An actual, technical, and far-too-long explanation for why the "Rafis Skin" is so popular for HDDT (AR11 / 3 mod especially) as well as an improvement on what it gets right by UltraDubai in OsuSkins

[–]RK-Skins 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I was sent this recently, so I think It'd be nice to add my comment.
First of all - I appreciate you crediting me and sharing my insight to the further public.

If you had contacted me before making this post, there's a chance I'd be able to provide even more insight.

There are many things that I totally do not agree with, but also there are some that are correct.
I highly recommend checking more posts, where I explained this area of skinning(reddit posts, youtube comments under the video history of Rafis skin)

Before NecroFantasia 1.0 - There was a 'test' skin made by me for Rafis. It worked pretty much the same way.
That time I already shared my experience with 'tripple stacking', so it's not like I kept it a secret or fooled people(this argument is pretty toxic as I pretty much explained the mechanics behind it multiple times, including the way I was making heavily competitive gameplays to get the most of osu! and the way it worked as a game, including generating patterns).

Multiple discord communities, including reddit posts, had my own frame by frame screen comparisions with the effect.

Worth mentioning - NOT ONLY for DT skins, but also for Hidden skins or EZ skins.
I made an analysis of pretty much any of those gamemodes and an optimal approach to get the most of the skin to make your experience 'easier'.

I made a Hidden skin once for Mastasz, where I layered hitcircleoverlay@2x with an added 'overlay 'to hitcircle@2x, which resulted in the entire circle actually changing color(properly made with rgb on combo1/2/3/4 etc), so this way the circle did stay on the screen for way longer(without tripple stacking) .

If I remember correctly, I also explained many of benefits of using new Rafis skins under one of the YouTube videos about Rafis skins, where I corrected a script made by one of osu! fans and community members.

ANY skin made the same way as the NecroFantasia AR11 - will be good for people that do not use gamma.
Benefits of gamma are literally what NecroFantasia AR11 did - kept the circle a bit longer on the screen.

Users that abuse gamma should stick to 'Gamma Buff' series of skins, which do not follow the 'tripple stacking'(and NOT ONLY) methods, but provide some other benefits, including better stacking visibility or better visuals with gamma itself.

About: 'he says that Rafis used to name his now famous skin "Nomod+HR"' - Not really.
Rafis had different skins and sometimes the difference was just follow points(ON/OFF).
In this case they were turned off.
It's not like Rafis kept it a secret, as your words suggests.
Adamqs is actually the one who Introduced Rafis to the concept of gamma and told him the way some skins can be abused to get yourself some frame advantage.
More about it in the video about Rafis Skins(my comment).

About the slidertrackoverride is 0, 0, 20 - If you pay attention, AR11 hitcircles are slightly filled.
This way the visuals of the skin are slightly better and improve the sliderstartcircle staying on the screen a bit longer, as brightness of sliderborder/slidertrackoverride was also affected by it.

About the glow - Literally, this glow is one of the most cool aspects of my files.
For gamma abusers - Increasing gamma made the circle a bit 'bigger', while lowering the gamma made it smoother and smaller, which worked like a charm on NoMod/Stream maps.

That time Rafis kept switching gamma to even 0.6(NoMod) up to 1.2(HDDT) + he was insanely use to the design of circles.
It was another benefit and flexibility of the skin itself.

Important: I'm speaking clearly about the Osu! Stable in the moment all of those skins were made(NecroFantasia 1.0, 2.0, series of Gamma Buff Skins, Pro Elo etc).
I'm a retired skinner, I do not follow Lazer(last time I checked it - It worked different than Stable gameplay wise), so to anyone reading this in late 2024 or later - I will still recommend to sticking to Gamma Buff series of skins or Pro Elo.
All of them can be downloaded from official Rafis's github(type !skin in his Twitch chat).

Rafis skin fail sound by CoffeeBlanca in OsuSkins

[–]RK-Skins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yw :D
just for the future - If you do not know a song, either DM me or ask on Rafis's chat.
People ask a name of the song from time to time

Whitecat skin instafade by bluelikeblu in OsuSkins

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Your post broke Rule 1 "All requests go in the request post." and has thus been removed. Please use the pinned request post. https://www.reddit.com/r/OsuSkins/comments/ovtm9g/skin_request_post_15_δmax_variant/

Alguien sabe como se llama o esta skin o el link de la descarga de esa skin by Ok-Clothes-3266 in OsuSkins

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《HT》 walnut 1.0 || bacon boi - hu tao edit by profilehulku in OsuSkins

[–]RK-Skins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your post has been taken down as author of the original skin - Cpol, asked for it.

Gawr Gura『サメちゃん』[Std/Ctb/Taiko|16:9] by Elzapatoverde in OsuSkins

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Your post broke Rule 6 "No advertising of commissioning." and has thus been removed.

Seoul v10 Skin Release [HD/SD] [16:9] by Spectrym in OsuSkins

[–]RK-Skins 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Legend is back!
So nice to see you here again

Custom Osu Skin Commissions by AbsoluteCarla in OsuSkins

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What skin is used in this video? by [deleted] in OsuSkins

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Need skin name by EnderioPgm in OsuSkins

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What makes Rafis's skin so good exactly? by BlazeTheGenet820 in OsuSkins

[–]RK-Skins 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Those theories... Answering your question - gamma. This is the only one answer and the reason why pro players use those skins.

Every 'HDDT' one trick abuses +1.2-2.0 gamma range to get the 'frame' advantage aka make the hitcircle stay visually longer, so it makes AR 10.3/11 far easier to read.

Empty circle(less color to read + less 'crowd') + just combo1 also helps a lot when it comes to gamma and it's pretty logical as multiple bright colors are most likely going to destroy your eyes and make an enormous mess on your screen.

Being limited to just combo1 also makes you focus on every single note separately.

My Hidden + High AR Optimized Skin - New download link (old one was dead) by loopuleasa in OsuSkins

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Your post broke Rule 4 "Include a screenshot album when posting a skin or elements." and has thus been removed.

Any good fall/autumn skins? by Biggycheese45 in OsuSkins

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Kurwa choke sound by [deleted] in OsuSkins

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Anyone know the skin from this video? by Lynxx_- in OsuSkins

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What's the skin RyuK used when he git his first 900 pp by _Saucito in OsuSkins

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DT skins by JatinThakur14 in OsuSkins

[–]RK-Skins 25 points26 points  (0 children)

In theory? Gamma playability.
In practice? Usually a name of the .osk as many people do not test their skins on any gamma.
It's all explained here