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 fullscreen (members only) modes, as well as optional new features that include:

• Distance fogging and sky colour.
• 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.

Mobilising 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.

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

• A graphic has been added to the timer that displays how long your gravestone will last.
• There was a rendering problem with the chatheads of various full helmet models.
• Players' feet sank through the decks of certain ships.
• A tree in Catherby was not attached to the ground.
• Various interfaces and menus have been adjusted to fit longer words in other languages.
• The Explore emote had a sporadic problem with the player's left arm.
• The musician at the west side of Varrock had an invisible chathead in certain graphics modes.
• Some railings in Keldagrim had clipping issues.
• The shading on some of our wallkits has been fixed.
• The roof of a building in south-west Varrock did not always vanish correctly when you stood under it.
• When you placed ore in the Blast Furnace, the ore's shadow would sometimes appear in the wrong place.
• The rivers of blood in the Blood Altar were the wrong colour.
• Hunter box-traps had graphical errors when they animated.
• Some doors were too tall for their buildings.
• The 'damaged armour' junk item had a dodgy arm. Apparently this was a bug, not just part of the damage.
• Female characters wearing Christmas items would levitate while resting.
• There was some a heightmap problem on Tutorial Island.
• A rope-swing on Karamja had its animation running in the wrong place.
• The crashed ship on Crandor had graphical errors with its sail.
• The inventory icons for teleportation tablets have been adjusted.
• If you read a skill guide or quest journal while watching a shooting star through a telescope, the interfaces could overlap horribly.
• The swamp bubbles in Temple Trekking / Burgh de Rott Ramble have been updated.
• The ladder to the Ourania Altar had missing polygons.
• A statue in Falador Park has had its weapon model fixed.
• Stopped your arms disappearing when wearing certain Fist of Guthix reward items.
• Improved the looks of some of the pathing around the Meiyerditch area.
• NOTE - This week's game engine update has caused numerous graphical changes throughout the game. You'll therefore encounter many things that don't look exactly how they did before the update.

Quests

• In Recipe for Disaster, prayers should be unavailable in the final boss battle. This restriction was not working reliably.
• The dragon token from Recipe for Disaster may no longer be used in certain minigames.
• There was no animation for picking Fenkenstrain's pocket.
• It was possible to use high-level logs on the Odd Old Man's boiler even if you lacked the Firemaking level to burn them normally.
• The level-up messages relating to Curse of Arrav had incorrect information about the quest's requirements.
• Firemaking no longer moves you around the ice in Myths of the White Lands.
• The lockpick interface in Kings Ransom has been adjusted to better fit the text.
• Fixed a text issue in the While Guthix Sleeps quest.
• Adjusted some text in Tale of the Muspah quest.

Minigames

• The new capabilities of our graphics engine have enabled us to update the feature where you lean on the Duel Arena walls to spectate. In particular, you can now control your camera while watching the duels below.
• In Mobilising Armies, you may now recover your investment if your opponent immediately quits the game.
• Implings in Puro-Puro have had their respawn locations randomised so that spawn-campers can't monopolise them so easily.
• If you place a barrier in the Great Orb Project while you're moving, it should stay where you put it instead of trying to follow you.
• Fixed an issue with the camera in the Mobilising Armies waiting room.
• Increased the size of a text component on the Temple Trekking map to avoid cutting text off.
• Adjusted an interface in Barbarian Assault where an image was overlapped by text.

Miscellaneous

• You now lose EP for being teleported by the chest in Ardougne Castle if it teleports you during combat.
• If you're prevented from moving by a spell, you are no longer able to move by planting mithril seeds.
• If your character encounters a NPC (non-player character) that it can't walk through, after a pause it will attempt to walk around the NPC.
• Various bugs involving the friends list have been fixed.
• It was possible to cast the Bake Pie and Humidify spells at the same time.
• Players could stand in the vicious trees around Draynor Manor.
• The Grand Exchange herblore price list has been updated to show wergali.
• The pre-purchase information for a bagged evergreen plant was incorrect.
• If you charged some headgear with summoning scrolls, then dropped it on a non-members' world, the headgear would vanish.
• Non-members no longer have Enchant Bolts on their spell lists.
• Many shops in RuneScape were using an unnecessarily large amount of memory on the server. They have now been optimised. This shouldn't have any visible effect on the shops.
• Various player suggestions for the menagerie rooms have been implemented, including the ability to store strange pets such as fishbowls and clockwork cats. The pet feeder is also less laborious to use now.
• This week's game engine update includes a major rewrite of the way RuneScape processes your mouse-clicks. You'll therefore encounter various features in the game that don't behave exactly how they did before the update.
• The quest journal for 'Learning the Ropes' had obsolete descriptions of certain interface buttons.
• The Report Abuse interface had several missing apostrophes.
• The in-game Agility skillguide had an incorrect description of an obstacle in the Rellekka Slayer Cave.
• The Notes screen had occasional problems wrapping text.
• If you right-clicked on Patchy Pete, you'd say "Yes please" even though he hadn't offered you anything.
• Adjusted a few references in the tutorial to refer to recently changed side interface icons.
• Updated the Agility shortcuts to reflect changes to a shortcut near the new Aquanites.
• Players should no longer be able to purchase additional skillcapes if you already have one in your POH.