FAQ

This page has some of the more commonly asked questions pitched to us from the community, remember if you cannot find your answer here, feel free to ask in the discord server!

Project OutFox builds upon the existing StepMania 5.0.12/5.1 beta codebase, and maintaining backwards compatibility with older content is one of our main priorities. Content that worked on StepMania 5.0.12/5.1 (including songs, themes, and noteskins) should still work on OutFox. If you experience any issues/weirdness, please report it to us.

Side note for developers

Please note that we are deprecating the use of semicolon-separated cmd() blocks (i.e. OnCommand=cmd(linear,1.5;diffusealpha,1); ) as a means of placing commands on actors in Lua scripts, as this method is a non-standard Lua function that was created for StepMania, and OutFox is not optimized with this coding style in mind (themes may experience performance penalties if they use this method). It is strongly recommended that function chaining (i.e. code such as OnCommand=function(self) self:linear(1.5):diffusealpha(1) end, ) be used instead.

Yes. Our installer on Windows also defaults to portable mode, so user profile data is stored in your installation directory.

If you would like to have a shared song library between multiple builds, you can use the AdditionalSongFolders preference in Save/Preferences.ini to specify a path. Learn how to here

If you can, do those in our Issue Tracker Repository, by creating an issue it’ll give you those exact options that I mentioned in the question.

You can also use this Discord Server:

Use “feature-request” channel to request features or give ideas. Use “bugs-crashlogs” channel to report bugs and game crashes.

You can also use our forum

• You can report bugs and make feature suggestions on our Discord server.
• TinyFoxes is coordinating and hosting community-produced content for Project OutFox, such as translations and other add-ons.

Go into your game folder and check if there’s a file called portable.ini (or just portable if your system doesn’t display file extensions). If there’s a portable.ini in your game folder then all you need to do is open the Logs folder and you’ll find all logs, the most important one being log.txt. (Try to do this after closing the game)

If there’s no portable.ini in your game folder, then you need to go into a specific path based on your OS:

• Windows: appdata/roaming/Project OutFox
• Mac: ~/Library/Logs/OutFox/
• Linux: /home/user/.OutFox

Project OutFox uses XInput, it means controllers need to get mapped first and then never again. It means every single controller should work with Project OutFox

The game doesn’t even try to auto-map things yet, there’s a tutorial step-by-step how to map

• Chart: How we call Songs that you can play in OutFox. (osu! players calls them Maps)
• Mods: Modded charts that uses Lua to change how the game operates.
• Pad Chart/Keyboard Chart: If the chart was design for people that play in pad or for keyboard.
• Hold: A note that you have to hold to not miss it.
• Drill/Roll: A note that you have to keep hitting to not miss it.
• NG: Missed Hold/(Drill or Roll)
• Doublestep: When you have to use the same foot to hit 2 different notes. RUDRU for example (R = Right, U = Up, D = Down)
• Ghosttap: When you hit a place where there’s no step.
• 4th,8th,12th: Note types and colors, 4th: red arrow (hit after each beat), 8th: blue arrow (hit after each half beat), 12th: green arrow (hit after each 1/3 beat)..it goes on.
• Playfield/Notefield/Receptors/PlayerBoards: The targets that notes are going to reach. In dance, the 4 notes that are always at the top. In pump, the 5 notes that are always at the top.
• Lifts: Note that you have to stop holding the moment they reach the play field.

Yes, in the future.

From the Team:

The project began as a method to add online and profiles to SM5, but when we looked into the engine to see how this could be appropriated it was discovered just how much in a sorry state the code base was, and it looked mostly abandoned. We spoke to Shakesoda in hopes of a resurrection in the form of a team project, and it was requested rather than breaking 10 years of content and community to take the time to make a proper 5.x build that is stable and supports what the community as a whole wants from the game. This backward compatibility support has been very problematic to maintain, but it’s something now we are down the line which we are proud of, as it has brought many newcomers and veteran players back to the community, and provided a very stable experience for folks during the lock down. We will continue to try to attain a near 100% compatibility where we can, and this is taken into consideration whenever we plan a new feature or change engine components.

In the beginning of the project we wanted to be the natural progression of 5.1, but due to resistance and feedback from the community, we have made the decision to adjust the returning of code back to the repo in the future. The aim has always been to open source when the project is in a releasable state, which gives us enough time to realise our plans for the project and the direction we wanted to take OutFox in. We read the community loud and clear in terms of their wishes and needs for StepMania, so we will not disturb that paradigm.

We asked if it was ok to close the source while this process was done, and it was deemed wise for the health of the repo and the need of people who are just wanting to play. Its why we’ve been around the repo but not on it as taint can happen and we do not wish this. SSC did this same behaviour before us, so we did not see it as a problem. Some vocal members of the community disagreed, including some of the previous SMDev Team. We have also been compared to past SM repo contributors who may have left a less than savoury memory in the minds of some, and it has also been hard to differentiate from history we have no involvement with.

Moving forward with the project, it has become apparent that OutFox has moved beyond a lot of what the community expects StepMania to be, and has grown into a project that is well beyond just being a DDR or ITG clone. We have had to ‘rename’ our internal branding and naming conventions away from StepMania, this was due to us wishing to license/digitally sign the binaries we make, and with gaining this with the SM name being almost impossible, we had to change name to OutFox. Moving forward we continue to keep this promise to ensure our builds are signed on Mac OS (and soon Windows) so it makes the game play experience better for everyone. With us also releasing on Steam it has become even more important that we continue consistent naming conventions.

The project is about providing a free game with unencumbered assets and also packs of properly licensed content for the community, and this covers more than dance alone. We are not for profit, we do not ever wish to profit from this community, as we have been part of it for so long. We will announce more information in due course about our future, for now we are as excited as you on the progression of this project.

Currently the game features two modes: a HIDAPI-based “Legacy” input system, similar in behaviour to the input system seen in StepMania 5.0, and an XInput-compliant input system (additional configuration is needed to use unrecognized controllers in this mode, see here for more information). If you are unable to map any buttons to the game, try switching modes to Legacy, available as an option in the Experimental Settings menu, or follow the guide mentioned above on how to map your controller with XInput.

Short answer: no it’s not available, yes it’s coming. Long answer: It’ll take a while, the engine is still being optimised and the online system is still in development (being done by Cube).

This doesn’t mean Online isn’t important for us, it’s a lot, it was one of Team Rizu first plans but the engine just wasn’t ready for their plans.

Resume: As your read this, both the game engine and online mode are still in development.

In the game folder there’s a folder called Appearance, where you’ll find a folder for each of those mentioned features.

Open Avatars folder and drop any png, jpg, gif into there with any name you want. Now in-game go into Options > Profiles > Select any already created profile (or create one) > edit > change avatar image, now you can select any image that is inside the Avatars folder.

Open Themes folder and drop here any theme that supports 5.x.

Open NoteSkins folder, open the folder that represents what game mode the noteskin is made for, drop the NoteSkin Folder there.

You can find more noteskins in https://projectoutfox.com/addons/noteskins

Open Judgments, drop the judgment image there. Do not change the name of the judgments you download, they’re important so the game knows what part of the image the game should get)

Open Toasties, drop the game Toasty folder there. (The game can come with 2 toasties in the installer options)

If your log shows WDDM1.0 or WDDM1.1 at the end of the graphics card name:

00:00.505: Last seen video driver: Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.0)

or the log shows Microsoft GDI as the Renderer

Then you are running the OpenGL crippled ‘windows’ driver that is downloaded on a fresh install. Project OutFox will not work on these drivers, as we do not support DirectX anymore (the old D3D renderer that 5.0.12/5.1 has)

There is a list of drivers at this site location that may help, but for some of these cards, you need to keep your windows 7 install disc handy!

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005733/graphics.html

Update: If you accidentally updated your windows to beyond the support given to you by Intel, so you moved to windows 8.1/10 from 7 then there is still hope! you can take a chance with the Mesa OpenGL replacer for legacy software, which adds an API extension over Microsoft. You can find it here: https://github.com/pal1000/mesa-dist-win/releases/latest

HOW TO USE?

Download Mesa3d for Windows: mesa3d-xxxx-release-msvc.exe

• Extract it (either with a double-click or right-click 7-zip)
• In the extraction folder of Mesa, go to x64, select and copy opengl32.dll
• In the extraction folder of Project OutFox, go to /program and paste opengl32.dll
• it may now use the proper dll

Also see https://fdossena.com/?p=mesa/index.frag for a windows working solution.

And for a detailed guide for intel users: (Some computer literacy needed) https://gist.github.com/rb-dahlb/26f316c5b6089807a139fc44ee69f0d1

Everyone on this list is part of OutFox Team and works on OutFox: see list

International Moderators/Translators/Alpha Testers/Tiny-Foxes indirectly helps OutFox development but they aren’t part of the OutFox Team.

If you see anyone else saying they work on OutFox then do not trust and please report to us. You can always ask at our Discord Server

Install either libglvnd and/or libopengl0 based on your distro. On some distros the package is known as libglvnd-opengl.

If you receive errors such as “No noteskins found” or other unusual behavior, you will have to change macOS security settings in order for Project OutFox to operate correctly. MacOS performs a process every time a new program has been downloaded called quarantine, which will require Gatekeeper (The OS’s security manager) to verify its signature. The OS does not trust unsigned applications, and prevents access to external files unless given manual permission by the user.

To do this, open Terminal and run the following command: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /path/to/OutFox, replacing /path/to/OutFox with the path to the directory containing the OutFox executable (manually typing it out, or dragging the folder containing the game executable directly onto the window to fill it automatically).

On older builds, macOS Catalina also generated a message stating that the game was requesting permission to receive keystrokes from any application. This was a side effect of previous code that has since been removed.

This is due to the renderer not supporting scaled screens yet. To fix this, right-click the game executable and select “Get info” (or highlight the file and press Command (⌘)+I, and toggle the “Open in Low Resolution” option under General.

The modes as of Alpha 4.14.0 (April 2022) are as follows:

Name      | Description
----------|------------
dance     | The classic 4k dance game + Solo (3, 4, 6 and 8 (Double) Panels)
pump      | 5k diagonal dance game  (5, 6 (HalfDouble), 10 (Double)) based off of the pro era (SM4)
kbx       | 1-19 Keys
ez2       | Ez2Dancer (3 Panels with 2 Sensors, 3 Panels with 4 Sensors and 6 Panels with 4 Sensors (Double))
para      | Para Para Paradise (5, 8, and 10 Sensor)
ds3ddx    | Dance Station 3DDX (4 Panels with 4 Sensors, 5 Panels with 4 Sensors and (Double) versions of these)
be-mu     | (formally beat) BMS (5, 7, 10 (Double) and 14 (Double) Keys + Scratch)
maniax    | Dance Maniax (4 and 8 (Double) Sensors)
techno    | TechnoMotion (4, 5, 8. 9, 8 (Double), 10 (Double), 16 (Double) and 18 (Double) Panels)
taitai    | A 'don da don' styled mode
po-mu     | PMS (3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 18 Keys)
gddm      | DTX drum style (5, 9 and 10 piece)
gdgf      | DTX based guitar style (5 Guitar/Bass, 3 Guitar/Bass) (6 Guitar support Coming soon!)
gh        | Guitar style (5 Solo/Backup, 6 Solo/Backup)
smx       | 5k cardinal style dance game (5 Solo/Backup, 6 Solo/Backup)
stepstage | Based on the defunct game Stepping Stage by Jaleco in 2000 (single and twin)
kickbox   | Obscure lash a soft dance pad to a punching bag mode (4, 6, 8 sensor Mode)

The Modes we can talk about are as follows: PLEASE NOTE: These are proposed and are scheduled on the road map, limitations or code problems may delay or change these modes, so it is why there is no date or ETA given.

Name      | Description
----------|------------
piu       | A major refactoring to a more accurate mode, to update it to closer to mainline style
djh       | Some DJ's could be the hero
cdj       | Some DJ's are just crackin!
kbm       | bmson 24/48k support
piano     | up to 88k piano support
drum      | A midi based drum mode with 20 parts simulating a full yamaha DTX drum kit
karaoke   | A (.. do i need to explain this?) singing mode. Will happen if squirrel gets off his butt
jam       | A mode properly supporting O2Jam and it's modes, with full .OJM loader support
d86.4     | Feet dance Station Radio 3 panel
rb        | band style drums (5 lane)

The NoteLoaders as of Alpha 4.15.0 (June 2022) OutFox Supports and their level of completeness to the specifications:

Name     | Notes:
---------|------------
BMS      | 92% See Wiki for more details
BME      | 92% (beat loader for extended/PMS)
BML      | 100% (beat loader for long notes extension)
BGF      | 100% (beat loader for GF proposed)
BMSON    | 10% (beat loader for 24/48k)
CHART    | 90% (gh/rb loader)
DTX      | 95% (gddm 95% / gdgf 90%)
DWI      | 100% (as we know)
GDA      | 100% (gddm 95%)
KSF      | 100% (as we know)
MC       | 10% (Malody loader)
MID      | 80% (gh/rb loader)
OTO/.osz | 70% (O!Mania 95%, O!Taiko 60%)
PIU      | 80% (+ SSC v0.81 parser for F2/P1 specific)
PMS      | 100% BMS98 / 94% BME 2004
QUA/.qp  | 94% (Missing Warps)
SM       | 100% (+ OF fixes)
SSC      | 100% (+ OF fixes v0.84 proposed)
TJA      | 65% (Taiko loader in progress)

PLEASE NOTE: These are proposed and are scheduled on the road map, limitations or code problems may delay or change these modes, so it is why there is no date or ETA given.

Name  | Notes:
------|------------
OJM   | 0%
???   | 0%
???   | 0%