Performance Points & Star Rating Updates
by the performance point committees
We are back with another set of changes!
This time around the osu!, osu!taiko and osu!catch game modes are receiving updates to difficulty and performance calculations. This news post will discuss what has changed in a format that should be understandable to you, the player!
All changes made in this round are intended to keep the general understanding of per-score PP values the same. This means that if a score's (or beatmap's max) PP value has decreased, it is due to that beatmap or score being overweighted until now. As a result, individual s may see a large jump in their PP, in either direction.
If you find yourself scratching your head when reading, consider consulting the performance points (PP) wiki article to gain a greater understanding of the topics.
Release schedule
✅ Star rating recalculation
Unlike previous runs, we've updated all star ratings in the background, maintaining a separate copy.
These will be going live imminently and be used for all PP calculations and SR displays. osu! stable and lazer updates will also be pushed out today to update client-side calculations.
✅ Reprocess performance values of negligible scores (completed 2025-03-08)
To start with, we are reprocessing the PP values of scores which are insignificant. This means starting with scores worth a very low amount of PP and working upwards in a way that doesn't affect the competitive nature of the rankings.
This can be done in the background, without stopping the world.
🏃 Reprocess performance values of all scores (3 - 5 days)
We now need to reprocess all remaining 3 billion scores (this means any scores you can currently see on the website will get a new PP value, including scores set on osu!(stable) and osu!(lazer)). This is the most time-consuming part of the deploy process.
During this period:
Scores in the "Best Performance" on profiles may be out of order or not be visible at all.
All player total PP, global ranks, country ranks, and profile ranking graphs will be frozen in time until we're done reprocessing things. If we didn't freeze things, s would question their rank and PP jumping all over the place, as we have no way of ensuring every score PP and total PP are updated all at once.
⏳ Reprocess total PP values for all s (12 hours)
Bring everything back in line with expectations.
⏳ Re-enabling of global rank history updates
Rank history graphs will be enabled and updated again. At this point, all s' global leaderboard ranks will be stable going forward.
⏳ Reindexing (2 - 3 days)
This will fix scores occasionally being out of order on profiles under "best performance", and in some rare cases not being displayed at all.
osu!
Acute angle bonus rework
The acute angle bonus is a bonus inside of aim calculations for BPMs greater than 300. It is used to reward fast, difficult aim patterns.
This bonus should now be more fair towards difficult patterns, while some overweighted patterns such as repeated angles are now awarded less of this bonus, thanks to a set of various changes proposed by StanR (with some contributions by tsunyoku).
There was also a change to uncap velocity constraints that used to exist on the bonus allowing for some very hard acute-angled jumps in high BPM beatmaps to receive a greater buff.
As part of this change, the wiggle bonus which used to be part of the acute angle bonus is now applied regardless of BPM — beatmaps with difficult wiggle-like patterns below 300 BPM may receive a (slight) new buff:
Some examples of beatmaps buffed by these changes:
DJ TOTTO - Crystalia [Meal's Ultra] with DT: 11.19* --> 11.38*
Light - Anoneanoneanoneanoneanoneanoneanoneanone Kouji ga Okureteruno [Anone] with DT: 10.62* --> 11.22*
nameless - Milk Crown on Sonnetica [Milked] with DT: 10.73* --> 11.17*
Some examples of beatmaps nerfed by these changes:
toby fox - Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans [Genocide] with DT: 10.09* --> 9.82*
Middle Kids - R U 4 Me? (Cut Ver.) [Together Forever] with DT: 11.13* --> 10.95*
Yousei Teikoku - Zetsubou plantation (Cut Ver.) [PikA's Extra] with DT: 10.46* --> 10.22*
Slider drop penalty fixes
Aim calculations reward beatmaps for having difficult-to-follow slider patterns, with a penalty for dropped slider ends to ensure that plays only receive their full buff if the sliders were hit correctly.
A change proposed by StanR has been created in order to ensure this penalty is applied correctly, and uses a more concrete estimation of the difficult sliders in a beatmap.
Prior to this change, the penalty applied to aim PP for missed slider ends was unintentionally nerfing much less than it was supposed to. This meant beatmaps with difficult sliders could be abused for easy PP by missing a lot of slider ends. This has been corrected, which causes large nerfs for a lot of scores set on beatmaps such as t+pazolite - Oshama Scramble! (IOException Edit) [Special].
Furthermore, the game would previously assume that 10% of a beatmap's sliders are difficult, but that is no longer the case due to the aforementioned new estimation of difficult sliders. This makes the slider drop penalty fairer across the board.
Speed PP punishment for scores with high tapping deviation
A change proposed by Givikap120 has been created in order to nerf speed PP on scores with a very high tapping deviation.
Tapping deviation is a statistic similar to unstable rate created by Frostium, combining a score's hit statistics, OD and amount of difficult "speed notes" (high-strain notes relevant to speed PP) in a beatmap.
This deviation is used to punish speed PP if the deviation is deemed "too high" for a beatmap's difficulty and is assumed to have been tapped improperly. This primarily addresses scores using the "rake tapping" technique while also nerfing other forms of improper tapping.
This nerf only applies when two conditions are met: the speed PP is above a certain value (that is affected by the deviation), and the deviation itself is above a certain value (roughly corresponding to 220 UR). The only affected scores should be ones which were tapped incorrectly, which should now be more representative of their tapping difficulty.
As a result of this change, the old penalty applied in speed PP for 50s has now been removed as this proposal better serves its purpose. You may see noticable buffs on plays with a lot of 50s if they're not deemed to be tapped improperly.
Minor changes
A set of rebalances proposed by StanR and tsunyoku in order to align final values with community expectations
A fix proposed by molneya to ensure that the time between spinners are correctly ed for in Flashlight calculations
A fix proposed by StanR to ensure ODs below 0 cannot increase PP
A fix proposed by Finadoggie to ensure estimated slider drops cannot go below zero
A fix proposed by Natelytle to ensure osu!(lazer)'s PP counter does not display NaN while star rating is zero
A set of refactors proposed by StanR, ltca and Natelytle to aid with development
A change proposed by StanR to simplify the angle bonus formulas in aim calculations
A change proposed by tsunyoku to implement basic difficulty and performance calculations for the Autopilot mod