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[Tutorial] osu!mania Mapping

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~ Osu!mania Mapping Tutorial ~
See this guide also in the Wiki!


Contents:
1.Prologue
1.1 What is mania?1.2 What is the osu! editor?1.3 Alright! I want to map!2. Basics
2.1 Song setup
2.1.1 General2.1.2 Difficulty2.1.3 Design2.1.4 Advanced2.2 Timing
2.2.1 Timing setup panel 2.3 Pattern2.4 Mapping2.5 Hitsounds3. Advanced knowledge
3.1 Pitch3.2 Keysounding3.3 Slider velocity (SV)3.4 Design/mapping Style3.5 Useful Links

  • 1.Prologue

  1. 1.1 What is Mania?
    So what exactly is Mania? Many of you osu! veterans out there might already know what Mania is. osu!mania is one of the 4 game modes. Many people that stumble upon o!m for the first time will probably think to themselves "Oh cool! Guitar Hero!". And indeed, osu!mania is very similar to Guitar Hero. Both of these games are so-called "VSRGs", or Vertical Scrolling Rhythm Games. This means, as the name already suggests, that the musical notes are falling down or rising up in a vertical manner. There are many rather similar games to o!m such as "Stepmania", “O2Jam” or "Beatmania IIDX".
    But for now, we will be concentrating on osu!mania only!

    The advantage of osu!mania lies in the fully customizable scroll speed (the speed of the notes falling) as well as the dynamic number of columns the notes fall down in.
  2. 1.2 What is the osu!editor?
    The osu!editor is the place where the map-making-magic happens! After all, maps do not appear out of nowhere (sadly). There are users that dedicate a lot of effort to creating what we get to play in osu! and you can become a mapper as well! Though everything inside the editor might appear confusing at first sight, it is much easier to use than one might think!
    Obviously, the editor handles all game modes, however, in this introduction, we will only focus on osu!mania. This mode has a very distinct appearance compared to the other mappable modes. Mostly, the area in which notes can be placed, is entirely different. It is rather compact, since all the other modes use the entire screen for object placement. Depending on the key count, the mappable area increases or decreases in size. This guide will revolve around 4-key-mapping.
    Below you can see a screenshot to show you the editor compartment in detail:
    Mania Editor

    1.) Mapping Area:
    This is where you place your objects. It is divided into different columns, | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | in this case. These are the numbers the editor works with, though many people prefer to use | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | because it's a more intuitive way of counting, when modding. This is not relevant for now, though.

    2.) Density Graph:
    What you can observe over here is the density of individual parts in the map. The more notes that are contained in a given timeframe in the song, the longer the bar inside this graph will become. If a part has reached its biggest considerable density, the bar for said section will turn pink and it will range from the left to right rim of the line. Make sure this does not occur too often, as less than 30-40% of the map should contain pink bars! To emphasize the magnitude of pink bars on the star rating (SR): This maps SR is 4.1.

    3/4.) Notes and Holds:
    We use these panels to place objects on the mapping area. The cursor will change to a cross and hovering over the mapping area will show a rectangle, which turns out to be our note. While note placement happens if we click the desired column, we have to drag the cursor for a long note (or: LN) from line to line in order to expand the initial note into a LN. Later on, you are going to learn how LNs can be used effectively!

    5.) Hitsounds:
    Objects have assigned sounds, and here’s where we assign them! Hitsounds have their own section in this introduction, so there will be more later on!

    6.) Lock Notes:
    The Lock Notes button is a really useful feature which many mappers don’t use. If Lock Notes is activated you can’t move your notes any longer, which is really useful when hitsounding. Without this activated, you may accidentally move notes as you hitsound them.

    7.) Beat Snap Divisor:
    A very important tool, especially in mania. Here, you can select in which beat snap you want to map. The default setting is always ¼ and this is the one you should normally use. However in mania you can use the 1/6 or even 1/8 beat snap much more often than in other game modes. Especially piano is often really hard to snap right and there we can use up to 1/16! It is important to always snap all notes right.
    However, if you want to get your map ranked, only map what you hear! Add 1/3, 1/4, 1/6 rhythms only when the song calls for it! Adding 1/6 bursts when the song does not call for it is unrankable.


    8.) Sample Set:
    Sample Sets allow you to add even more hitsounds than shown in point 5. As an example, the drum-finish sounds different than the normal-finish. Using this, you can give your song a even larger variety of hitsounds!


    1.3 Alright! I want to Map!
    Now we know how to place notes in the editor. Should something still be unclear; read it again! You have all time in the world! If you have understood everything we can directly jump to point 2, the basics! This is where i will explain the song setup and how to time your beatmap!


  1. 2. Basics

    1. 2.1 Song Setup
      Alright! Let’s drag the .mp3 of the song we want to map into osu! and a new map will be created automatically. The map will have no name until we open it once with the editor. Whenever you open your map for the first time in the editor, the song setup will open automatically.

      General
      Artist: Here you’ll have to add the original name of your songs Artist. No matter if it is Japanese, German or Russian. If the name of the artist has at least one special character you must add it here! As an example: If your artist name is “Die Ärzte” you must add it here because of the “Ä”.

      Romanised Artist: Here you have to add the romanised artist name, which translates to the original artist name in Roman (Latin) script. With our example used earlier, it would be “Die Aerzte” because the “Ä” is translated to “Ae”. If your artist name does not include any special characters in its name, this field will be filled out automatically.

      Title & Romanised Title: Exactly the same thing as with artist, but with the title of the song.

      Beatmap Creator: This field is automatically filled out with your name when you are logged in into osu! If you are not online at the time of creating the beatmap, add your name there.

      Difficulty: Here you have to give your difficulty a name. The standard difficulty names for osu!mania are “EZ”, “NM”, “HD”, “MX”, “SC” and “SHD”, but you are not forced to use these! If your song is from an other game you can use the difficulty names of that game! For example Sound Voltex, which uses the following names for their respective difficulties: “BASIC, NOVICE, ADVANCED, EXHAUST, INFINITE, GRAVITY”.
      You can even add own difficulty names. The only important part of the naming process is that the chosen names have to show a clear indication of their difficulty.
      This does not apply to marathon maps.

      Source: Here, you have to add where your song comes from. Is it from another game? Or an anime? Perhaps a TV-show? Add it here! For example: If your song comes from Sound Voltex, you have to add it here. Notice that it has to be the exact name of the game!

      Tags: You can add additional information about your song here. Album for example, or producer. Everything that helps to find your song in the beatmap listing. You also have to add the names of every osu! mapper who made a difficulty in your mapset as well.

      Difficulty
      HP Drain Rate: Here you have to select how much HP the player will lose when he misses a note and how much HP they will gain from notes. Important to add: Unlike osu! standard and Catch the Beat, the player does not lose their HP automatically over time but only when they miss a note or get the 50 judgement! The HP drain rate for example can be set higher when your song is really easy to play compared to the automatically set star rating. But don’t exaggerate! Experiment with the HP drain to find a fair value - you don’t want too many players failing out

      Key count: Here you have to set the key count in which you want to map. In this Guide i will use 4K. You want to have more? Go for it! Just select the amount of keys you want to map and start! You have the free choice! 4K and 7K are the most popular key modes. Important: Not every key count is rankable! Currently only 4K, 5K, 6K, 7K 8K and 9K are able to reach the ranked status! The checkbox “Co-Op” can be selected when you choose 5K and above. This allows you to map more than 10 Keys! As an example: When you choose 6K Co-Op, you will map in 12K. While playing that, there will be two mania stages, both with 6K each. This allows you to play with a friend on one keyboard!

      Approach Rate: This point is not used in Mania and you can ignore it.

      Overall Difficulty: Overall Difficulty or “OD” changes the judgement of how accurate you have to hit a note to get a MAX or 300 or less. A detailed table can be found here; here
      Also: Should your map have a lot of Long Notes you should set it to a lower OD, if you have more single notes than long notes you can set it to a higher OD.

      Design
      Countdown: Here you can set a countdown for your map. Newer maps and especially osu!mania usually don’t use this, so it should be disabled.

      Widescreen Support: Disable this box when your map has no storyboard.

      Display epilepsy warning: Should you use a storyboard with rapidly flashing lights, it’s very important to enable this box! This warns the player about the storyboard so he can disable it or increase the Background Dimmer.

      Letterboxing during breaks: Letterboxing shows little boxes at the top and bottom of the screen while in a break. Breaks are uncommon in Mania, so disable this point.

      Advanced
      Stacking: This Point has no effect for Mania so no need to change anything here.

      Allowed Modes: With this point, you change the mode of the editor to the one you want to use for your map. This guide is about osu!mania so we use “osu!mania” of course.
      Should you choose “All”, your editor will be set to osu! Standard, then your map will be automatically converted into any other game mode.

      Use special style (N+1 style) for mania: If you map in a keymode which can use a special key (5K and 8K) you can enable this point. It is known from “BMS” as “Scratch”. It’s a special extra key, especially used in 8K Mania. You can map the song like a normal 7K map, but you will have (depending on the skin settings the player uses), an extra key for scratching on the left or right of the playfield.

      The point “Colours” is not used in Mania so we don’t need to change anything there.
      The point “Audio” will be explained in the part “Hitsounds”

    2. 2.2 Timing
      Once we finished our song setup we need to time our song. The timing of a song sounds really complicated at first and if this is your first map, you might have problems with it but you can always ask the community whether or not someone can help you with the timing! Once you have timed a few songs you will get used to it! So don’t worry!

      How to start? First you need to listen closely to your song to get a feeling of the Main Beat. Once you think you can hear the main beat, just start to press “T” to the beat! Follow the instructions on the screen until the editor finally has the beat. You can tap longer to get a more accurate BPM, but the most important thing is to get the “basic” BPM or at least get near to the actual BPM of the song. Once you have a timing point set, you need to set the accurate offset. Many unexperienced mappers don’t really know what the offset actually is, even though it is quite simple:
      The offset is the first beat of your current BPM!. That’s all! Go to the point of your song where you can hear the first beat, press F6 again, choose your timing point and press “Use current time”. Now the timing point should be on the current offset, the first beat!
      Now you need to check whether or not the BPM is really correct. Press F3 and play the song. Watch the beats and check if they’re on the white lines you can see above the Timing line. Should it be wrong, you can adjust it by increasing or decreasing the BPM. Listen closely to the metronome and adjust it until the beats are on the same tact as the metronome! Should it be right, your song is finally timed!

      I also would like to show you a little program that can be really helpful to find the right BPM really fast. It is called MixMeister BPM Analyzer. This program will show you the average BPM of your song. It has just one weak point. It can not show you multiple BPM. It will show you the average BPM of all BPM points in your song. To say it simple: It helps with single BPM only. You can search for it on Google or just click here.
      Don’t try to use it to time every map of you. You will never learn how to time songs when you let this program time everything for you. Use it to compare it with your BPM to check if you got the right one!


      Multiple BPM: A lot of songs don’t have a constant BPM. For those, you need to add another BPM point. It works similar to the normal BPM. Go to the point where the BPM changes (This is the offset again because it’s the first beat of the BPM!), press F6 to open the Timing panel. Now just add another timing point by clicking on the green “plus” and adjust it to the BPM change while listening to the metronome again, or you can press Ctrl + P to set a BPM point at the time stamp you are currently at. Do this for every BPM change in your Map!
      Timing Setup Panel
      Timing Points: The timing points or “Red Lines” are there to time your song. Without these you can’t map. I already explained how you can find the right BPM and offset for your song earlier!

      Inherited Point: The inherited point are also called “Green Lines”. These points are used to add “effects” to your map. With these, you can change the volume, the sample set, the slider velocity (SV) and you can add a Kiai-Time.

      Kiai: The Kiai can be selected in "Style" and can be added between two inherited points. The Kiai Time is normally used in the chorus of your Song. It let appear star fountain on the left and right side of the screen and is used to make this moment of your Map "more exciting".
    3. 2.3 Pattern
      Once you finally have the right timings in your map it’s time to start with the mapping! But how exactly do you start? In this part of the guide i would like to show you different kinds of patterns you can use to map your song. It might be that some pattern looks really confusing for new mappers, but once you get used to it and you know how the patterns are actually called and when to use them i’m pretty sure you will learn them really fast! I will add a screenshot for each and every pattern with a short description for what they are and when you should use them.

      Long Note
      Here we can see a Long Note or just LN. A long note is the “Slider” in Mania. Using LNs are the best way to map long sounds in your song. There are lot of ways to use a LN which i will explain in another part of this guide.

      Chord
      Here we can see the Chord. The chords, who also can be called “doubles”, “triples” or “quads” is used to emphasize strong sounds in your song like heavy drums or cymbals. In the screenshot i have used a two note chord but you can of course use more notes for it! If you are planning to rank your map, depending on the key-count you map in, you can use up to six notes! Anything more is against the Ranking Criteria.

      Burst
      Here we can see the Burst. Bursts are what they sound like - quick bursts of notes. It's not necessarily 1/4, but usually is defined by something that is much faster than the normal density of notes in the song for a very short period of time.

      Staircases
      Here we can see the Staircases. The staircase is mostly used for fast sounds. It is recommended that you should map staircase streams conservatively as it gets very hard to execute after a certain bpm threshold for players, this is mainly due to the jacks formed on columns 2 and 3.

      Roll
      Here we can see the Roll or Stair. Usually rolls are delimited by a repeating pattern of 4 or more notes, but more generally, it’s notes going in a certain direction. A 1234 is a roll and a 1324 is a split roll.

      Jackhammer
      Here we can see the Jackhammer or just Jack. It is recommended to use jacks for two sounds that sound exactly the same. Should you use jacks randomly you will very quickly notice that it doesn’t play well. As an example you can use the jack very well for dubstep sounds or for similar drum-sounds. But be careful, do not over-use it! When you use too many jacks at once it often plays too hard.

      Shield
      Here we can see a Shield. The shield can be recognized by the fact that its always note right before or after a LN. (more description to add)

      Chord jack
      Here we can see the Chord Jack or or Double/Jumpjack. The chord jack is a combination of the jackhammer and the chord. The way to use it is the same as for the jackhammer. For same sounds, just that you use these as chords for heavier sounds.

      Trill
      Here we can see the Trill. The trill can be mapped up to 1/6. The trill is used for two really fast changing sounds in your song. In the screenshot we see the one handed trill but that is not the only way to map it. You can also use both hands for it, as an example one note on column one and the other one on column three.

      Chord trill
      Here we can see the Chord Trill or "Double/Jumptrill". The chord trill can raise the difficulty of your map really fast so do not overdo it! The chord trill should never be mapped above 1/4. Like the trill, the chord trill is used to emphasize two much louder sounds that change really fast. Like the trill this is not the only way to map it.

      Jumpstream
      Here we can see the Jumpstream. The jumpstream is often the most complicated pattern to play for a player because it’s a mix between normal notes and chords that change hands really fast. The jumpstream can be mapped, depending on the BPM of your song, up to 1/6. The jumpstream should only be mapped when it really fits to your song. As an example; loud melody between more quiet sounds. Drums between hi-hat etc. There a lot of different ways to map jumpstreams. In the screenshot we can see a really safe way to map it because there no 1/2 beat triple jacks in it. But of course you don’t have to map it that way!

      Okay! These are some of the different patterns you can use in your song! There’s still many more configurations of patterns not covered in this guide however. A lot of them can be really good combined. Try a bit in your song and i’m sure you can find a good mix of them for your song!

    4. 2.4 Mapping
      After we finally know which patterns we can use and how they are called we can start with the mapping. Just drag the song you want to map into osu, fill out the song setup up and add the timing! If your first tries look kinda strange or you don’t like it, don’t give up! No one is born as a master. Testplay your map as often as you can and when it is finished try to get as much feedback as possible! Ask friends that play mania, ask in #osumania or write directly to some player ingame and ask for feedback.
      It really helps when you use the 25% playback rate a lot while mapping.
      Alright, let’s go!
      In this part I would like to explain what exactly you should have an eye on while mapping an Easy/Normal/Hard or Insane difficulty.

      Notice: Keep in mind that everything what i will write from here is just a guideline and you should not take this as actual rule. You don't need to follow this guideline verbatim.

      If you want to rank your beatmap there some points you have to take note of.
      First: You need a full spread in your beatmap. An osu!mania beatmap needs usually 3 difficulties or more. An Easy/Normal, a Hard and a Insane one. Of course you can decide for yourself if you want an Easy or Normal but it is best to have both. However you are not forced to have an Easy difficulty in your Mapset. The osu!mania Ranking Criteria says that your lowest difficulty has to be below 2*. That means you can have a Normal as the lowest as long as it is below 2*. Maps for approval are not affected of this rule!
      While creating a full spread, it is very important to look at the pattern spread, not at the star rating! It can happen that the star rating becomes really high just because of one really dense part in your map.
      Osu!mania has a really helpful tool for mapping different difficulties when you already have one ready. As an example:
      You already have the Hard difficulty for your mapset finished and now you want to map a Normal one. Open the new difficulty, click on “File”, then on “Open Difficulty” and then click on “For Reference”. Now choose the Hard difficulty. Now, a second mapping field will appear next to your current mapping field. It’s the Hard difficulty. It shows you exactly how you have placed the pattern there and you can take this as reference on how to map the Normal difficulty!

      Here are also some general tips for mapping:
      Be consistent! What does that mean? Do not use different kinds of patterns for exactly the same sound in your map. As an example; if you use a chord for drums or snare, keep it like that! Do not change it to a single note later on. Consistency of the patterns is one of the most important aspects of mania mapping. It just feels wrong when playing if you use different amounts of notes for the same sounds.

      Now I'll explain the general guidelines on what to chart for particular difficulties, ranging from Easy to Extras
      Like I said this is just a guideline and you don’t have to follow these 1:1.

      The Easy difficulty:
      Like the name already says, we are mapping the easy difficulty here. And this it should be: Easy to play!
      We want to introduce the newer players to osu!mania and he should learn the basics. That’s why we want to keep our difficulty as simple as we can. We don’t use any 1/4 pattern, even ½ pattern should be used carefully. Use chords only to emphasize the beginning or the end of a part with a heavy cymbal. Make sure you always try to balance the hands very well. Use a lot of LNs for the long sounds in your song and to map heavy 1/4 sounds and above.
      If you want to use chords for example in your kiai, make sure the player has enough time to react. That means give him 1/1 beat time! In most songs the second down or main beat is always louder than the first one, with heavy drums, kicks or clap sounds. These you could map a chord while you use a normal note for the quiet sounds. But still: In the best case just use normal, single notes.
      Also do not use single notes while having a LN! The player should first learn how to handle a LN and how to release it at the right time. If you really want to use single notes during a LN you should watch out that the single note is on the other hand. Means, when you have mapped a LN on the right hand, the single note must be pressed with the left hand! Also don’t forget: If you want to add an easy difficult to your song you should try to keep it below 1,5* to have the easy icon.

      The Normal difficulty:
      Now that we know how to map an easy difficulty, we can raise the density of the notes for the normal difficulty a little bit.
      We can use more 1/2 patterns now, but we should try to avoid using 1/4 patterns or just use them really carefully. In the best case only when your song has a really low bpm or only really short stairs. Also we can use more chords now.
      If you have a heavy snare drum or a heavy cymbal in the middle of the part we can map this with a chord to emphasize these. Also, we can use single notes during a LNs but please try to use different hands like explained in the easy difficulty! Should you have more notes than one during the LN it’s okay to have some on the same hand as the LN, but most of them should still be played with the other hand!
      Here we should definitely map the kiai with chords and normal notes like already explained in the easy, but do not overuse it. Depending on the bpm of your song you can also add 1/2 normal notes here. But do not forget: The player just learned the basic pattern and you should not overdo it! A also good point for a normal difficult is to follow the PR (pitch relevancy) with your notes. Higher sounds can be mapped on the right side, deeper sounds on the left side of the play field.

      The Hard difficulty:
      In the Hard difficulty we can start to add more complicated patterns since the player should have learned the basics from easy and normal.
      We can start to add longer 1/4 bursts and stair patterns, we can also start to use 3-note chords for heavy cymbals at the end or at the beginning of a part. Also, depending on the bpm and the part of your map, we can use short jump streams but make sure they fit to the part you currently map. When the song gets more hectic and faster, it’s the perfect time to add such a jumpstream.
      You can start to use short jack patterns here as well. What you should avoid are chord trills. Chord trills have a really high pattern density which may result in a very high star rating. You can of course use short triples of chords, these should not have a big impact on the star rating.
      The kiai should be the most dense part of your map if possible. Also, you can try to combine more LNs and ¼ single note patterns.
      Try to combine different lengths of LN patterns at the same time! It can give your map a special feeling by using more than one LN at the same time. But be very careful here. Make sure every LN follows a sound! Do not add these “randomly” into your song just because you think it could play well.
      Depending on the BPM it’s also okay to add short 1/6 or 1/8 stair patterns. But use these carefully. Only when the song provides enough for these. The 1/6 burst should not be longer than a 1/2 beat and the 1/8 not longer than 1/4 beat! The lower the bpm of your song is, the longer these burst patterns can be.

      The Insane and Extreme difficulty:
      Now we focus on the insane and extra difficulties. Again, we raise the density of the pattern and start to use even more complicated patterns!
      You can now use all kinds of pattern and try to combine them. Also, you can now use long 1/8 patterns as well as chord trills! An insane and extra difficulty is mostly for more experienced players, so you should try to make a really nice to play and still exciting difficulty. Try to combine jumpstreams with trills and heavy chord mashing. You can now use 3-note chords for more than just emphasizing the ending of a certain part in your song. But keep in mind:
      Should you plan to add another difficulty like an extra difficulty, you should not go to the limits! You should leave some space to make an even harder difficulty. I can’t tell much since you just have to create a harder difficult than the hard in a good spread. If you plan to add an extra difficulty you can go to the limits of the song. You can use heavy jumpstreams together with heavy chordmash. You can use 3-note chords in jumpstreams between two-note chords. You have to try out what’s the limit of the song. But take note of the following: A guideline says that you must be able to pass your own difficulties and i have to agree with this point. If you really want to create a good and playable insane/extra difficulty you should know how they play and for this you have to be able to pass them.
    1. 2.5 Hitsounds
      You have placed your first notes and you like it? Or you Or you may have even finished a full difficulty or spread? Excellent! But something is missing, right?
      Yes! The Hitsounds.
      Hitsounds are important in every game mode. They give feedback when pressing a note so the player knows what he just hit. Also having different hitsounds in your map can give it a special feeling because the song sounds different all of the sudden, maybe even better than without hitsounds!
      Osu!mania has two different ways to hitsound.
      First, there is the normal way that uses the samples and effects provided by the game itself, like whistle/finish and clap. The other way is via the sample menu that you can open with CTRL + Shift + I. That sample menu is especially important for keysounding that’s why i will explain it later!
      For now, we want to focus on the normal way of hitsounding.
      First you have to decide; do you want to use the default hitsounds that osu gives you or do you want to add custom hitsounds?
      If you want to use the default one you don’t really need to change a lot. Everything you need is to decide which sample set you want to use as a default.
      Go into the Timing Setup Panel and change your timing point to the sample set you want to use. Osu!mania usually uses “soft” as default because the hit-normal isn’t that loud.
      You can always change the sample set for a whole part by selecting all notes and changing it to the desired sample set or you can add an inherited point (green line) and change the whole part to the selected sample set until the next inherited point.
      Now you just need to add the hitsound you wish! You can choose between Finish, Whistle and Clap. All of these effects sounds different when you change the sample set. Try around for a little bit and i’m sure you can find the perfect one for your song!

      Now I will explain how to add custom hitsounds to your beatmap.
      First you need the hitsounds you want to add. These have to be a .wav file. You can not use hitsounds in a .mp3 or .ogg format, because this is unrankable. Also you have to make sure your used hitsounds are rankable! Means, they have to be at least 100ms long and the hitsound must have an acceptable range of delay under 5ms. In the best case, your hitsound has absolute no delay, you can always cut the delay with programs like Audacity.
      Also it’s not allowed to use silenced hitsounds in osu!mania. Every pressed note has to give a feedback.
      Once you have the custom hitsounds you want to add you need to rename them. When you want to hitsound the usual way your hitsounds must have following one of the names:
      Hitsound Names
      Following hitsounds can be changed in the song folder:

      normal-hitnormal
      normal-hitwhistle
      normal-hitfinish
      normal-hitclap

      soft-hitnormal
      soft-hitwhistle
      soft-hitfinish
      soft-hitclap

      drum-hitnormal
      drum-hitwhistle
      drum-hitfinish
      drum-hitclap


      You can add more than just these! You can name your hitsounds as well! As an example “soft-hitnormal2”. You need to change the sample set you want to use in the Timing Setup Panel.
      Also notice: The “xxx-hitnormal” is the hitsound which gets played when you don’t give the note a specific hitsound. For example; when you change the “soft-hitnormal”, every note in your map that has the soft sample-set active will have this hitsound! Be careful when changing them.

      Once you have added your custom hitsounds you need to activate them!
      For this, we open the Timing Setup Panel in the editor and mark all points. Now we go into “Audio” in the Timing Setup Panel and change the Sample Set to “Custom 1”. That’s it!
      All your hitsounds in sample set 1 are now activated! Should you use another sample set, you choose the third point and choose the sample set you also chose for your hitsounds.

      After you finally have your hitsounds, don’t forget to activate “Lock Notes”. That way, no notes can be moved when your hitsounding your map.
      Hitsounding doesn’t take a lot of time at all. You can choose one or more notes at the same time, change the sample set on the top-left of the screen and add the effect on the right side. Now all these notes have a hitsound!
      You don’t even have to select all of this by hand. You can also change the sample set, the additions and the effect with hotkeys!
      Once you know which hotkey is for what hitsounding becomes an extremely easy task!
      Here’s the list of hotkeys you can use for hitsounding your beatmap:
      Hitsound Hotkeys
      Shift + Q changes the Sample Set to “Auto
      Shift + W changes the Sample Set to “Normal
      Shift + E changes the Sample Set to “Soft
      Shift + R changes the Sample Set to “Drum”

      CTRL + Q changes the Additions to “Auto
      CTRL + W changes the Additions to “Normal
      CTRL + E changes the Additions to “Soft
      CTRL + R changes the Additions to “Drum

      W gives your note the effect “Whistle
      E gives your note the effect “Finish
      R gives your note the effect “Clap

      Note: Of course you can add more than one effect on a note!
      What i want to mention: Never hitsound more than one note in the same chord with the same hitsound! Please keep in mind that every note that gets played also plays the hitsound. When you have two notes with the same effect, the effect will also be played twice. This is just too loud.

      Hitsounding may take some time but like I already mentioned it’s important for the beatmap. Once you get used to it, hitsounding will go really fast!


  1. 3.0 Advanced Knowledge
    In this part i would like to explain more details of osu!mania mapping like keysounding, SV changes and pitch relevancy.
    Also, together with the community i want to explain different mapping styles here.
    The osu!mania community consists of players from different VSRG’s like o2 jam, Stepmania and BMS.
    All these games have a special mapping style.

    1. 3.1 Pitch
      Mapping to the pitch can lead to a fun to play map, especially in osu!mania!
      Basically it’s not even that hard, you place your notes to the pitch like on a piano, lower pitched sounds are mapped on the left side, the higher sounds on the right side.
      This is used more frequently in the higher keycounts, (7K, 8K, etc.) where you have more possibilities because of the wider playfield and more columns.
      Of course you shouldn’t map the whole song to the pitch because this can cause some balance problems in your map.
      What you always can try is to map the calm parts in your map to the pitch, especially when you use mostly single notes in that part. Also, when your song has audible instrumental pitch changes, you should try to follow it.
      Of course you don’t need to follow the pitch in your map but you can see it as a “little extra” that can make your map more exciting to play.

    1. 3.2 Keysounding

      Will be added soon!
    1. 3.3 Slider Velocity (SV)

      The Silver Velocity acts a bit different it osu!mania; it changes the speed, at which the notes scroll downwards. Higher slider velocity means that the notes fall faster, lower Slider Velocity means the notes fall slower.
      This is mainly used to emphasize specific part of the maps! For example; when the song gets calm and slower, you can use a low slider velocity, to make the map fit to the mood of the song. But when the song has a few, short and fast breaks, you can use higher SV to make the map more exciting, that way, it fits the song even better!

      Also you need to add SV changes to your map when your song has multiple BPM changes. As an example: If your song has a BPM change from 150 to 200, the scroll speed of your notes will also get higher! To prevent this, we need to add an SV point at the BPM change to adjust the scroll speed to the average BPM.
      The formula to adjust the SV to the BPM is:

      SV = Mode BPM / Current BPM


      The average BPM of your map is always the number in brackets that you can find in the song select menu on the top-left beside the BPM.
      You take this number and divide it by the current BPM. What you will get is the SV you need to set with a Inherited Point at exactly the same timing as the BPM change.
    1. 3.4 Design/Mapping Styles
      As mentioned before, the osu!mania community consists of players from different VSRGs so they are used to having different mapping styles as well.
      While every person who’s mapping has his own style, there some basic features on which you can recognize the other games mapping styles.

      O2 Jam Style
      Will be added soon!

      Stepmania Style
      Stepmania has one of the largest communities for VSRG Games. Therefor it also has a large mapping community!
      Stepmania style consists, besides of the personal style of every mapper, basically out of two different mapping styles. The NB5/Yolomania 4 and the DCP/LCP style.

      The DCP/LCP style emphasizes the musical relevancy through mapping techniques like pitch relevancy and jack theory. (The jack theory is basically creating jacks to emphasize a certain instrument like a cymbal crash). The DCP/LCP charts are more appreciated by other charters than the players because they focus mostly on musical relevancy and not so much on playability.

      The yolomania style relies more on pattering than anything else. It cares more about creating good playable charts for the player and the community. While it still uses the concept of pitch relevancy, it has not the highest importance.

      Generally said: DCP-Style charting cares more about the songs rhythm and its pitch and yolomania-style cares more about the players and how they’d respond to certain pattern choices.

      BMS Style
      Will be added soon!
    1. 3.5 Useful Links
      Will be added soon!
Topic Starter
Feerum
Hello everyone!
Sorry for the lack of an introduction in the original post. I wanted to use it only as a guideline!

Let me explain you why I'm doing this.
Some of you may notice the post of ztrot here.
We want to give osu!mania more attention, while a lot of players bring their ideas into ztrot's thread I also wanted to help a little bit. I already had this guide written but it was in german. So ztrot had the idea I could simply translate it to english because having this guide in as many languages as possible would be fantastic!

I will always keep this guideline up to date!
Also: I need you, osu!mania community!

Of course i don't want to make this guide by myself. I need you all for feedback and more ideas!
You have something that could help new mappers? Post your idea in the thread!
You want more points? Better and more detailed explanations? Help me by posting here or PM me in the Forum!


Also, I will need some experienced mappers from other games.
I bet you already noticed the "Design/Mapping Style" part isn't complete yet. It's because I never played o2 Jam, Stepmania or BMS/LR2 or any other VSRG.
For these I need some experienced mappers/charters that can explain the mapping style of that specific game to me, or even better;
write what you want to have there, post it and i will add it!

The point behind this is simple:
osu!mania contains more than just one community!
In the past these mapper communities have often contended with each other. But with this, I want to make them understand that osu!mania is not "a lot of communities".
We are ONE community! That's why everyone should show some respect to every other mapper and instead of trashtalking their maps or styles, we should try to give constructive criticism and help them improve their mapsets to get the best out of every idea
Show your respect to every mapper.

To-do list:

  1. Adding o2 Jam.
  2. Adding BMS.
  3. Adding more to Stepmania.
  4. Adding more description to "Shield"
  5. Getting informations about different o!m styles and add them.
  6. Adding a FAQ in the 2nd post.
  7. Adding this Guide into the osu!wiki. Done 05/25/2016
  8. Adding it into a video on the osu!academy? ztrot's idea!
  9. Adding more different Pattern.
  10. Finding people who can translate it into more languages.
  11. Adding section "Useful links"
  12. Adding more into "Tips for Mapping"
  13. Rewrite "Mapping Vocals"
  14. Explaining also other Key-Modes
  15. Explaining Ranking Process (maybe?)
  16. Adding more into the To-do list. (Yes, really)

Thank Box
The following persons have helped me a lot with the guide by translating it with me or checking grammar for me since my english isn't that good:
  1. - Bad Apple - has helped me a lot with grammar and made it overall better to read.
  2. [Taiko Tori] has helped with translation from my german guide and also some grammar.
  3. Zetera has helped a lot with grammar and translation!
  4. Shoegazer for adding "Stepmania Style"
  5. Evening for help with grammar and extending some parts!
Thank you all guys. <3
Bad Apple
dis sux
why u do dis
jk, glad you finally posted it. I'm sure a lot of people will benefit from a guide like this, especially now, since so many new mappers have popped up over the last few months!

Great work 10/10 BN, we need more people that dedicate as much time to the community as you do.
Apple
Vulkin
HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

HYPE
Zetera
Das ist die QAT-Doktorarbeit!
juankristal
Time to give this a look, seems to be great! I would like to suggest to change the tittle to something that induces the interested people in 4K (because this is a 4K guide for what I am seeing)

EDIT: Now that I read this I can see some stuff that can be improved (such as adding more names to some specific patterns like jumptrill or a clearer definition of bursts) and I am willing to translate this for spanish as well. I also believe I can work out with ztrot about making a specific video for each particular "pattern" at least for 4K, explaining shortly how to use it or when to use it just in case that people dont get the idea at a 100% (with examples as well). I believe a mania mapping guide is a HUGE thing and its really hard to cover everything in one post so I also believe we can set up more guides in the future about more in deep stuff (or specific stuff). This, as a "how to start?" is an awesome guide, really general. Congratz Feerum as always, you did a great job.
Daikyi
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/vbz ... p?t=115282

many of the nomenclature in the above thread is kinda taken from DDR, but there's a lot of misdefined things in your definitions imo - the ffr picture dictionary covers a lot of ground where i think you miss-defined things

Keep in mind, since FFR is still influenced by DDR, doubles are known as "jumps", triples are "hands" etc. (also, the distinction between doubles and triples is there instead of just saying "chords" for everything)

there's probably some unnecessary stuff that you wouldn't need to care about in the link above (runningmen, crossovers), and some patterns that aren't addressed in either (anchored patterns, different types of stream [i.e. indexable stream vs. spread oriented])
juankristal

Daikyi wrote:

http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/vbz/showthread.php?t=115282

many of the nomenclature in the above thread is kinda taken from DDR, but there's a lot of misdefined things in your definitions imo - the ffr picture dictionary covers a lot of ground where i think you miss-defined things

Keep in mind, since FFR is still influenced by DDR, doubles are known as "jumps", triples are "hands" etc. (also, the distinction between doubles and triples is there instead of just saying "chords" for everything)

there's probably some unnecessary stuff that you wouldn't need to care about in the link above (runningmen, crossovers), and some patterns that aren't addressed in either (anchored patterns, different types of stream [i.e. indexable stream vs. spread oriented])
While those that you point are fine, I dont think this is a guide that should cover THAT much. As I said in my previous post I believe we should focus more in a beginner how to map/how to start with the most general stuff. We can always work later in a "how to map certain stuff?" in my opinion. Also this guide is all keymodes (at least in the basic introductions) so using "chords" for everything makes sense in my opinion. Although it can be added as an index like "in 4K you threat doubles as jumps because of the nature of the pump it up blablabla".
Evening
"Try to avoid vocal mapping! While mapping vocals might work in standard kinda well, it doesn’t play well in osu!mania. You should always try to follow the music and instruments as best as possible. Of course you can add notes for vocals but do not overdo it. Follow the rhythm of the music, not the rhythm of the voice!"

i'm sorry, what
Davin Fortune

Evening wrote:

"Try to avoid vocal mapping! While mapping vocals might work in standard kinda well, it doesn’t play well in osu!mania. You should always try to follow the music and instruments as best as possible. Of course you can add notes for vocals but do not overdo it. Follow the rhythm of the music, not the rhythm of the voice!"

i'm sorry, what
Many new mapper who doenst have much knowledge in mapping while mapping a map which use vocal song will end in mapping the vocal

And they will just ignore other instrument

By the way i think burst is a shorten stair which has no gap between with other note
I think the burst that written is called as spam
And stair is stair pattern but has gap in it
Correct me if im wrong
Evening
mapping the vocals are fine, i have no idea what you guys are on about

most vocal oriented songs are fine if you want to map the vocals

give me evidence that vocal mapping is never fine, else you might as well delete that statement in the guide as it falsely tells people that vocal mapping is (edit: always) a bad idea
lenpai
I do have to agree that the statement about vocal mapping is very misleading and i heavily go against it

Although I do think vocal mapping is just not suggested for newer mappers since they would have to juggle a lot of stuff with proper column placement and knowing when to drop and not drop vocals for that nice flow and more 1/(2<n) snap usage which can actually be very annoying

I've come from a background where laning is suggested as a starting technique and when new mappers go for strict laning, vocals turn out really weird to play, at least for 7k

example from a different game:

col 1-3 = drum rolls and stuff
col 4-7 = vocals
Topic Starter
Feerum
Hey!

Thanks so far for the feedback.
I agree with you guys, maybe my words are bad chosen.
I also talked with some people in discord about it and i will rework that vocal thing, sorry for this.

Also it would be cool when you guys would not focus only on this and give some more feedback.
Don't misunderstood me i'm happy about every feedback i could get but not everyone should focus on this vocal thing.

Will rework it soon :)
Shoegazer
Going to read through the entire guide and point out things that don't really make sense to me, pardon the potenteial extremely huge wall of text.

SPOILER
Content
Density Graph:
To be perfectly honest, I made this term up since I don’t know its actual name. What you can observe over here is the density of individual parts in the map. The harder a part is, the bigger the bar inside this graph. If a part has reached its biggest considerable density, the bar for said section will turn pink and it will range from the left to right rim of the line. Make sure this does not occur too often, as less than 30-40% of the map should contain pink bars! To emphasize the magnitude of pink bars on the star rating (SR): This maps SR is 4.1.
This is almost entirely incorrect - you would be right situationally. The density graph is on an absolute scale, not a relative scale. This means that once a section reaches a certain density threshold, it will always appear pink. It doesn't matter as to whether or not the rest of the sections are 40 NPS (i.e. much denser) or 5 NPS (i.e. nowhere as dense), the bars will be pink.

The density graph is bordering useless in a sense, since it will mainly be useful for charts that are of a particular difficulty range (probably mid Insane at most?) and you want to check for NPS consistency. The 30%-40% rule of thumb doesn't make sense either, it all depends on the song itself. I'm not sure if most songs have a climax that lasts for 30%-40% of the entire song, but that seems way way too high. Most choruses last for about 15%-20% combined, maybe except for TV sizes in which it'd last for 25%. We don't usually chart TV sizes though, so 20% is probably better if you want a solid figure. I don't think a rule of thumb is needed for this - basically the question should be "does the density of this section (that is measured through the density bars) make sense relative to the entire track?".

You can even add own difficulty names. The only important part of the naming process is that the chosen names have to show a clear indication of their difficulty.
This does not apply to marathon maps.
Missing information. "This does not apply to both the highest difficulty of the mapset (this includes marathons - maps that are of 5:00 drain time or longer)."

HP drain/OD section
It would be a good idea to give rules of thumb on how high the HP drain/ODs of certain difficulty ranges should be. Also always point out that it's ultimately a guideline and should be adjusted accordingly based on the song itself (usually the scarier/more tense it is, the higher the OD and/or HP drain).

I also would like to show you a little program that can be really helpful to find the right BPM really fast. It is called MixMeister BPM Analyzer. This program will show you the average BPM of your song. It has just one weak point. It can not show you multiple BPM. It will show you the average BPM of all BPM points in your song. To say it simple: It helps with single BPM only. You can search for it on Google or just click here.
That weak point is a very big weak point - and it's worth emphasising. It's also much better to place this right below the single BPM section rather than the multiple BPM section, because like you said, MixMeister only works with single BPM tracks. There's also the fact that MixMeister would potentially give you a BPM that isn't a whole number - which is usually wrong as most tracks these days have whole number BPMs.

You could probably mention that most electronic songs have whole number BPMs somewhere in the timing component, actually.

Explaining what a long note is
Playing and charting are intertwined - so you have to elaborate on the mechanic of the long note as well.

Explaining what a burst is
Not really the best explanation. A burst is basically a short rhythm that is noticeably faster than the general rhythms of the song (maybe you can give an example like say, a 1/8 rhythm in a song that's predominantly 1/4s). You can also talk about the fact that "bursts" could potentially be significantly harder than the rest of the chart, so it's up to the charter to find the ideal pattern for a given rhythm. (this is a bit of a complicated explanation however, so try to water it down kinda)

Explaining what a stream is
Streams are usually 1/4 or higher - inclusive of 1/4 rhythms. In your post, you wrote that streams are mainly rhythms that are faster than 1/4, not inclusive of 1/4 rhythms. Also prefer include the term staircase along with zigzag - since both terms are interchangeable and the former is actually more commonly used. The part about being able to chart up to "1/8 streams" contradict what you said about only charting what the track provides - so you might want to edit that.

Explaining what a stair is
This is more of a pattern configuration rather than a pattern itself. You COULD have this section, but I find this section a bit offplace compared to the rest of the patterns listed. If you do want to include it, also include the term "rolls" with stairs as the term "roll" is quite commonly used as well. Rolls are also more commonly used for 1/8s rather than 1/4s because they are normally used for bursts (as most songs are also predominantly 1/4 rhythm based), since rolls are also the easiest pattern configuration to hit compared to any other stream pattern.

Explaining what a jack is
The part about being able to chart up to "1/6 jacks" contradict what you said about only charting what the track provides. I think the main thing you need to mention is that jacks at a given speed are much harder than streams of the same speed (you probably won't need to elaborate on this), so it's better to use them sparsely (both in length and frequency) and only in rhythms that are relatively slow, as using jacks incorrectly could potentially create an unwarranted difficulty spike.

Think most of the things about allowing certain patterns to be charted up to a certain rhythm is unnecessary in general - it creates a good amount of misinterpretations and arbitrary rule following. It's necessary to elaborate as to whether or not a certain pattern would be harder at a certain tempo than another pattern of the same tempo for sure, and listing down whatever snap it should be at is not the way to do it.

For example, a trill is harder than a conventional stream because finger movemen is not as nicely distributed. This causes the player to tense (for the lack of a better term) up more to hit the pattern, creating difficulty to hit.

It really helps when you use the 25% playback rate a lot while mapping.
50% should be enough for most songs (since most song structures are rather simple), but yeah 25% works to some extent. Perhaps mention 25%-50%, rather than just 25%.

Maps for approval are not affected of this rule!
Clarify what "maps for approval" are here. While you and I know what they are, most new mappers do not.

While creating a full spread, it is very important to look at the pattern spread, not at the star rating! It can happen that the star rating becomes really high just because of one really dense part in your map.
You have to elaborate more as to why you shouldn't always follow the star rating system. Or rather, maybe briefly talk about how the SR system mainly works, which mainly takes into consideration the maximum density of a chart. That will explain why certain maps seem extremely underrated and some that are very overrated (such as Capsaicin).

Be consistent! What does that mean? Do not use different kinds of patterns for exactly the same sound in your map. As an example; if you use a chord for drums or snare, keep it like that! Do not change it to a single note later on.
First, change "sound" to "rhythm" or "section".

Second, there are exceptions to the rule. If you follow your charting scheme and you end up with a certain pattern that is much harder than the rest of the chart, you are allowed to break away from the consistency. For example, let's say that you're charting a particular mix of sounds as a triple. You then have a 1/8 roll and ending with that particular mix of sounds. Having a triple there will increase the difficulty of the chart gradually, as it creates a minijack. If you make it a double, the minijack will not be present, making the pattern easier.

Try to avoid vocal mapping! While mapping vocals might work in standard kinda well, it doesn’t play well in osu!mania. You should always try to follow the music and instruments as best as possible. Of course you can add notes for vocals but do not overdo it. Follow the rhythm of the music, not the rhythm of the voice!
This is going to be a very long point because the misconception has been going for way too long and it makes me upset that it has.

There are two reasons as to why "mapping vocals" has been frowned upon. The first reason is because there was a time in which vocals do not align with the percussion/rest of the instrumentation, so charting vocals would make the chart unnecessarily difficult to both map and play. However, vocals that do not align with the percussion rarely happen these days - if never at all as metronomes exist in studios.

The other reason is because people chart vocals poorly. I'm not pointing at particular charters, but the common misconception comes with the fact that people tend to have the idea of placing a note whenever there is a sound - regardless of emphasis. This ends up with extremely overlayered charts - most of which is caused by the fact that people place sounds over vocals AND percussion. This is most likely why this misconception has been a thing for so long.

I do think that LAYERING IN vocals is a bad thing when it comes to Extras or high Insanes, and are better represented through something like pitch relevancy, but for NMs and EZs, layering vocals is probably one of the best things you can do because it's the main thing that people hear. Not charting the vocals despite vocals being the forefront of a song while the chart in general is not very dense is ignoring the essence of the song. LAYERING vocals is ultimately encouraged for sections in which they are a lot lighter, or if you are intending to chart a section in a very light manner. If you want to accentuate the vocals in a dense section, you use pitch relevancy - not layering.

Now back to our original program:
Easy charting section
I agree with the 1/1 section and the sparse 1/2 section and generally the rest. The very fundamental thing you should be mentioning is charting whatever is most prominent however - this includes generally vocals and longer sounds - which is something you didn't mention I think. Perhaps also mention about keeping LNs at a low level? There should be more circles/notes than LNs in Easy difficulties.

Bit of an off-shoot, but at the end of the day I think you should just be mentioning the fact that you basically have more leeway as to how much you can chart a song based on difficulty level. For example you can start with charting an Insane, and if you want to make a Hard you have to remove a particular layer and potentially change any patterns that are too spiky, then if you want to make a Normal you have to remove another layer and change certain patterning and so on and so far. Kinda like peeling an onion.

Insane/Extra charting section
You also have to mention that most songs don't really call for Insane or Extra difficulties, so it's best to not force the creation of a certain difficulty. At the Insane/Extra level, it's all about letting the chart "write itself", so to speak. You shouldn't be trying to create arbitrary difficulty by making certain sounds chords. You can make patterns hard when needed, since patterns affect difficulty less than layering, but you still have to be reasonable.

Maybe list down some songs that could make for Insanes/Extras as a rule of thumb? I can provide a couple if needed.

I don't know anything about hitsounds so I'll skip that.

SV = Average BPM / Current BPM
Average should be "mode", maybe provide a link to explain what "mode" is for anyone who is uncertain - it's not a common term.

styles
Examples, examples, examples. Most new charters won't be able to visualise charting styles without listing down certain maps that have this certain "style of charting".

For DCP charting, I recommend Daikyi's Bokutachi no Tabi no Epilogue, highly PR-based and very musically relevant - this is more visible in charts like this because the dynamics of the track are extremely clear. A more subtle example would be Fullerene's quatre mains. Super PR-based, not too much consideration for playability but still very reasonably playable.

Something that is more NB/Yolomania-based would probably be Staiain's Candy Galy[ - not much attention to the music itself other than for layering purposes, patterning is made to be quite fluent as a whole. One thing to point out that this "style of charting" is quite flexible though, and you could easily put your own flair into it. I guess a more developed form would be something like Tidek's burn this moment into the retina of my eye and my When I Think About You I Cut Myself chart. Tidek's chart uses a good amount of pitch relevancy combined with abrasive pattern choices - making the chart very difficult to score on. When I Think About You emphasises a good amount on finger motion - harsher rhythms are usually interpreted as two hand trills as it creates more motion than normal broken jumpstreams.

Both of which emphasise a lot on certain finger motions. In When I Think About You, lots of two hand trills are used to emphasise harsher sounding rhythms, while in Calamity Fortune, there are certain patterns in which minijacks are used to accentuate a certain sound, as minijacks force players to use a more noticeable muscle to hit the pattern, usually the wrist. A non-minijack would cause the player to use their fingers instead, which might not have that much emphasis.

nitpicking
This is where I list down things that bother me but won't affect your guide in the grand scheme of things. It's just a couple of things that might leave the reader confused because you either create an unnecessary loose end or you have too much information.

Lots of grammar issues/redundant content. Generally minor nitpicking, I can make a proofread version after you respond to this post (and maybe Evening's). There's also a good amount of absolutes used, though I can see that they are unintentional. Easily amendable - so it's not too much of an issue.

1.) Mapping Area:
This is where you place your objects. It is divided into different columns, | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | in this case. These are the numbers the editor works with, though many people prefer to use | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | when modding. This is not relevant for now, though.
It's better that you explain why people use 1234 rather than 0123 - maybe something short like "it's a more intuitive way of counting" or "most people prefer to start with the number 1 rather than 0 when they're counting".

7.) Beat Snap Divisor:
A very important tool, especially in mania. Here, you can select in which beat snap you want to map. The default setting is always ¼ and this is the one you should basically use.
Change the word "basically" to "normally".

But don’t forget: Map what you hear! Map 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, etc. only when the song also provides it! Don’t add a random 1/6 burst into your map. This is unrankable.
Preferably better if you rephrase this. Something like "However, if you want to get your map ranked, only map what you hear! Add 1/3, 1/4, 1/6 rhythms only when the song calls for it! Adding 1/6 bursts when the song does not call for it is unrankable."

1.3 Alright! I want to Map!
Now we know how the editor exactly works and we know how to place notes. Should something still be unclear; read it again! You have all time in the world! If you have understood everything we can directly jump to point 2, the basics! This is where i will explain the song setup and how to time your beatmap!
Probably better to remove the part about "knowing how the editor exactly works" and just leave it as "now we know how to place notes in the editor". You might also want to mention that when you first open a song the Song Setup screen will pop up and say that you will explain the Song Setup section from there.

Difficulty: Here you have to give your difficulty a name. The standard difficulty names for osu!mania are “EZ”, “NM”, “HD”, “MX”, “SC” and “SHD”, but you are not forced to use these! If your song is from an other game you can use the difficulty names of that game! For example Sound Voltex, which uses the following names for their respective difficulties: “Basic, Novice, Advanced, Exhaust, Infinite, Gravity”.
Capitalise the SDVX difficulties please. They're driving me nuts. :(

Inherited Point: The inherited points are also called “Green Lines”. These points are used to add “effects” to your map. With these, you can change the volume, the sample set, the slider velocity (SV) and you can add a Kiai-Time.
"Inherited Point" should be in plural. You didn't really explain what "effects" are either, so it's best to note that you will be explaining those later on. The main thing that people will use this for is for normalisation of scroll speed, so it's best to primarily mention the SV concept more than anything else.

Never use more than six notes at once though, because this is against the Ranking Criteria.
Replace "never" to "you can't", "because" with "as".

Notice: This is still a Guideline! It shows the basics of mapping and how it can be in the best case. Of course you don’t have to follow this guide 1:1!
Should be a bit clearer in your first sentence and say that what you're going to say from here is going to be "guidelines" and should not be taken as actual rules and that you don't need to (and probably won't need to) follow the guidelines verbatim.

And now I would like to explain how to map in best case each difficulty, from Easy to Insane.
Bordering "absolute" phrasing. Perhaps rephrase to something like "Now I'll explain the general guidelines on what to chart for particular difficulties, ranging from Easy to Extras."

Think that's most of it, not too sure.
OnosakiHito
Sticking this post.
Zan-
where is Zan's Style Mapping

lol jk, good one tho
arviejhay
few ideas for o2jam.
Change "o2 Jam" to "O2Jam", i'm too picky
most o2jam charts that i played, um. . . most of them have unique patterns, mostly use bpm changes, it ignores some sounds for patterns,
you should see this.
Rivals_7
worth to read. Nicely done!

may I translate this to indonesian? :D
Akasha-

Evening wrote:

"Try to avoid vocal mapping! While mapping vocals might work in standard kinda well, it doesn’t play well in osu!mania. You should always try to follow the music and instruments as best as possible. Of course you can add notes for vocals but do not overdo it. Follow the rhythm of the music, not the rhythm of the voice!"

i'm sorry, what
didn't really argee with this point as Evening already said it clear enough
for example: https://osu.ppy.sh/s/435430
will i igrone all the awesome vocals and only mapped with kick snare for from the start to the end? haha, no.

and also nice guide so far, love it
[ A v a l o n ]
talking about O2Jam, i don't really know much about that
but sometimes i saw much extreme chart from that, and uncontrol-able LN's and BPM changes and sometimes ignores some sounds for patterns
maybe some of them are "unofficial chart" that made from someone just for fun on private server
hmm, better to not refer to something like that (unofficial chart) maybe . . . just for keep the quality of our rhythm game (osu!mania)
correct me if i wrong

talking about style, i don't really know about Stepmania, BMS, O2Jam, and many more like that (maybe because i'm original o!m people lol)
but nevermind, every person have different taste, and it's just an advanced knowledge for them . . .
at least your beatmap good at plays with music, have a well-designed pattern, consistent, right hitsounded, and of course it have a "soul"
it just fine

and owh yeah . . .
very nice thread Feerum :D
Ayachi-

Evening wrote:

mapping the vocals are fine, i have no idea what you guys are on about

most vocal oriented songs are fine if you want to map the vocals

give me evidence that vocal mapping is never fine, else you might as well delete that statement in the guide as it falsely tells people that vocal mapping is (edit: always) a bad idea
Lol I agree with this, don't see what's wrong with vocal mapping
Topic Starter
Feerum
Ahhh please stop complain about that vocal thing, i will change it, i promise xD

today evening i will rework some parts depend on the feedback here. Thanks all :D
Is here by the way someone who could write the Keysounding part? D:

[ A v a l o n ] wrote:

talking about style, i don't really know about Stepmania, BMS, O2Jam, and many more like that (maybe because i'm original o!m people lol)
but nevermind, every person have different taste, and it's just an advanced knowledge for them . . .
at least your beatmap good at plays with music, have a well-designed pattern, consistent, right hitsounded, and of course it have a "soul"
it just fine
That's why i want to add these here. I want that people who don't know about these game's begin to understand these styles. They are also part of this game, even when a little bit different because of the current RC
IamBaum
Holy... Feerum the length alone is already amazing, really great job on this
Aqo

Feerum wrote:

The average BPM of your map is always the number in brackets that you can find in the song select menu on the top-left beside the BPM.
You take this number and divide it by the current BPM. What you will get is the SV you need to set with a Inherited Point at exactly the same timing as the BPM change.
I would like to point out that this isn't average bpm. It's the most common bpm.

If your map is 75% 180bpm and 25% 60bpm, the number displayed will be 180. However the average here is 150.
Kaito-kun
Well, I'll help a bit in here.

Firstly:

Feerum wrote:

The Silver Velocity
Shouldn't it be "Slider Velocity"? XD (located at the very start of the Slider Velocity section)

I remember there was another typo I noticed while I was reading, but can't find it now lol.

Now, about the actual guide, only thing I think should be further explained is the Stepmania section in the Mapping Styles section. For example, I only know what NB5 and Yolomania 4 is because I myself play some Stepmania from time to time, but someone new may don't even know what those acronyms mean (for example, I don't even know what does DCP/LCP stand for). At least say that those are famous Stepmania packs or something like that. Of course, this wouldn't help the player be a better mapper, but it's always good to have that knowledge.

Also, it would be pretty good if you were to add some examples of each game's mapping styles. Something like a list of maps that are of that specific game's style so that the reader gets a more visual example of what each style is about. Of course, each map shown as an example doesn't really need to be ranked, but should be rankable (in the way that it doesn't has any ghost notes or exaggerated patterns or something like that), since a bad example may lead to a wrong idea of the style (I would give some examples, but I consider someone more knowledgeable in Stepmania as me should instead).

Another tiny thing I thing you should add is say that BPM is acronym for "Beat per Minute", as every single mapper I try to explain about mapping ends up asking what does BPM stands for and what exactly is BPM. So adding that info should be a plus to the guide, considering timing is overall the trickiest section for a new mapper.

Finally, I'm willing to help translate the guide to spanish, so if you should need any help with the translation, don't hesitate to call me (I saw juankristal wanting to do the same, but I guess I can sorta help too XD).


That's all. Pretty nice guide, even I learned some things while reading through it, and it's definitely a good guide to show a begginer when he/she decides to start mapping. Keep up the good work :D
MEGAtive
Neat tutorial. It's a must-read tutorial for new mappers.

Actually, 5K+1 is 6K with special keymode setting turned on. It's based on long-retired BEMANI game beatmania III. And scratch terms are actually come from IIDX.
Davin Fortune
Maybe after get the BPM, the mapper should hear the bpm from the beginning until the end. The normal case is that when they get the right bpm in the beginning but they dont see it until the end of the song. So they will ignore the BPM change in other that they dont notice it
Evening
might want to add:

- How to get a map ranked

-- How many mods do you need
-- Star priority
-- BNs/QATs & the system

modify/amend:

- Considering your examples are mostly based on 4k, you might want to separate them to 4/7/Xk, some more patterns here, italic means it isn't important:

-- Inverse 4/7k
-- Brackets 7k
-- Graces 4/7k
-- Anchors 4/7k (Might want to emphasize how using this too much will make it annoying to play)
-- Handstreams/Quadstreams (might want to just append it on the jumpstream box to conserve space)
-- Mini-LNs 4/7k
-- Rolls 4/7k (Very fast streams patterned in a way that they don't really play like shit basically)
-- etc etc
puxtu
You don't even know what burst is and you call yourself a BN lmfao. You're just another marirose that waiting to happen.
JamesHappy
What about 9K PMS style mapping? Wow no one mentions about it.
Shoegazer

puxtu wrote:

You don't even know what burst is lmfao. You're just another marirose that waiting to happen.
Instead of baiting someone hoping to get an overreaction in which the person would get in trouble for, people would recommend you to drop the condescension/passive-aggression and give a solid definition as to what a burst is.

There's no need to alienate yourself from other people and create arbitrary "sides" since we all have the same goal of wanting everyone to get the foundations of charting down.

Kaito-kun wrote:

Now, about the actual guide, only thing I think should be further explained is the Stepmania section in the Mapping Styles section. For example, I only know what NB5 and Yolomania 4 is because I myself play some Stepmania from time to time, but someone new may don't even know what those acronyms mean (for example, I don't even know what does DCP/LCP stand for). At least say that those are famous Stepmania packs or something like that. Of course, this wouldn't help the player be a better mapper, but it's always good to have that knowledge.
I can definitely help out with this, but again we'd also want to make it simple to understand and to cut down on the unnecessary information. Maybe we could have a spoilerbox for anyone who wants to know more about the charting style's history/descriptions, think that should suffice.
Ciel
@Zen's additions:

I kinda think that you don't necessarily need to talk about the ranking process in this tutorial? You already somewhat cover it in your FAQ anyways, so this could be aimed at just general mapping instead of specifically for o!m.

Anyways I don't really have anything useful to contribute here yet (haven't had the energy to read through the wall), so I'm done for now.

EDIT: Actually, Feerum, I'm not sure about the general consensus, but it would be nice if you could reduce the amount of whitespace in your post. It makes it look really bulky, and is somewhat annoying when I have to look down a lot more than I would need to to actually read stuff.
Evening

Ciel wrote:

@Zen's additions:

I kinda think that you don't necessarily need to talk about the ranking process in this tutorial? You already somewhat cover it in your FAQ anyways, so this could be aimed at just general mapping instead of specifically for o!m.

Anyways I don't really have anything useful to contribute here yet (haven't had the energy to read through the wall), so I'm done for now.

EDIT: Actually, Feerum, I'm not sure about the general consensus, but it would be nice if you could reduce the amount of whitespace in your post. It makes it look really bulky, and is somewhat annoying when I have to look down a lot more than I would need to to actually read stuff.
yea i guess it's covered in that :p

anyways, it's possible to box most of these (without double-boxing which works horrible on this site) so as to make it tight, makes it look neater and less bulky
Kyousuke-

Feerum wrote:

  1. Adding more different Pattern.
Heya, i would help out a bit about the pattern section.
First, i want to pointing something from the original post

Stream
Here we can see the Stream, mapped in a zigzag way. The stream is mostly used for sounds that are faster than 1/4. You can map (depending on the BPM of your song) streams up to 1/8! As an example: You have a fast piano-part in your song that changes the pitch fast from deep to high? Than use a stream!
as you see on the picture, i think its more called 'Reverting stairs'. Yea actually there are still many other types that can be categorized, but generally stream is random notes putted in 1/4 for me. (ex: http://puu.sh/o6HuK/02b7b0f0f5.png; yea it looks similiar with the burst pic, but the burst beat density is should be higher than the stream imo)


Also you can group the similiar type of pattern in one box, since you want to adding more different pattern. (so it won't looks too many and confusing lol)
Example, source

Long Note: Shields, LN walls, lifts, Inverse LN (more applicable in 7K)
Stairs: Reverting stairs, Symmetrically layered stairs (more applicable in 7K), Double Stairs (more applicable in 7K), Ladders (more applicable in 7K),
Chord: Chord trill, Chord jack
Jack: Jackhammer, Minijacks
Stream: Jumpstream, Chordstream (more applicable in 7K)

and many more types of pattern! (as pointed on evening's post)
MEGAtive
Going to add something into this thread.

http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/vbz ... p?t=127628
This thread covers patterns terminology that's used in StepMania. Some of the terminology are also used in other rhythm games as well so I think it's a pretty good foundation for mappers who don't know any mapping terminology.
Sarahkuai
souka.... chord is double note <(")
arviejhay
i think in O2Jam style, it's ok to put notes as vocals or vocals as notes. But not too much.
Raediaufar
A really nice tutorial for beginners. However ther are some things that you might want to add like "what is kiai and how to use it" and "how to set your preview point". Well, even these things maybe are already in the mapping basic on wiki but it's good to add them here as well.

You also might want to link some threads that might be useful in osumania mapping such as SV Changes Guide

And as the pattern examples, you can refer to the link that MEGAtive was post but just add the common pattern. And please add pattern screenshot on 7k as well since 7k mapping is also common.
Davin Fortune
The picture on jack hammer is normal jack
The one i want to say is hammer pattern
I can't post any picture for the pattern cause im using my phone, but you can try to see from beatmap Qrispy Joybox - licaa which in victorica's 4K Hard in the middle part which the combination from chord jack which happen after the chord and followed by a note after it, then come with the chord also jacked with the note before it
Maybe u can find in the middle of the song
lenpai
Here's some input on what i know

o2jam:
Both official charts and custom charts do not give consideration to slower speed scrollers when using speed changes (look at Death Moon for official map) (not sure on custom charts though)
Is dumpy to some extent and keeps note flow consistently even w/o any significant sound for the note
Custom charts use LNs more aggressively
High level custom charts uses chordstreams and brackets A LOT even though it isnt needed in relation to the song which is simply forced difficulty
Custom charts frequently use 7 button chords
Haven't played a lot of o2jam but this is my observation so far

BMS:
Would just end up saying rice only. Haven't played LR2 so no further input

FtB:
can't explain lol
XceeD best charter


---------------------------------------


Please do indicate that it is highly suggested to start off with songs you know are manageable. Had faced this mistake too many times.

I'll try to have input on patterns for 7k when i have the time
Topic Starter
Feerum
Okay guys. Thank you all so far!

We had the idea to use a Google Doc for people that want to help with editing the Tutorial.
Should you be interested please send me a PM and i will send you the link.

I will not link it here since i want avoid abuse of the Doc Document.

I will go through every suggestions in the Doc and probably add it.
Everything is welcome from correct the grammar to adding whole points.
Everything you think it should be in the Tutorial!

After we got some more points in the doc i will just copy/paste it into this tutorial!

Hope some are willing to help me here, since i got really a LOT of good suggestions!

Edit: changes for today:
Rename some pattern
Start working on 3.5
Grammar
Remove "Avoid Vocal Mapping" for now (will rework and add it later again, without saying that it's bad)
hannanos

Lenfried- wrote:

FtB:
can't explain lol
XceeD best charter
Don't forget the occasional use of middle lane similar to a special lane though. And the glorious, glorious long jacks and trills
Hilmi Ghazian
Thanks for that information,,,,, :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

btw,,, this my map... try please.. :D :D :D :D :D :D

https://osu.ppy.sh/s/322160
Evening

[1st GCorp] wrote:

Thanks for that information,,,,, :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

btw,,, this my map... try please.. :D :D :D :D :D :D

https://osu.ppy.sh/s/322160
If you'd like feedback to your map, this isn't really the right place to post (or is it?)

Consider these ways though, they are more dedicated into giving you feedback:


- Ask an experienced mapper/modder directly through PM
- Modding Queues (basically queues for feedback, they usually respond in your map's thread) 60
- Ask in #osumania, the osumania channel, here's hoping there are experienced mappers/modders willing to lend a hand
juankristal

[1st GCorp] wrote:

Thanks for that information,,,,, :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

btw,,, this my map... try please.. :D :D :D :D :D :D

https://osu.ppy.sh/s/322160
As Evening says, this is not the correct place to post it. And please follow his suggestions.
Entozer
Common O2 style:

Intensity = amount of notes
A chart will almost always have an LN

... No, to be honest I don't even know how to o2 style. I've been only playing high-level charts these days, and most o2 charts that I've played can't be called under a style. From what I see it's almost always how a charter wants to play a chart / wants to challenge the players.

There is no rule. People who are still playing o2 these days are dedicated enough that they just gobble anything and everything that will make them improve no matter how retarded the chart is. Though I can only say for sure for ETs. Below ET will still look for chart quality.

Also: A note before an LN is a shield, but a note after an LN is a reverse shield. Differentiated between them because reverse is very easy compared to the other.

I also think you should not mention up to how much beatsnap a pattern should be used. For example: If you limit the trill to 1/6, what should newbie charters do if the music actually has trills that goes up to 1/8 or 1/16? A song can be 90bpm and have 1/8 or 1/16. They will feel lost by following this tutorial. If you will actually say how much a pattern should be used, provide alternatives when it reaches that point.
Akib
For me... o2jam is about visual...
Etsu
Thanks for that information :)
Topic Starter
Feerum
Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates here but be sure i have read every feedback so far and i was not idle!

I have another Update for you.
I took some time to add this Guide into a wiki article!

You can find it now here: osu!mania Mapping Guide

Basically it's copied from this thread but with a little bit better "interface".

The advantage of having this in the wiki is following:

Clicking faster through content and find specific topics!
The wiki article has a "Contents" Box at the beginning.
Just click on that what you want to know and it will bring you there directly!

Everyone can Edit the wiki and help to improve the Guide!
Yes, that's right! You guys can now add more informations to it should i be again a bit "slow".
I appreciate every help i can get in the wiki, but please be sure to let me know when you add/change something there so that i can add it here in the thread too. I want to keep them both similar!

But please keep in mind: When you want to edit there something, the wiki acts a bit different from the forum. The commands for writing something in Big or for a Box are different.
Also:
There is a edit history!
Everyone can see who did edit something and what he did change. Please avoid to make mischief with the article, it's there to help everyone.

So what's next?
Over the next days i will try to add more content into it, especially keysounding and more into design.
I also still looking for someone who can translate this into other languages! Please let me know if you are willing to help.
I will introduce you into the wiki and how to use/write into it!

That's all so far!
Don't forget to check it out soon again!
Arzenvald
wow, awesome work feerum, different mapping style based on different game gives me determination

can't wait to see o2jam & BMS/IIDX tutorial!
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