Editing StepMania (section)

==Features==
*Custom Songs ("Stepfiles") also known as "Simfiles": StepMania allows users to create their own custom dance patterns to any song in [[.ogg]] or [[.mp3]] format. The program includes a comprehensive Step editor to aid the creation of these stepfiles. Many Simfile websites exist where users share and distributed Simfiles for songs. Additionally, official [[Dance Dance Revolution|DDR]] and [[In the Groove (video game)|''In The Groove'']] songs with their original steps are commonly available for StepMania.
*Background [[animation]]s: Support for many types of animations behind the arrows onscreen, including sprite-based animation sequences, a single full-motion video or multiple FMV visualization overlays but are disabled if the song contains exclusive video.
*Modifiers: Visual mods that affect the scroll of arrows and either increase or decrease difficulty. StepMania includes multiple modifiers featured in Dance Dance Revolution as well as dozens of additional modifiers created exclusively for StepMania, including custom SPEED options.
*Multiple arrow types:
** Mines ("Shock" arrows in [[Dance Dance Revolution X|''DDR X'']]): An object that scrolls onto the screen along with the arrows. If a player triggers the mines, they will be penalized by having their dance gauge reduced and, customizing a theme, breaks the current combo chain that the player had going. However, the mines in ''StepMania'' are different from the Shock Arrows in ''DDR X i''n that the latter also turns the notes invisible for a brief period of time and breaks the current combo chain that the player had going. This step type was developed for the ''StepMania''-based arcade game ''[[In the Groove (game)|In The Groove]]'', and was ported into ''StepMania'' itself during development of that title. There are several variations of these objects that effect scoring in different ways.
** Holds (also called Freeze Arrows): A long arrow that requires you to keep your feet or finger on the corresponding panel for its duration.
** Rolls: A special hold arrow which requires a rapid tap on to keep alive. This step type was developed for the sequel to ''In The Groove'', ''[[In the Groove 2]]''.
** Lift: a special type of arrow (colored Gray by default) which requires the key (or panel) to be held down '''before''' the note passes and released when the note passes the target arrows. This is different from freeze arrows in that the timing of the press is not important, only when the note is released.
* Multiple game types, including partial simulation of other rhythm games like ''Pump It Up'', ''[[ParaParaParadise]]'' and ''[[beatmania IIDX]]''.
* Real-time lyrics, which display on the opposite side of the screen for stepfiles that have [[LRC (file format)|accompanying lyric data]].
* Custom themes: users can create their own [[Skin (computing)|skins]] for ''StepMania''. Themes can vary from simple replacement of images to drastic changes that can be implemented by scripting its [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]] backend.
* Dancing characters: 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional character models that dance in the background according to a pre-defined routine.
* Infinite BPMs: an official implementation in ''StepMania'' 4 of a bug in the 3.9 series that could be exploited to create "warps" in stepcharts using negative speeds.
* Network play: support for lobby-based online play, dubbed ''StepMania Online.'' Typically, users connect through the ''StepMania Online''<ref>[https://www.stepmaniaonline.net StepMania Online official website]</ref> centralized server. Support for network play was added to the ''StepMania'' tree in 2005 and is available in all later builds. All players must have a copy of the song chosen by the host in order to play.