Hello everyone,
Today, I'm excited to preview an update that we've been working on in silence for the past little while. In the past few years, there has been an increase in OSRS players wanting an "HD"/2010 graphics toggle to enhance their experience. After all, we're playing a 20 year old game and it isn't the most graphically advanced game available today. That's part of OSRS's charm though, it's quirky and unrefined, which we all love. Still, many of us can also appreciate the HD era of RuneScape (2008-2011) that we also grew up playing, which featured a much more visually pleasing experience. Of course, there are some RSPS's that emulate that era, but none that are Oldschool and offer a toggle to look like 2010 RS.
We'd like to change that, and to offer players the best possible gameplay by allowing them to play exactly how they'd like.
Here's what loading up the client will look like after this update:
You'll be able to preview what each game style looks like on the loading screen. As you can see, the 2010 style offers a drastic change in the animations and models of your character, as well as everything else in the world around you, all-the-while staying true to the same style of OSRS.
We feel that RS went in a completely different direction 2012 and later, so we've chosen to emulate 2010 instead which we believe to be a sweet spot between visually pleasing graphics and the RS we know and love.
What will change exactly?
When playing on 2010 mode, many things will look different, including:
- The appearance of:
- Characters
- Equipment and items
- NPCs
- Maps
- Graphics
- Animations
The game itself is unchanged, and this update will be a strictly visual change. For other players who choose to continue playing on 2007 mode, there will be no difference. You can also switch between the 2007 and 2010 styles whenever you'd like.
When will this be released?
We're aiming to release this update later this month!
Will this update be compatible with RuneLite?
Yes! One of the most exciting aspects of this update is that we'll be the only server to provide a 2010-style RSPS that has RuneLite support, let alone HD support.
Do I need to play on HD to get the 2010 looks?
Nope! You can choose to have HD turned off, but we think that HD suits the 2010 style much better than 2007. This is because HD was added to RuneScape sometime in 2008, and all of the assets of that era (items, maps, monsters) were designed to look good in HD.
Does this mean you'll be adding items/content from 2010 RuneScape?
No. We are still an Oldschool server, and we'd like to stay true to that. This update is only a visual toggle, and we won't be bringing in any content from this era unless the Oldschool RuneScape team decides to add it in as well.
How does this work with OSRS content?
For OSRS-specific content that wasn't available in 2010 RuneScape, it'll simply look the same way as it does on OSRS. There won't be any visual upgrade for OSRS content. For example, Dragons will look different on 2010 mode, but Sand crabs will look the same as they do on 2007 mode as there is not suitable upgrade for them.
The media below can showcase the update much better than I can:
We're excited to get this out to all of you soon, and we hope that some of you see this as a feature that will enhance their experience on Alora :)
Regards,
Omicron