Active & Passive Rhythms + Hitburst Rhythms

Before starting, I will analyze the rhythm of each gameplay elements once again with an additional perspective. While Jenny has nicely defined active and passive rhythms by using the standard of a click, I'd like to analyze more deeply by also taking hitbursts in account. For those which generate a hitburst, I will be calling it a "hitburst rhythm".

For those who might not be familiar with the term "hitburst", just simply thinking them as X / 50 / 100 / 300 will be fine enough.

1. Circle



After dealing a Circle, which is an active rhythm since it requires a direct "click", we get a feedback as a hitburst immediately. That is, a circle itself is a hitburst rhythm. Assuming every rhythm elements in this game starts with a click and ends with a hitburst, a circle is the element with the most short cycle.

2. Slider

2-1. Slider without reverse



Slider consists of 2 equivalent beat in terms of hitsounds which is a slider head, and a slider tail.

A slider head is an active rhythm in that it requires a click, and a slider tail is a passive rhythm in that it does not requires a click. However unlike a circle rhythm, the timing when the hitburst appears is different from the time when you are clicking an object. In sliders without a reverse point, the slider tail is a hitburst rhythm.

2-2. Reverse slider



Slider with more than one reverse point consists an additional element which is a slider reverse.

Reverse points are a passive rhythm since they do not require a click, but they also do not generate any hitburst. So when we compare passive rhythms inside a reverse slider, there is a clear difference between a slider reverse and a slider tail in terms of hitburst.

Among all slider elements, a slider reverse is the most passive rhythm both in terms of clicking, and hitbursts.

3. Spinner



Spinner is the only rhythm element that starts with a passive rhythm. Although players are required to click the spinner to actually start spinning it, due to the nature of the spinner, that clicking does not force any specific coordinate or timing. Also it does not accompany any hitsound.

Although the end of a spinner is also a passive rhythm, it is a hitburst rhythm just as the end of a slider.
The image above sums up the points I've made here.

Clicks vs. Hitbursts

As you may have noticed if you followed up until here, you will see that this guide is introducing a slightly different perspective in rhythms. Keep in mind that this is just a different idea of organizing rhythms, and there is no correct perspective.

Most mappers nowadays would be familiar with the active/passive rhythm concepts more than hitburst rhythm concepts. But it is a natural phenomenon to happen! The skin elements from the player base are most likely to have a "transparent sliderend", and a "transaparent hitburst". If you intend your map to get played with such skin designs, then I'd say the active/passive concept to be relatively more appropriate to apply. However when modding other mapper's work, having both perspectives in mind will help you better understanding what concept the other mapper intended to use.

Let's think about both perspectives for the following examples.

Upbeat Sliders



Unless there are really prominent sounds at the upbeat to get supported with a click, most people will think this rhythm design to be awkward according to the active/passive rhythm concept. However in terms of hitburst rhythms, please do note that this kind of design is also possible since the emphasis in terms of hitbursts are being placed at the downbeats.

1) Active/passive : The rhythms of (1), the head of (2) and (3) are equally expressed as a click.
2) Hitburst : The rhythms of (1), the tail of (2) and (3) are equally expressed as a hitburst.

It might be pretty interesting for some people since a completely same rhythm is meant to express completely different elements. But how could the "intended" perspective get applied for the chosen concept? The answer is indeed consistency, but I will be dealing this a little later.

Extended Sliders



Extended sliders (a slider whose tail is not snapped to a specific beat in the music, but is instead expressing a prolonged sound. The most common extended slider is 3/4 of a beat) were one of the most controversial mapping issue back in the 2012 era. The main reason I see for such controversy was the lack of understanding the different perspective of rhythms. People agreeing to extended sliders were the ones who insisted "active/passive rhythm theory" while the opponent were most likely to be "hitburst rhythm theory" party.

To interprete each parties' opinion, it would be something like the following.

1) Active/passive : The vague sound of the end of (1) is expressed as a slider end which is appropriate with its passive nature.
2) Hitburst : The vague sound of the end of (1) is expressed as a hitburst which is inappropriately expressed compared to the beat's importance.

So according to hitburst perspectives, suddenly introducing an extended slider concept will break the rhythm concept consistency and you'll want to avoid doing such inconsistency. Only use when there is a clear beat at the end of the 3/4 slider that could be successfully supported with a hitburst.

In active/passive perspective, this is fine.

Extended Spinners



You may want to think this along extended sliders. And of course, the results are the same.

Kick Sliders



According to a recent survey done by Kibbleru, I will also use the term "kick slider" for such 1/4 slider (jump) usages. (Reference: t/470582)

When it comes to this matter, we have to think about the kick slider patterns itself. How are the kick sliders meant to be played from the first place? Players are required to click the head of each slider, and quickly move on to the following slider. Despite the rhythms being 1/4, most users deal them with a single tap.

1) Active/passive : Clicks every major beat worked nice along the song.
2) Hitburst : Hitburst appearing every blue ticks was awkward.

So considering how a kick slider has originally started, viewing with an active/passive perspective would be adequate along the initial intention of the rhythm concept.

But would starting the kick sliders at the blue tick be natural enough? Since hitburst also takes "clicks" into account, I highly doubt if such rhythms will be appropriate in both perspectives.

Streams after Slider



Streams after sliders also contain such rhythm conflicts. The rhythm above is pretty much something conventional that has been used so far. However when applying the clicks perspective, there were some players who felt those uncomfortable to play.

1) Active/passive : While there is a clear beat at white tick, starting the stream from the blue tick didn't felt appropriate in terms of clicking.
2) Hitburst : Since all stream elements were equally expressed as a hitburst getting generated, it was an appropriate expression.

So the following rhythm was something more fitting along the hitburst perspective.



If the rhythm was like this, it would've been more suitable for the clicks perspective since the strong beat of the white tick is expressed as a click which is equal with the following streams. On the other hand, it wouldn't be highly suitable on the hitburst perspective since it created an extended slider.

Consistency Matters

So you've fully understood both rhythm perspectives and are readied to apply them in your mapping? Good! However, you should also take consistency into account as all other cases. If you decided one of the perspectives, then it is normally not really a good idea to switch perspectives inside similar parts unless you wanted to express a certain section differently. Since rhythm perspective choices can not get a visual support, becoming inconsistent every here and there is a really dangerous thing to do if you want to deliver your intention effectively.

Take a look at the example below.
(1)s are 3/4, and (2)s are a 1/2 rhythm slider. Assume the following premise.

-- Only the head of green (1) contains a clear rhythm in the music.
-- The head and the tail of blue (1) contain a clear rhythm in the music.
-- Every head and tail of (2) has a clear rhythm in the music.

As you can see, the rhythm selection wasn't consistently done through perspectives. The green slider following a vague beat at the end resulted an extended slider that follows the "active/passive rhythm concept" while the blue slider following a clear beat at the end resulted a normal 3/4 slider that follows the "hitburst rhythm concept". Switching through rhythm concepts might have expressed individual objects effectively, but as a whole, it didn't really got effective expressed inside the entire map.

The Meta

As mentioned above, really lots of players are using transparent sliderends and transparent hitbursts nowadays. Along such nature of the skins, I would say the "active/passive rhythm perspective" is a more adequate feature to provide. However that does not mean that the "hitburst perspective" is something bad or something that should never get used. It indeed is an existing concept, and taking advantage of this concept will allow people to express certain sections differently enough, and even allow more diversity of beatmaps.

Using "hitburst perspective" requires some clever usage of rhythms so they do not feel terribly unfitting along the song. But despite of this difficulties and several practical issues, I hope mappers could get out of the stereotype of "a strong beat must get expressed with a click". Those are just different ways to express stuffs.

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Thanks for your time. I hope you guys found this topic interesting and useful in your mapping and moddings.
Feel free to drop any opinions, questions or feedbacks.

Nice article. I can agree with most things you said, but just curious, what are your thoughts on slider ticks. They are the only part of the slider that are required for players to hit. Admittedly with today's meta of short sliders, it probably isn't a big thing.

Actually from the perspectives of the skins, slider ticks (and perhaps also the reverse) has became less important since the score display for 10 or 30 has got disappeared. They even do not provide an equal size of hitsounding as the mentioned rhythm elements, and I agree slider ticks being less important.

Sonnyc wrote:

Actually from the perspectives of the skins, slider ticks (and perhaps also the reverse) has became less important since the score display for 10 or 30 has got disappeared. They even do not provide an equal size of hitsounding as the mentioned rhythm elements, and I agree slider ticks being less important.

So, just making sure, this article is only hitsounding clickable/nonclickable elements and not about how these hitsounds interact with movement around the map.

Clear.

I agree with most of this other than the mention that a stream after a slider starting on the blue tick is uncomfortable. Most players I've seen hold the slider with one finger and then switch for the start of the stream which keeps a sense of 1/4 polarity. Shitty term but most players who are 5 digit play like this. Although for better players there normally isnt a difference between the two.

But it doesnt really have relation to the topic of rhythming as much.

I disagree with the slider being "2 equivalent beats" tho...
Imo the active/passive nature the slider has on its head and tail need to reflect a stronger beat on head and a weaker one on tail in the music.
Therefore a slider is made by two different beats in the song.

As for slider repeats I once again disagree, since they're actually stronger than normal slider ends, although being passive rhythms: the reason lies within the mivement our cursor does on such sliders,
Assuming we have a long enough slider (1/2 or longer), we will have to go in the exact opposite direction from where we came from.
I won't go in detail on how spacing works, but the general gist of spacing is that "the sharper the angle, the more amphasis I get on the turning point". Although passively, this applies to every object, slider repeats included. This makes slider repeats rhytmically stronger imo.

Regarding extended sliders: if people would just diligently silence their 3/4 slider ends there would be no problem imo.
The whole slider body would mean a long, held beat, while the slider end (which was on a vague sound ending) will be expressed as vaguely as the sound in the song was.
If people will keep those un-muted slider ends on ghost beats in the song it would obviously be wrong no matter what.


Generally, I see you focused this guide on "visual" rather than "hearing" which imo is not ideal for a rhythm game.
It is true we watch the playfield but we're actually tapping based on our hearing rather than sight (I believe no one can see an approach circle so slowly to determine the exact time in which you have to hit the circle by just seeing it).
Anyway, I guess I fall under your "meta" section here, so I don't think my concerns are that valid.
I just generally find strange that you're putting a rhythm game (based on rhythm and hearing) on the same level as an FPS game (based on visual reactions).

There are indeed different perspectives to map the same song, but ignoring what the song provides just to make something "different" is not the best move if you ask me.

It's been a while that I've made this post haha

What I was meaning with "2 equivalent beats" was the hitsounds simply. Nothing more than that~

Most players take advantage of slider leniency and even use a transparent skin for slider ends. With that perspective, slider end definitely has a weaker point. And when it comes to this perspective, slider reverses have a stronger meaning since as you've stated, there is a change of movement. (I admit I wasn't really aware of this point when I wrote this.)


The main point of this guide was to introduce every possible rhythm perspectives because most mapper seem to be obliged in one side for me. It is up to the mappers what they think is more suitable or preferable after then.