Archive for the 'Flash Flash Revolution' Category
R^3 v1.3.0 – Release
With 149 changed files, 8533 additions and 7921 deletions, this may be one of the largest engine releases we’ve done with a massive amount of work done by Velocity (@Psycast) going into refactoring major core components such as the Song Selection and Game Results screen.
This this release comes Favorite Songs, Purchasing Songs within the game, tracking of Full Combos even when it’s not the best score, better accuracy graphs, and a lot of bug fixes and improvements.
As always the download links for the release can be found in the left sidebar with the blue Download button or by clicking here, if you run into any issues, be sure to drop an issue over at our issue tracker.
So without farther ado, here’s the change list for rCubed 1.3.0 released:
Engine Loading:
Rewrite Noteskins to use Embedded Data instead of Network – Velocity (@Psycast)
Loading the noteskin SWF data from the server was previously used to provided easier ways for noteskins to be added without requiring a new engine build.
Since the inclusion of Custom Noteskins, no new noteskins have been added to the network noteskins for many years and just adds to the engine load time.
This rewrite embeds all current noteskin data into the game to remove network loading, optimizes how it’s loaded, and add documentation and general code cleanup to the overall class.
Reduce login loading time – Andrew WCY (@G-flat)
Cuts back the amount of extra reloading the game has to do when logging in or changing users as only 3 of the 5 game files actually change depending on the active user and reloading the others is a waste of time.
Add Reload Engine / User to global context menu – Velocity (@Psycast)
Adds a menu to the global context menu to reload engine and user data without closing the game.
Add Profile Change in context menu – Sploder12 (@Sploder12)
Allows the player to change the active logged in use from the global context without closing the game.
Song Selection – Velocity (@Psycast):
Song Selection was the first target of a massive refactor effort by Velocity, aiming to clean up years of technical debt and add full documentation to the source code.
In total, memory usage was reduced by about 30-40% and playlist rendering is about 20-25% faster on average due to the UI component rewrites detailed lower.
Beyond that, the menu also received a magnitude of features that have either hidden in context menus or have existed in older engines but not brought forward until now.
Menu State Saving:
- Fixed many inconsistencies with how the menu is saved when switching views, so now when returning from the results screen, everything is restored exactly as it was.
Song Item:
- The highlighted song item will now correctly update when a song item is moved or removed in response to filters or genre switching.
- The Song Info tab will also now accurately display the selected song at all times.
- Favorite Song: Displays the difficulty with a small pink triangle and pink difficulty text. This can also be filtered on.
- Song Notes: Displayed on the scroll list when hovering over a song item. This can be disabled in the Visual options screen.
- Full Combo*: Full Combos are now tracked separately from the current score, allowing you to see and track songs that have been FCed previously but not the current score.
- This is the lowest priority flag, so if the current score is a normal FC or better (eg. SDG), then it won’t display the FC*.
Song Item Context Menu – Andrew WCY (@G-flat):
- Add “Listen to Song Preview”: Plays the song while still on the menu.
- Add “Play Chart Preview”: Plays the the chart like the preview on the website with auto-play.
- Add “Remove from Queue”: When viewing the queue, allows removal of a song from the queue.
Song Info:
- Purchasable Songs can now be purchased directly in the game instead of opening the shop.
- Star Rating has been changed to display your personal rating instead of the global rating. It’s also smaller and should no longer overlap with longer song titles.
- Song length now includes note count when provided from the playlist.
- “Add to Queue”, “Highscores”, “Song options” now use Icon Buttons to reduce text clutter. These include hover text to still display what they are.
- Highscores will now display the PA count when hovering over a entry.
Per Song Options:
- Now have a dedicated menu button on the song info panel, which used to be accessible on the context menu.
- Favorite Song has been added.
- Song Ratings, and all features within panel now fully work with Alt Engine songs as well.
Other:
- The Icons used for switch Genre Type and the Menu Music Controls have been updated.
Gameplay:
Static Judge Animations – Velocity (@Psycast)
Removes the moving/flashing animations on the judgments during gameplay.
Additional Combo Colors – justin_ator (@Xyr00)
Several additional Combo Color options have been added, expanding on the previous colors for AAA, FC, and Normal.
These additional colors cover the remaining flags for score and can be enabled/disabled on a per flag basis:
- SDG
- Black Flag
- Average Flag
- Boo Flag
- Miss Flag
Fix Note Isolation Bounds – Velocity (@Psycast)
Prevent invalid isolation values from causing a soft-lock or crash.
Game Results – Velocity (@Psycast):
Game Results was the second target for refactoring and source code documentation.
The main goals were to expand the accuracy graph to provide much more detailed information, reduce the UI clutter by switching to new Box Icons, and and more strict validation to parts of the gameplay that were often handled in unsafe ways.
Star Rating:
- Will now display the full Song Options popup instead of just the star rating.
- Is now always displayed.
Combo Graph:
- Rewritten to use the new system.
Accuracy Graph:
- Rewritten to use the new system.
- Adds text to denote where Early and Late are on the graph.
- Adds text to display the full note count for the song in the top right of the graph.
- Adds hovering to view on a per note basis the exact timing results.
- Adds boos to the result graph.
- Adds a toggle to the right side of the graph to flip the axis.
- This was previously found in the Other tab on the settings panel.
- Adds a “Judge Offset” display to the right of the graph, which displays the estimated correct judge offset in frames for the settings panel, and milliseconds.
- This was previously displayed in a context menu on the game mods.
Highscore:
- Disable the “Highscores” button on Alt Engine songs as it would just crash the game.
Options:
- Disable Hotkey when in a textfield.
- Redraw options when resetting.
UI Components – Velocity (@Psycast):
- Box: Now uses one sprite instead of three and has optimized drawing. Reduces overall UI memory usage by around 40% due to it’s heavy use.
- BoxButton: Now extends Box.
- BoxText: Now extends Box.
- BoxText: Now extends Box.
- BoxCheck: A white dot has also been added to the center to make it more apparent it’s checked.
- ScrollPane: Optimized Redrawing. Around 20% faster when displaying large list.
Several Regressions from 1.2.4 – Velocity (@Psycast):
- Black background in song loading screens.
- Build info string shown in gameplay background.
- Game freezes when playing with custom noteskin without noteskin data.
- Game freezing at the start of song due to improper object pool filling creating 12,672 objects instead of 144.
- Fix receptor layer position.
Stay safe, don’t give up, and be kind to one another.
- Velocity and the FFR Development Crew.
Songs of the Week 09/30/2020
Holy cow it’s almost October! On this last day of September, we get in one more songs of the week plus a brand new 100+ difficulty file:
Petal
Musician: Pogo
Step Artist: Deamerai
Song Length: 0:58
Difficulty: 26
Radio
Musician: Breakbeat Heartbeat
Step Artist: visD
Song Length: 1:38
Difficulty: 65
Crow’s Ghost [Another]
Musician: Twenty Knives
Step Artist: Wiosna
Song Length: 3:12
Difficulty: 79
Starflight
Musician: Aquellex
Step Artist: klimtkiller
Song Length: 2:04
Difficulty: 109
Enjoy!
Songs of the Week 09/23/2020
It’s songs of the week day!
Mysterious Wall
Musician: The Flashbulb
Step Artist: Pizza69
Song Length: 2:27
Difficulty: 10
A Firebrand, An Agitator
Musician: Hyperduck Soundworks
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 1:32
Difficulty: 38
Spirit Never Die
Musician: Masterplan
Step Artist: storn42
Song Length: 5:25
Difficulty: 77
blueish cider
Musician: kuhu
Step Artist: bmah
Song Length: 2:13
Difficulty: 91
Enjoy!
Songs of the Week 09/16/2020
Here are your songs of the week:
Five Karots
Musician: The Flashbulb
Step Artist: mi40
Song Length: 1:28
Difficulty: 5
Morning Run
Musician: The Flashbulb
Step Artist: Psychotik
Song Length: 2:35
Difficulty: 44
Skyfire Ace
Musician: Sabrepulse
Step Artist: visD
Song Length: 2:23
Difficulty: 73
Rave 4
Musician: DEV/NULL
Step Artist: Matthia
Song Length: 2:48
Difficulty: 94
Enjoy!
Songs of the Week 09/09/2020
Hope you’re all having a great week, and good luck to everyone who’s back in school. There’s a couple new items that were just added to the merch shop, so be sure to pop by and check those out!
Here are your songs for the week:
The Basement Guitarist
Musician: The Flashbulb
Step Artist: Pizza69
Song Length: 1:18
Difficulty: 34
Robert Desire
Musician: 403
Step Artist: Ghost_Medley
Song Length: 2:37
Difficulty: 59
Reflective Moment
Musician: Is-m
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 1:59
Difficulty: 74
Blackmagik Blazing
Musician: Camellia
Step Artist: Psychotik
Song Length: 4:23
Difficulty: 102
Enjoy!
Songs of the Week 09/02/2020
1st songs of the week for September!
Passengers [Easy]
Musician: Acid Paradox
Step Artist: Deamerai
Song Length: 2:24
Difficulty: 10
*Skill token: AAA Passengers [Beginner] to unlock [Easy]*
Elesis Theme Song [Future Bass Remix]
Musician: The Musical Ghost
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 1:44
Difficulty: 45
Visitor
Musician: Virt
Step Artist: DarkZtar
Song Length: 4:01
Difficulty: 82
Hate Castle [Disabled]
Musician: Rainbowdragoneyes
Step Artist: PrawnSkunk
Song Length: 2:49
Difficulty: 65
Enjoy!
Official Tournament Conclusion and Songs of the Week 08/26/2020
Hey everyone!
Man what a crazy 8 weeks it’s been. We had some ups and downs but overall I hope you all had a great time during the official tournament. Huge thank you to all the simfile authors for their content, thanks to our event staff for helping get people placed, and of course, thank you to everyone who participated this year.
Congratulations to this year’s winners, if you haven’t already please reach out to me with your token choices and for first place winners shipping info and shirt size so I can get your prizes out to you asap. All the other prizes should have made their way to you guys aside from the badges, we should have those all set later today.
Songs of the week have also returned! We’ve got 4 new songs for you this week, check em out!
Gymnopedie No.1
Musician: Frums
Step Artist: Deamerai
Song Length: 1:33
Difficulty: 2
Mephisto’s Grace
Musician: Clonepa
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 2:03
Difficulty: 72
drivin’FTR
Musician: Yamajet
Step Artist: bmah
Song Length: 2:13
Difficulty: 81
Frictional Nevada v2
Musician: Venetian Snares
Step Artist: Shxfted
Song Length: 1:51
Difficulty: 97
Also, don’t forget the FFR merch store is live! We just recently added zip hoodies so go check that out too!
13th Official Tournament Round 6, 7 & 8
The soundscape was invaded with a low hum, before the familiar voice rumbled throughout their land.
“You invalids have been traveling without a cause for weeks and somehow managed to not completely eradicate one another yet.”
A deep, unsettling chuckle spoiled a brief silence.
“Truth be told, I’ve been watching you all. The size of your groups is much more appropriate for your final tests. The drop ships that carried you to this space will be within view momentarily. Depart with the pilot if you care to continue.”
D1: Twilight
The cave’s illumination became a growing brightness as the remaining competitors swam through the nearly crystal clear body of water. The ambiance of the stagnant and tepid water was frequently interrupted with deep breaths and occasional gasps from the competitors having to resurface after tagging the briefly illuminated lights well beneath the surface. Individuals that took a long swim down remained at mercy of the sequencing, hoping to catch the light and rush towards air to breathe. While all 11 individuals managed to find their way to a lit square underwater, not all of them made it back to the surface; a few overzealous individuals attempted to breach the surface but blacked out either just before breaking the surface, or just after, only to sink back to their permanence.
Drenched in place, the 8 remaining individuals boarded the circular platform that took them down to the cave in the place, riding it back up to the crystal structures that initially surrounded the platform. As promised, their carrier awaited them. Boarding in a single-file line, it closed upon entry of the 8th individual, ascending vertically but hovering in place.
“Where are we going?”
“Shut up.”
D2: Cherry Doll
Hobbling away from the northern edge of the prison, the remaining 8 members of the faction troddled about to their west. The large cliff peaks they crossed remained within view, following them in all their largeness as they moved in parallel to the cliff side. As they briefly crossed over the uphill trail they followed to get into the prison, they were met with a substantial increase of wind, the open air between the mountain gaps serving as an effective wind tunnel.
The sound of idling engines could be heard from a distance, though it was difficult to discern through a recently built up fog. Conveniently enough for the party, their westernly route proved to be a correct one, as the open hatch of the drop ship was welcomed within view, awaiting entry. The 8 remaining members populated the ship, causing the hatch to shut when occupied, resting directly above their rendezvous point.
D3: Opia
Visibility began to increase as the remaining competitors sliced through the densest part of the jungle, lowering the threat of danger as previously hidden sightlines began to show themselves as vacated, clear from any threats. The last body to exit the dense forest marked a count of 8 individuals that managed to survive the ambush. Finally clear from the abundant risk from the wilderness, the east path they took lead them to a body of water, not too unfamiliar from a similar one they drifted away from to arrive in this generally destitute state. Within the scope of unfamiliarity, they had managed to stumble across a small, barely inhabited island.
Shifting their feet within the sands, a dull roar of a resting engine could be heard; a few hundred meters in front of them, a towering aircraft much like the carrier that dropped them into their experience could be seen. The group sprinted towards it, feeling some sort of homeiness in a single bit of familiarity. With doors shut, it too began to hover, appearing to idle for some sort of signal.
D4: Sakura Fubuki (Arrange ver.)
Following the eastern path down from the southern edge of the prison, the more experienced fighters hobbled away from what would be considered by many, a failed ambush attempt at a group of inexperienced combatants. By numeric accounts, their losses were greater than those they attacked, as their faction had been cut in half when reconvening at the exit of the facility. Arriving at a fork in the trail, the group took a brief glance in an attempt to determine which path would be the correct one.
The party would be given a subtle guidance with an artificial winter wind that mildly obscured the path forward. Approaching nearer to it, the intermittence of propellers were heard in the distance. They advanced forward, bringing the sound into greater prominence — arriving at the large dropped door with seats to internally be filled. Closed doors with passengers lead to the hovering of the vehicle over their rendezvous point.
D5: Marianas Trench
Having lost a good majority of comrades to the unrelenting aggressors, the 8 remaining competitors explored the lost arena which appeared to be an architectural beauty during its heyday. Concerned about the lack of activity and largely fearful after the tremendous resistance previously faced out in the open, the group opted to stick very close to one another, shifting about in a stalwart defense. A rumble corresponding to some fallen foundation cut open the lack of sound, startling the individuals further into a tighter grouping.
A gentle droning became a known presence, with whatever responsible clearly moving closer and closer to them. In anticipation of yet another mortal threat, the group shifted to an attack position, waiting to strike. A growing shadow cast atop them as the sound grew to overwhelming loudness, blocking out a good majority of the natural light in the process. A large, silver-colored drop ship awaited with an open hatch, inviting the remaining competitors a seat and a very temporary break.
D6: Armageddon
The darkness plunged the remaining gladiators into absolute chaos, each and every one of them chomping at the bit to land a fatal blow against the enemies within their blindness. Unbeknownst to them, the force was nothing more than an insufficient mental fortitude, flailing about in futility hoping that it would save them. Body by body, the group size began to shrink by way of cruel and truly blameless strikes amongst their own. The energy controlling the lack of light compelled those still among the living for their attention once more.
“Cease your thrashing and hear my words.”
“When you wake, not all will wake with you. But you are strong. Your sorrows will be short lived, either in life or death.”
The blanket that had taken away all of their visibility began to naturally disintegrate, with silence transitioning to a high-pitched sound, arriving to a familiar state of normalcy soon after. Bodies splayed along the floor, seven of them, remained lifeless. The remaining ones had not heard the announcement amidst the curse, but were able to spot the aircraft meters away, being invited by the initial pilot that dropped them off earlier.
D7: Line-Epsilon
The path proved to be a treacherous one, as their forward advancement was continuously interrupted with a void that repeatedly crossed along the chasm connected by the bridge. It grew increasingly larger, forcing the party to move as quickly as possible — bracing for each impact would eventually be the death of them. At the halfway mark, the party noticed the bridge bowing downward, putting them below the ground line and out of sight from their destination. Those who remained motivated managed to progress blindly within the growing emptiness, while others would lag behind the front-runners who had no other interest beyond getting through the gorge.
An airborne vessel peered within view approximately three-quarters of the way through the bridge; other bodies remained far behind, feebly attempting to progress. Those outside of the front 8 started to fall as the exhaustion brought them first to their knees, collapsing as they were systematically robbed of any remaining life forces.
“Your prize.” All of the heavily breathing competitors slotted themselves into the ship, taking solace in the brief safety they had.
D8: Zygourous Distribution
The synthetic material beneath their feet resonated strongly enough to vibrate beneath their feet, producing an uncontrollable rumbling that made it difficult to stand. The tunnel defied normalcy as sound seemed to travel very slowly within it, suffusing the constricted area with a thundering boom that refused to break apart. Moments later, another explosion occurred, clearly delineating the separation between the man-made echo chamber and the outside world. Seconds following that, an additional blast followed — with nowhere for the sound to filter outward, the pressure in the area continued to grow. A few bodies dropped from the brutal, unending pressure, while the others were desperately shielding their ears, the least of their worries being hearing at this point.
Arriving at the end of the tunnel, the transparent doors on each side opened up, allowing the sound to diffuse outward into eventual nothingness. To the left of the tunnel exit, a ship brazenly marked with “8” remained in wait, doors open. The remaining group members walked their way in, superhumanly unaffected by their experience. The doors shut, and the ship rose.
The eight ships remained in their hovered position momentarily before taking paths towards a central convergence point, giving the remaining competitors ample time to breathe and contemplate the various traumas they had experienced. The game runner’s words reverberated through a few of their minds. “You invalids…” It served as an effective fuel and recharge to those who had energy zapped away from them.
The relaxation was short lived, as the convoy converged along the outside of a circular arena, each landing in a very specifically designated spot. Entrances were evenly spaced for the number of factions: eight in total. This was very clearly manufactured, as aimless as the travelers had been. The groups retreated from their corresponding aircraft, each following a narrow, underground walkway that appeared as a very traditional maintenance area, filled with an amalgamation of pipes and a myriad of smells. At the end of each walkway was a square, grated metal platform. They rose synchronously, revealing the champions remaining from each faction.
This land was not desolate: far from it. Massive crowds erupted in cheers as the best of the best showcased themselves for the first time; they were eager to see the groups representing some of the most apt contenders of all time.
“Step forth.” Audio filling the arena brought the crowds to a dull roar, silent by the standards of a gathering of this size.
“You all are about to embark in a series of battles where previous preparation will not be an indicator of your success. All you have is your brains and your brawn.”
“There are… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of you…” The game-runner kept counting in sequence the remaining size of the factions, noticing with a keen eye a strange anomaly in one of the groups.
D6 Round 5 Tiebreaker: floating point (Drumcorps Remix)
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… 9? You all had one job to do and couldn’t do it?” The announcer was clearly irritated but also dealing with an exceptionally growing impatience. The members of the sixth faction stared around, uneasily shifting and fidgeting.
“Stop.” All motion ceased at the barking of the order, as the announcer’s voice paused momentarily. The pilot of the 6th faction’s dropship emerged within the arena, pointing a single finger at two of the remaining fighters, directing them to the center stage of their portion of the arena.
The announcer had a deep, dark laugh. “Looks like we have a pre-game. Fight to the death.” Both of the members glanced at one another, not eager to make any motions, uninterested in the all demises they had seen once before.
“Either one of you takes the other out, or I’ll end you both myself.”
Round 7
D1
Atmosphere
Musician: Godspeed
Step Artist: Ghost_Medley
Song Length: 2:11
D2
Brostep Strikes Back
Musician: Gammer
Step Artist: Psychotik
Song Length: 2:35
D3
Circle Pit
Musician: Venetian Snares
Step Artist: ositzxz369
Song Length: 4:33
D4
E-Lectixilent
Musician: Se-U-Ra
Step Artist: Elekton
Song Length: 2:28
D5
Railing
Musician: Nvoise
Step Artist: ositzxz369
Song Length: 1:52
D6
Forgotten
Musician: The Ghost of 3.13
Step Artist: Wiosna
Song Length: 2:24
D7
We Want To Run
Musician: Frums
Step Artist: Gradiant
Song Length: 4:05
D8
Isometry
Musician: The Algorithm
Step Artist: hi19hi19
Song Length: 3:08
Tiebreaker
breathe
Musician: qfeileadh
Step Artist: AutotelicBrown
Song Length: 2:19
Bonus Files
Bus Rides With…
Musician: Nick Bertke
Step Artist: Deamerai
Song Length: 2:06
The Greet and Eat (Boss Theme)
Musician: Hyperduck Soundworks
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 1:54
Round 8
D1
Eine Kleine Funkmusikk
Musician: Teetow
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 2:25
D2
Ex Nihilo
Musician: Fractal Dreamers
Step Artist: visD
Song Length: 2:01
D3
Benson & Hedges (Venetian Snares Remix)
Musician: Shitmat
Step Artist: ositzxz369
Song Length: 3:21
D4
Malignant Tumor
Musician: Spire
Step Artist: M0nkeyz
Song Length: 2:16
D5
Q.E.
Musician: Frums
Step Artist: Pizza69
Song Length: 2:27
D6
INSANE INFLAME
Musician: Camellia
Step Artist: DarkZtar
Song Length: 2:47
D7
Sinthasomphone
Musician: Venetian Snares
Step Artist: Shxfted
Song Length: 2:07
D8
Revenge
Musician: TC_Halogen
Step Artist: TC_Halogen
Song Length: 3:32
Bonus Files
adolescent person
Musician: Is-m
Step Artist: bmah
Song Length: 2:43
Happy Arnold=)
Musician: Reizoko Cj
Step Artist: hi19hi19
Song Length: 2:51
Gamma Stop Giving Me Hard Bags
Musician: Kurorak
Step Artist: Ghost_Medley
Song Length: 5:08
FFR Merch and Batch System Updates
Hey everyone!
The FFR merch shop is now live! Click the banner above to check it out. There’s already a lot to choose from and we’ll be adding more as time goes by, so be sure to check back! Everything in the shop is being made in house by me rather than us buying from some big mass distributor. What’s great about this is it means more customization for you guys! You can add on your username, division, a special date, or any other significant text! If you have any issues at all with anything regarding merch don’t hesitate to reach out.
The other thing I wanted to bring up is that there have been some exciting changes made to the batch submission area. Now when you open a batch up you’ll see there’s color-coding making it easier to see the status of your file, it’s also now sorted by simfile author and you can see the date of your last update right there on that page too. Great for if you’re unsure it went in or the last update you’d made. The best update in my opinion though is that we can now put file judgments directly into the system as well as judges being able to change the status and put a grade in. This is going to streamline judgments and make it easier for us to get them to you faster. It’s also going to be great to have them all centralized in one area rather than spread out over threads. You can see an example of a judgment done in the sub area here
