These are files for stepmania for DDR simulation.

beware background videos pack 2013

this is a pack of ddr max-ex background videos that are ripped from the ps2 discs and edited to be compatible with existing videos such as beware 2005, ollec2004, magmariox, Saotome2U, etc videos. all max-ex background videos that were in earlier releases were analog video captured from the ps2. this is the first time digital/disc ripped videos are made available so they have much better image quality than was so far possible in simulation. in addition to better image quality, a number of videos now have smoother animation because those videos were captured at a higher playback speed with dropped frames.

you can put these videos in the RandomMovies directory in stepmania instead of the old ones and existing scripts will keep working.

The pack contains some videos from pkgingo & AeronPeryton's arcade video rips.

more about the editing done:

the native resolution of the background videos (both on arcade and ps2) is 304x176. this resolution is preserved (videos are not resized), and 16 pixel borders are added to the top and bottom, so the geometry of the videos is compatible with the old videos. the border size of 16 pixels is chosen to optimally preserve quality because it aligns on blocks, and due to luck, this is close enough to the relative size of the borders on the old videos.

the old videos were often 29.97, 30.00, or 30.303 fps. on the arcade, they really play at (close to) 30.000 fps, unless they play at a custom speed. the videos in this pack are encoded at 30.000 fps so if the script says to play them at 1.0x speed, it plays at the correct speed.

videos normally always have 80 frames. the old videos were sometimes captured from the ps2 at 30 fps when the video was being played faster (or slower) than normal speed. this would result in a video with, for example, 50 frames, and dropped frames. in reality, the video plays at a higher framerate. i have encoded such videos with the full 80 frames, and at a different framerate, so their playback speed matches the old video, to maintain compatibility with existing scripts.

a large number of the old videos were captured with a significant hue error (between 5 and 10 degrees). because the new videos have correct colors, a color change is visible in such videos. common color errors are red -> orange, orange -> yellow, cyan -> blue.

the "Kaliedoscope" videos are intentionally misspelled for compatibility with the 2005 pack, and by extension, the videos before that. one should not "fix" the spelling.

download beware background videos pack 2013:

note: these are direct http downloads, not "upload" sites.

Size: 461291318
SHA-1: 69fba7005d672ec44bad230884a161e538010b7e
SHA-256: 802428c38fa783b4e1d8e4a85fcdcf6575c8c58ac866199474ad718bef04ba33

EU mirror
US mirror

DDR background videos thumbnails chart

i found there is no easily accessable standard for which BG video has which name. both video packs and scripts tend to be incomplete and outdated. i reproduced the list by looking at what videos are called in recent scripts, using a "renames list" from Saotome2U, and with help of Amy who works on background scripts as well. this list should also match Saotome2U's list.
i believe this list to be correct and accurate although this can't be guaranteed.

The thumbnails chart shows what videos look like.
background videos thumbnails chart

The substitute list maps outdated video names to names of videos in the list. this allows for fixing scripts.
background videos substitutes list

at the time, both "kaleidoscope" and "kaliedoscope" were used interchangeably, as one example of a naming problem. i went for "kaliedoscope" which was more common among them, even if it's the wrong spelling. people have argued to change this, but such changes would bring back exactly the problems i aimed to solve; for one video to appear with one name, so that would do more harm than good.

I introduced the following videos, hoping their filenames don't clash:

videos not in the pack are in the extreme arcade scripts download.

scripted songs using a specific video set

all bg videos not in the packs, and the stepfile, are included.

MAX period has been redone with disc ripped videos. i changed the script and videos in a way that makes more sense. the old last video (final) is now splitted into 2 videos. on the console, it is really one long video, the cut into videos is done purely to allow the videos to possibly be reused creatively.

Max. (period)

all kinds of feedback are welcome. also contact me for legal issues.
contact: [email picture]

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