(OBSOLETE) How to make GZ2 recognize song sections

[darthslaw]

This tutorial only applies to GZ2 versions prior ro the release of beta 4 update 3. Beta 4.3 and later correctly parse the midi tracks based on the track names.



I was playing Six tonight, and I went to the detailed song section info page after beating the song, and there I saw that the section names showed up!

So, I went and played around with a few things, and I think I figured out how it works (at least in beta 2... haven't confirmed it in beta 3 yet, but it'll probably still work the same Confirmed to work in beta 3 also, as expected).

Supposing you are using a GH2 or later midi, or some other midi with an EVENTS track and section names, this should work. If your midi doesn't have an EVENTS track, you'll have to add one. Detailed explanation on how to do this is outside the scope of this tutorial, but if you have the chart source file, you can do it in Feedback and reconvert to midi.

Procedure:
Now that you have your midi ready, here is what you do:

• Open your midi in Anvil Studio.
  
• Find the EVENTS track, and move it so it is the 7th track in the file (you can add extra, blank, instrument tracks if you don't have enough to do this).
  
• Save your midi

Yup, that's it. To help legitimatize this as a tutorial ( ), I'll include an illustrated example of converting Hangar 18 in this manner.


(Idiot-Proof) Example: (Hangar 18)

• Using the original Hangar 18 midi in GZ2 will result in training mode (and post-song info screen) song sections being listed like this:
  
  
• We don't like this as much as named sections, so, open your notes.mid for Hangar 18 in Anvil Studio, and it should look like this. I've selected the EVENTS track to point it out.
  
  
• To move the EVENTS track into the 7th track location (where TRIGGERS track is now), select the TRIGGERS track, and click "Track | Move track up in list."
  
  
• GZ doesn't seem to mind that track8 and track9 are there (or any of the other "excess" tracks) when I play it, so you can probably leave them. The midi should now look like this:
  
  
• Save the midi, and when loading Hangar 18 in the training mode, the song sections show up!
  
  

Hope this helps. Let me know if I missed something.

[edit - 5 Feb 2008]
Added two archives for download:
Guitar Hero 2 fixed midis
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s fixed midis

I forgot to note in the readme that one of the songs was missing from the GHE archive... (my download of the song pack didn't have it)
If I get a copy of that song I will update the archive.

I'm pretty sure that they all displayed section names correctly; if not, let me know.

[Decoy]

im gunna try this i noticed it with the light that blinds too

[flipsk8r1409]

i noticed it with mother a while back

[hulkhaugen]

Nice. but, why can't anybody have a thread in the songsection with all gh1,2,3 and 80s with 100% .mid's? By that i mean sp in the right places, hopo's in the right places and correct song sections? I might do it myself sometime, but it would be nice if someone who already did this uploaded them, so i didn't have to ;-)

[darthslaw]

Yeah, there were some songs that already were working correctly, but I just happen to not play those songs regularly, heh. (I play mostly Hangar 18, Miserlou, YYZ, Thunderhorse, Jordan, Madhouse, none of which were "fixed" to show sections).


Anyway, take note that I have uploaded two .rar files with all of the fixed GH2 and GHE midis (added to bottom of main post). Usefulness/convenience will probably vary, since I have changed my folder names and organization to make GZ2 open them like the console games do. But, at least there's no setlist.dat to cause nightmares anymore

[hulkhaugen]

seems nice (can't test 'em for a week ) They have correct sp and hopo's to?

[darthslaw]

They should have correct SP. HOPOs on the other hand.... well, some of the songs (like Thunderhorse) use a threshold value other than the GH default, so, until we get a way to tweak that threshold on a per-song basis in GZ2, those select midis probably won't have correct HOPOs. (in other words, keep bugging callisto to add this feature )

The PS2 GH2 songs that fit into this category are:
Monkey Wrench
Tattooed Love Boys
Who Was In My Room Last Night?
One For The Road
Raw Dog
Thunderhorse
X-Stream

They all use 250 clicks as their HOPO threshold (default is 170 clicks, I think -- beatmatcher.dtb from ghex). Other than these songs, HOPOs should be completely correct for all the other PS2 GH2 songs.

I don't have an image of GHE on my comp right now, so I can't check which songs from that game would have alternate HOPO thresholds also. Maybe later.

[hulkhaugen]

ok thanks. just tried "play with me", and it seems to have the wrong hopo's, probably other songs too.. have you mentioned this for callisto? i'm sure he'll fix it in the future if we tell him about it..

[darthslaw]

I posted on the request thread a few days ago for the game to find the EVENTS track in any track position and not just the 7th (he was confused at first but I'm pretty sure it got cleared up).

As for HOPO threshold/timing, other people were requesting that already so I refrained from including it in my own post. Sooner or later it'll come though, and then we will all be happy. Yay.