Higher quality backgrounds becoming acceptable is an immediate result of common monitor resolutions rising over the years. Upscaling a formerly 800x600 background to 2400x1440 or even 1920x1080 has visible artifacts.
High quality audio devices that can make the difference between 192kbps and 320kbps clearly audible are just as common as 10 years ago - not common at all and especially so on desktop PCs.
That means while a lot of people can profit from higher quality backgrounds, very few can profit from higher quality mp3s. It's about finding a compromise of finding a good value for the majority of users at the lowest cost (filesize).
osu! is ultimately about playing a rhythm game, not listening to music. 192kbps is completely sufficient for that purpose. While a copyright policy exists I think it is unnecessary to provoke people with bad intentions to use osu! exclusively for the purpose of pirating audio. When 192kbps is enough for Youtube music videos, why isn't it enough for osu!?
You should really elaborate on why "192 isn't enough to game to" when you say that Ephemeral doesn't know what he's talking about. You simply made a claim without backing it up.
Overall I see very little value in this, even without considering the piracy topic.
High quality audio devices that can make the difference between 192kbps and 320kbps clearly audible are just as common as 10 years ago - not common at all and especially so on desktop PCs.
That means while a lot of people can profit from higher quality backgrounds, very few can profit from higher quality mp3s. It's about finding a compromise of finding a good value for the majority of users at the lowest cost (filesize).
osu! is ultimately about playing a rhythm game, not listening to music. 192kbps is completely sufficient for that purpose. While a copyright policy exists I think it is unnecessary to provoke people with bad intentions to use osu! exclusively for the purpose of pirating audio. When 192kbps is enough for Youtube music videos, why isn't it enough for osu!?
You should really elaborate on why "192 isn't enough to game to" when you say that Ephemeral doesn't know what he's talking about. You simply made a claim without backing it up.
Overall I see very little value in this, even without considering the piracy topic.