Upgrading to lazer

Notice: We are still figuring out game balance and mechanics. For now, scores set on lazer should not be considered permanent.

osu!(lazer) is the next major update to the game. It is the culmination of several years of work behind the scenes to painstakingly reimplement the game.

The eventual goal is that this version will be released as an update which will completely supersede the existing stable version of the game, but there's still some work to be done before that is feasible. At the end of the day, the players will dictate when this happens and we will continue to support the previous release until users have migrated across.

"lazer" is a codename and will eventually be dropped as it becomes the primary release of the game. The rest of this document will refer to osu!(lazer) as "lazer" and osu!(stable) as "stable" for simplicity.

Feature comparison

The following is a comprehensive list of the current state of lazer in comparison to stable. Note that this is a moving target — the end goal is to implement all the features that players care about over time.

Compatibility and performance

Feature	stable	lazer
Windows 8.0 and lower
macOS / Linux	1
DirectX / Vulkan	2	3
Mobile support
Multithreaded architecture
Hardware-accelerated video
UI scaling
Custom rulesets (game modes)		4
De-duped file store		5
Tablet area adjustment

UI and skinning

Feature	stable	lazer
Skin support		6
Song select grouping modes
In-game skin / UI layout editing

Gameplay and skinning

Feature	stable	lazer
Accurate performance point display	7
Difficulty adjust mod		8
Mod presets
Per-mod settings
New "fun" mods
Combo colour normalisation9
Hold for HUD		10
Offset calibration	11	12
osu! sliders "snake" while dragging		13
osu! player-friendly "note lock"		14
osu!mania timing-based note colouring

Online systems

Feature	stable	lazer
Score submission		15
Beatmap leaderboards		16
Profile statistics
Medals
Performance points		16
Real-time chat	17
Wiki / News / Changelog / Rankings		18
User profiles
Beatmap listing	19
Unlimited multiplayer room size	20
Multiplayer spectating
Countdown timers	21	22
Queue modes		23
Multiplayer commands
Tag co-op
Playlists (user-curated leaderboards)
Updating beatmaps with online changes	24	25

Editor

Feature	stable	lazer
osu!taiko editor
osu!catch editor
osu!mania editor
Open difficulty as reference
Per-object SV / volume
Pattern rotation		26
Pattern resizing
Beatmap submission
Storyboard editor
Cross-compatibility		27

Switching to lazer

So you've decided you want to give lazer a shot? Great!

You can find it for download here. In the near future, you will be able to switch to lazer from stable (from the Release stream setting) and find the download link on the osu! website.

FAQ

Migration

Is stable going away? Am I going to be forced to switch?

Stable will continue to be maintained as long as users are using it. At very least, it will be maintained for several years.

Can I import all my data from stable to lazer?

Currently, beatmaps, skins, scores, replays and collections can be imported into lazer. Of note, settings are not yet imported so you will need to set them up from scratch.

If I import my beatmaps to lazer, will it use double the disk space?

If you have both lazer and stable on the same drive, hard links are used to avoid using extra disk space.

In all other cases, importing beatmaps will use double the disk space.

If I delete lazer will it break my stable install?

No.

If I delete stable will it break content in lazer that was imported from stable?

No.

If I install lazer, will I be able to return to stable?

Yes, lazer always installs alongside stable. Unless you choose to delete one or the other, both will be accessible.

Can I import data from lazer to stable?

No. This will not be supported.

That said, individual scores and beatmaps can be exported from lazer and manually imported into stable for now.

Gameplay and scoring

If I set a score on lazer, will it show on my profile?

Scores will show under "recently played" but not in "best performance" yet.

If I set a score on lazer, will it give performance points?

Scores will already have performance points calculated (you can see this in the "recently played" section of your profile), but it will not contribute to the total value yet.

Does lazer use ScoreV2?

Lazer currently uses a new experimental score implementation which is similar to ScoreV2 but not the same. This is still in development and we are looking for more feedback on how it feels in various contexts (solo play, leaderboards, tournaments etc.)

I prefer the classic scoring display, where scores get really big.

You can actually change the Score display mode setting to Classic to get back the explosive style of scoring game-wide! It won't be a perfect match, but will give you the same feel of classic scoring and be applied everywhere you'd expect it to be.

If I set a score on lazer, will it remain forever?

While we will try to preserve as many scores as possible, we offer no guarantee that scores will remain indefinitely. At any point we may choose to wipe a subset or all scores in order to preserve game balance.

Will scores set on stable eventually show in lazer?

Yes. Once we finish balancing the combination of lazer and stable scores, both will be visible.

Will all mods be ranked?

For now, scores of all mod combinations appear on leaderboards. Whether scores will give performance points with all mods (and if they do, whether there will be a bonus or penalty applied) is still in discussion.

I don't like the new gameplay mechanics. Can I restore the old gameplay mechanics like on stable?

Please try applying the "classic" mod, which will restore much of the old behaviour that you are used to. Also make sure to check the settings offered by classic mod, as it will let you further customise your experience and also understand what changes are being applied (as they are all listed there).

Skinning and UI

Something is behaving differently to stable and I don't like it!

Please run the setup wizard at the top of settings and go through the settings on the Behaviour screen. A lot of the common settings which have defaults changed are listed here. There's also a single button you can press to apply the old behaviours as a starting point for your lazer journey.

Will old skins eventually work in song select and results screens?

We'll do our best to bring back as much of this as we can without blocking new functionality. This will come later on.

Can I use my skin cursor in the menus as well?

We will likely bring back support for this in the future due to popular demand.

Performance

Why can't I run at unlimited FPS?

Above a certain threshold there is no reason to run at higher frame rates. Lazer employs various new technologies to ensure the lowest latency is achievable without requiring high frame rates. This will continue to improve going forward as we still have a few improvements left to implement.

Lazer polls for input at 1,000 Hz regardless of FPS limiter, which is why the maximum limiter setting will also limit to 1,000 FPS.

If you are curious about how this affects input latency and test your own perception, please run the built-in "latency certifier" at the bottom of settings.

You can also read this technical document explaining the path we are taking along with rationale behind it.

If input is only polled at 1,000 Hz, what about my 8,000 Hz gaming mouse?

The operating system will still poll at the higher rate, although benefits are proven to be negligible. Polling at such high rates can have unforeseen overheads, and we recommend limiting devices to 1,000 Hz for system stability.

Lazer performs worse than stable for me. What gives?

While on most modern hardware we see lazer outperform stable, there are always edge cases when each user has a different hardware configuration. In our short-term roadmap, we are looking to support DirectX (aka "compatibility mode" on stable) and Vulkan, which both have better driver support than OpenGL across all hardware. Once this is implemented, performance on hardware like Intel integrated chipsets will improve greatly.

Providing feedback

A feature that I depend on is missing! / Something has changed and I don't like it. / I have found a bug, what's the best way to report it?

There's a very high chance we are already aware of this and tracking it for future implementation! Please search the issue tracker and discussions page. If you can't find any matching threads, feel free to open a discussion.

Do note that we are already tracking over 1,000 issues of varying priorities, and it may take us some time to fix issues that only affect a small number of users.

Other

Why is it called "lazer"?

What is sharper than cutting–edge?

Why is it taking so long to become the "main" release?

While osu! may seem like a simple game, there are hundreds on hundreds of features and systems that users have come to rely on. Depending on who you ask, lazer may have been in a fully playable state for years now, or it may be missing countless features.

Another area which has taken a huge amount of effort is historical preservation — making sure that beatmaps behave exactly as they should, including edge cases that weren't originally planned for. osu! is a vibrant ecosystem and users have taken liberty to extend the game far beyond its planned extents, and we are trying our best to embrace and support this going forward.

Finally, unlike the last iteration, we are putting in the time and diligence to ensure the code base will serve us well into the future. We have done the groundwork to allow new features to come online at blazing speed going forward. This will include new UI components, new ways to skin the game, new multiplayer systems and let's not forget the ability to load and play all your existing beatmaps on completely new game modes (a.k.a. rulesets)!

What comes next?

We have a huge backlog of user-requested features and improvements that we will continue to push out at the speed of light. For those that have joined us recently and haven't experienced the momentum of osu! development, prepare to be in for a surprise.

How do I access my songs folder?

There is no songs folder in lazer! This allows us to do cool things like not require pressing F5 at song select to refresh beatmaps (because beatmaps are always in a good state) and reduce the disk space used by beatmaps by 20–40%. You can read more about the way lazer stores files.

If you need to make changes to a beatmap, please use the editor. Going forward we will introduce a mode in the editor which makes a beatmap's folder temporarily accessible for external editing. This will allow you to use external tools on a beatmap during the creation process.

Now that "osu!direct" is available to all players, will supporters have any new benefits?

Some filters in the beatmap listing are still supporter-only.

There are also some additional benefits already:

• Supporters can create playlists that last longer

We do intend to look into new benefits in the future, but our focus is currently on feature parity with stable so please use your supporter tag purchase as a way to... support the game's development!

If I cheat on lazer will I be banned?

Yes.

If I find someone cheating on lazer how should I report them?

The same way you usually would.

Where are the microtransactions?

You're likely thinking of another game.

Notes