Allow beatmaps with modified background image / audio to submit plays

[developomp]

There are enjoyable beatmaps that I am unable to play due to loli hentai background images.

In osu!stable and older versions of osu!lazer, one could modify the background image and audio of a beatmap and still submit plays set on it without any issues. On the latest version of osu!lazer, however, modifying the beatmap in such a way will mark them as "Local" and won't submit any plays set on it.

Allowing plays set on beatmaps with modified background image and audio to submit would fix this issue.

This is another solution to this issue I've brought up 3 years ago.

rant

Please, I don't want loli hentai on my song select screen. I don't want to play offline. I want to gain rank without having loli hentai on my song select screen. God, please.

[peppy]

Ongoing discussion at #13333 is probably relevant to this, and the best place to discuss your issues.

[developomp]

The scope is different. Explicitness is a spectrum and osu! has to draw a line between what's explicit and what's not in order to appropriately mark them. The discussion you linked is regarding how to apply the explicit content filter that osu! thinks is explicit, and this discussion is regarding how to move that line for individual players.

i.e. what's explicit for me might not be explicit for you and the power to hide those content should be with me.

[peppy]

It's not different in my mind. The solution is the same and I already have a forward path for that in mind. Stay tuned for that.

[bdach]

Okay, here's a counterpoint to consider:

• Should I be able to swap out the background for something that helps me cheat? Maybe not super relevant in osu!, but say, in taiko, should I be able to add a storyboard video that helps me read the beatmap?
• Should I be able to swap out the audio track for a beatmap to contain a backing metronome that helps me cheat by helping me stay on time?

Sure you may not like some beatmap backgrounds. But being able to swap out a background or an audio track arbitrarily has fairness and integrity considerations, too.

[bdach]

I really have no horse in this race, heck it would make it easier for me to not care and just keep things as they are, but I need to knock down some of these arguments because they misrepresent the position I proposed.

Muted mod is fully ranked #27144 and doesn't affect pp or score

This is not the same thing because muted introduces a level playing field. You turn on muted, you know what you're going to get. If we decide to nerf it at some point in the future for whatever reason we can do that because scores are marked with the mod. That is not the same thing as unchecked, unrestricted and unlabeled background and audio file swaps.

The presence of a metronome is not a problem if the score with a metronome is directly comparable to other scores with a metronome. There is no unfair advantage. There may be at most unfair balance but that is corrigible.

Keeping Stable's status quo - It didn't seem to be a problem for so long - why change things now?

"Argumentum ad stable" is just not an argument at all. You might as well say what's the point of lazer at all.

Being able to swap the audio file (...) to a completely different song that matches BPM

This is like completely alien to me. The map was mapped to that particular song, ideally. It was designed, hit sounded, etc. around the song's structure, instruments, vocals, whatever. In what world does it make sense to just swap it out for something completely different? Play an aim trainer browser game with no music at that point.

Here's peppy's response to my report, done over email, related to an exploit of another mod:

eh, there's like 100 ways to exploit this mod, yep. i'd recommend not doing it because that would be caught at the anticheat level.

This is about No Scope I presume? It's not comparable. No Scope is a fun mod that nobody takes seriously. It gives no advantage nor disadvantage in neither score or pp. It might make more sense to just remove it from the game completely if it's gonna get dragged into these types of discussions.

however, considering the game's history with anticheat

Why would you even bring this up?

[TechniKris]

muted [...] scores are marked with the mod

Fair point.

"Argumentum ad stable" is just not an argument at all.

Ehh, fine I guess.

Being able to swap the audio file (...) to a completely different song that matches BPM

This is like completely alien to me.

Not keeping in touch with the community?
Here's one example: https://youtu.be/9Oyk_EM3n08 - Rafis playing Glory Days - clearly metal genre - song swapped to a mashup of various songs of other popular maps - mostly of electronic genre.

This is about No Scope I presume?

Yes.

No Scope is a fun mod that nobody takes seriously.

No Scope has become a ranked mod that lets you earn pp, therefore it deserves serious treatment - if there's ever going to be a rework that awards pp for using it, it should be resilient to exploits. Unless you're fine with removing existing No Scope plays from leaderboards.
Traceable is currently awarding the same amount of pp as Hidden. #27148 Example of a player that mains TC. Blinds has a score multiplier the same as Flashlight and its own pp calculation. #14921 One day No Scope might start awarding additional pp as well.
Since its difficulty is entirely on the visual side, and the anticheat is supposedly able to protect it from exploits, I assumed it'd also be able to protect from video swap exploits, which is also entirely on the visual side.

however, considering the game's history with anticheat

Why would you even bring this up?

I intended to support my assumption that osu! is likely able to reliably detect visual exploits. Screenshotting at the very least the window of the osu! client would provide a way of detecting such exploits - where the above showcases it is/was able to do so.
It's only supposed to showcase anticheat's potential capabilities at dealing with visual cheats.

[bdach]

Not keeping in touch with the community?

If you're gonna talk like this then maybe don't. I don't enjoy this type of twitter style reaction baiting.

The example doesn't convince me either because (a) a complete song was swapped out for a mashup (proving my point about having to literally splice songs together to get something vaguely resembling the original song that the beatmap was intended for, much?) and (b) the skin there is using the generic CLACKITY CLACK sound for every single object so obviously you're not gonna care about stuff like hitsounding matching at all.

[bdach]

I remember some tournament players were using audio swaps (to a different song) in major tournaments, where commentators themselves brought it up during the event. I can't recall when or who that was, but I'm pretty certain it occured in OWC - yet it wasn't punished.

Also if this is real (citation needed I have no easy way to prove or disprove it) I think that's a real problem that needs to be rectified. Tournaments should be played on as close to 100% even ground as possible, no monkey business.

[TechniKris]

Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I was a tad surprised, but if it came off as toxic: I apologize.

(a) More examples:

• https://youtu.be/5x6YgVP2ajc - NINERIK playing Lionheart, song swapped to Ch3rry
• https://youtu.be/CKS_xQdbYR4 - -Din- playing the same as above
• https://youtu.be/x1is8bOOHQo - Apostol playing the same as above
• https://youtu.be/uJ1fLMC5o_I - DigitalHypno playing Toumei Elegy song swapped to Yomi yori
• https://youtu.be/5LjdBUR7A5g?t=80 - DigitalHypno playing HIBANA song swapped to Blue Zenith
• https://youtu.be/iYTBW-3HQHU - Kariyu playing Black Rover where the song is mashed with SPUTNIK-3 (I don't know what was the intended map for the mashup)
• https://youtu.be/OWEMxDCwEaI - Tutorial how to do song swaps
• plenty of
• song swap
• discussions
• on the
• subreddit

(b) So the same hitsounds used in most skins? Yeah. It doesn't seem to be relevant here though, the point is song swapping is at least a somewhat common practice.

[sineplusx]

In osu!stable and older versions of osu!lazer, one could modify the background image and audio of a beatmap and still submit plays set on it without any issues. On the latest version of osu!lazer, however, modifying the beatmap in such a way will mark them as "Local" and won't submit any plays set on it.

This still works if you modify the files outside of the client, like you could in stable. As long as you dont modify the beatmap file, it will still submit scores. So when replacing audio or images, you cannot change the referenced filenames, but the content of those files can be altered.

Example beatmap with background blurred

[bdach]

I'm aware of this, but it could be considered an exploit by some, and may change soon, depending on how things pan out. I would not recommend using this until we confirm whether it is fine to (which will be sooner than later; in my BSS work I touch the local modification code too, so it will be brought up).

[SupDos]

I'd like to add that this also works using the external edit option in the editor (and is what people who have issues with specific backgrounds have been told to do - just delete/replace the background image) while keeping the beatmap "ranked" in the game. I don't think this should be considered an exploit, and would hope this continues being possible with the new BSS system.

I personally use it to do things like add a background video to a map that doesn't have one, add a higher quality video to a map, or modify some aspect of a storyboard since I play with those on, and would be a bit disappointed if this wasn't possible anymore.

[bdach]

I personally use it to do things like add a background video to a map that doesn't have one, add a higher quality video to a map, or modify some aspect of a storyboard since I play with those on

See discussion on fairness above. You could exploit this to nefarious effect if you wanted.