lower BPM's (The Race, Upside Down, Shooting Star). "Voltage" occurs, but often only on 2 arrows. Half-beat jump patterns, more twisty/involving skips patterns (In the Navy '99, Take Me Away).

9. Pretty much just like 8's, but in patterns that are particularly misdirectional to an extent (Afronova, PARANOiA Rebirth, Twilight Zone), involve more constant effort (Dead End, So Deep), or have arcane timing in spots (Leading Cyber, Gradiusic Cyber, Stay).

10. Incorporates multiple facets of 9's together, but not necessarily in an impossible-to-play way. MAX 300, SAKURA, and PARANOiA Survivor are good examples of this. Stuff that is impossible to foot-pass should go in 11+.

EDIT: Mods, dunno if you agree, but I think this is worth "sticky" status (if not "announcement").

narumi-kun · Basic Member Joined: 24 Jun 2004

i get two errors trying to do a song

one says unable to output truncated version of the song Please copy to origional to output directory... then it keeps going...

but after

Created Arrow Patterns for each difficulty level--- after that finishes i get this error
ERROR: Invalid Fid

EXITING
_________________

If my brains were bullets i would be shooting blanks

Cyan Garamonde (Nosaj) · Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:49 am Post subject:

Ramen Junkie · Basic Member Joined: 09 Jun 2004 Location: springfield, IL

There doesn't seem to be muxh information on how to work this thing in Matlab. I made the changes to the Dancingmonkeys.m file that were suggested earlier in the thread but I still can't seem to get it to work. It just doesn't seem to recognize the file as being there so maybe it's a problem using Matlab.
_________________

--
Ramen Junkie

SilverSniper2 · Basic Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

C:\Program Files\Dancing Monkeys\bin\win32>Dancingmonkeys.exe "C:\Documents and
Settings\Eric\Desktop\My Shared Folder\Escaflowne - Battle Theme.mp3"
Initialised.
Can't init outfile '..\..\Temp Music\Temp Song.wav'
ERROR: Error decoding music.

EXITING

some1 help!

SilverSniper2 · Basic Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

i tried this instead and now it has trhis problem? can anyone solve either?

C:\Program Files\Dancing Monkeys\bin\win32>dancingmonkeys.exe C:\documents and s
ettings\eric\desktop\my shared folder\cassidy-hotel.mp3 4 1 7
ERROR: Run-time Error: File: dancingmonkeys Line: 4 Column: 1 The function "danc
ingmonkeys" was called with more than the declared number of inputs (7).

EXITING

meyer_m · Basic Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

How long does the calculated peak to beat offset line last?
I am on a 300 mhz pentium 2 processor with 160 mb of ram and plenty of physical memory.

Cyan Garamonde (Nosaj) · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:46 pm Post subject:

TRIPLEG · Trick Member Joined: 16 Aug 2002 Location: California

Hey i dont know if this has been asked before but every time i try to start up the program the program screen pops up then disappears very quickly and i cant seem to get it to work at all i run on windows xp so any help would greatly be appreciated

_________________

JSB IS A HACK
I HOPE U ALL TRIP!!!!!!!!!

SilverSniper2 · Basic Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

oh ill help u
that happend to me too before i read the thing

ok here wut u do

click start
click run
type in cmd
now drag the dancingmonkeys.exe into it

and it opens

spacepirate · Basic Member Joined: 13 Jul 2004

If other fixes for the "invalid fid" error didn't work for you, try this one!

None of the other fixes worked for me, but when i tried icyshadow's Dancing Monkeys frontend (program that enters stuff in command prompt/DOS for you) it worked and didn't give me an error! You can download the frontend here:

http://icywindow.100free.com/dancingmonkeysfrontend.zip
(If it doesn't work copy the link into your browser)

Even if Dancing Monkeys already works for you, this program makes it a lot easier to use Dancing Monkeys. It outputs into the DM output folder.

Thanks for the great frontend, icyshadow!

EDIT: Is there anyway to automate dancing monkey conversions? I read about Kornshell earlier in the thread but upon finding the website it was a bit too in-depth for me.