scoresaber

ScoreSaber Development Update #1

Added 2020-02-10 13:21:13 +0000 UTC

This is definitely way over due, but hey better late than never.
This post is designed to inform everyone on the current state of development with ScoreSaber, whats being worked on and the priority of each task.

PPv3

Yes, it actually exists and is being worked on. As you may or may not know an update was made in December on Discord seeking assistance with the new shiny algorithm.

I was shocked to receive dozens of messages the day of from highly capable individuals, after the day was over the PPv3 team had already been formed, and I'd like to share some of the progress that has been made.

The Discord server was formed, the team introduced themselves and got to know one another
Source control structure was established so we could work efficiently as a team
The team was tasked with learning the current PPv2 codebase as PPv3 would be loosely based off of it
That went poorly, I rewrote mostly everything, the project is pretty now
For lack of better words, a difficulty "criteria" was created so we all understood the objective difficulty we were attempting to measure. This was important so we're all on the same page
Multiple theoretical papers have been written on ways to improve the algorithm and measure specific difficulty metrics outlined in the criteria
One of these papers have already been adapted to code, and is awaiting merging into master

The team is still very much settling in, but I have no doubt that things will start to snowball.

The Re-code

As you may or may not know, ScoreSabers entire backend and website frontend is being recoded. (patrons have access to a #git channel in discord which tracks my progress)
Everything is being re-written in Node, using React for the frontend, you can actually view some of the new pages over at https://new.scoresaber.com / so far, global rankings and the profile pages have been ported to the frontend, with a bunch of endpoints in the backend completed.

So what does this re-code mean for ScoreSaber? So.. many..things, here let me list them.

New features will be a piece of cake to implement both in-game and on the website such as:

Modding forums
Customizable profiles
Comments on profiles and leaderboards
Profiles in-game
Global leaderboards in-game
And so much more..

An over-powered API for third-party developers

Since the ScoreSaber frontend will have to use the API, third-party developers will have access to all the data they need in an efficient manner without the need for scraping.
You can preview some of these endpoints here, although it's not suggested to use them, as while in development these will likely be unstable.
https://new.scoresaber.com/api/players/1
https://new.scoresaber.com/api/player/76561198283584459/basic https://new.scoresaber.com/api/player/76561198283584459/full https://new.scoresaber.com/api/player/76561198283584459/scores/top https://new.scoresaber.com/api/player/76561198283584459/scores/recent

Better performance

ScoreSabers current frontend is currently causing a plague of performance issues as it is using server sided rendering, once the re-code is fully live, while rare, scores not uploading, or a slow UI will be the thing of the past.

Open source

Once live, while the backend will remain closed source for security reasons, the frontend will be completely open sourced, so other developers can contribute to the project and improve user experience.

So when will it be done?

I'm hesitant to give an exact number, as doing that in the past has definitely caused some issues (85% lol)
But with the load of PPv3 taken off me to some extent with the new team, and after promoting OrangeW to handle all administrative matters regarding ranking, I have much more time to be working on this, and it's currently my highest priority.

Ranking awareness & documentation

A side project, but a project nonetheless. It has come to our attention that despite having the ScoreSaber mod installed, not as many people as I hoped are educated on the ranking process or ScoreSaber itself, efforts will be taken to rectify this.
We will be collaborating with Cube Community to create an informational video on the process while also adding documentation to the website on how the system works, along with adding a "What's this" button beside your rank in-game.
The point of this is to hopefully incentivize more players to play for rank, and potentially motivate more mappers to map for rank, creating a much stronger system.

Wrap up

Well, that was a lot of words, props if you got this far, thank you to everyone for continuing to use & support ScoreSaber, back when I started this project on May the 2nd 2018 I could have never imagined it growing to this size, I'm eternally grateful for you all ❤️