Back at RuneFest, we introduced the first milestone of our journey to HD Gielinor - a new renderer. Now it’s testing time, and we're here to give you all the info you need before hitting that opt-in button.
The renderer is the part of the game engine that draws each frame, working with your device’s hardware to turn data into images.
The current renderer is based on the Java version of the game, with roots tracing back decades - talk about old school! The original renderer was a great achievement for its era, but hardware has changed significantly in that time. So, we're ready for an update!
The mission is to migrate our Official Client to a new renderer, with settings that maintain the current, classic look of the game. The new renderer is also the foundation for the upcoming HD mode, and once released, you'll be able to toggle between the OSRS classic graphics (SD) and HD whenever you fancy; all within the new renderer!
Once live, you'll be able to opt-in to the new renderer in the Official Client on desktop and mobile. There's no need to sign up - this option will appear for all players on the Official Client automatically, all you'll need to do is check a box. Easy! This isn't time limited, the new renderer will continue to be available in Beta format until we're confident it's ready to be fully launched, at which point it'll replace the existing Official Client renderer.
The new renderer is launching as a beta, meaning you might encounter bugs or visual issues, and there'll be a big 'Experimental' heading over the option in your menu. You can check out our list of known issues at the end of this blog for the problems we're already aware of at this early stage.
We’ve been testing the build internally across the range of devices we have, but this is a fraction of the desktop configurations and mobile devices out there, so at this early stage we’re asking for your help to get feedback from different devices, focusing on stability and performance as we tweak the visuals over subsequent releases.
We’ll also need your help to catch any pesky bugs that slipped our net. To that end, you’ll find a new forum channel in our Official Discord dedicated to bugs found using the new renderer. We’d love to hear about any performance hiccups, visual oddities, or crashes you encounter, especially if you can share your device type and settings! We've also popped a list of known issues for you to be aware of before heading in. This channel will open up once the renderer beta launches.
Please note that using the new renderer at this stage may be risky, so we recommend not jumping immediately into high stakes gameplay.
How To
You’ll find the new setting under an ‘EXPERIMENTAL’ header in the display settings, or in the quick access settings tab.
If you can’t see the image above, click here!
If you can’t see the image above, click here!
We've also added a 'Force Disable New Renderer' button to the title screen. Clicking this will force the game to start with the original renderer, ignoring your selection in-game. This means that if you hit an issue like a crash while using the new renderer and find yourself unable to get back into the game because of it, you can easily swap back to the original and continue your grind.
If you can’t see the image above, click here!
Please note, the 'Force Disable New Renderer' will be visible before we launch the beta itself. Keep an eye on our socials for when you can jump in!
Performance
Many of you should see an improvement in performance. This will be subtle for some and substantial for others, dependent on your device.
Visuals
Ideally, when you switch to the new renderer, the game will look the same! We want to respect and maintain the classic look of Old School in this mode.
However, there are a couple of areas we’re aware of and are continuing to improve:
- ‘Floating’ Mobs / NPC’s
- Behind the scenes, in areas of uneven terrain in the original renderer, models were actually partially ‘sunk’ in the ground. To make sure you didn't see a half-buried NPC, we used a clever trick to ‘tell’ the original renderer to always draw certain things on top. However, in the new renderer things are supposed to be above-ground from the get-go! We’re still fine-tuning assets to make sure characters stand naturally on the ground without looking like they’re floating too high, but you may see the odd NPC learning to levitate while in these early stages!
- Shimmering surfaces
- You may notice some visual oddities where occasionally a surface might ‘shimmer’. This is most likely an issue of what’s called ‘z-fighting’, a problem that happens when two surfaces are so close together that the renderer can’t decide which one to show. We’re actively going through the game world addressing each instance and will update you once we’ve found them all.
- Missing detail on some character items
- In the current game, the way items like clothing and accessories are displayed relies on the original renderer knowing which item to layer in what order. When the new renderer entered the scene, this original process didn't translate, leaving some accessories inside your character's body - ouch! While we've done our best to show the new renderer the correct order, there are still a couple of minor issues, such as amulet gems disappearing. We promise you haven't been robbed, we just need a little more time to re-add the missing pieces.
- We're also aware that some capes are missing their texture.
- There's likely to be other bugs to squash in this vein, so if your character has a wardrobe malfunction, we’d love to know!
In addition to the areas of improvement outlined above, here’s the total list of known issues at this early stage:
- Load times are slower than they should be.
- There are still many areas, in particular the PoH and boss arenas, with visual issues including shimmering surfaces and missing detail.!
- Some holes in the ground, doorways and pathways to different levels will appear blocked or blank. Don't worry though, these are still fully interactable.
- Objects or effects with transparency, like crystals, smoke, and overlays are not rendering as intended.
- Some clothing items (e.g. Skill Capes, amulets) may be missing their pattern detail.
- Sometimes when toggling the new renderer, the ground may fail to load and will appear black. Toggling the renderer again should address it.
- Sometimes, when toggling the new renderer, it may show a single frame from the previous time the new renderer was active. It looks like your character has randomly teleported for a split second - they haven't!
- Some textures may appear incorrectly and squashed.
- Draw distance currently does not work and is always set to max.
- Changing the Brightness currently results in a significant redraw.
- Desktop only - opening the popout panel squishes the aspect ratio of the game panel.
- Desktop only - in 'Fixed - Classic Layout', changing the window size squashes the aspect ratio of the game.
We’ll continue to fix the bugs we already know about while responding to your feedback. The aim is to reach a point where the new renderer becomes the default and we can retire the original, paving the way for future improvements and the much-anticipated HD mode!
That's all for now! Keep an eye out for the new renderer going live, and remember to join our Official Discord server to join in the conversation and let us know about any bugs you encounter!
You can also discuss this update on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.
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