This week sees the release of a massive upgrade to several elements of the
RuneScape game engine. These include the RuneTek 5 graphics upgrade described in
last week’s developer blog as well as key parts of the game server and
RuneScript systems.
The graphics engine update brings with it a complete revamp of the Standard
Detail option, bringing resizable window (for everyone) and full screen (members
only) modes, as well as optional new features that include:
- Distance fogging and sky color.
- Ground blending and path smoothing.
- Underwater visibility.
We've also improved High Detail mode with shadowing across all world levels
(if your computer can support it) and an improved minimap in both versions.
You'll also be pleased to know this upgrade has allowed us to fix several
long-standing bugs, including:
- Mis-clicking in heavy load areas (such as the Grand Exchange) causing
unwanted actions.
- Progress bars on Grand Exchange interfaces not working on several
graphics cards.
Less visibly, we've also taken the time to heavily update parts of the server
action and scripting systems. This follows on from work we did earlier in the
year which Andrew described in this blog. The aim behind this batch of changes
was to try to make the timing of actions more consistent across the game, which
will help to make future content bugs less likely. We have done weeks of
additional testing on these server updates, however, they are quite extensive
and incredibly wide-ranging, so if any bugs have managed to slip through the
net, we encourage you to submit a bug report.
All told, we have written or re-written around 50,000 lines of the game engine
over the last few months to really improve these key areas and allow us to
create a whole new set of exciting upgrades over the coming months and years.
This update to the game engine has allowed us to pull both the SD and HD
versions of the game into the same applet. As such, we have updated the home
page of the website so there is now only one ‘Click here to play’ button. If you
wish to switch between using free or member worlds, this can be done using the
‘World Select’ feature, which can be found on the game applet's main menu.
Whether you see an advert above the login screen or not is dependent on whether
the last world that you logged in was a free or a members’ world.
Mod Chris E
Game Engine
In other news...
One thing the new engine has allowed us to do is create context-sensitive
cursors. If you choose to turn this option on in the Game Options menu, your
mouse cursor will display a small icon of the default interaction with any
object, location or NPC – e.g. “Open Door” will change your mouse cursor to an
icon of a door opening. These cursors have not been added for every default
interaction just yet, but we will be looking to expand upon them in future.
The Special Attack bar in the combat interface now also displays the amount of
special attack energy you have remaining as a percentage.
We’ve made some changes to the World Select page. Firstly, you’ll notice we’ve
removed some of the information to clean it up a bit. The Quick Chat and PvP
columns have moved into the more general ‘Activity/Location’ column. This column
will now only specify a flag and country if the world doesn’t have a theme, and
we’ve created a RuneScape flag to go with the latter. On the right-hand side
you’ll notice a ‘Ping’ column. This displays the response time between you and
the servers – lower is better, so this should help you find a lag-free word near
you. Note that some of your preferences may have changed if you were previously
sorting by some of the removed columns. Simply select your new preferred
choice(s) and it will store those for next time.
Mobilizing Armies themed worlds now come in two varieties: worlds where games
require four players for a game to start, and worlds where games require 20
players to start. Visit the Themed Worlds page to see how many players are
required to start a game on each world.
To play Runescape HD please visit:
http://www.runescape.com
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