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Dictionary

RTMecha edited this page Mar 25, 2025 · 3 revisions

Because it can be confusing to know what someone is referring to with PA, here is a dictionary of things in the game (including Legacy / Alpha)

Level

Game Data

Refers to the level.lsb or level.vgd files.

Meta Data

Refers to the metadata.lsb or metadata.vgm files.

Beatmap Object or Object

An object that makes up a level and can be stored inside prefabs.

Shape Type or Shape Group

The group of shapes that contains individual shapes. (such as square, circle, etc)

Shape Option or Shape Setting

An individual shape in a shape group. (such as square outline, semi-circle, etc)

Text Shape or Text Object

An object that has its shape type set to Text which can display text.

Image Shape or Image Object

An object that has its shape type set to Image which is used to render images. Image Object can also refer to an image made through a Text Object.

Polygon Shape or Polygon Object

An object that has its shape type set to Polygon which can customize the polygons of the shape.

Render Depth

The Z layer an object renders at. The higher the value, the further the object is in the background. This is because Project Arrhythmia's camera is facing positive Z.

Render Type

What camera the object renders in with the following values:

  • Foreground (orthographic / 2D)
  • Background (perspective / 3D, renders behind Foreground)
  • UI (2D without effects, renders in front of Background)

Prefab Object

An instance of a prefab that spawns beatmap objects inside of the prefab.

Prefab Transform Offsets

The position, scale and rotation offsets objects spawned from a prefab appear at.

Prefab

A package of beatmap objects.

Prefab Lead Time or Prefab Offset

Time Prefab Objects are offset from.

Event Keyframe

Refers to any keyframe system PA has.

Value

Keyframes can have multiple values.

Effect Event Keyframe or Effect Keyframe

A main event keyframe used to manipulate the game's effects, such as camera transforms, bloom, chroma, etc.

Checkpoint

Where players spawn / respawn at.

Background Object or BG Object for short

The Legacy 3D objects that appear in the background.

Beatmap Theme or Theme

The colors a level uses.

Modifier

Modifies an object, player or levels' properties. Has an Action type and a Trigger type.

* Modifier

The * can be replaced with the thing the modifier is stored in.

  • Object Modifier is a modifier that is stored in a beatmap object.
  • Background Object Modifier is a modifier that is stored in a background object, which has multiple lists of modifiers.
  • Player Modifier is a modifier that is stored in a player model.
  • Level Modifier is a modifier that is stored in the levels Game Data. This can also be referred to as a "Trigger" since it is called that in VG. It is also called "Event Trigger", but that is easily confused with the "EventTrigger" system in Unity.

Homing Keyframe or Homing Object

An object / animation that is animated to follow the player in some way.

Pitch or Level Speed

The speed of the song and level.

Game Mode

The behavior player controls have. Regular for the normal PA movement, Platformer for a platformer-game style movement.

Easing / Curve Type

The way an animation interpolates from one keyframe to the next.

Editor

Editor

Where you edit things in Project Arrhythmia. It's not called a "Level Editor" because that makes it specifically about editing "levels" instead of potentially "animations", "interfaces" or just sandboxing the features.

Timeline Object

An object in the editor timeline that represents a beatmap object or a prefab object.

Editor Layer

The layer system the Editor Timeline uses, where switching between different layers will show different timeline objects stored in it.

Editor Timeline or Main Timeline

Where users edit the objects / events.

Object Keyframe Timeline or Object Timeline

Where users edit the event keyframes of an object.

Event Layer or Event Timeline

The place effect event keyframes are edited.

Editor Theme

The theme the editor can render in.

Editor Complexity

How complex the editor is in BetterLegacy.

Marker

Used in the editor to note down specific parts of a level.

Project Planner

The place where you can plan out and organize information about your levels.

Editor Popup or Popup

A thing that "pops up" without an anchor point and can be dragged around in BetterLegacy with the Drag UI setting on.

Editor Dialog or Dialog

The main UI where editors are located.

Editor Documentation

Where info about the editor and game features is stored.

Level Template

A base level where new levels are created from.

* Panel

The * can be replaced with what the panel represents. For example: a "Level Panel" is the levels in the Open File Popup UI.

Info Box or Tooltip Box (in vanilla)

Displays information about a thing that was hovered over. In vanilla, it's used as a tooltip. In BetterLegacy, it's just for information.

Mouse Tooltip

A tooltip that displays helpful info about a thing in the editor. Appears when the user hovers over something for a specific amount of time and follows the mouse cursor.

Timeline Cursor or Audio Scrubber

The line with a handle that represents where your editor is at in the levels' song. There's another timeline cursor in the object keyframe timeline.

Timeline Toolbar / Timeline Bar / Toolbar

The section of the editor where you can change song time, editor layer, etc.

Title Bar

Where all the dropdowns are located, such as "File", "Edit", etc.

Game

Game or Game Scene

This refers to the place where levels are actually played. It's the "Arcade" because you can also play the story there.

Arcade

The menus where you play custom levels.

Game Timeline / Progress Bar

The timeline at the bottom of vanilla PA levels with the checkpoints.

Got Checkpoint / Checkpoint Animation

The animation that plays when you got a checkpoint.

End Level Menu

The interface that opens when you complete a level.

Input Select

The interface where players are registered.

Arcade Server

Where BetterLegacy levels are uploaded to / downloaded from.

Steam Workshop

Where vanilla levels are posted to and can be found.

Catalyst

The base mod that makes Project Arrhythmia animation smooth and allowed for more animation offsets in BetterLegacy. You can find the mod here.

Challenge Mode

Changes how a player interacts with the level. Includes Zen Mode, Normal, 1 Hit etc.

Player

Player or Nanobot

The thing you play as in game.

Player Tail

Represents the players' health. People often call it a trail but the trail is actually the component used for the fade-like effect it leaves behind.

Custom Player Object or Custom Object

An object that can build custom player models.

Custom Player Models or Player Models

Unique models the player can use with different designs and properties.

Boost

The ability to speed up and phase through objects for a set amount of time.

Outside the Game

LS

Either refers to the Legacy file format or the Legacy versions of the game.

VG

Either refers to the modern PA file format, modern versions of the game or its community.

Legacy or Legacy Branch

The old version of the game BetterLegacy is modding.

Alpha / Public / Default Branch

The modern versions of the game.

Alpha

Refers to the first versions of the game that were inspired by Battle Cube. This is not to be confused with the Alpha branch.

Beta

Refers to versions of the game up until Steam early access release.

Dev+ or Dev Plus

Refers to versions of the game after Legacy, including Development branch, Alpha branch, etc.

Other

BetterLegacy Story Mode or Classic Arrhythmia (yes, it can still be called that)

The story of the BetterLegacy mod.

Interface or Menu

The main UI of the game outside of the editor.

Quick Element

A text sequence that is animatable and can be referred to in a few places.

Config Manager

Where BetterLegacy's settings can be modified.

Example

The companions' name is Example.

Internal

RT

Either stands for "RunTime" or "RhythmTech".

RTAnimation

The animation class that can play at runtime without being tied to the song time.

Aleph Network

System Error series concept or the BetterLegacy networking class.

Contents

  1. Home
  2. Dictionary
  3. Game
    2.1. Configs
    2.2. Core
    2.3. Editor
    2.4. Events
    2.5. Players
    2.6. Modifiers
    2.7. Arcade
    2.8. Menus
    2.9. Companion
  4. Code
    3.1. Essentials
    3.2. Guidelines
    3.3. Data
    3.4. Usings

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