Current rule:
I italicised the clause I am referring to:
I don't think "fade-out or timing issues" comprehensively constitutes all the reasons why it can be sensible to not map the end of a song, meanwhile it's implied that those are the only reasons acceptable. If we look at beatmapsets/1357624#osu/2809623 and beatmapsets/1144152#osu/2388944 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUVQfleU0o):
- We see the first one used this guideline to not map the ending, meanwhile there are no "fade-out or timing issues", it's just that if it was mapped the map would become worse due to that part of the song not matching the pacing of the rest of it.
- The second one cuts the last 40-50ish seconds of the song, citing "Songs that are shortened in ways that nearly match their official versions, and songs that are a full loop of a looping track will not be considered cut."
- This decision itself is contentious, as I remember when it was brought up in the BN server post-rank, an NAT implied it shouldn't have gotten through without (Cut Ver.), meanwhile another NAT later implied that if you have to cut an MP3 due to not mapping the end for similar issues to this, it can go without a marker (which this did).
I think it makes more sense for (Cut Ver.) to apply to an MP3 and not a map, so proposal:
Objectives:
a) Effectively lets people know of this possibility which seems to have trickled through despite being thought of as not possible by many people (which is why some maps have the ending mapped when it adds nothing to the map since they want to avoid having to write "Cut Ver.", e.g. ARForest - Colors
- Which in turn reduces inconsistency of some people cutting >20% because not wise to map and putting Cut Ver. because they thought they had to (and no-one is going to suggest in qualified "hey you should remove Cut Ver.") and other maps doing the same thing and not putting Cut Ver.
b) Reduces situations where an unofficial cut of an MP3 has no (Cut Ver.) marker meanwhile a significant part of the song is actually removed, just a part that wouldn't be wise to map.
My reasoning here is that lots of songs are not created specifically for a gameplay experience in a rhythm game, and so there might be a signficant part of the song that doesn't make sense to map, but is still part of the song's composition. Considering (Cut Ver.) is merely supposed to convey that an MP3 is cut, rather than be some sort of virtue signal, omitting it from such cases doesn't make sense as it's effectively saying that since this part isn't mappable, it's negligible and the song is basically the same without it, which is only true through an osu! lens and not in terms of actually listening to the song. Since evaluating songs like this is also extremely subjective, allowing people to just not cut the MP3 and leave parts like these unmapped would avoid these discussions altogether (which already often just depend on who your BNs are and whether someone sees the map in qualified or #help and objects), meanwhile the guideline would still make sense for if someone simply wanted to cut some of the song off the end when it's perfectly mappable with no issues, and still make that (Cut Ver.) as it would be now.
Open to discussion since I wrote this hastily
- If you do not beatmap the last 20% of your beatmap's audio file, it should be cut. The intro time is not included. This does not apply if more than 20% of the outro is occupied by a storyboard/video, or if more than 20% of the song's audio is not able to be mapped due to fade-out or timing issues.
I italicised the clause I am referring to:
I don't think "fade-out or timing issues" comprehensively constitutes all the reasons why it can be sensible to not map the end of a song, meanwhile it's implied that those are the only reasons acceptable. If we look at beatmapsets/1357624#osu/2809623 and beatmapsets/1144152#osu/2388944 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUVQfleU0o):
- We see the first one used this guideline to not map the ending, meanwhile there are no "fade-out or timing issues", it's just that if it was mapped the map would become worse due to that part of the song not matching the pacing of the rest of it.
- The second one cuts the last 40-50ish seconds of the song, citing "Songs that are shortened in ways that nearly match their official versions, and songs that are a full loop of a looping track will not be considered cut."
- This decision itself is contentious, as I remember when it was brought up in the BN server post-rank, an NAT implied it shouldn't have gotten through without (Cut Ver.), meanwhile another NAT later implied that if you have to cut an MP3 due to not mapping the end for similar issues to this, it can go without a marker (which this did).
I think it makes more sense for (Cut Ver.) to apply to an MP3 and not a map, so proposal:
- If you do not beatmap the last 20% of your beatmap's audio file, it should be cut. The intro time is not included. This does not apply if more than 20% of the outro is occupied by a storyboard/video, or if more than 20% of the song's audio is not able to be mapped due to issues that would result in a poor gameplay experience, such as fade-out or timing issues.
Objectives:
a) Effectively lets people know of this possibility which seems to have trickled through despite being thought of as not possible by many people (which is why some maps have the ending mapped when it adds nothing to the map since they want to avoid having to write "Cut Ver.", e.g. ARForest - Colors
- Which in turn reduces inconsistency of some people cutting >20% because not wise to map and putting Cut Ver. because they thought they had to (and no-one is going to suggest in qualified "hey you should remove Cut Ver.") and other maps doing the same thing and not putting Cut Ver.
b) Reduces situations where an unofficial cut of an MP3 has no (Cut Ver.) marker meanwhile a significant part of the song is actually removed, just a part that wouldn't be wise to map.
My reasoning here is that lots of songs are not created specifically for a gameplay experience in a rhythm game, and so there might be a signficant part of the song that doesn't make sense to map, but is still part of the song's composition. Considering (Cut Ver.) is merely supposed to convey that an MP3 is cut, rather than be some sort of virtue signal, omitting it from such cases doesn't make sense as it's effectively saying that since this part isn't mappable, it's negligible and the song is basically the same without it, which is only true through an osu! lens and not in terms of actually listening to the song. Since evaluating songs like this is also extremely subjective, allowing people to just not cut the MP3 and leave parts like these unmapped would avoid these discussions altogether (which already often just depend on who your BNs are and whether someone sees the map in qualified or #help and objects), meanwhile the guideline would still make sense for if someone simply wanted to cut some of the song off the end when it's perfectly mappable with no issues, and still make that (Cut Ver.) as it would be now.
Open to discussion since I wrote this hastily