runescape
The settings interface for Graphics

The settings interface for Graphics

Graphics settings are a set of options that allow customisation of the display of RuneScape.

NXT client

Manual Setup

There are preset options called min, low, mid, high and ultra with increasing graphical fidelity for each of the changeable graphics settings. There is also the option for auto setup that tries to select optimal settings for your hardware. The following advanced settings can be manually customised and doing so changes the preset to "custom".

Preset Table

Setting Preset
Min Low Mid High Ultra
Brightness Does not change
Remove roofs Does not change
Draw distance Low Medium High Ultra
Shadow Quality N/A Low Medium High Ultra
VSync Does not change
Anti-aliasing Mode Off FXAA MSAA
Anti-aliasing Quality N/A Low Medium High
Water Low Medium High Ultra
Lighting detail Low Medium High Ultra
Ambient Occlusion Off HBAO
Bloom Off Low Medium High
Textures Off Compressed
Anisotropic Filtering Off x2 x4 x8
Volumetric Lighting N/A Off High
Foreground FPS Does not change
Background FPS Does not change
Flickering effects Does not change
Shadows Off On
Custom cursors Does not change
Loading screens Does not change
Ground decoration Off On
Terrain blending On

Brightness

Brightness controls the level of overall lighting and shade. It is changed with a slider.

Remove roofs

This setting controls when roofs are removed.

Draw distance

Draw distance determines the maximum distance objects will render from the player.

VSync

VSync controls the frame rate by synchronising it with your monitor's refresh rate.

Shadow Quality

Shadow quality controls the realism and render distance of object and scenery shadows. Changing this requires shadows to be on.

Anti-aliasing Mode

Anti-aliasing is used to remove aliasing (pixelated edges) when rendering objects.

Anti-aliasing Quality

Anti-aliasing quality determines the level of performance for anti-aliasing. Changing this requires Anti-Aliasing Mode to be on something else than "off".

Water

The water setting controls how realistic water looks including refraction and reflection.

Lighting detail

Lighting detail controls ambient lighting. There is no option to turn lighting "off".

Ambient Occlusion

Turning on ambient occlusion is only available on certain graphics cards. It controls shading of smaller and more intricate models with a greater specificity in detail.

Bloom

Bloom is a lighting graphics setting that controls additional brightness and impact of glowing effects.

Textures

Controls the quality of textures.

Anisotropic Filtering

Improves the appearance of textures, particularly terrain, when viewed from extreme angles and distances.

Volumetric Lighting

Adds additional lighting effects, particularly crepuscular rays. Changing this requires Shadows to be on.

Foreground and Background FPS

Sets the maximum frames per second that can be rendered when the game is the focused or unfocused window, respectively. These options can be set at intervals of 5, between 5 and 300 inclusive.

Flickering effects

Flickering effects are fullscreen flashes that provide dramatic ambience to an area. An example of such an area is the Killerwatt plane. This option can be switched either off or on.

It is recommended that players who are prone to epileptic seizures play with flickering effects turned off.

Shadows

The shadows setting controls whether or not shadows appear. This setting controls NPC, player and scenery shadows. This option can be switched either off or on.

Custom cursors

Main article: Cursor

Custom cursors are mouseover cursors that are specific to certain actions. This option can be switched either off or on.

Loading screens

This setting controls whether or not loading screens are used. This option can be switched either off or on.

Ground decoration

This setting controls whether or not ground decoration such as grass and rocks are shown. This option can be switched either off or on.

Terrain blending

Terrain blending determines whether or not textures on tiles can blend with other adjacent tiles for a more fluid appearance. Turning this option off forcibly disables textures.

Screen Sizing

Either resizable, fixed or fullscreen game windows can be selected.

Resolution

Controls the display resolution when in fullscreen. Options are dependent on the display resolution of your monitor.

Java client

Manual Setup

There are preset options called min, low, mid and high with increasing graphical fidelity for each of the changeable graphics settings. There is also the option for auto setup that tries to select optimal settings for your hardware. The following advanced settings can be manually customised and doing so changes the preset to "custom".

Preset Table

Setting Preset
Min Low Mid High
Display Mode Does not change
CPU usage Maximum
Remove roofs Always Selectively
Idle animations Few Many
Scenery shadows N/A Static Dynamic
Lighting detail Low High
Water detail N/A Low High
Anti-aliasing None
Particles Low Medium High
Max screen size Does not change
Brightness Does not change
Ground decoration Off On
Flickering effects Off On
Character shadows Off On
Fog Off On
Custom cursors Does not change
Ground blending Off On
Textures Off On
Skyboxes Off On
Bloom Off

Display mode

Display mode chooses which API the client will use to render graphics:

CPU usage

CPU usage controls how much of your computer's resources the game can use. Despite the name, it appears that CPU usage refers to resources from the CPU and the graphics card.

Remove roofs

This setting controls when roofs are removed.

Idle animations

Idle animations are animations that play when characters are not performing an action. This setting controls how many players can have idle animations playing.

Scenery shadows

Scenery shadows are shadows from non-character models. Scenery shadows require textures to be on.

Lighting detail

Lighting detail controls ambient lighting. There is no option to turn lighting "off".

Water detail

Water detail controls how realistic water appears. High water detail requires fog to be on. Proper display of high water detail also requires lighting detail to be high.

Anti-aliasing

Anti-aliasing is used to remove aliasing (pixelated edges) when rendering objects. The Java client uses Multisample anti-aliasing.

Particles

Particles are extra fuzzy or small effects that are created without polygons or textures. This setting determines how many objects are allowed to generate particles.

Max screen size

Max screen size determines what resolution the game will be rendered for when using fixed mode. It has no effect on the other modes.

Brightness

Brightness controls the level of overall lighting and shade. It is changed with a slider.

Ground decoration

This setting controls whether or not ground decoration such as grass and rocks are shown. This option can be switched either off or on.

Flickering effects

Flickering effects are fullscreen flashes that provide dramatic ambience to an area. An example of such an area is the Killerwatt plane. This option can be switched either off or on.

It is recommended that players who are prone to epileptic seizures play with flickering effects turned off.

Character shadows

Character shadows are shadows that appear under NPC and player models. This option can be switched either off or on.

Fog

A fog appears at the edge of the render distance to obscure unloaded objects.

Custom cursors

Main article: Cursor

Custom cursors are mouseover cursors that are specific to certain actions. This option can be switched either off or on.

Ground blending

Ground blending determines whether or not textures on tiles can blend with other adjacent tiles for a more fluid appearance. This option can be switched either off or on. Turning this option off forcibly disables textures.

Textures

Textures are extra skins that are placed over models to give an appearance that polygons or other graphics cannot. Textures requires ground blending to be on.

Skyboxes

Main article: Skyboxes and filters

Skyboxes are backgrounds added to the main backdrop, behind the overworld. Skyboxes paste an image over the blank canvas background that creates a fuller ambience for the setting. While not all areas have specific images to add as a skybox, this setting also controls blending and sky colour, to an extent. This option can be switched either off or on.

Bloom

Bloom is a lighting graphics setting that controls additional brightness and impact of glowing effects. The effect was mentioned in the developer blog for RuneTek 5 as one of the additional graphical effects that will be possible in HD mode with the new engine. Bloom requires lighting detail to be high. This option can be switched either off or on.

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