Hey 'Scapers!
Today we're previewing some technical work that may sound innocuous at first read, but that will actually have a significant impact with regards to resolving some longstanding player feedback about RuneScape's visuals.
Here's what we've heard you say:
- Environments and aspects of the player avatar can look like they are made of "playdough".
- This is most commonly mentioned in combination with overly smooth (plastic-y) textures...
- ...and outlines that emit a faint white glow. Some people may refer to this as a "sweaty" outline.
- Environments and other assets can feel washed out, grey or overly pale, often lacking vibrance or contrast.
- Shadows often appear illogically, broken up or in unexpected areas.
And we agree with you! Our game engine and rendering team has been beavering away diligently at these issues for some time now and have been making some great progress on several of the above points, today we will be focusing on the outlines, saturation and shadows but rest assured we are making progress on all of these issues - now while the following changes sound simple, it has taken a fair amount of under-the-hood work to implement them!
Here’s what we’re changing:
- Improving material response on armour and other reflective surfaces so metals read more naturally as metal.
- Reducing bright reflective edging on characters, equipment and environments for a cleaner overall look.
- Refining shadow behaviour so shadows appear more cohesive, accurate and consistent across the scene.
As we know that a picture tells a thousand words though, here's what these improvements look like in actuality with a few examples. This technical update will of course affect many more things across the entire game, not just the listed examples below!
Addressing Outlines and Saturation
Addressing Shadows
That's it for now for previews - we're really looking forward to getting these fixes out to you as soon as possible.
If you're keen on the technical specifics of this update though, do read on!
Here’s what we’re changing (Technical explanation):
- We’ve updated parts of the underlying shaders and lighting setup to improve how reflections respond to the lighting in each scene.
- We’ve reviewed and refreshed the texture data used by player kit and equipment, particularly the maps that help define which parts of a model should appear metallic and how polished or rough different materials should feel.
- Together, these changes help armour, trim and other materials present more clearly, while also reducing some of the inconsistent reflective highlights that could create that bright outline effect on certain models.
- We’ve made technical improvements to shadow rendering so shadow information lines up more accurately with world objects and character models, helping shadows feel better connected and more natural in the final scene.
This update is most likely due to roll out in May. Head on over to the official threads on Discord and Reddit and take part in the conversation!