Online offset
For other uses, see Offset.
Online offset is an offset that can be applied to a beatmap after it is initially ranked. This is usually done when a beatmap needs small timing changes to correctly line it up with the song. Online offset values are applied on top of a player's universal offset and local offset values.
Behaviour
The online offset is customised for individual mistimed beatmaps by a website administrator or a member of the Nomination Assessment Team, and is automatically fetched by osu! together with the leaderboards. Similarly to the local offset, it works by shifting all gameplay elements relative to the audio track by a specified amount of milliseconds:
- Negative values move gameplay elements earlier.
- Positive values move gameplay elements later.
All online offset values are stored locally for later use. This allows the values to be applied even if a player is playing offline as long as they have been connected to the internet prior to importing or playing the beatmap.
History
Beatmap management panel, old website
Beatmap management panel, new website
Online offset was implemented in September 20081 for the Beatmap Appreciation Team to make it possible to fix a beatmap's timing without unranking. Over the course of time, it was made accessible to the members of different teams overseeing the ranking process, such as the Quality Assurance Team (QAT), Nomination Assessment Team (NAT), and the Global Moderation Team, due to similar user group permissions.
In May 2019, NAT has declared during the QAT restructuring follow-up2 that an invalid offset required a beatmap unrank and could not have been fixed via the respective website controls. Regardless, the whole map management panel was made visible to Beatmap Nominators.
In April 2022, online offset controls were added3 to the new website, but were restricted only to administrators a week after to prevent misuse.4