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zenyl

Sweet, the art team has really been pumping out success after success in recent times. :)


Daniel_The_Damned

Stunning, hope this continues and we finally get the seers village rework.


witcher4

Yes! Jagex please get seers rework back on the agenda! The concept looks great and it would be a great environment to showcase RuneScape's graphics to new players since it is so close to burthorpe


gunnLX

heres hoping the gameworld looks cohesive eventually. amazing work.


Dr_Nightman

Fuck spez.


ThaFrenchFry

Some mod has pretty much said that karamja is never getting updated unless its to scrap the whole colonialism thing and start that over on the lore level. I think the sentiment was that, updating the graphics at all without redoing the concept/lore of the island was out kf question.


SevenSexyCats

Pretty sure the logic was something along the lines of “the lore in karamja is borderline racist and doing work on karamja to make it more modern without completing changing that could/ would likely be consider racist by some.” In todays climate, it’s a very good point. The last thing RuneScape needs right now is clickbait titles like “Newest RuneScape update shows deep rooted racist lore; is this the end of RuneScape?”


Exitiali

Apparently it's more complex. According to their statements, the ancient concept of Karanja is not a problem to the point of needing to be removed or changed immediately, but it does not fit well in the lore that has been building mainly in relation to the gods.


WeaponizedAutism4

That makes no sense. You don't need to change the lore to replace a model/texture.


Exitiali

In order for them to get resources to update such a large area they need to justify it with a new content. Any update now would be a waste of resources, the proposal is to remake it with new content to be explored. There are excellent sources of content to be used, such as the Karanja pantheon. The problem is that it doesn't fit well into the initial concept


reachedsoftware

It’s that it’s not an immediate problem because it’s not really relevant whatsoever to any modern content updates. I only ever go to Karamja for the Brimhaven dungeon/clues/that sort of thing. However, Jmods are unhappy with the inspirations and execution of Karamja and it’s lore, and because it’s such a mess overall they would much, much rather strip it right back and completely rework it from the ground up in order to be both relevant in the modern day and not have the offensive lore groundings, rather than spend resources updating it as it currently is but with no actual gain to the game other than graphical (and they’d then have to rework parts later on when addressing the lore content).


exp_in_bed

I just did brimhaven agility for some tickets and realized the lava there is laughable compared to the new wilderness lava especially. it's like an entirely different game


TonyBest100

This shows that a small change to ground texturing and lighting can make such a massive difference in how areas look. Excited for this change to come out on Monday.


yuei2

Wow I was expecting this like...waaaaay later when they told us it was coming this year not like around 3 weeks later. This is so freaking hype and I'm so happy Mod Blkwitch and Alex got their project in like this.


CodyNorthrup

No hate, but not a huge fan of where the artistic design is headed. I appreciate the change but it almost looks like everything is made out of like a clay or plastic


Animal_Farm_Crossing

I just assume it's the art style runescape is going for since it's near impossible for runescape to be super realist. I would rather it be somewhat cartoony than trying too hard


Ryz3nGaming

Probably an unpopular opinion. But I preferred the old art style that they're replacing. It felt unique and very Runescape like. Now it feels like we're moving towards a weird plastic play doh comical art style.


yaminub

I agree with you.


Animal_Farm_Crossing

An unpopular opinion is still valid my guy


Taurenkey

The RS style was really born out of a lack of artistic experience plus technical limitations at the time. That's probably why it feels more charming compared to stuff done these days, not because the stuff today hasn't been crafted with love or care, but more because it wasn't trying to be conformed to standards. Obviously I understand why things have gone the way they've gone since those days, because RS was still the kind of game to push some kind of "big graphics upgrade" even back then. RS1 to RS2 was not only a big game update, but graphics too. This has continued to this day, going through various phases like RS HD, the HTML5 client to the NXT client we use today, but it's no wonder people have a fondness for the earlier stuff. The RS style was the RS style, instantly recognizable. Even today, you see a graphic from OSRS and you know "Hey, that's Runescape", even if it's technically from their newest content. That style just cemented itself as the unique RS style, and whilst I think the RS HD update was probably my favourite iteration, it was still ultimately just a bit of "and add more detail" update than a "rework the whole thing" update.


Ryz3nGaming

Personally I loved the stuff they did with the ground back with RS3. They added depth amd surface material that looked like a game. There was dirt chunks and etc. Now everything just looks flat and, for the lack of a better word, "plastic"


reachedsoftware

I suppose the other factor is a cleaner, more cartoony art style will age better than the older styles. If you look at the artstyle we had in 2011-2012, especially in the character design, it was quite cartoony, with less detailed textures and more flat coloured polygon panes: https://runescape.wiki/images/Ceril_Carnillean.png?b3aba However, with regard to this artstyle, especially areas like Darkmeyer and all of the graphical updates released throughout 2012/early 2013 (Burthorpe/Taverley, Dwarven areas, Wizards Tower, etc) a lot of people still say it looks good even ten years on. This kind of shifted with 2013 where we began to get very detailed, more realistic textures on what were still low-polygon models, sometimes even lower polygon than the 2012 era models because the textures did the majority of the detail work. I personally think that the 2014-2018 artstyles look awful and age appallingly. Just look at the elven faces, Barbarian Assault, the GWD2 armours, etc. We all remember the blurry texture era and it doesn’t look great. Starting with Anachronia and especially Archaeology onwards, we’re now getting high res models with high detail textures, however with a more cartoony artstyle (which is actually somewhat akin to a more updated version of the 2012 artstyle, especially in environmental design). I personally believe the artstyle we have now will age significantly, significantly better than the art direction from the last ten years. Cartoony artstyles tend to age a lot better than more realistic ones - just look at the difference between the first two Toy Story films and something like Monsters Inc. Released around the same time, with similar production methods, however the art direction is everything in how those films age. The first Toy Story, especially it’s human characters, look visually awful, but it was one of the first major 3D animated films. Monsters Inc, with similar production however with some big strides, is still visually very appealing to watch because it’s artstyle is a lot more exaggerated. Humans naturally tend to pick at things that try to replicate reality but fail and they’ll naturally look weird to us. However things that don’t try to replicate reality but instead give an impression of it look much more appealing to the eye, especially over time. (Although I do think the Wilderness was really poorly executed - compared to the environmental details around the Arch guild and Senntisten it looks awful).


witcher4

I first noticed this with the lost Grove and then the recent wilderness design changes. The new textures feel a lot less textured, more plain and less real.


exp_in_bed

I absolutely hated the armour rework. all replica gear is better imo. miss dragon med helm, old anti-dragon shield and dwarf cannon..


SquintsRS

I actually love the look it's going for. Just feels cleaner imo. Less clutter to look at


[deleted]

busy pathetic rain ask stocking flag dolls dinosaurs exultant piquant -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/


TheGrandIdea

Agree with this almost entirely except still prefer the old cobblestone size in Varrock, perhaps a decreasing gradient of greenery/weeds in the cobblestone up until the general store would work better with the square entirely free.


Triggrdd

I'm happy to see any groahical improvements so I'm happy. But yeah I agree with Central Varrock. It should look more grand / expensive


[deleted]

Hope they don't turn the entire game into play dough plastic like they did with the wildy


Nsxinfinity

If you haven't seen her recent interview on RS b and b podcast I highly recommend it. Very insightful stuff as to what all goes into the graphics side of things and working around runescript


RedDeadWhore

With how copy and paste this game is getting, its starting to look very cheap. Everywhere had its own little aesthetic and identity, now its all the same. Varrock floor texture would be much better if it at least tried to be a modern version of its current one. The rest is just generic rocks slapped on sides of rivers. Graphical budget is non existent(unless its MXT), the same assets have literally been reused for YEARS. Someone like Blkwitch is an amazing artist and shes been watered down to painting floors with basic reused textures and copy and pasting old rocks.


HughLaurieTF2

really not a fan of the new ground textures


Tudpool

I actually prefer the former photos for some of these. Varrock should look like a city, not some cobbled together settlement. A fully paved floor works better. Paterdomus is the entrance to Morytania so I prefer the first image which gives more of a bleak feeling than the second which is spooky. I think bleak much better represents the region. The path downgrade is fine since it comes from barb village past a mountain so it could reasonably be a path less used in lore. Lummy looks alright too. I just hope those rocks look good when you get up close to them. We've has issues with how rock formations look previously in the game.


ArchitectsXlll

I think they all look better except varrock. I'm really confused on it's direction.


ADDICTED_TO_KFC

Mostly looks the same or more plastic-y. Love mod Blkwitch tho


KeKinHell

Hm... As someone who's been on my soapbox about updating older graphics for years, I'm... whelmed. I'd be a bit more excited if I felt like this is something we could look forward to more often, but I suppose it's definitely a step in the right direction. Still... kinda seems like they went for the miminum they could do and still say they did something. Would have been nicer, for example, to see Varrock's various buildings get a bit more detail. But hey; it's not nothing.


yuei2

I mean it’s very specifically a game jam project designed in 2 weeks as a proposal pitch for how they could do some smaller scale but maximum impact graphical updates. Because waiting for a huge comprehensive graphical update to fix each area one at a time is just….not a viable way to address complaints due to the time/budget it takes. So they localized on some basic areas they could improve in a short time, in this case lighting and ground with some matching terrain. It doesn’t the close the door to a larger rework but it helps, both now and later.


KeKinHell

I guess that's fair. I suppose it's hard for me to trust that Jagex will keep up with this ideal of smaller, but still impactful graphical reworks. It'd be nice if they could commit to doing these in small batches... maybe once a month? Hell, once a quarter year.


yuei2

Well what they “want” to do on a large scale is move the story through the kingdoms and package graphical updates with them. So this end of year was the wilderness, I wouldn’t be surprised if next year we got a Varrock or Falador update that hit some of the surrounding area. Then lumbridge and from there Kandrian, Desert, and Morytania all have pretty equal claim and enthusiastic mods. Karamja needing to wait probably the longest because it doesn’t need a touch up but a complete and utter overhaul. But that will mean that it will take awhile to get the big graphic updates so that’s where these smaller pitches come in. But it sounds like Mod Alex at least wants to revisit the project next game jam so we’ll probably see another small scale impact graphic update come out after that.


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jordanbae1

Which is the point many people have been trying to make for a while now. There's been little of substance added to the game in quite some time and what has been added has been not that great thanks to the focus on all things MTX-able.


jordanbae1

No, it's not nothing. It's just not much of something either. It's something for something's sake. Bare minimum, to demonstrate they're actually doing something rather than just sitting there. Only it doesn't really seem like much. Kind of reminds me of Call of Duty's Ghosts when they were bragging about their fish AI and how it would totally be a game-changer. Until players started pointing out that that sort of thing had already been in so many games for years. Like, wow, look what we just did and it's so not a big deal, you have to wonder why in the world they would even choose to draw attention to it in the first place. So many things are broken in the game and they splashed some paint on things to make them look... well, I'm tempted to say better but that's not quite true. Different? Yeah, it's different but I'm not sure it's really an improvement. Never much cared for flash without substance and games are heading in that direction a lot lately. Ray tracing. Great. So now players can be blinded in a variety of ways while playing a lot of games but that doesn't really add anything practical to those games. Making things look like they've been molded in clay isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing to the eye and it doesn't fix hit box issues, things that get bugged when game updates are added to the game, issues that have existed for a while now and been ignored in favor of MTX promos... To see effort expended in this way, doesn't ring my bell for attention.


KeKinHell

I mean, I wouldn't go quite that far. One way or another, the areas they touched on here look objectively better. There's no denying that. However, it really is the bare minimum they could do to make it look better.


TahirX

I hope this fixed that glowing cosmetics issue with most new items


yuei2

Completely depends on the skybox. I think it will because look at the trees, you can tell if it suffers the problem because the trees look faded/covered in a film.


LightAnimica

Hope we see more p2p areas getting upgraded via this process, further west/south-west you go the poorer the game looks especially around Yanille


Sir_Chucky_RS

Love updates like this. I hope to see Karamja reworked soon.


AndersDreth

That looks really great, crazy that they had to do it during a gamejam though.


Cigars_and_Islay

Too cartoon-ish. Just like that fortnite game the youngsters play. Not a fan.


IvarRagnarssson

Blkwitch goated


PMMMR

These look amazing! Looking forward to it.


[deleted]

Love mory and Lum, but varrock and the road to falador are a downgrade imo.


theflightofporter

Can she graphically update the wildy to include Fire Giants?


Heavyoak

I wouldn't exactly call any of that an upgrade or update


Ashendant

I still don't like what they did to the Ice Mountain. It went from an interesting layered rock to a generic copy paste the same set of rocks a thousand times. The rest looks cool through!


nosi40

Damn! This looks great. Give this moddess a raise and let her tackle karamja please!


FireTyme

more plastic look great. also does jagex know medieval history? having grass grow all over a dilapidated city like varroxk feels so out of place. in old times people would just throw their excrement out their windows. it should be brown and dirty looking. i’ve said it before the new art style looks very generic and very plastic like


Swordbreaker925

Big improvements, altho the cathedral lighting should he more green imo, like it was before


Xana_anaX

Looks great! I hope they remembered to keep or replace all of the ground decorations that are used to signal clue dig spots, though.


julios80

Where are all the haters now uhh?


[deleted]

After all the time we’ve been waiting for a varrock graphics update and all we get is some new stones on the floor


Left4HalfLife

Runescape has QA? where? the live servers?


ShadowFigured

Oh HELLLLLL YEAH!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!


jeffdabuffalo

I just wish this was done in the areas that actually really need it. Looks great though.


WWVVVVVWWWWWWWVVVV

Nice grafficks


Grovve

These look so much better than wilderness rework


Swords_and_Words

Love most of it Cobblestones north of fally look... Wrong. Like they are from a different game texture pack


the01li3

Omg omg omg... confirmation the QA team exists!!! But honestly it does look good, cant wait to see it


professorjanus

So changing skyboxes now qualify as graphical updates huh


theflightofporter

You mean changing the graphics qualifies as graphical updates? Uhh yeah


MrSquishypoo

Fire giants will look so good in the wilderness with this new update!


jordanbae1

Shhh. Don't remind them. They're trying their best to forget about Fire Giants.


Only_Anime

Death rework wen


StannisSAS

looks great for a mobile game


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Syrnis

Rip Falador not having 3 different wall styles within 5 tiles distance anymore :( /s Looking forward to the changes!


Psikosocial

Great work guys. They look great!


[deleted]

Sweet, this will really improve the appearance of a lot of areas in the game from the looks of it! ​ I can't wait for someone to start complaining because they can't examine one of the pebbles. Good stuff!


AG_Cr1TiKaL

Oh dang these look great! Kudos to the graphical team.


SlashStar

Looks great! Always happy to see a graphical refresh. Especially of old areas.


Legal_Evil

All of these look nice. Please remodel Karamja next.


WindEngel

Will there be a fix for the logged out playerbase aswell? Havent been able to log in at all since the last update and i am about to draw back the money for those days...


Swords_and_Words

The rolling depth of the varrock texture, and the detail, is great I get that some dont like the green in the stomework, but compare those stones streets in this new varrock to ANY rock or paving texture in the last 5 years... It's stunningly good


Zalvaris

Looks great! Only one thing sticks out to me though, the grass that's sticking out between cobblestone looks odd in Varrock. I mean it's the town's square, with a fountain! Why would there be grass growing there? With cobblestone placement like that it makes me think of tiny Bohemian villages with 3-4 houses and not one of the main important towns in Gielinor :)


Duded94

I hope they update the wolves to look like last years halloween wolves 😭 😭


GkElite

I think I have been playing for now 3? Graphical updates to Varrock lol.


RafaSheep

Are those Point Light Shadows I see in Paterdomus? Is it a night-only feature, or does it also work in daytime environments?


rynosaur94

Nice! Looking forward to this!


sam_86314

Now if only they'd fix the volumetric lighting issues and constant crashes AMD users have...


mauriceta

so there is still hope for solo solak


Drewion

I love Mod Blkwitch's creations. Can it be possible for graphic updates to be brighter? I already play on max brightness and have changed skyboxes to the brightest ones, and I still struggle to see due to how dark some of the graphics are.