Q: How did this all get started?
To be completely honest, I don't really remember. What I do remember is that I ran into a very unique thread post on the forums at BemaniStyle. The contents of the thread were posted by a member using the handle trancemaster-p, who was asking if a decent simfile writer would take some music that he created and make a stepchart to it. This post was locked soon thereafter and he was redirected to a thread entitled Original Usermade Simfile Requests. This seemed wrong to me, the way that things usually go is that someone makes a thread asking for whatever song to be stepped, but this was his own music, it was a very unique request and I felt that it deserved its own thread. This intrigued me, it was enough for me to post yet another thread stating that I felt that he'd been shafted too lightly, then I proceeded to message him to answer the request made in the forum.
This person, trancemaster-p, turned out to be Reality Undone, who may as well be the second in command here. After having done some work with a little bit of his music, we were in the middle of a discussion, talking about his music going big and my being able to legally use what he gave me... something spurred off from there. Honestly this entire organization came from the inspiration given me that day by him.
Q: Metal and Cel are not VirInPro NoteSkins, why are they available here?
Notice that they are not available here in 3.9 form... this is because they are easily available in that form at several places including StepManiaThings, so there was no need to make that form available, though we will if it becomes rare or difficult to find in the future.
As for the forms that are available here, they are 3.95 2D and 3.95 3D, and the reason those are here is because while I was trying to code and convert the VirInPro NoteSkins, I went through and made Metal and Cel compatable in these forms as well.
Q: Metal and Cel were already available in 3D 3.95 form.
Yes and no. The form in which it was available in was a dependant noteskin. What this means is that the version freely available before VirInPro's release of it was dependant that you had a specific version of your default NoteSkin. The version that we've released is standalone and simply needs to be unpacked into your 3.95 NoteSkins directory and added to the options menu. All of VirInPro's NoteSkins are standalone and require nothing extra and nothing else changed to operate correctly, and all of them are error free, this will be true for future NoteSkin releases as well.
Q: If they are so error free, why doesn't the animation work?
If on a Windows PC - *Start Button* *Run* *dxdiag* *ENTER* *Display tab*, here you should see all the relevant information regarding your video hardware. Download its latest drivers. As far as Mac and Linux goes, if you don't already know what your hardware is, then I don't know of a way to find out. Google it. I might learn and share that information later.
Q: What the hell, aren't your NoteSkins just a rip-off of ITG's Metal skin?
As of now yes, well, with the exception of Ionic, which is modified after Cel. Right now, the NoteSkins that we've released are sort of experimental and are just meant for demonstration I suppose, but mostly for practice. Yes it's nothing big, no big deal, though I do think that I like the whole transparent notes idea and we'll probably end up using that idea in an official release. As of now we are simply doing this type of thing to figure out the file formats and to piece together what we will indefinitely want as our actual material. Other than the transparency, one thing that we've found out is that we definitely want our NoteSkins to have individual colors for 24th and 48th notes, which I don't see in any other current NoteSkins that I'm aware of. Another thing about their current look is that a player from either side can enjoy it, DDR players and ITG players, we've noted this to be true through several feedbacks involving it saying, and it does in fact seem that the noteskin style of Crystallis, for example, does not tend to alienate either side. Which really is what we were going for during the young stages of this organization.
Q: Why do you not accept song cuts?
Far too common scenario: "Woohoo! I love this song!" *dance dance* "Aww... they cut the best part!" That's why.
Q: Are you a fan of all the music that you sim?
Not necessarily, there are several tracks that I've simmed because I knew it was good for simming or because it was a request rather than based on my own music likes and dislikes. For instance, Toxic was not my idea, it was requested by Mcloud522 of BemaniStyle. It is actually not very often that I choose to sim a track based on my musical taste beforehand. Though I have found it strange that if I have fun playing a sim I've made to a song I don't necessarily like, that song can grow on me pretty bad, even if I don't tend towards that kind of music.
Q: You suggest using WinRAR, yet all of your files are ZIPs even though RARs tend to be smaller, why?
Not everyone digs WinRAR or the RAR filetype. Some people that come through here are on a Macintosh and don't know how to access RAR files. Some people don't want to download anything to access the files as most if not all current builds of Windows view ZIP files as "Compressed Folders". So the answer lies in the fact that it is more recognized and more easily used overall.
Q: Have you ever made a simfile by request?
Yes, WaveGroup/Shoichiro Hirata - Toxic was certainly not my idea, as mentioned in an earlier question it was requested by Mcloud522 of BemaniStyle.
Q: Would you consider my simfile request.
Absolutely! Send me suggestions or requests, or to Aldrasio or WinDEU, the Members Page has all the contact information you need for getting it to us.
Q: What was your first simfile?
The first simfile I ever created is still intact, oddly enough. It was Dragon Ash - Life Goes On. It took me about six months to create it due to various reasons, amongst which were my fiancé (at the time) giving me hell a good deal of the time, inexperience, the complexity of the file (especially considering a lot of the math was guesswork for me, back then), etc. If you were to play the file, the way it plays is considerably different from the style that I have today. There are a lot more steps that, now, seem rather random to me when I look over it again, even though it makes for pretty neat feeling motions during pad play.
Q: What got you started as a simfile creator?
I can't say everything for certain everything that led me to it. Primarily the fact that all the songs I strongly felt should be simfiled weren't. Secondarily the fact that more than half the time when they were, the sim was horrible, even back then (when DWI was popular and SM was fairly new) there was quite a clutter of horrid charts. And finally, third, the fact that, especially at that time, there were very few files that really excited me. I like effects, you see, and it is plain as day from my style that I like them (bpm changes, stops, etc). I'd have to say that the biggest inspiration for my actually trying to make a chart for the first time was an oldschool chart for QQQ, which had a high bpm and stoptime on damn near every step. That particular chart took a good deal of getting used to, but I loved every moment of it.
Q: You like effects a great deal, and yet, I haven't seen any negative BPMs used in any of the serious charts here, why?
I am not a fan of negative BPMs, I dislike them quite a bit, and here's why: When you use them to warp over actual steps it invalidates the score. In other words you could hit all Fantastics and get less than 100%. Also, I have never seen them used appropriately in a simfile that is meant to be taken seriously, it always seems out of place and I've never run into a situation where I would consider using them even if I had a high opinion of them. Final releases of VirInPro will not support negative BPMs, but might for future purposes or for marathon purpose, support warps.