why do people have different audiosurf roads for the same song??

[justinrpg]

I was looking at people's scores for AudioSurf after completing a song, and a few of them were different than mine!!! how did someone manage to get a different road for the same song??

[EclipseCookie]

they might have found a different version.

[NovaTerran]

different formats and different bitrates. as well as different mixes or versions like album versions and EP versions.

[GeoLuz]

The different Audiosurf roads occurs because of different .ash files. The .ash files are files generated by Audiosurf that show the shape of the track, the distribution of blocks by color, and traffic rating. As soon as you load a song for the first time the game generates the .ash file. It is possible to have different .ash files for the same song because of the different formats (.mp3, .m4a, .ogg, .wma). I have had 3 different .ash files for the same song: one from a CD, one from iTunes, and one .mp3 download. There are also different versions of a song such as an original version or a live concert version that are posted on the same scoreboard.

[stupidstraycat]

I've found several songs have been renamed, or have minor differences...
A Live version of a track may also come up as the radio version of the same song by 'artist--title'.
There's also the effect of edited music having minor length changes by a few seconds that will also throw off the scoring.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2457939

[UncFester]

The different Audiosurf roads occurs because of different .ash files. The .ash files are files generated by Audiosurf that show the shape of the track, the distribution of blocks by color, and traffic rating. As soon as you load a song for the first time the game generates the .ash file. It is possible to have different .ash files for the same song because of the different formats (.mp3, .m4a, .ogg, .wma). I have had 3 different .ash files for the same song: one from a CD, one from iTunes, and one .mp3 download. There are also different versions of a song such as an original version or a live concert version that are posted on the same scoreboard.

Since no one answered my question over in this thread: http://www.audio-surf.com/forum/index.php/topic,5262.0.html

I'll ask it again here.

What happened to the LOCATION of .ash files?

*Steam path*\steamapps\common\audiosurf\engine\AudiosurfHC  -- this no longer exists in my directory.
No .ash files to be found, period.

I recently re-installed the game and played several songs to make sure it worked properly, so there should be .ash files...er...right?

Not a one exists on my hard drive now. I had them before the re-install (as shown by one other post of mine to that other thread) but not since.

[NovaTerran]

The different Audiosurf roads occurs because of different .ash files. The .ash files are files generated by Audiosurf that show the shape of the track, the distribution of blocks by color, and traffic rating. As soon as you load a song for the first time the game generates the .ash file. It is possible to have different .ash files for the same song because of the different formats (.mp3, .m4a, .ogg, .wma). I have had 3 different .ash files for the same song: one from a CD, one from iTunes, and one .mp3 download. There are also different versions of a song such as an original version or a live concert version that are posted on the same scoreboard.

Since no one answered my question over in this thread: http://www.audio-surf.com/forum/index.php/topic,5262.0.html

I'll ask it again here.

What happened to the LOCATION of .ash files?

*Steam path*\steamapps\common\audiosurf\engine\AudiosurfHC  -- this no longer exists in my directory.
No .ash files to be found, period.

I recently re-installed the game and played several songs to make sure it worked properly, so there should be .ash files...er...right?

Not a one exists on my hard drive now. I had them before the re-install (as shown by one other post of mine to that other thread) but not since.

Try manually creating the folder and load up a song, it should start placing them in automatically again.

[blue_h3x]

The disappearing AudiosurfHC folder started happening a while ago, but doesn't affect all users. Mine never went and I have all my .ash files from years ago, yet some lost everything.

Though manually creating the folder will cause the game to start using it once more.

[UncFester]

Thanks for the answers!

I'll re-create that folder and see if it works properly.