Angolmois uses a command line for controlling its behavior. The following options are available:

Shows a brief usage.

Shows a version of Angolmois.

Sets the initial play speed to <number>. The default speed is 1.0x (equivalent to -a 1.0).

The play speed can range from 0.1 to 99.0. Other than that, you can set it as you want, for example to 3.1415x. The play speed can also be changed with F3/F4 keys (or keys specified in ANGOLMOIS_SPEED_KEYS) during the game play, but this is limited to predefined speeds only.

The play speed does not affect the grading, and is only provided for convenience.

Same as --speed 1.0 to --speed 9.0.

Enables the AUTO PLAY (viewer) mode. In this mode, you can only adjust the play speed and the simulated play will be displayed.

Enables the exclusive mode. In this mode, the screen is reduced to 256 by 256 pixels and the game play screen is entirely missing. The play position and information is displayed in the console. The ESC key still works when the screen is on focus, but other keys won't work.

--fullscreen is ignored in the exclusive mode; the screen will always launch in the new window.

If --no-bga (-B) option is also present, the screen does not launch at all and it becomes the sound only mode. In this mode you can only stop the playback with Ctrl-C (or equivalent signals like SIGINT).

Enables the sound only mode. Same as --exclusive --no-bga.

Enables the fullscreen mode. Your graphics driver should support 800x600 screen resolution (otherwise it will exit immediately).

This is default, so there is actually no point to use this option.

Enables the windowed mode. The window is measured 800x600 or 256x256 depending on the mode. You need to focus the screen for key input (so beware of your meta or Windows key!).

Shows a brief information about the song. In the normal mode, this will be overlayed on the loading screen; in the other modes it will print to the console.

This is default, so there is actually no point to use this option.

Does not show an information about the song. In the normal mode, this will only affect the loading screen. In the other modes, this will disable all output to the console (song information and playback status). This does not disable any warning or error message however.

Enables a mirror modifier, if this is the last specified modifier. (This is common to other modifiers; modifiers do not overlap each other.)

The mirror modifier flips the entire chart horizontally, except for the scratch and foot pedal (if any). You should input the keys accordingly; if a note at key 1 is moved to key 5 then you should press key 5. The modifier does not affect the timing (in fact, no modifier does so).

This is useful for patterns with many notes crowded in only one side.

Enables a shuffle modifier.

The shuffle modifier swaps keys randomly. If, however, you have several notes common to one key, then those keys will move altogether. The modifier does not affect the scratch and foot pedal (if any).

This is useful for patterns with notes continuously flowing one side to another side (so called "floors"), as this makes a single hand handle too many notes. The modifier may break the chain, splitting the load to both hands.

Enables a shuffle modifier, but also affects the scratch and foot pedal (if any). Otherwise same as --shuffle.

Enables a random modifier.

The random modifier swaps notes randomly. This means that you never know where the notes comes from, even if you fully memoized the chart. This also tends to make patterns hard to handle. You have been warned. ;)

This option handles long notes correctly, so there won't be a note accidentally swapped into the longnote.

Enables a random modifier, but also affects the scratch and foot pedal (if any). Otherwise same as --random.

Loads and shows the BGA.

This is default, so there is actually no point to use this option.

Do not load and show the BGA. This is useful when you don't like distracted by the BGA, or you can't wait for the BGA loaded.

Combined with --exclusive, this option disables the screen. See --exclusive for more information.

Do not load and show the BGA movie. This is useful when your system is slow so the BGA lags the entire game.

Enables the joystick. The <index> is normally 0, but if you have multiple joystick-compatible devices it can be higher. Ultimately you test for the correct value.

Angolmois' joystick implementation is targeted to the consumer Beatmania controller and its clones, so other devices may not work. If your device does not work with Angolmois, you may try joystick-to-keyboard utilities like Joy2Key.

Joystick input slightly differs from normal keyboard input. Most importantly, spinning the scratch forward and backward becomes different inputs (e.g. breaking the long note input).

Ends the option processing. You need this option before the file name if the file name starts with -.

An argument not starting with - is considered a file name. You need the full path to BMS/BME/BML file (the extension does not really matter though), and other image and sound files are resolved in the directory where the BMS/BME/BML file is.

You may have two or more file names, but only the first is used. Multiple file names are reserved for later extension.

If the file name is missing, and if you are using Windows version of Angolmois, the file dialog will ask for the BMS/BME/BML file. This makes a batch file using Angolmois relatively easier. In the other platforms, you may use dialog or zenity for similar functionality.

The keys for Angolmois can be controlled with the environment variables (except for ESC, which is always used as an exit key):

Sets the keys for 1P. The environment variable should follow the following format:

<key1>|<key2>|<key3>|<key4>|<key5>|<scratch>|<pedal>|<key6>|<key7>

...where <key1> etc. are actual keys for key 1. The actual keys are specified as a SDL virtual key name, such as a, right shift, or f1. (See the list in the SDL wiki.) The name is case-insensitive.

Multiple keys can be set, by separating each key name with %. (It looks obscure, but SDL uses lots of punctuations as a key name so we have no other choices.) Angolmois considers that the key is being pressed when the first actual key mapped to it is being pressed, and the key is being unpressed when the last actual key mapped to it is being unpressed. Unpressing one key while other mapped keys are pressed is ignored.

When the joystick is available, special key names button <index> and axis <index> can be used. The <index> should be a number from 0 to the number of buttons/axes minus 1. Note that the joystick axis is considered as an input when the axis is out of the origin by more than 10% of its range, and moving the axis from one end to another end is considered as unpressing then pressing the key (this is how the consumer Beatmania controller works). This may not suitable for other devices.

The default value is as follows:

• <scratch>: left shift, axis 3
• <key1>: z, button 3
• <key2>: s, button 6
• <key3>: x, button 2
• <key4>: d, button 7
• <key5>: c, button 1
• <key6>: f, button 4
• <key7>: v, axis 2
• <pedal>: left alt

Sets the keys for 1P. Same as ANGOLMOIS_1P_KEYS, and the default value is as follows:

• <scratch>: right shift
• <key1>: m
• <key2>: k
• <key3>: ,
• <key4>: l
• <key5>: .
• <key6>: ;
• <key7>: /
• <pedal>: right alt

Sets the keys for play speed change. The format is as follows:

<speed down>|<speed up>

Otherwise same as above. The default value is as follows:

• <speed down>: f3
• <speed up>: f4