Terminology and Definitions
General Terminology
Editor | In the current context, when referring to editor we are talking about the section of the editor where you are editing the map directly, placing notes, etc |
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Song Info | The section within the editor that allows you to prepare information about a map including song name, cover art, etc. |
Lighting Tool | The section within the editor where we create lightshows. |
BPM Tool | The section within the editor that allows us to prepare an audio file that has variable BPM, so that the Bridge aligns to themusic the whole way through. |
Mapper/ Beatmapper / Level Creator | Referring to the person who created the Map |
Player | Referring to the person who will play the Map. |
Environment | The surrounding world that a player is within when playing a Map. |
Vertical Grid | A 4 wide by 3 tall grid that sits vertically, with it’s bottom side perpendicularly aligned to the Bridge. Displaying 12 empty squares. |
Horizontal Grid / Bridge | A 4 wide by X tall grid that sits horizontally. X being the amount of beats within the song. The width of 4 varies when editing lights, but for notes it is 4 wide. The Vertical Grid sits on top of this Bridge. It is made up of thin lines which refer to every 1/4 of a beat, and some thicker lines that refer to every full beat. |
Static Lights | A tick box which disables all lighting events from playing within the editor when hitting play. |
Zen Mode | A tick box which disables all note visuals, including bombs, obstacles and even the vertical and horizontal grids. If this is enabled when entering play mode, only lights will be visible. |
Play mode | A triangular play button in the top left of the editor allows the mapper to load up the map within a native running version of the game. A VR headset can be plugged in and the map can be immediately played. |
FPFC | ‘First person full camera’ ; A tick box in the upper left which allows someone to navigate the game (including when in play mode) with a mouse and keyboard instead of within VR. |
Time (tickbox) | A tick box in the upper left. When enabled, after leaving play mode the playhead will remain at the point in the song you where at when you left play mode. If disabled, the playhead will jump back to where you were at when you first hit the play mode button. |
Scale Slider | A slider in the bottom right of the editor which changes the scale of the horizontal grid (the distance between each beat). |
Speed Slider | A slider in the bottom right of the editor which speeds up/down playback when hitting play. |
Notes Tick Slider | A slider in the bottom right of the editor which changes the volume of the tick sound that plays any time a note passes the play head. |
Music Slider | A slider in the bottom right of the editor which changes the volume of the audio when hitting play. |
Song Info Screen Terminology
Song / Audio | Referring to the actual audio file for the song |
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BPM | Beats Per minute - A number entered into the editor which allows the grid to align to the audio. |
90/360 Environment | The surrounding world that a player is within when playing a song when playing a 90 or 360 degree Map Type. |
Cover Art | An image that displays alongside the song in the game menus. |
Song Name | The title of the song. example ; ‘Country Rounds’ |
Sub Name | The subtitle of the song. Displayed next to the Song Name text but in a smaller font. example ; ft Sqeepo remix |
Author Name | The artist of the song. example ; ‘Jaroslav Beck’ |
Level Author | The mapper. example ; ‘Freeek’ |
Song Time Offset | A number (in seconds) that delays when the audio starts in relation to the beatmap. |
Preview | When clicking on a song in the menu (but not playing), there is a preview sound of the song playing in the background. |
Preview Start Time | This field allows the mapper to choose what part of the song the preview starts at. |
Preview Duration | Allows the mapper to choose how long the preview plays for. |
Jump Speed / NJS | Can be a complex discussion point, but simply put the NJS is how fast the notes of a song move towards the player. |
Spawn offset | When a note spawns in front of the player, this value allows the mapper to adjust the distance it spawns at from the player. |
Difficulty | Refers to what difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, Expert+) of the map you are editing. |
Standard (Map type) | A traditional map in the game. 2 sabers, facing one direction and hitting blocks that arrive in 1 of 4 lanes. |
One saber (Map type) | Similar to Standard map type but only 1 saber (and therefore 1 block colour). |
90 Degree (Map type) | A map type that allows blocks to come at the player at different direction. From the initial spawning direction, notes can arrive as far as 45 degrees left and 45 degrees right. 28 lanes total. |
360 Degree (Map type) | A map type allowing blocks to come at the player from any direction. 96 lanes total. |
Note & Mapping Terminology
Note Lane | Refers to the 4 lanes (the width) of the vertical grid. We usually refer to them (from left to right) as 1/2/3/4 or far left, middle left, middle right and far right. |
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Note Row | Refers to the 3 rows (the height) of the vertical grid. We usually refer to them as the lower, middle and upper rows. |
Note/ Note Block | A cube that is placed in one of the 12 squares on the vertical grid. |
Directional block | A cube with an arrow on it, which can be pointed in 1 of 8 directions. Their direction is usually referred to in their name. example; ‘right block’ or ‘diagonal up left block’ |
Arrowless / Dot Block | A cube that can be hit from any direction, displayed as a dot on it instead of an arrow. |
Red Block | A note indicating a note to be hit by the left saber. |
Blue Block | A note indicating a note to be hit by the right saber. |
Bomb | A grey sphere with spikes on it, placed on the vertical grid by the mapper for the player to avoid with their sabers. |
Arc | A beam of light that is placed on the vertical grid by the mapper, both it’s start and end point are separately placed on different beats from each other. |
Arc multiplier | A value that can be applied to both the start or end of an arc, allowing the curvature of the arc to be stronger or weaker into or out of the note. |
Chain | A staggered set of links that are placed on the vertical grid by the mapper, both it’s start and end point are separately placed on different parts of the grid and may or may not be on different beats from each other. |
Link | The smaller notes that collectively make up a chain. |
Link Count | A value that can be applied to a chain that changes how many links are within the chain. |
Chain Squishiness | A value that can be applied to a chain that changes the X/Y length of the chain. ‘Squishing’ the links closer together. |
Sliders | A somewhat outdated term but still used to reference both Arcs and Chains together. |
Wall / Obstacle | A large Cyan coloured Rectangular prism, placed on the vertical grid by the mapper for the player to avoid with their face. |
Beat | Refers to a specific point in time for a song, displayed as a whole number alongside the horizontal grid. Determined by the BPM stat entered by the mapper in the song info section. |
Playhead | The current moment in time (in beats) where the vertical grid is sitting on the horizontal grid. Displayed as a bright Cyan horizontal beam on the vertical grid. If it is currently set to 15.75 and you place a note onto the vertical grid, that note is being placed on beat 15.75 |
Beat Subdivision | (1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64) When using the scroll wheel of your mouse, you will be scrolling the playhead forward and backward through the beats. The Beat Subdivision is how far forward and back you will scroll through the beats with every tick of the scroll wheel. So for example if it is set to 1/1, your scroll wheel will take you from 0 to 1 to 2, etc. If it is set to 1/4, your scroll wheel will take you from 0 to 0.25, to 0.5, etc. (1/4 of a beat). |
Triplet Subdivision | Changes the Beat subdivision to work in triplet mode (1/3, 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, 1/48, 1/96), allowing you to scroll the playhead to triplet values like 0.33, 0.66, etc. |
Selection Marquee | When selecting notes en masse, a white square displays over the area you are selecting, referred to as the selection marquee. |
Mirror | Allows a selection of notes to be mirrored on the vertical grid along a vertical central axis. This also inverts colours of blocks. For example if a left red block was placed on the far left lane and i selected it and use mirror, it will turn into a blue right block in the far right lane. |
Console | In the upper left area of the editor is a small console window that displays things like error messages and confirmations of saving the map. |
Camera | The current POV of the main window. The camera can be moved around the space. |
Lighting Terminology
Event / Event Block | The block that is placed down onto the horizontal grid. The Lighting part of the editor does not contain a vertical grid, only the horizontal one. |
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Light ID | A numerical value which identifies a light/laser/ring within the environment. “This light here is ID 4”. Each lane controls an ID. |
Light | A static object within the environment that when triggered by an event will vary it’s light output. |
Laser | A moving light that has an adjustable speed value, changing how quickly and slowly it moves. Also allows to have a speed of 0 applied rendering them like a normal light (static). |
Ring | Enormous, floating objects commonly found in early environments that surround the bridge. They can have values assigned to them which make them spin as well as expand/retract the distances between each of them. |
Laser Mode | Some Lasers have 2 different movement styles which we call ‘modes’. |
Light Lane | A 1:1 long visual timeline within the editor that Event blocks are placed on in time with the music. One lane corresponds to one or more lights/lasers/rings/etc in the environment. Each Lane had it’s own unique ID. So if a lane was ID 6, and 3 of the lights in the environment were also set to ID 6, those 3 lights would respond to the events placed within Lane 6. |
Value | A number assigned to an Event. |
Brightness | An adjustable value on an event which controls how bright a light in the environment shows up as. Controllable between 0-120 in the Editor. |
Laser Speed | An adjustable value that changes the movement speed of the lasers in the environment (0-15) |
Strobe | An adjustable value that causes the brightness value to change between itself and 0 at a frequency set by the mapper. It will indefinitely do this until an event with strobe effect ‘off’ is placed. |
Colour | An adjustable value of a primary and secondary colour. The lighting engine does not allow us to choose a specific colour. Instead, it pulls from whatever colour scheme the player has set to use. An Event block visually shows a red or blue colour within the editor, but this does not indicate blue or red but instead primary and secondary. |
White | A third colour usable by mappers, but it is always set to the colour white and is not changeable even by the players. |
Boost | An adjustable value on an event of either off and on. When turned on, the primary and secondary colours will instead be replaced by a different set of primary and secondary colours. If turned off, the original colours will be what’s displayed in the environment. |
Event Lane type | Each lane has its own unique event blocks (and even control scheme within the editor), which is determined by what ‘lane type’ has been set for that lane at the programming level (Not adjustable by beatmappers). |
Light Lane | A lane type which uses Static and Fade Events exclusively |
Speed lane | A lane type which uses the Number Event exclusively with a pre-set minimum and maximum value for each event. Usually to control the speed of laser movement in one of the laser lanes. |
On/Off lane | A lane type very similar to the speed lane, but the Number event always has only 2 states (on and off/1 and 0) |
Ring/Mode lane | A lane type that uses Blank events to change the mode of a Laser or ‘activate’ a ring. |
Event type | The type of block that can be placed down into a lane |
Static Event | An event block with a controllable brightness and colour value, that when activated causes a light to change to that brightness value. Visually shows colour and a numerical brightness value and also denoted by a rectangle shape symbol on it. |
Fade Event | An event block with a controllable brightness and colour value, that looks at the prior Static or Fade event block in it’s lane and dynamically fades the brightness and colour of the light from the values to the one set on the current event block. Visually shows colour and a numerical brightness value and also denoted by a triangle shape symbol on it. When used, also shows a visual trail between itself and the event beforehand showing the brightness and/or colour change. |
Number Event | An event block that exclusively visualises a numerical value only. |
Toggle Event | An event block with no controllable values. |
Group System | V3 of our lighting system introduced the powerful group system, allowing efficient use of complex effects. |
Group | A Block type that uses our new group system. Has a unique Id called the Group ID |
Extension Event | A Block type that will ‘hold’ onto the values of a prior group up to where it’s placed. For example if a red 100 brightness group event was placed on beat 1, and a red 0 brightness fade event was placed on beat 10. When playing, the light will fade from 100 to 0 from beat 1 to 10. If i placed an extension event on block 5, what would happen instead is the light would turn to 100 brightness at beat 1, it would remain at 100 brightness until beat 5, in which it would then only start to fade down to the 0 brightness at beat 10. |
Group ID | Similar to Light ID, but instead of referring to a single light, a group ID can refer to any amount of lights in the environment at once. For example ‘those 10 lasers at the bottom of the stage are group ID 1’. |
Colour Lane | A lane type that only allows group blocks to be placed in, controlling colour values of several lights at once. Points to a single group ID. |
Rotation Lane | A lane type that only allows group blocks to be placed in, controlling rotational values of several lights at once. Points to a single group ID. |
Wave duration | Wave refers to an amount of time (in beats) a colour or rotation effect within a group block takes to finish. It’s mathematically formulated to end exactly after X amount of beats, regardless of how many lights are in the group. For example if there are 10 lights in a group and wave is set to 10, and the effect is to turn a light on then off. Each light will turn on and off after 1 beat each (10 lights x 1 beat = 10 beats (what the wave was set too)). If the same effect is set on a group that has 5 lights in it, each light will have it’s effect last for 2 beats each (5 lights x 2 beats = 10 beats (what the wave was set too)). |
Step duration | Instead of Wave, Step can be used which instead has an effect last X amount of beats per light. So if the effect is ‘turn on then turn off’, and it’s set to step mode and a duration of 1, and the amount of lights in the group is 10, the effect will in total last 10 beats. But if the group only contains 5 lights, the effect will only last 5 beats. |
Rotation Degree | A value that can be changed by the mapper in a group block, altering the chosen angle the light/laser is set too. Can be set to any value with a granularity of 5 from 0-355. |
Rotation Curve / Easings | When 2 rotation blocks are set after each other with different rotation degrees, the laser/light will move from the rotation degree of the first to the second. The speed at which the angle change occurs can be changed with 5 different curve types. |
None Curve | Lets say block 1 has an angle of 0 degrees and block 2 has an angle of 90 degrees. A none Curve means the light will be pointing at 0 degrees, then when the 90 degree block comes to the playhead, the laser will instantly snap to the 90' rotation, there will be no movement. |
Linear Curve | Lets say block 1 has an angle of 0 degrees and block 2 has an angle of 90 degrees. A Linear curve means the light will be pointing at 0 degrees then will rotate to the 90 degree angle at a perfect 1:1 speed. |
In/Out Curve | Lets say block 1 has an angle of 0 degrees and block 2 has an angle of 90 degrees. An In/Out curve means the light will be pointing at 0 degrees then will slowly start to rotate, then reach it’s maximum speed at the halfway point between the 0 and 90 degree block, and will then start to slow again when it reaches the 90 degree block. This is the most commonly used curve for rotations. |
In Curve | Lets say block 1 has an angle of 0 degrees and block 2 has an angle of 90 degrees. An In curve means the light will be pointing at 0 degrees then will immediately start to rotate at it’s maximum speed, then will start to slow down all the way until the 90 degree block. |
Out Curve | Lets say block 1 has an angle of 0 degrees and block 2 has an angle of 90 degrees. An Out curve means the light will be pointing at 0 degrees then will slowly start to rotate, then will reach it’s maximum speed and stay at this speed all the way until the 90 degree block. |
Loops | A value that can be set on a group block between 0 and 5. It will add an additional 360 degrees to the loop when rotating from one angle to another. For example we have a block at 0 degrees and another block at 90 degrees with a loop value of 1 set. The light will rotate from 0, all the way around 360 degrees and then an additional 90 (so 450 total). |
Rotation direction | When rotating from 1 degree to another, the direction can be set, either clockwise, counter clockwise or auto. Auto means the light will take whatever direction is the smaller angle. |
BPM tool terminology
Variable BPM | When a songs BPM is not the same number throughout the entire song, changing at some point, whether once or several times. |
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Gradual BPM | A type of Variable BPM where the BPM change happens over time instead of instantly. |
Region | A length of time of a song that is set to a BPM. For example, a song that has a single bpm that doesn’t change, therefore has a single region. A variable BPM song that changes at one point from a bpm to another, has 2 regions. |
Marker | Every Beat is visualised as a grey marker in the BPM tool. A vertical line with a rectangular handle in the middle. Each Marker has it’s corresponding beat number next to it. Always a whole number. |
Region Marker | Same as a marker but blue. Instead of representing a beat, it instead represents the start of a region. |
Select | Allows you to select and drag the markers. |
Split | Split will cut a region into two smaller regions, the point where you split becomes a new region marker. |
Merge | Allows you to merge two regions into one marger, effectively deleting the region marker between the two and reversing a split. |
Snap | Snap has 4 separate modes and changes how Split and Select work. |
(1) No Snap | When No snap is selected, when splitting a region, the split will occur at the exact point your cursor is sitting on. |
(2) Round | When Round Snap is selected, when splitting a region, the split will occur at the closest marker to where your cursor is sitting. For example if your cursor is on beat 5.3 when you click to split, the split will occur at beat 5 |
(3) Floor | When Floor Snap is selected, when splitting a region, the split will occur at the marker rounded downwards to the next whole number beat on where your cursor is sitting. For example if your cursor is on beat 9.8 when you click to split, the split will occur at beat 9 |
(4) Ceiling | When Floor Snap is selected, when splitting a region, the split will occur at the marker rounded upwards to the next whole number beat on where your cursor is sitting. For example if your cursor is on beat 1.1 when you click to split, the split will occur at beat 2 |
1 Beat (tickbox) | When the 1 beat tickbox is selected, when splitting a region, the leftmost region will be defined as 1 beat long, this is incredibly useful for variable bpm sections. |
Stretch | When stretching, all markers within the regions to both the left and right of the selected marker will equally stretch to match the new marker location. |
Deprecated Terminology (2D Editor)
Event On (Deprecated) | An event block that when activated causes a light to turn on (100 brightness) |
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Event off (Deprecated) | An event block that when activated causes a light to turn off (0 brightness) |
Fade out (Deprecated) | An event block that when activated causes a light to turn on then quickly fade out to an off state. (100 brightness to 0 brightness) |
Flash (Deprecated) | An event block that when activated causes a light to turn on to a brightness higher than the default state and then fade back to the standard brightness (120 brightness to 100 brightness) |