Version 0.6b Released

I have uploaded version 0.6b of Rock Band Tracker to the link below. This file contains only the executable, so if you are downloading the program for the first time, simply download and extract the 0.5b full version below and then overwrite the executable with the one in the 0.6b_exe archive.

There have been several changes and additions, listed below:

• Fixed a bug in the data file converting mechanism for people who had data files using the pre-0.5b format.
• Fixed the length sorting field that was reporting long songs like The Camera Eye and Jailbreak incorrectly because it was doing a direct string comparison. Now these longer songs show up as the longest like they should.
• Cleaned up the Data File Editor to make it more friendly for general use. The program will now not allow empty songs to be added to the list. As long as a title is present, "dummy" values will be inserted for any other field left blank.
• Added a "Close to Five Stars" report to the Reports menu. This works identically to the existing "Close to Gold Stars" report, only it checks against 5-star cutoffs (obviously.)
• Changed the font type for the title in the song info panel to something I think looks a little nicer.
• Added "Stars" to the sorting options. This allows you to sort the list by the number of stars you've achieved. If the song is incomplete, they will be reported as "0". If you have gold-starred the song, it will be reported as a "6".

The update file has also been updated to fix a few incorrect values (namely, the star cutoffs for Train Kept A' Rollin' on Vocals as well as some messed up difficulty tiers for Don't Make Me Wait.) Thanks to "LilCube" and "yahararyan" on the GameFAQs message board for pointing these out.

I have decided to postpone putting the new Grateful Dead songs in the update file until I can get the base scores for them. If it takes longer than Tuesday to get them, I'll just plug them in without the cutoffs and add them in whenever they're available.

Thanks!

Links below:

Version 0.6 Executable only

http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/rbt06b_exe.zip

Latest update file

http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/update.zip

Rock Band Tracker 0.5b Released

I have just posted version 0.5b of Rock Band Tracker (which unfortunately still reports as 0.3b in the help menu but I can't be bothered to rebuild it just for that.)

There are some important changes to the software that all users should be aware of. First and foremost, the update mechanism has been changed dramatically; instead of having to download separate update files each week that you process individually, there will now be a "master" update file that will contain all of the information in the program. The update file is now nothing more than a blank data file containing all of the song data. So all you have to do now to keep your program up to date is download the update.dat file, which will be regularly updated and maintained, and drop it in your working directory. The program no longer deletes this file; you can simply overwrite the previous one with a newer version. You can now process the update file as many times as you want with no ill effects; the program will no longer add duplicate entries to the song list.

Unfortunately, changing the program to work this way made it so that I had to change the file format (namely, the way the end of file was read.) This means that the program must convert your old data file to the new format, and the previous update files will not work (again, this doesn't matter though because the new update file has every song in the game included in it, even the ones from several weeks ago.) I put a routine in to check your data file and convert it if necessary, and it appears to be working fine, but let me know if you have any issues with it.

I have deleted all older versions of the program and the update files. I have added downloads for both a full version of the program and the latest executable only, as well as the latest update file. If you have previously used the program, do not overwrite your existing folder with the contents of the full install. It will delete all of the scores you have entered to this point. The full version is intended only for people using the program for the first time. If you have used the program before, simply download the rbt05bexe.zip and overwrite your existing executable with it. Since this new format has not been fully tested, I strongly recommend that you create a backup of your entire RBT folder somewhere else on your hard drive in case there are problems converting the file.

There have been a few other improvements and additions detailed below.

Full Change List

- Changed the update mechanism and file format so that the update can be processed without overwriting previously existing scores and other user input.

- Changed the Data File Editor to include a box to the right of the string that takes the number of seconds in the song and converts it to the time string that the program will use.

- Added text boxes to the right of the cutoff boxes in the Data File Editor that will take the base score for the given instrument on Expert difficulty and automatically populate the cutoff fields appropriately. For vocals, the field to the right is for the total number of phrases in the song and the field below it is for the number of percussion notes present in the song.

- Added an "Add to Update" button to the Data File Editor. Note: this button now has no valid function, so it's not recommended that you use it.

- Changed the background color of the Collection Manager and the Data File Editor to distinguish their windows from the main window.

- Changed the Collection Manager and Data File Editor to act as dialog forms, which prevents the user from messing around with the main program while making changes in these modules. It also allows the program to immediately reflect the changes made. You no longer need to select "Refresh Collection" for the master list to reflect your changes, and any changes you make in the Data File Editor will be immediately reflected as well.

- Added an option in the File Menu to "Create Master File." This will create a file called "master.dat" in the working directory that contains all of the general song information but without user scores. This is primarily used to create the update files, so the general user shouldn't need to worry about it.


The latest update file contains all of the songs up to but not yet including the second Grateful Dead track pack, but it now contains star cutoffs for every song in the game. Future updates should also have the cutoffs now as well.

Get the files at the links below.

Rock Band Tracker Full Version (First-Time Use Only!)

http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/rbt05bfull.zip

Rock Band Tracker 0.5b Executable Only (Overwrite existing RBTracker.exe file)

http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/rbt05exe.zip

Rock Band Tracker Update File (current through 1-26-09)

http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/update.zip

Thanks!

Update for 1-26-09 Released

I have uploaded a new update file for last week's DLC. This includes the Steve Miller pack as well as the five singles, which brings the total song count up to 550 in the master database.

This week, the cutoffs have been included with the update file, so you no longer will have to manually enter your star result for new songs. I have found a very useful spreadsheet maintained by ajunata at ScoreHero, and he seems to update the file very quickly on a weekly basis so for the most part I should be able to get fully functional songs into Rock Band tracker before the next batch of DLC comes out.

There are probably a few quirks that I haven't found yet in the routine that handles the cutoff calculation, but I have manually checked the values against Kawigi's list and for the most part they seem accurate. There may be occasional discrepancies, but they shouldn't exceed a hundred points or so at most. I am at the mercy of the base scores I have located, and if they are incorrect, even slightly, I have no way to compensate for it.

Get the latest update file at the link below. Once again, simply unzip the update.dat file into your working directory, and then select "Process Update File" under the Update menu in the program to add the songs. Make sure you're using the latest 0.3b version of the software to avoid getting erroneous messages that the update did not work.

Link:
http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/update012609.zip

Updated 0.3b Executable Posted

There was a bug in the update module that caused an error message to appear even when the update completed successfully. It was particularly insidious because the error happened before the update.dat file is deleted, and the message implies that the user must do the update again, which results in duplicate song entries.

If you downloaded the previous 0.3b executable, please download it again. It has been patched to fix this problem.

Update File (1-15-09) Released

I have uploaded an update file at the link below. This file, when processed, will add all DLC released to this date, up to and including the Lenny Kravitz pack and the Megasus/Honest Bob singles.

To use this file, simply extract the .zip to the root of your working directory (the one with the executable in it.) Then run the program and select "Process Update Files" from the Update menu. This will prompt you as to whether you want to update the file at this point. Select "Yes" and the new songs will be imported into the master list. The file will then be deleted so that you do not accidentally duplicate songs in the list by importing the update more than once. A backup of this update file will be dated and placed in the "Archive" subfolder of your working directory in case you load a previous backup file that does not include the new songs and thus need to run the update again.

Please remember that by default, the program only includes songs that you have indicated you own in the Collection Manager, so you will need to run the Collection Manager and add the songs you want from the list. The update process will place the newly imported songs into the "DLC Not Owned" list on the left, and you can select the applicable ones to include in your collection. Remember to save your changes before closing the Collection Manager and to select the "Refresh Collection" option from the Collection menu to get the new additions to appear.

I suppose this is a good time to explain how the program handles new songs. For more recent entries for which accurate Star Cutoff information is not available, the program will detect that situation and you will be prompted to select your star result from the drop-down box that appears above the Score input box when this situation arises. You must enter a star value along with a score for songs that do not have cutoffs. This will allow the program to process your star values for the purposes of general stat tracking.

Aside from the fact that additional input is required for songs with no cutoffs, the main drawbacks are that the Status field (which displays how far past the previous cutoff and how close to the next cutoff your best score is) will not be available, and there is no way for the "Close to Gold Stars" report to detect which of these songs you may be close to Gold Stars on.

As cutoffs for these songs become available, I plan to incorporate them into future update files.


Link: http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/update011509.zip

Rock Band Tracker v0.3b Released

I have uploaded Version 0.3b of Rock Band Tracker at the link below.

Change List:

- Added the ability to delete the last entry of the selected song on the currently selected instrument. This will also replace your high score values for each category with the newly appropriate values, so the program should act as though the deleted entry never existed. I haven't had much time to test it, though, but what little I did seemed to work perfectly fine. This option can be activated through the File menu and "Delete Last Entry." I just don't have enough room to put a separate button, and hopefully it will only need to be used sparingly anyway.

- Fixed a bug in which pressing the Enter key to dismiss the warning dialog when trying to enter a new result with invalid data was causing the dialog to continuously appear until the user clicks on it. Now the Enter key should dismiss the dialog without triggering it again.

- Fixed a bug in the vocal FC percentage on the General Stats panel where it was displaying an absurd value because I didn't include a subtraction via parentheses when casting the result to a Double.

A bit more modest than yesterday, but hopefully the Delete Last Entry option will make life easier for people entering massive amounts of data en masse. The only drawback is that if you have to delete an entry that's back in the list, you will have to delete each score until the wrong one is first in the Recent Results list, and then you will have to re-enter the scores you deleted to get to it. But hopefully most of the time these mistakes will be caught before additional scores are input.

Enjoy!

Once again, this is only the executable. If you are running the program for the first time, download and extract the original archive in the first post with the directory structure intact before replacing the .exe with the one contained in this new archive.


Link: http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/rbt03b.zip

Version 0.2 Beta Released

I have uploaded version 0.2b of Rock Band Tracker to the link below.

Here is a list of the changes/improvements:

- Fixed the tab order of the text boxes to include the FC checkbox when it is active.

- The program now allows the user to use the Enter key in lieu of clicking the Enter New Result
button to add a data entry. This only works if one of the text fields or the FC checkbox currently
has focus.

- Added an FC counter to the General Stats panel. This counter will show you how many songs in your current collection you have scored a full combo on at least once, along with a percentage of your collection that you have FC'd.

- Added a "Career Totals" report in the Reports menu. This report shows you your total overall play count, star count, and score across all entries on all instruments, along with the average star value per run, the average score per run, and the frequency and percentage of times you achieved each star result. It also shows you the total number of FC Runs you have. This report also shows you the corresponding stats for the instrument you have selected at the time it is displayed.

- Added a "Time Report" in the Reports menu. This report shows you the total time you have spent playing songs across all instruments, along with the time spent playing each individual instrument separately. This, of course, only applies to the time you spent in successful runs for which you entered a score, and of course doesn't include multiplayer or time spent in menus, so your actual play time is likely somewhat longer than what this report indicates. Still, it's an interesting (or sickening, in my case) ballpark figure.

- Removed the 100% Count item from the Song Statistics panel and replaced it with a Play Time stat, which tells you how much time you have spent playing the selected song on the selected instrument.

Many of these improvements came at the suggestion of those on various message boards, and I thank those who tried this early version of the software and gave me feedback. Much appreciated. Enjoy!

NOTE: The zip file in the link below contains only the executable file. If you have already installed the first version, simply extract this folder and overwrite your existing rbt.exe file with this updated one. If you are trying the program for the first time, extract the old archive first to a folder of your choice and then copy this new executable over it.

Link: http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/rbt02b.zip

Rock Band Tracker Public Beta Released

Get it at the link below.

Please note that you must have the latest version of Microsoft's .NET Framework Runtime Environment installed on your machine. You can get that at Microsoft's website. Your display must be capable of outputting at least 1024x768 resolution and you must have full control of the folder to which you unzip this archive.

It doesn't matter to what folder you extract the .zip file as long as you keep the underlying directory structure intact.

Please leave any comments or questions beneath here. It should be fairly self-explanatory, but I've included a detailed readme.txt in the archive that spells pretty much everything out for you. Please read that before asking any questions in the comments.

Thanks!

Link: http://www.geocities.com/angrysportsguy/rbt.zip