OutFox-alpha.4.9.9HF3 Build - How's that new feature coming along?

New Game! (Incorporates Internal Builds 4.9.9HF-rc0 to 4.9.9HF-rc4)

This build fixes several of the reported bugs, as we had to pull the previous release due to operating system updates between release dates. Sometimes having a monthly release schedule is awesome, but it does tire us out!

Anyways... Lets get back to the update.

This mini hotfix includes a few things we were going to leave to the next release, but as we had to fix bugs in them anyway, it was easier to apply.

Signed Mac builds update!

The big news is we (now finally!) have passed the prerequisites for GateKeeper on Mac, so this hotfix should behave and work fine, without any issues. Do remember to just drag and drop as the dmg lets you know how to do so, and it will run as other applications. Thanks to Jose and Squirrel for their efforts, and Jose for puzzling through, and Jousway for fixing one of the bugs in gh mode which was causing issuess as well.

Notes Loading

There were several issues with the notes loaders and how antivirus/software protection apps were seeing OutFox when we were loading simfiles. This alpha hotfix now has addressed this by allowing you all to add more than one simfile in a song folder, cutting down on the folder rabbit hole. As we move to a more multi-game engine, this will also allow you to keep things tidy on your drive, and ensure it is a seamless experience for you all. Of course, please check the audio files are the same for the chart you are going to add to the folder, as you may find you have a nasty sync issue, but we also now support multidifficulty setups, as this is required for pump and taiko specifically.

Difficulty System Revamp

This hotfix also sees a tweak to the difficulty system used in OutFox. In the past it was tied to the DDR paradigm and then left to rot as one of those 'StepMania Things'. This however really stifled what we could do within the engine, especially with modes with different names/brackets etc. With the release of gddm and taiko we needed more difficulties than the game offered, so this has now been resolved. Themes which are based off of 5.1/5.0.x will still work due to the numbers being the same as before. If there are any issues with your theme, do let us know, but we have tested several with no issues.

New `#VOLUME` and `#PAN`

These features have been missing from our keysound support since 2002, and we are proud to say that we have them in this hotfix! They are completely supported in gddm from the parser, (do reset your cache of course!) and they also work in beat/popn. taiko will need the support as well, so shout out to Jous for putting up with my waaaahh-luigi on getting it added to the game. This build also supports the hidden chips/keysounds for gddm and we'll work on getting the final compatibility added in due course.

New `gh` Modernisation

Due to the need to run with a slightly more secure runtime on Mac OS Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey on the Intel based macs there were some functions in our gh mode which gatekeeper did not approve of. The way the notes were cast have been fixed, fever/star power has been sorted to be more gh3 like, and taps and open strums are also tweaked to be better. Please give them a try and let us know! A theme for this mode is in the works, so apologies for the barebone approach we have at the moment. It's also why we are an alpha after all...

ALL:

Mode Specific

❕✅ Fixed SM/SSC Noteloader corruption with some Japanese and Korean Titles/Artists on dance notesloaders
❕✅ Fixed DTX Noteloader memory leak
❕✅ Fixed DTX Parser missing some drums in gddm mode
❕✅ Fixed BMS Keysounds not seeking/reading correctly
❕✅ Fixed PMS Keysounds not buffering correctly
❕✅ Modernise Keysound system to prevent buffer under-runs
❕✅ Fix BMS/PMS missing channels, Hidden notes will come next Alpha
❕✅ Fix beat crash with charts that had more than 866 keysounds
❕✅ Fix popn crash with charts that had more than 1022 keysounds
❕✅ Fix #VOLUME not being applied correctly to beat and gddm keysounds
❕✅ Fix #PAN not being applied to beat and popn keysounds
❕✅ Fix gh loading crash with some older charts.
❕✅ Fixed RageSound preload causing missing chips in gddm and notes in beat
❕✅ Fixed gh crash due to an overzealous lightsman double update
❕✅ Fixed crash in DTX/BMS/PMS due to strings being over optimised on Mac Intel/Linux
❕✅ Fixed gh note types to please the Mac OS gatekeeper gods
❕✅ Fixed gh open strum notes
❕✅ Fixed gh fever to be closer to gh3
❕✅ New gh HOPO notes system
❕✅ Fixed gh tap notes not showing up sometimes on older CHART files

Engine

❕✅ Fixed Screen msg Bug - Closes 17 year old issue
❕✅ Fixed crash in Jukebox with non-dance modes
❕✅ Fixed overflow in tween awareness - Closes 14 year old issue
❕✅ Fixed Actor overflow on tween actions - Closes 14 year old issue
❕✅ Fixed OptionsPrefs issue - Closes #375
❕✅ Fixed editor scrolling issue
❕✅ Fixed editor buffer overflow when using >496 keysounds
❕✅ Fixed editor input being sent garbage
❕✅ Fixed editor input parser arrays
❕✅ Fixed crash in practice mode
❕✅ Fixed endless loop with some older BMS/PMS charts in practice mode - Thanks EDMSPack
❕✅ Fixed potential buffer overflow exploit in soundreader
❕✅ Fixed keysounds being stopped when they didn't need to be, forcing a reload of the sound
❕✅ Fixed Keysound index system
❕✅ New Added save on exit theme metrics for option screens
❕✅ Fixed freeze on game select screen due to missing module - Thanks Kaede!
❕✅ Modernised the notesloader system in preparation for more loaders
❕✅ Fixed some types of charts being erroroneously skipped during the parse load
❕✅ NEW Multi Sim File Loading from 1 directory
❕✅ NEW Non DDR difficulty system so we can properly support other modes

Linux

❕✅ Fixed crash on linux versions that do not support the new Neutral Vendor libraries
❕✅ Fixed crash on Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch with inifile due to a race condition
❕✅ Fixed edge case crash on Clear/Fedora preventing the game booting on some 4.x / < 5.1 Kernels

ARM32/ARM64: (Raspberry Pi etc)

❕✅ Fixed edge case crash on Twister/Raspbian preventing the game booting on some 4.x Kernels
❕✅ Fixed crash on Raspbian with inifile due to a race condition
❕✅ Fixed crash on RockPi 4B/4C when not using the first HDMI port/Audio

Mac OS

❕✅ Fixed input with guitar hero based controllers
❕✅ Rewrote internal gh mode to fix overly harsh input restrictions
❕✅ Fixed internal system to be signed compliant
❕✅ New enhanced build pipeline to ensure signing passes on Mac OS Intel
❕✅ New streamlined and optimised code for Mac M1 now we are properly signed

KNOWN ISSUES: Alpha 4.9.9HF

❕❌ ISSUE Song Charts will not pan the player correctly when being played
❕❌ ISSUE Playing beat/popnsongs on Endless Mode may have a crash on song loading. Please be aware that course mode for these modes are a bit tempremental at the moment!
❕❌ ISSUE gh mode: Some charts have no real 'standard' and will cause a crash when loaded into the game
❕❌ ISSUE techno/popn/gdgf/gddm/gh/para mode: Trying to use the sync audio screen will crash the game - Use dance to sync your game for now
❕❌ ISSUE gddm mode: We do not support the XA codec at this time, it'll play silent.
❕❌ ISSUE beat/popn/gddm some early (pre2013) songs may play some sound samples / keysounds at the wrong speed

Release Date: 31st July 2021

"Hey! Why don't you just get up and dance, man?\"

(Incorporates Internal Builds 4.9.8.1 to 4.9.8.6BE) (Incorporates Internal Builds 4.9.9-rc0 to 4.9.9-rc8)

Alpha Statistics

Commits	Changed files	Additions	Deletions
433	2079	185,205	29,552

In Memorium of SHIKI, a long running well known game music musician, who gave us over two decades of music spanning dance, vocaloid and techno, most of which was charted into BMS, SM and others, sadly passed away this month.

This alpha, our loading screen is in memory of one of his more famous StepMania Based Charts, Air.

Air

Digitalic Rain

Angellic Layer

SETSUNA (feat. Hatsune Miku)

Rest In Peace.

SHIKI ?? - 6th July 2021.

TEXTURE FONT GENERATOR V0.34

❕✅🐲📝 Added ? & ! to number glyph profile
❕✅🐲📝 Fixed MFC overflow preventing compile
❕✅🐲📝 Fixed PNG causing a crash on legacy codepages
❕✅🐲📝 Fixed compile on visual studio community 2019

This build requires a cache reset if you are on Linux or MacOS, due to the internal changes. Please find your save folder and delete the contents of /cache. This will make your first time run of 4.9.9 slightly longer as it has to rebuild the index, but it is to accommodate the new modes/setup etc. Please remember to restart the game after doing a cache build, so you do not have as many issues with memory management.

New (and some Old!) Modes Update Version 2

Following on from the last release, we have continued to improve and revamp the note system for the new modes, with Jousway taking the time to make available new types and styles available that were never before. This month fixes some omissions we made from the last release, which slipped through the testing teams.

`pump`

2021-07-24_180342

We have fixed the scoring bug that was in the previous build, and thank you for those who took the time to report the issues. Keep in mind that Soundwaves still uses 'dance' paradigms for scoring, but other themes that use different scoring systems based on 'pump/piu' should work correctly now.

The tick-count has been tweaked to work correctly as there was a miscalculation in the offset math inherited from upstream. This now behaves as expected.

2021-07-24_203214

Getting random misses on hold heads has been resolved as well as the holds with small tails (mini/micro holds).

Support for co-op charts has been added. 5 player is introduced with up to 10 players support, though the noteskins have not been prepared at this time. The numbers on the noteskins are separately labeled so with a few adjustments and extra assets you will be able to update any noteskin to work with co-op. Co-op charts made on StepF2/StepP1 should work on OutFox, however, better note types are currently being developed by Jousway so that there can be more than 3 real players defined. Stay tuned!

Those of you who have reported that we still have a 'superb' bug on holds, this will be fixed when we introduce the new piu mode - remember the pump mode is getting Quality of Life updates for now, before we move over to updating things properly in the future.

Micro/Miniholds also do not trigger misses/cause a weird tick to happen anymore, and there also are no 'phantom' mines in long (5+ measure) holds - this was an oddity which has been fixed now.

pump2

We're still working on improving SF2/SP1 custom charts parsing. Except for a few charts, you can play the majority of content made for it on OutFox with no problems. As always, if you find any oddities make sure you report them to us!

`popn`

There was also a reported issue where some of the channels (lanes) of the PMS 7 button mode were not parsing correctly, or were actually being missed completely, resulting in a chart 'misplacing' green and blue lanes. This was due to Squirrel misreading the spec on how BMS98/PMS was transcribed and set up the function wrong. It is fixed in this release.

We also have added 18 lane mode (No PMS/(BME) File support yet though!)

Thank you to all of those that took the time to report this and to kick us into getting outfox into a proper BMS/PMS parser. There are still a few features missing from po-mu mode, but these will be added to the game as per the spec (see the table below for more information.)

popn mode also had a few tweaks and adjustments this alpha mainly in how keysounds are loaded within the game. This should now mean the mode should be smoother overall.

Thanks to the channels being set right, we also are happy to announce another feature to 'popn' mode: 2 player! This was not available on the original client, but it did always irk us how there was never 2 player options other than 3 button battle. In a future update, there will be a battle mode for 'popn' but for now, enjoy the 2 player fun. We will finally be having a theme for 'popn' in OutFox really soon, so this is finally a move from the 'dance' centric era of the application's past.

Have some fun with mod files from dance on popn-four

`beat` will be getting some attention this next quarter!

`para`

We have given this mode a polish (and for those with an arcade cab, with 3 sensors doing nothing!) we added the 'fabled' 360, or 8 sensor mode. This mode was designed for in the arcade for when the player twirls or turns, but was never actioned. The sensors for the back are actually there! This mode adds that, and for those who feel adventurous, we will be publishing some information on how to make your own 360 8 sensor panel controller in due course.

`taitai`

Announcing our 15th mode!

TaiTai is based off of a popular game where you hit a drum in it's face. The game is horizontally based, with the notes travelling from right to left, and you hit the drum when the note gets to the receptor. The orange notes are for the inner part of the drum, and the blue ones are for the outer rim of the drum.

For the moment, some of the quirkier parts of this mode are a work in progress, bear with us as we also write new parsers for this mode. We plan to add support for the special note types and other effects in the game, as well as improve timing and other bits and pieces that are still yet to do.

Once more, we have no theme for this yet! (We are an alpha after all!) However, we will have a theme available for this soon that will give the mode polish and a playable feel.

We still have the scoring and timing system to finish, along with effects on double notes/taps and the 'roll' notes which you hit as much as you can. Feel free to give it a run and let us know what you think!

There is a collection of noteskins including Shizuka, Crystal TaiTai and others.

The autogen for this mode has been rewritten by Jousway to include a more TaiTai aware selection of notes, so that we do not get odd holds/overlaps in things. Give it a try!

`gddm`

This release sees the long awaited updates to our gddm mode!

The lane drawing has been fixed, so that notes or 'chips' as they are referred to display correctly, and we have properly sorted out the 'merged' lane support.

We have planned to 'straddle' support for the DTXMania NX/Ver. K layouts for the specified channels from the documentation, as these appear to be the most popular branches of this. A detailed channel support list will follow later on.

As of this build we have fixed loading .DTX files and these support most of the DRUM based side of the loading, see the table below. This will be improved in time, as we get better knowledge of this system.

We also support the 'combined' lane system which adds lane 2 and lane 3's extra notes, and Real mode (again, REAL filenames are yet to be parsed as such, the engine makes a 'guess' on this!)

gddm still needs a lot of work, and optimisation before we will consider it 'ready', so do expect the odd quirk or weird behaviour, and let us know what you think/would like to see as we define the mode and it's featureset and support. we will be working on the gdgf parser in the coming months so that the guitar/bass charts will work as well.

We do not support XA file decoding at this time, we are looking into options. If you have a dtx file with XA files contained, they will just be played as silence, but won't crash the game.

Current BMS/PMS/DTX Notedata support as of 4.9.9

Key:

✅ Fully supported and used in Mode
✓ Fully supported and not used in Mode
📝? No Documentation on this channel's support
❌ Not Supported / Not Available
~ Not Used

Channel Support Table

BMS / PMS / DTX Channel	BMS Name	PMS Name	DTX Name	OutFox BMS Support	OutFox PMS Support	OutFox DTX Support	OutFox Status Comments	NX/Ver. K Support
01	Background Music	Background Music	Background Music	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
02	Measure Length	Measure length	Measure Multiplication factor	✅	✅	❌	Supported / OutFox Channel 2 lasts a measure on DTX	✅
03	Set Initial BPM	Set Initial BPM	Set Initial BPM	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
04	BGA Base	BG Base	BG Layer 1	✅	✅	✅	Supported - needs enabling	✅
05	eXtended Object	eXtended Object	eXtended Object	✅	✅	✅	Supported	📝?
06	BGA Layer Miss	BGA Poor	Not Used	✅	✅	✓	Supported - needs enabling	~
07	BGA Layer	BG Layer	BG Layer 2	✅	✅	✅	Supported - needs enabling sits above channel 4	✅
08	Extended BPM	Set BPM	Extended BPM	✅	✅	✅	Supported - Changes bpm to value	✅
09	Stop	Stop	Not Used	✅	✓	✓	Supported	~
0A	BGA Layer 2	BGA Layer 2	Not Used	✅	✅	✓	Supported, used for BMS/PMS	~
0B	BGA Base Opacity	BGA Base Opacity	Not Used	❌	❌	~	Not Supported	~
0C	BGA Layer Opacity	Not Used	Not Used	❌	~	~	Not Supported	~
0D	BGA Layer 2 Opacity	Not Used	Not Used	❌	~	~	Not Supported	~
0E	BGA Poor Opacity	BGA Poor Opacity	Not Used	❌	❌	~	Not Supported	~
0F	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~

BMS / PMS / DTX Channel	BMS Name	PMS Name	DTX Name	OutFox BMS Support	OutFox PMS Support	OutFox DTX Support	OutFox Status Comments	NX/Ver. K Support
10	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~
11	P1 Key 1	P1 Left White	HiHatClose	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
12	P1 Key 2	P1 Left Yellow	Snare	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
13	P1 Key 3	P1 Left Green	Bass Drum	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
14	P1 Key 4	P1 Left Blue	High Tom	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
15	P1 Key 5	P1 Red	Low Tom	✅	✅	✅	Supported	✅
16	P1 Turn/Scratch	Not Used	Cymbal	✅	~	✅	Supported	✅
17	P1 FootPedal	Not Used	Floor Tom	❌	~	✅	Supported	✅
18	P1 Key 6	Not Used	High Hat Open	✅	~	✅	Supported	✅
19	P1 Key 7	Not Used	Ride Cymbal	✅	~	✅	Supported	✅
1A	Not Used	Not Used	Left Cymbal	~	~	✅	Supported	✅
1B	Not Used	Not Used	Left Pedal	~	~	✅	Supported	✅
1C	Not Used	Not Used	Left Bass Drum	~	~	✅	Supported	✅
1D	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Supported	~
1E	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Supported	~
1F	Not Used	Not Used	Drums Fill in Sound	~	~	✅	Supported	✅

BMS / PMS / DTX Channel	BMS Name	PMS Name	DTX Name	OutFox BMS Support	OutFox PMS Support	OutFox DTX Support	OutFox Status Comments	NX/Ver. K Support
20	Not Used	Not Used	Guitar OPEN	~	~	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
21	P2 Key 1	Not Used	Guitar xxBxx	✅	✅	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
22	P2 Key 2	P1 Right Blue	Guitar xGxxx	✅	✅	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
23	P2 Key 3	P1 Right Green	Guitar xGBxx	✅	✅	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
24	P2 Key 4	P1 Right Yellow	Guitar Rxxxx	✅	✅	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
25	P2 Key 5	P1 Right White	Guitar RxBxx	✅	✅	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
26	P2 Turn/Scratch	Not Used	Guitar RGxxx	✅	~	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
27	P2 FootPedal	Not Used	Guitar RGBxx	❌	~	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
28	P2 Key 6	Not Used	Guitar Wail	✅	~	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅
29	P2 Key 7	Not Used	Not Supported	✅	~	~	Supported	~
2A	Not Used	Not Used	Not Supported	~	~	~	Not Used	~
2B	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~
2C	Not Used	Not Used	Guitar Long Note Start/End Point	~	~	~	Not Supported	~ AL
2D	Not Used	Not Used	Bass Long Note Start/End Point	~	~	~	Not Supported	~ AL
2E	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Supported	~
2F	Not Used	Not Used	Guitar Wailing Sound	~	~	❌	Not Supported yet on DTX	✅

BMS / PMS / DTX Channel	BMS Name	PMS Name	DTX Name	OutFox BMS Support	OutFox PMS Support	OutFox DTX Support	OutFox Status Comments	NX/Ver. K Support
30	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~
31	P1 Key 1 Hidden	P1 Left White Hidden	HiHatClose Hidden Note	❌	❌	✅	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
32	P1 Key 2 Hidden	P1 Left Yellow Hidden	Snare Hidden Note	❌	❌	✅	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
33	P1 Key 3 Hidden	P1 Left Green Hidden	Bass Drum Hidden Note	❌	❌	✅	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
34	P1 Key 4 Hidden	P1 Left Blue Hidden	High Tom Hidden Note	❌	❌	✅	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
35	P1 Key 5 Hidden	Not Used	Low Tom Hidden Note	❌	~	✅	BMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
36	P1 Turn/Scratch Hidden	Not Used	Cymbal Hidden Note	❌	~	✅	BMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
37	P1 FootPedal Hidden	Not Used	Floor Tom Hidden Note	❌	~	✅	BMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
38	P1 Key 6 Hidden	Not Used	High Hat Open Hidden Note	❌	~	✅	BMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
39	P1 Key 7 Hidden	Not Used	Ride Cymbal Hidden Note	❌	~	✅	BMS in 4.9.10 \ Supported	✅
3A	Not Used	Not Used	Left Cymbal Hidden Note	~	~	✅	Supported	✅
3B	Not Used	Not Used	Left Pedal Hidden Note	~	~	✅	Supported	✅
3C	Not Used	Not Used	Left Bass Drum Hidden Note	~	~	✅	Supported	✅
3D	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Supported	~
3E	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Supported	~
3F	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Supported	~

BMS / PMS / DTX Channel	BMS Name	PMS Name	DTX Name	OutFox BMS Support	OutFox PMS Support	OutFox DTX Support	OutFox Status Comments	NX/Ver. K Support
40	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~
41	P2 Key 1 Hidden	Not Used	Not Used	❌	❌	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
42	P2 Key 2 Hidden	P1 Right Blue Hidden	Not Used	❌	❌	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
43	P2 Key 3 Hidden	P1 Right Green Hidden	Not Used	❌	❌	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
44	P2 Key 4 Hidden	P1 Right Yellow Hidden	Not Used	❌	❌	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
45	P2 Key 5 Hidden	P1 Right White Hidden	Not Used	❌	❌	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
46	P2 Turn/Scratch Hidden	Not Used	Not Used	❌	~	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
47	P2 FootPedal Hidden	Not Used	Not Used	❌	~	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
48	P2 Key 6 Hidden	Not Used	Not Used	❌	~	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
49	P2 Key 7 Hidden	Not Used	Not Used	❌	~	~	BMS/PMS in 4.9.10	~
4A	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~
4B	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	~	~	~	Not Used	~
4C	Not Used	Not Used	Bonus 04	~	~	❌	Not Supported	✅
4D	Not Used	Not Used	Bonus 03	~	~	❌	Not Supported	✅
4E	Not Used	Not Used	Bonus 02	~	~	❌	Not Supported	✅
4F	Not Used	Not Used	Bonus 01	~	~	❌	Not Supported	✅

Sound Effect Channels 01 to 32 on DTX are also supported.

For the complete table see Our Wiki (coming shortly as squirrel needs to finish writing them!)

Reordered Game Mode Select Screen

This alpha with the fact we have begun to introduce new modes and features, we have reordered the game modes based on some player/community feedback, with the 'lesser' or 'niche' modes moving down a bit in the order. Makes it easier to find things you need, and please give us feedback if you feel a mode needs more representing/love!

Mac OS builds are now signed!

We have finally passed all the requirements to be able to sign the binary, so this means no more xattr stuff anymore! we just act like any other application.

Mode Status:

New Cross Platform MIDI Driver!

Due to the interest we had been getting from the past two alpha releases in the form of gddm and techno, several players that were not on windows did enquire about the possibility of there being a new MIDI driver available for Mac and Linux users to make use of for their midi fighters, e-drums, etc and we decided as a team to move forward and produce one.

The midi driver stands alone, there is no need to have any extra applications 'translating' it to keystrokes, (unless you're doing midi via an iphone or something like that of course), but native midi controllers work a treat. If you have a midi device and want to try this out, you will need to load up your preferences.ini in your save folder, locate the inputdrivers= part, and then make sure it looks like this inputdrivers=portmidi,SDL

This will allow the midi driver to load, and set up your device. We have currently coded it for a single device at a time, but do let us know if you feel there is a need for multiple device support, or if you find a device that doesn't behave!

I also was able to make a prototype mini FSR pad for midi using a teensy LC and some tiny FSR sensors:

This worked a treat, so you can definitely get on to some tinkering if you want to make your own devices to play the game!

This driver works on Windows, Linux, RPi, Mac OS (intel) / Mac OS (M1) and Rockchip aarch64 SoCs

We are still working on latency and control, so let us know if you find anything quirky!

Windows legacy input driver

There has also been work done on a small side part of the game, while we have been waiting for a fix from upstream in regards to the 'polling/framerate' issue that a lot of folks have helping us diagnose for some time. The long and the short of the issue, it meant on some songs, the input would skew towards the update loop rather than honouring it's timestamp, thus producing 'spikes' on the scoring graph at the end of the song, and make a odd looking 'stair' display on the scatter plot of the steps and judgements taken.

To resolve this while we're waiting a fix, we have reimplemented the old legacy driver that was on 5.2/5.1 and adapted it for OutFox. This driver can be tempremental, but it seemed to behave with the devices we tested it with. If you tend to find that your input is affected with the message loop issue, you can set up the driver with the following instructions.

You will need to load up your preferences.ini in your save folder, locate the inputdrivers= part, and then make sure it looks like this inputdrivers=legacy,minisdl

(if you wish to use the new portmidi driver as well you can use InputDrivers=legacy,minisdl,portmidi)

This will allow you to run the game with minimal resources, keeping vsync on, and should remove any previous issues of fps/rate/polling problems. When we have the fix from upstream, we'll revisit and modernise this with the newer drivers and processes.

On the 'test input' screen, you will see a new Window Handler 'Aux' driver. This is just the driver that manages the window controls, maximises, fullscreens, etc, so no need to worry about it. This will also show you, that you have the correct drivers selected in the inputdrivers setting.

Rate and Pitch Changes:

Due to an overwhelming set of requests, we have taken time to fix and modernise the rate/haste system which had been broken for a bit since this project began.

Pitch seemed to be a lottery (though we had not seen it work) and all the rate mod used to do was seemingly speed up the song with no other effect or option being honoured.

Similarly, we have moved the ratemod to the first screen of the song options - thanks to the stamina players that popped in to request this, and to mattm for saying that most wanted a speed AND pitch option, which we have called 'both' internally to signify this change.

The new layout looks like so:

We have fixed the way the off/speed/pitch/speed and pitch options work, so they actually work. This took quite a bit of time to fix the internal pipelines for these, but the end effect is definitely fun. Thanks to Squirrel, Jousway and Jose for bringing this one up the pipeline to get it done for this release!

To ensure compatibility with legacy themes, the system 'defaults' to how it was in 5.0.12, with a 0.01x increase, and being on the main menu as folks requested. This is a long overdue Quality of Life update for this, so we're really pleased it's done.