The osu! to AUDICA converter brings millions of new maps to Harmonix’s VR rhythm experience.
This weekend the AUDICA modding community revealed its osu! to AUDICA converter, a free tool that allows fans of the uber popular 2007 rhythm game to easily transport millions of user-created maps to Harmonix Music System’s VR rhythm experience AUDICA.
Originally launched on Microsoft Windows back in 2007, Dean Herbert’s osu! is a fast-paced rhythm clicker that tasks players with tapping beats, following sliders, and spinning random spinners to the beat of some infectious tunes, primarily k-pop and j-pop. The level of coordination and timing required to beat some of the more difficult levels is so high that many esports professionals consider the game an effective warmup tool before matches. Osu! itself has also developed its own competitive scene composed of many die hard players.
This new converter tool allows fans to easily drag-and-drop their favorite “beatmaps” into AUDICA, effectively bringing the core osu! experience to VR headsets. Thanks to the many similarities between osu! and Harmonix’s VR rhythm shooter, AUDICA modders Zerny and October were able to develop a converter tool that requires zero modding on the part of the user. After you install the converter, simply drag-and-drop the standard osu! map file of your preferred track to the converter tool and transport the resulting .audica file to the games’ song folder.
For more information on how to convert new beatmaps, visit here.
“We’ve had rhythm game map converters before, but… they usually aren’t very good,” states Elliot Tate in the reveal. “The first full-length custom song ever for Beat Saber was actually the output of a test osu! to Beat Saber converter, but… the map was pretty bad. Converters are usually more useful as tools for mappers to gain a solid starting point to further map from, not for producing a map ready to play. (btw, if you don’t know what osu! is, it’s one of the largest rhythm games with millions of players and a massive mapping community).”
“Instead of trying to map things 1:1 between the two games, Zerny created and applied some very complex algorithms to how parts of a map are translated. The results are absolutely amazing!”
AUDICA is available now for $29.99. on SteamVR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest headsets. The osu! to AUDICA converter is compatible with all platforms. You can check out a full list of available osu! songs here.
Image Credit: elliotttate
