Let's take a stroll through the past 15 years of osu!, and see how various new technologies affected the game and the community.
Every now and then there's a new piece of tech that's slated to change the way games are played, whether it be a new input device, a new way to squeeze more FPS out of your PC, or a whole new way to experience games.
While the osu! community has managed to stay unswayed as innovations such as virtual reality, augmented reality and cloud gaming cropped up due to them being inapplicable to osu!, there were still some that changed the way the game is played, or at least challenged the views on the most optimal way to play it.
With the chit-chat out of the way, let's start from the beginning and talk about the first example of an alternative input device reaching mass adoption, and work our way up from there.
osu! originally started out as a PC clone of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, which was a game exclusive to the Nintendo DS with gameplay using a stylus pen. When peppy released osu!, it was only natural for players who already owned a graphics tablet to try it out in the so far unheard-of osu! context, and since the get-go it was considered a commodity input device that would more closely replicate the original Nintendo DS experience.
Playing with a tablet is a completely different ball game compared to the mouse. Although it's a direct upgrade in some aspects, namely by eliminating mouse drift with absolute positioning of cursor input, it brings up new challenges and questions regarding optimal usage. Some players remain on the more intuitive and familiar mouse, perhaps to avoid the initial learning curve, while tablet players are left to figure out playstyle specifics like ideal pen grip or tablet area and deciding on whether to drag or hover the pen.
Over the years, many top players and regular players started switching over to tablet in order to avoid issues associated with mice. Still, there has always been both mouse and tablet players who would compete at the very top of the leaderboards, as both peripherals are considered viable for competitive play, each with its own upsides and downsides.
A great video by Willy outlines all the above and more regarding the usage of tablets as input devices for osu!:
Mechanical keyboards have been a thing for decades. However, after Razer put gaming and mechanical switches into a compelling package, it launched the chain reaction that resulted in the mechanical keyboard market we know of today.
By 2010, osu! players were already shifting away from clicking circles with their mouse to mashing with their Z
and X
keys, so it would make sense as these new mechanical keyboards were getting easier and cheaper for players to adopt them into their setups. While there's nothing stopping anyone from playing osu! with membrane keyboards, benefits such as N-key rollover, along with better physical and audio feedback upon clicking, have led to the community at large guiding the newer players to purchase a mechanical keyboard, and it's considered essential for osu!'s rhythm-based gameplay.
The mass adoption of mechanical keyboards was not just limited to the osu! community, but in the gaming community in general, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a gaming setup without one of these smack-dab in the middle of the desk nowadays.
Around the middle of 2012, the first LCD high refresh rate monitors were released with refresh rates of up to 144 Hz. Even before LCD monitors were a thing, CRT monitors had the capability of refreshing up to 100 Hz in most cases (and even higher for high-end models). However, with the introduction of high refresh rate LCD panels this technology slowly became much easier to adopt, and is now a staple of any modern gaming setup.
As osu! is a game with high amount of moving elements no matter the game mode (as shown below), high refresh rate monitors quickly became the next most sought-after commodity piece of gear. While being an objective upgrade to the regular 60 Hz monitors, some people swear by high refresh rate monitors helping them read higher approach rates and scroll speeds. Still, this didn't prevent players who could not afford them from rising through the ranks and some of them even becoming top players, such as FGSky, regardless of monitor.
The earliest mentions of using touch screens as an input device came as soon as the game was released, again due to osu!'s roots as an Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan clone. Back then, touch screens on PCs were not as prevalent, and most touch screen devices were "Tablet PCs", i.e. laptops with a keyboard that could be rotated, folded, or outright detached.
It would take many years for the community to see the true potential of using touch screens in osu!, but starting in 2015 we began seeing glimpses of this with Kuvster, and eventually the peak of the play style in 2017 with Freedomdiver.
In 2015, Kuvster had a unique opportunity to snag the performance point (pp) record under a very specific set of circumstances. Back in the day, "TAG4" maps were approved, hence you were able to gain pp by playing them. They weren't really supposed to be played solo, but if you owned a touch screen and were apt with it, you were eligible to grab the pp record, which is exactly what they did:
The 577 pp record was short-lived though, because after this all "TAG4" beat maps were exempt from giving pp, and in 2019 they were moved to the Loved category. This however is not the event that "killed" the touch screen meta, as its demise would come only 2 years later.
Freedomdiver joined the osu! community in May 2016, and started as your average player, up until the moment they realised they can play osu! with the touch screen on their laptop.
They quickly surged through the ranks after realising that gaining pp by playing jump maps with a touch screen was simply easier given the ability of using two hands. That however, did not just slip through without gathering negative attention from the community. The player base had turned against them, using them as a prime example of why touch screen was just unfair. However, it wouldn't be until November 2017 when freedomdiver decided to push touch screen to its limits, siding with the community and using actions instead of words to call for a change.
The community somewhat sarcastically rallied around freedomdiver during one night in November, as they proceeded to break the pp record 3 times, all on the infamous Yuima-ru*World TVver. map. Hundreds of players spectated freedomdiver as they broke the pp record, and thanks to CPUGeek you can experience a snippet of the atmosphere surrounding the play:
A month later, on December 15th, touch screen scores had their performance points reduced along with an introduction of the brand-new "Touch Device" mod, which would reduce the amount of pp gained from jumps on any map when osu! detected touch screen being used as a gameplay device.
In the end, tapping and aiming with two hands isn't the only way to use a touch screen. Some players use them exclusively as aiming devices, while still tapping to the beat with their good ol' keyboards. You can look at bonk and their first-person live play to see what it looks like.
"Rapid trigger" is a new keyboard software feature first implemented by Wooting, a mechanical keyboard manufacturer. Its analogue nature made possible by the Hall effect allows users to modify the position of any key's actuation point, or go beyond the need for a static actuation point altogether. The animation below (by Wooting) visually represents how it works:
This has caused quite the turmoil amongst the community, as some believe this greatly reduces the skill required to be considered "good at speed", and lowers the skill ceiling quite significantly by allowing players to be less precise with their technique, but still not miss inputs or break combo as often. The other side of the community argues that this is only beneficial for players who "mash" keys instead of trying to accurately hit notes.
The arguments are still a topic of countless heated debates, but if you want to get an opinion of a pro player, look no further than BTMC's video on the rapid trigger feature:
This is a fascinating way to look back through the ages and remind ourselves of a different, simpler time, when the community did not have to worry about the best keyboards and tablets to use to become the best player instantaneously, and just enjoyed osu! for what it is — a rhythm game with an amazing community creating and playing awesome beatmaps.
Or just maybe... I am an angry old man yelling at the clouds... I'll let you be the judge of that.
Special thanks to Tanza3D for creating the banner artwork.
—0x84f
Anyway, I think people with high-value devices can easily get into the rankings. And what I admire more is the players who use ordinary equipment. Today, even using the mouse to play osu, has become easier, thanks of course to wireless module technology updates. But no matter what device you use to play the osu, everyone here is focused on pushing their technical limits. The osu community is still the best gaming community I've seen so far. Keep going osu ! And better in the new year.
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