Project OutFox 5.3 is an effort to modernize and revitalize the open source rhythm gaming engine StepMania. It is led by Team Rizu, a development team led by community veteran Squirrel, as well as many other prominent members of the current community.
We have been focusing on refactoring the internal codebase to improve performance, adhere to modern coding practices, and enhance its capabilities on modern hardware and other platforms (including single-board embedded systems such as Raspberry Pi). Improvements to uncapped frame rate have also been recorded on older hardware, as far back as the Pentium E2180. It also incorporates a new default theme with more integrated features than previous versions, and new internal functions that can be used for future content.
We are also working to flesh out its support for other gameplay styles beyond just dance games, true to our belief that this is a rhythm game engine and not simply a simulator/emulator for popular dance game franchises.
As Project OutFox is a continuation of the 5.0.12 and 5.1 codebase (not “5.2”), it remains compatible with almost all existing songs, themes, and noteskins that are supported on these versions (if you do encounter odd behaviour or other issues with older content, please report it to us as a bug).
5.3 is unrelated to 5.1 -3 (sometimes written as 5.1-3), which was a prior build of 5.2 before it was renamed.