Pop'n Music Script
| Filename extension | .bms |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Urao Yane, NBK |
| Type of format | Music |
| Container for | Pattern data |
| Extended from | text files |
| Extended to | BME, BML, PMS |
BMS is a file format for rhythm action games, devised by Urao Yane in 1998. The format was originally developed as a format specific for a simulator of the game Beatmania by KONAMI, and currently the term BMS is widely used to describe the whole Beatmania simulating game system.
The acronym has been confirmed by Urao Yane to be Be-Music Source in the official BMS format specification.
Similar to the Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX series, the purpose of the game is to hit keys as notes fall from the top of the screen to the judge line.
When the player hits the notes with the proper timing, a gauge will fill up. When the player misses a note, the gauge will drain.
In addition to the normal notes, there are also long notes where the player needs to keep holding the key until the note ends and mine notes that will explode and drain the gauge if the player is pressing the key when they hit the judge line.
To clear the game, the player's gauge must be filled to a specified level at the end of the song.
Most BMS songs are original songs made specially for the game, because the BMS format requires the sounds that compose the music to be separated into small pieces, thus making it hard to use preexisting songs to be made into a BMS.
Currently most BMS songs are distributed in BMS events, where usually several artists publish their songs and compete for scores. The largest BMS event is the BMS of Fighters (BOF) held by AOiRO_MANBOW where more than 250 songs are presented each year.
The .bms file describes how notes are arranged and how the game responds when the player takes a specific action. It is a plain text file with 'directive' lines starting with the # character.
Each directive line is formatted in the form below.
The space between the definition setter and the definer is required.
A .bms file is generally composed of a header field and the main data field.
Below is a simple example of what an actual .bms file will look like when it is opened by a notepad.
Commands existing from the original BM98 used in the original .bms extensions.
#PLAYER Defines play style. 1 for Single Play, 2 for Couple Play, and 3 for Double Play.
Modern BMS simulators do not depend on #PLAYER anymore, but define play style by the extension of the file itself and the directive lines used in the main data field.
#GENRE
Defines the genre.
#TITLE
Defines the title.
...
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