Hi all!

This is a step-by-step guide on how to use SM2BXE with any version of Microsoft Windows:

Preparation:
	- You need to have Stepmania installed or at least some contens of its .\songs folder
	
Common procedure:
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Preparing & Converting

1. Create a folder named "SM2BXE" at the root of you C: drive (C:\SM2BXE)
2. Extract all contens of this SM2BXE archive into that folder
3. Open your favorite web browser and go to this URL: http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.php
	- first, click at "Oggenc" and download the package labled "Generic (390kB)" at section "Oggenc2.85 using libVorbis v1.2.0" 
	- the filename should be something like "oggenc2.85-1.2.0-generic.zip". Open the zip-archive and extract the file called "oggenc2.exe" to C:\SM2BXE
	- next, surf back to http://www.rarewares.org/ogg.php and click "oggdec"
	- download the package called "Download (176kB)" at section "oggdec v1.9.6"
	- the filename should be something like "oggdecV1.9.6.zip". Open the zip-archive and extract the file called "oggdec.exe" to C:\SM2BXE
4. Open your favorite web browser and go to this URL: http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php
	- click at "Download (549kB)" at section "LAME 3.98.2".
	- the filename should be something like "lame3.98.2.zip". Open the zip-archive and extract the file called "lame.exe" to C:\SM2BXE
4. Copy some or all folders from inside the ".\songs" directory of your Stepmania installation path to C:\SM2BXE.
	- Usually you will find your Stepmania installation directory at "C:\Program Files\Stepmania-3.95" or something similar.
5. Double-click at "C:\SM2BXE\convert_sm2bxe.cmd" and wait until the conversion process is finished. 
	- While the process is running, a new subfolder will be created: "C:\SM2BXE\_converted". You will find all converted songs (each song in one seperate songfolder) in there.
	- The process will take up to 20-50 seconds for each song, which will be converted (depends to you CPU speed and disk performance)

Creating a songpack
	
6. After the conversion process is finished, create a new folder in "C:\SM2BXE\_converted" called "MYPACK1" (C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1)
7. Move up to 10 songfolders from "C:\SM2BXE\_converted" to "C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1"
	- Important: Beat2x 0.5 supports at maximum 10 songs in one songpack.
8. Copy the files "create_songpack.cmd" and "CRLF2unix.vbs" from "C:\SM2BXE" to "C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1"
9. Double-click at "C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1\create_songpack.cmd"
	- A new subfolder will be created called "C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1\_pack". You will find a complete ready-to-use songpack for Beat2x in it.
10. Copy the folder "C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1\_pack" inside the "./packs" folder of your Beat2x installation at your SD-card.
11. Rename "./packs/_pack" to "./packs/mypack1"
12. Give it a try!
13. If you want to change the playing order of your songs, just edit songlist.bxs with your favorite text editor.
	- IMPORTANT: use an text editor which can handle LF-only text files (unix formated). My personal favorite: http://www.emeraldeditor.com/ (you can switch to Unix format inside its menu at "Document/Fileformat/Unix format (LF only)"

Thats it. :)

Extended procedure:
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You can start "convert_sm2bxe.cmd" and "create_songpack.cmd" by hand, to assign some commandline parameters. You will need to do so, if
	- you want to change default conversion process to you own preferences
	- you want to have a more or less detailed logfile
	- you want to change the default difficulty level while automatically building your own songlist.bxs

These are the commandline parameters of both cmd scripts:

	convert_sm2bxe.cmd [/F1:{FILTERSEQU}] [/F2:{FILTERSEQU}] [/F3:{FILTERSEQU}] [/nodefaults] [/log:{0|1|2|3}]
	
			- The F1 filter converts just single notes inside a complete note-line. A note-line can only have (in single step mode) 4 chars/digits. Those 4 digits are representing the keys Left/down/up/right (0000) at the corresponding quarter (8,16,32) note.
			As an example, you have a Stepmania note-line like this "0M01": 0 means no note on left-key, a mine at down-key, no note at up-key and a note at right-key. Beat2x does not support mines - so you will need to replace "M" with "0". This can be done by setting the filter /F1:M=0
			
			- The F2 filter converts a complete note-line to an other note line. This can be very handy, for cutting out "hands". A note-line with one hand can be like "0111". Beat2x does not support pressing more than one button at the same time. To convert those hands to jumps (which will be handled at filter 3) type something like this: /F2:0111=0110
			
			- The F3 filter converts a complete note-line to single Beat2x notes. As we said at filter 2 section - Beat2x does not support two buttons at the same time - we may want to convert jumps to L or R buttons. To do so, you will need to set the parameter like this: /F3:0110=R

			Please refer to README.txt to get more details about default values.
	
	create_songpack.cmd [difficulty]

			You can tell create_sonpack.cmd what difficulty of the converted stepfiles it will use to build the Beat2x songpack. 
			Possible difficulties are: BEGINNER, EASY, MEDIUM, HARD or CHALLENGE

Example: running "convert_sm2bxe.cmd" by hand (to convert mines to normal notes and UD-jump to R and LR-jump to L)

1. click "Start/Run"
2. type "cmd", press enter
	- a black window will open
3. type: "cd C:\SM2BXE"
4. type: "convert_sm2bxe.cmd /F1:M=1 /F3:0110=R,1001=L

Example: running "create_songpack.cmd" by hand (to use MEDIUM difficulty stepfiles for your Beat2x song packs)

1. click "Start/Run"
2. type "cmd", press enter
	- a black window will open
3. type: "cd C:\SM2BXE\_converted\MYPACK1"
4. type: "create_songpack.cmd MEDIUM"



### Version information:
### This LICENSE file is created for sm2bxe version Version 1.1
### Corresponding freeware archive package name is: sm2bxe_v1.1_20090122.rar