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How to Host a Music Server (Legacy Method)

Note

A new easier workflow for creating a music server is being developed. Please check out the new draft documentation for more information.

Warning

This section is under construction.

Bemuse comes with a default music server to help new players get started. This default music server contains a selection of songs that I think are really nice. You can also run your own music server and play it in Bemuse. This page describes how you can do it.

This guide is valid for Windows or macOS, and assumes some knowledge about using the command line and web hosting.

Prerequisites​

macOS​

Prerequisite Check​

Run these commands inside the Terminal.

Node.js: You should see the version number:

$ node -v
v10.11.0

SoX: You should see the SoX version:

$ sox --version
sox:      SoX v14.4.2
note

On some devices, the SoX version number may not be displayed.

Windows​

For hosting on your local machine:

Installation​

Create a directory to store the program files. For example: C:\Bemuse\vendor\bin. Extract files into that folder. Your tree should look like this:

C:
└── Bemuse
    └── vendor
        └── bin
            ├── libflac-8.dll
            ├── libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll
            ├── libgomp-1.dll
            ├── libid3tag-0.dll
            ├── libogg-0.dll
            ├── libpng16-16.dll
            ├── libsox-3.dll
            ├── libsoxconvolver64.dll
            ├── libsoxr64.dll
            ├── libssp-0.dll
            ├── libvorbis-0.dll
            ├── libvorbisenc-2.dll
            ├── libvorbisfile-3.dll
            ├── libwavpack-1.dll
            ├── libwinpthread-1.dll
            ├── refalac.exe
            ├── sox.exe
            ├── wget.exe
            ├── wget.ini
            └── zlib1.dll

Prerequisite Check​

Open PowerShell (or Command Prompt) and add the PATH variable:

PS> $env:Path += ";C:\Bemuse\vendor\bin"

Node.js: You should see the version number:

PS> node -v
# v9.8.0

SoX: You should see the version number:

PS> sox --version
# C:\Bemuse\vendor\bin\sox.exe:      SoX v14.4.2

Debian Linux (Debian, Ubuntu etc.)​

  • Node.js: Here is the installation guide from nodejs.
  • SoX: sudo apt install sox

If you got error when convert sound, install libsox-dev package too.

Prerequisite Check​

Run these commands inside the Terminal.

Node.js: You should see the version number:

$ node -v
v11.1.0

SoX: You should see the SoX version:

$ sox --version
sox:      SoX v14.4.2

A Music Server​

A music server is simply a web server that hosts the files in a specific structure, which allows Bemuse to find the list of songs and the song data. A Bemuse music server has the following structure:

(root of the server)
├── index.cache
├── index.json
└── [song_title]/
    ├── bms1.bme
    ├── bms2.bml
    └── assets/
        ├── metadata.json
        └── (something).bemuse

index.json​

This file holds the list of all available songs and charts in this server. It also includes some metadata information.

When entering the game, Bemuse will download this file to create the song list that you see in the music selection screen.

Song directory​

Besides the index.json file is a song directory. This directory contains the BMS files and the assets folder, a Bemuse assets package.

This file is generated using the Bemuse tools, which we will cover in the next section.

Bemuse assets package​

Usually, a BMS package will come with hundreds (or even thousands) of sound files (the keysounds). It is not suitable for serving over the web. Sometimes, they are .wav files and usually, they are .ogg files. Wave files are too large, and not all browsers can play OGG files.

A Bemuse asset package contains the keysounds in OGG format. These sound files are grouped together into multiple parts. Each part is approximately 1.4 MB large.

The Bemuse assets package is also generated using the Bemuse tools, which we will cover in the next section.

Install Bemuse Tools​

Bemuse Tools is a command line application to help you generate files for Bemuse music server. Install it using the npm command, which comes with Node.js:

PS> npm install -g bemuse-tools

or if you use yarn:

$ yarn global add bemuse-tools

Installation Check​

Run the following command:

PS> bemuse-tools

It should display the version:

This is bemuse-tools v1.1.0-beta.1

  bemuse-tools: Tools for Bemuse

  index [-r] — Index BMS files in current directory
  pack <path> — Packs sounds and BGAs into assets folder
  server <path> — Serves a Bemuse server (no indexing or conversion)

If you installed bemuse-tools from yarn and get command not found error, you have to export path.

$ export PATH=~/.yarn/bin:${PATH}

and run once again for installation check.

Creating Your Server Folder​

Extract your BMS files into a folder. One song per folder. For example:

C:
└── Bemuse
    └── myserver
        ├── song1
        │   ├── song1_N.bms
        │   ├── song1_H.bms
        │   ├── song1_A.bms
        │   ├── bass.wav
        │   └── kick.wav
        └── song2
            ├── song2_N.bms
            ├── song2_H.bms
            ├── song2_A.bms
            ├── go.wav
            ├── back.wav
            ├── to.wav
            ├── your.wav
            └── rave.wav

Creating Bemuse Packages​

Normally, a BMS package comes in .rar or .zip format. Inside that package, there are few BMS files and hundreds of sound files.

It's not practical to extract .rar or .zip files in the browser. It's also not practical to download hundreds of small files (very slow).

In Bemuse, keysounds are packed into .bemuse format. They are split into many parts. Each part is about 1.4mb.

Inside Terminal or Powershell, cd to the server folder:

PS> cd C:\Bemuse\myserver

Then invoke bemuse-tools pack with the folder you want to pack:

PS> bemuse-tools pack 'Lapis - SHIKI'
# -> Loading audios
# -> Loading movies
# -> Loading and converting images
#
# -> Converting audio to ogg [better audio performance]
# .....................................................................................................
# ..................................................
# -> Writing...
# Written ogg.1.e0a51d24.bemuse
# Written ogg.2.d582293b.bemuse
# Written ogg.3.28d51957.bemuse
# ...
# Written metadata.json
note

If you pack bms files from linux, -> Converting audio to m4a [for iOS and Safari] will get errors because of codec. Converted pack will not play sounds on Apple platform devices.

Note​

Now if you look at your song folder, you should see a new folder called assets:

Lapis - SHIKI
├── assets
│   ├── bga.1.e0a51d24.bemuse
│   ├── bga.2.d582293b.bemuse
│   ├── bga.3.28d51957.bemuse
│   │   ...
│   ├── metadata.json
│   ├── ogg.1.d9bfef56.bemuse
│   ├── ogg.2.2105f7cc.bemuse
│   └── ogg.3.766f65d4.bemuse
│       ...
├── ba11.ogg
├── ba12.ogg
├── ba13.ogg
│   ...
├── lapis5key.bms
├── lapis7keya.bme
├── lapis7keyl.bme
│   ...
├── syn9.ogg
└── synpad.ogg

Creating Index File​

Now, the client needs to know what songs are available in the server. You need to create an index file. You can do it by running this command in the server folder:

PS> bemuse-tools index
#
# Absurd Gaff - siromaru       160bpm [schranz] siromaru / BMSSP-Absurd Gaff 3 6 8 10 10 21 [no-meta]
# ametsuchi - stereoberry      122bpm [discopunk / shoegazer] stereoberry / BMSSP-ametsuchi 1 3 5 5 8 [no-meta]
# atonement you you - unknown  197bpm [NO GENRE] Unknown Artist / BMSSP-atonement you you 4 6 [no-meta]
# AVALON - Team.SASAKURATION   200bpm [Ω] Team:SASAKURATION-AVALON 0 5 6 10 10 12 12 [no-meta]
# ...

After running, you will see these index.json and index.cache appear in your folder:

myserver
├── AVALON - Team.SASAKURATION
├── Absurd Gaff - siromaru
├── Declinin' - ____(sta)
├── HE is an Energizer - Mr.ABC
├── I'll_forget_you_you'll_never_forget_me - mommy
├── Lapis - SHIKI
│   ...
├── index.cache
└── index.json

Hosting​

On a Web Server​

Upload index.json, all *.bemuse and *.bms/bme/bml files to a web server. Make sure the directory layout is the same. Enable cross-origin resource sharing on your web server to allow Bemuse client to connect.

To connect to the music server, go to http://bemuse.ninja/?server=<your URL>.

Example: http://bemuse.ninja/?server=http://flicknote.bemuse.ninja/bemuse/mumei12

On a Local Machine (Windows, XAMPP)​

Navigate to your Apache Config folder of XAMPP (e.g. C:\xampp\apache\conf) and open httpd.conf

note

Make sure you create a Backup of the file so that you can restore to the default settings if any issues occur.

Find the variable name DocumentRoot and edit it's value from "C:\xampp\htdocs" to your server folder. (e.g. C:\Bemuse\myserver)

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "C:\Bemuse\myserver"

Also change the value found in the Directory tag to the server folder

<Directory "C:\Bemuse\myserver">

Place this line inside the Directory tag

Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"

So it should look like below

DocumentRoot "C:\Bemuse\myserver"
<Directory "C:\Bemuse\myserver">
    ....
    Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"
</Directory>

Once the file is saved, open your XAMPP Control Pannel and run "Apache".

Then connect to the music server with (http://bemuse.ninja/?server=https://localhost/).

On a Local Machine (macOS, nginx)​

First, open a Terminal and cd into the folder that contains the Bemuse server (there should be an index.json file in that folder).

Then, install nginx:

$ brew install nginx
note

Homebrew will install nginx on /usr/local.

Check your current location:

$ pwd
# e.g Output: /Users/cenox/Dev/bemuse-test

Note the output location; this will be used when we configure nginx.

Next, cd to nginx folder:

$ cd /usr/local/nginx/etc

Use touch command to create a config file to serve the Bemuse server.

$ touch servers/bemuse

Open Bemuse setting file with a text editor. Our example will use nano:

$ nano servers/bemuse

Insert below text:

server {
    listen 80;
    location / {
        add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';
        root /Users/cenox/Dev/bemuse-test;
        #    ^ Replace with the location from previous step
    }
}

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+X, Y, Enter.

Reload nginx:

$ nginx -s reload

Now, the music server will be available at http://localhost. You can play by going to http://bemuse.ninja/?server=http://localhost.

Additional Note.​

When you install nginx in Linux using a package manager, it runs when the OS boots up, but macOS isn't. You can use brew services to register the nginx service and make nginx automatically start when you log in.

$ brew services start nginx

Debian Linux using nginx​

First, open a Terminal and cd into the folder that contains the Bemuse music server (you should see index.json in this folder).

Then, install nginx:

$ sudo apt install nginx

Check your current location:

$ pwd
# e.g Output: /home/cenox/bemuse-test

Note the output location. This will be used when we configure nginx.

Go to nginx folder:

$ cd /etc/nginx

Use touch command to create a config file to serve the Bemuse music server.

$ sudo touch sites-available/bemuse

Open the setting file with your text editor. This example uses nano:

$ sudo nano sites-available/bemuse

Insert below text:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;
    location / {
        add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';
        root /home/cenox/bemuse-test; # Write location from pwd command.
    }
}

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+X, Y, Enter.

Then, create a symlink to enable the configured site:

$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/bemuse sites-enabled/bemuse

Restart nginx:

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Now, the music server will be available at http://localhost. You can play by going to http://bemuse.ninja/?server=http://localhost.

Last updated on by Thai Pangsakulyanont