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Neo Avatars
Today we’re releasing the second part of fairy area improvement development diary. This part talks about turning the concept art into 3D models, and has some previews of how Zanaris is going to look.

Click here to read it.

Mod Joe
RuneScape Art Director




14th May 2009 - Modelling

After getting the beautiful concept artwork for the fairy area from Mod GG, I knew we had a lot of work ahead of us! The old fairy area was worked on by myself and Mod Paul B in the days before we had concept artists and the High Detail mode, so I know the area very well and was keen to rework it using all the new technology that we have available to us.

We want the fairy area to feel magical and organic. The fairies work with nature in an astral realm, so I want to distance the area from the rest of RuneScape so that the player feels that they have travelled a long way to get here. To help this we have introduced new types of fantastical plants and a slightly jade colour to the vegetation so that this does not feel like a typical RuneScape area. This is something we had tried to introduce with the previous ‘Blue Period’ rework, which, looking back, was far too garish. I feel the new, more subtle, colour scheme looks magical and otherworldly without being too obvious.



The fairies live in tree houses, so I really wanted to make an important feature of them. The trees they live in are now some of the largest in RuneScape and some of the most complicated models made yet! We also spent a lot of time ensuring that all of the furniture and technology feels as though it was created for fairies - the tables are far too small to be used by the humans that come to visit the area; even the range and furnace are fairy scale. The only problem this led to was having to create two sets of doors: fairies use a pint-sized door that opens at full height for players.


Zanaris tree from wireframe, to flat shading, to textured model

One issue we had was with the roofs of the floor-based buildings. We really wanted to get away from the grotto look of the previous versions of the area and knew that the area had to have most of the main buildings on the ground floor so that players could easily access them. The concept art looked great having small ground buildings, and they looked great in game, but as soon as we started to map larger buildings they looked very plain and boring, like an expanse of wood. We sent Mod GG back to the drawing board and he came up with the idea of open courtyards for the larger buildings. This worked really well, giving the area the feeling of ancient Rome, where houses blurred the line between inside and outside space.



When it comes to the inhabitants of Zanaris, Mod Alec created a couple of character models to make sure that they read well in the engine and had the right look. My main concern with the fairies was that they were so small; Mod Alec made them slightly larger for the rework so that we could add more detail to them, and so that it was easier to create animations that had more life in them. We wanted the fairies to look beautiful and graceful, with a great deal of variety and customisation. We took extra special care with the Godfather and Fairy Queen, who now, respectively, look more malevolent and dignified.

We hope you’ll enjoy the new-look Zanaris; I think you will agree it’s now a really special corner of RuneScape. The next step in the development process is animation, but we will go into more detail about how we made the fairies fly in the next diary.

Mod Nick F
RuneScape Graphics

John_And_Edward
ohmy.gif Zanaris looks sexy now. wub.gif I love these development diaries.
saint_azbo
Wow, looks awsum rolleyes.gif rolleyes.gif
Sparhawke
Who said certain other games have better graphics? blink.gif
Poke
That's the sexiest thing since sex!
Vorgore
Zanaris is the only part of RS I’ve never liked the look of. I agree with Mod Nick F, currently it’s garish. I like this new look about a zillion times better. It’s interesting hearing about their creative thought processes and decisions, which seem based on good combinations of artistry and logic.
Ambo100
Its even better than games like world of warcraft imo. Its starting to look a bit like the gnome trees, perhaps the gnomes would be next for an update? They really need one.
povifaith
Looks more realistic instead of that blue background happy.gif
The Who?
Wow it looks great. Even thougtht I'd rather have content this is awsome too tongue.gif
Rurex
It's a looky pretty nice! fish.gif
Jamia4
That's quite a complex frame for the tree ohmy.gif
rade775
not bad cant wait to c it
Radiance
Ah, it just gets better and better, doesn't it? I like the new look--the old look is fine, but it's a bit too "blue", imo.
Big Dave
Looks Good!

These patch notes have also been released


Spoiler: Click to Toggle the Spoiler.
The following small fixes and adjustments have now been made to the game. If you spot any further bugs in-game, please use the Bug Report feature ('Submit a Bug Report' under the 'Help' drop-down menu of the website).

Graphical


* Stopped the Ranged Stealing Creation headgear rendering through your head.
* Fixed a render issue with the female plate helmet from Stealing Creation.
* Stopped players from getting stuck in the walls of their house.
* Fixed an issue where an animation on a player and location weren't synchronised.
* Fixed an issue with the decor around Runecrafting altars.
* Several more wall torches have had their flames trimmed to no longer render through the roof.
* Lighting fires will no longer put you in the ticket vendor for Balthazar Beauregard’s Big Top Bonanza.
* Players shouldn’t be transparent, so light no longer travels through them when in the smelting part of the tutorial.
* Fixed a few trees that wouldn't let the player walk past.
* Improved the player chathead when wearing the sheep mask.
* Fixed a chathead issue with the magic hats obtained from Treasure Trails.
* A rug in the Wizards’ Tower no longer renders through your feet.
* A previously unobtainable bucket can now be picked up as we've moved the chair that was blocking it.
* Fixed render issues with the straw boater hat in high detail.
* During part of the Shadow of the Storm quest, some chatheads were missing. It must have been the work of Agrith-Naar.
* Added remove-roof functionality to a hut in Shilo Village that wasn't disappearing when you entered it.
* Polar camouflage gear no longer clips when fishing or burying bones.
* Improved the graphics and wall pieces that were occasionally not visible at the Ourania Altar.
* Removed an inaccessible Mining rock from the middle of a river.
* The frog mask should no longer render through your head or perform oddly when using emotes.
* The zombie mask should no longer distort female players’ heads.
* Your feet should no longer appear to sink into the pier on Jatizso.
* A ladder to an underground area has been trimmed to prevent it popping out a little too much.
* improved the animations for cats catching rats. The cats should no longer glide, but pounce ferociously.
* The larupia hat was causing issues with a chathead animation.
* A palm tree that was misaligned with its trunk has been fixed on Ape Atoll.
* Spiritual warriors in the God Wars Dungeon were using a punching animation even though they obviously have a weapon equipped.
* Updated the graphics for a crate that wasn't quite sealed.
* Updated some wall models in K’ril Tsutsaroth’s room, as a small section didn't fit in with the surroundings.
* Improved the view when wandering around the Tree Gnome Village to take the walkways above into account.
* Grass next to a statue has now been brought down to earth.
* Drops weren't appearing on specific tiles in Brimhaven Dungeon.
* Updated all doors in the Dorgesh-Kaan area.
* Updated the symbol on the air tiara to be a little more visible.
* Fixed an issue with the red pirate hat
* Adjusted the model for the ‘tatty’ torso option on your basic appearance.
* Wearing Ahrim's hood should no longer appear to change female players’ faces.
* The strap no longer renders through the gnome goggles.
* The Davy kebbit Hat has been updated to work better with chatheads.
* Slightly modified the abyssal whip inventory icon to better resemble its actual appearance.
* Wearing the 10th Squad Sigil and a granite platebody should no longer cause graphical issues.



Quests


* Adjusted the text on the Runecrafting skill guide regarding Rune Mysteries.
* Corrected the grammar in the balloon travelling interface.
* Ali the Wise's chat has been updated to reflect your actions in the Temple of Ikov quest.
* Added various sound effects in My Arm's Big Adventure.
* The ‘Showdown’ song from Monkey madness has been given a bit of a revamp, as well as added brass and drums.



Minigames


* An odd bug with Soul Wars meant that players who've been waiting a while weren't teleported to the game from the waiting room on occasion.
* The former Bounty Hunter craters now tell players to head to Bounty Worlds.
* Home teleport will now teleport you to Edgeville on a Bounty World.
* Changed a few areas of the map that were either thought to be safe areas or hotspots that shouldn't have been.
* Fixed a few typos in Barbarian Assault.



Miscellaneous


* The small Runecrafting pouch was giving the wrong message when full.
* Fixed an issue with the Pinball random event.
* A few music tracks have changed categories.
* Updated a hint to unlock a track.
* The song "My Arm's Journey" has been made louder, as it was quite quiet before.
* Binding runes at the Astral Altar was missing the usual informative message.
* Random events were occasionally failing to put you back where you were whisked away from, but now they should.
* Adjusted the code for the Varrock Palace wall shortcut near the Grand Exchange.
* The Lumbridge Achievement Diary reward lamp can now be properly destroyed.
* Improved the examines on overgrown cats.
* The digging sound should correctly synchronise with various animations.
* Added the ‘inventory is full’ sound when catching lava fish.
* Fixed an issue when thieving and then clicking on a location like stairs, which has also introduced a behaviour change. If you were fighting an NPC, and someone else got caught picking its pocket, the NPC would previously walk out of combat and wander away. This meant that thieves could slow down players who wanted to fight the pickpocketable NPCs. The new code means that the NPC should be far less likely to wander out of combat.
* Various random events now have bank deposit boxes in them so you don't have to drop anything if your inventory was full but need it to complete the event.

[Close]
the warrior
eventhough im kinda getting tired of all the diaries but if that's really what they're going to do with zanaris then i cant wait to see the new zanaris. bet it takes some times.
Im a Ninja
I like reading these DD's, it looks like zanaris will look awsome!
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