Runescape Graphics Update - and it's implications to botting

2nd September 2009 - RuneTek 5 Game Engine

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.

Source: http://news.runescape.com/newsitem.ws?id=2171


________________________________________________________________



What kinds of implications will this have on botting? I recently purchased a subscription to neXus iBot but I'm too scared to run the script because of the new update. How long should I wait until I can be sure that neXus has updated all their scripts to match this new update?

 

kBot's not running, I believe until updates are made, to the clients as well as scripts, it may not work.

 

ya kbot and rsbot aint working rsbot aint even loading and kbot wont finish loading.

 

No bots are working. Nexus will be fixed, KBot and RSBot are most likely dead.

 

Lol. 'Jagex will never kill botting.'.

 

Good Fight Jagex. . . Good Fight indeed.

 

how long do you think it will take for a new bot to come out????? any guesses??

 

i think they work alot now to create new bots and make with new graphic maybe nexus will get it first

 

Rsbot will be back up with in a week lol..

 

1-2 months for rsbot to be fixed, kbot will probably take a year if they ever update it.

 

rsbots.net says they will be back up in a matter of days

 

But it's Ruler who updates neXus, so all they're doing is guessing.

My updater killed itself

 

Meh Rsbot will be updated by September 10th as i know of, Hopefully it will.

 

not long dosnt take long at all to update hooks..

 

Just wait 8 fucking days hahaha

 

It is going to take more then 8 days, obviously you people know nothing about what has happened, they are going to have to pretty much make a new bot. Nexus will probably be back in a week or two but i can guarantee you it will take more then a week for rsbot to update.

 

It's a new engine, it's not just a matter of hooking, it's like moving a Runescape bot to World of Warcraft, it's a whole new scenario...

 

You obviously have no idea what your talking about. All the have to do is find the correct variables... And make hooks. Non of the calculations have changed unless Jagex massively changed the way they render and store graphics information. Even if they did... You just need to change some calculations and hooks and it will be up in a few weeks if people are slow at it. >_<.

Unless I've got it all wrong... Which I might. >_>.

 

Ummmm... Its not as hard as that... Even if they updated the engine... It will be just as easy to find the hooks in this one as they did in the last one... It will just take time I would assume... >_>.

 

Moving Java to native code is quite different then rewriting some transforms for your updater, my friend.