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Thread: The NXT Client

  1. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by theholyone View Post
    all thats left is to enable wasd and we have a perfect game which will actually make me play legit!
    If I remember they explicitly said they tried it and didn't like it.

  2. #52
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    http://services.runescape.com/m=foru...7,482,65743376

    Here's the next in our NXT dev blog series, answering one of the biggest questions - can I run it? (Spoilers: yes, you can!)


    Can I run NXT?

    With the release of more amazing screenshots and videos of the new NXT client, no doubt the question many of you want answered is whether you can play it without having to go out and buy a new PC.

    Short answer – yes! RuneScape has earned a reputation as a game that can be played on very modest hardware, with some of the lowest system requirements of any actively maintained game. We have no plans to lose that reputation with NXT, and we are pulling out all the stops to make NXT run better than the existing Java-based client on any PC, and look better at the same time.

    OpenGL

    Since we are building a brand new game engine from the ground up, we have complete freedom with our system requirements. Despite that, we able to also support as low as OpenGL 2.0 at a minimum, which was released around the same time as Half-Life 2 – 12 years ago in 2004! Not only that, but we have managed to pull off modern triple-A effects on graphics cards from over a decade ago – so even on really low end hardware, NXT still looks amazing.

    For newer graphics cards, we will be taking advantage of features added in later versions of OpenGL to provide high-fidelity lighting and shadows in the most efficient way possible. We are not holding back modern GPUs, even low powered ones like the Intel HD series – it is our aim to squeeze as much performance as possible out of any given hardware.

    There has been some confusion over why we have selected OpenGL instead of DirectX, with misinformation about it being somehow worse than DirectX – this is completely false! Remember that we are starting from scratch – don’t take the current RuneScape DirectX and OpenGL settings as an example of how the two compare.

    We have selected OpenGL because of its superior cross-platform support, as well as backwards compatibility. It allows us to target the greatest range of computers with the fewest compromises.

    That being said, there are some very old graphics cards out there that do not work correctly with OpenGL– for that scenario we are taking a leaf out of Google’s book and using the same system they use in Chrome to run our OpenGL code under DirectX 9 via Angle - a last resort, if your graphics card isn’t up to scratch.

    We hope to support more modern rendering APIs soon, and we have built NXT so it would be easy to add DirectX 12 or Vulkan support in the future. Our state-of-the-art rendering layer also means NXT is completely agnostic of any rendering API, so unlike Java there will not be visual differences between APIs.

    AMD vs. Nvidia

    In terms of GPU brands, we are currently seeing roughly equal performance between equivalent Nvidia and AMD cards. With at least one AMD user on the NXT team, you can rest assured that NXT will run well regardless of which camp you fall into.

    We have spent hundreds of man-hours with specialist tools offered by AMD and Nvidia to get everything possible out of their cards. The end result of our optimisations is higher FPS across the board and equality between cards. As a more concrete example: a Radeon HD 7770 or a GeForce GTX 460 will be able to max out NXT at 1080p 60 fps. Considering some of the modern effects we do at max graphics settings and the fact that we do shadows and irradiance in real time, this is an incredibly low recommended spec compared to other games on the market

    Thanks to OpenGL’s excellent backwards compatibility, we are able to scale things down and to support some positively ancient cards too. NXT even works on cards like the Nvidia GeForce 6150 from 2005 and the ATI Radeon 9800 from 2003. We have made every effort to ensure that even people stuck with Shader Model 2 graphics cards from 10+ years ago can enjoy NXT, albeit at lower quality, of course.

    Intel Graphics

    For those with Intel HD graphics, you have not been forgotten about. With a decent CPU (Intel Core i3 or above) you should have no trouble seeing 60 fps with better graphics quality than Java.

    Of course as you increase the draw distance and enable advanced shadows and reflections the framerate will decrease, but we have made every effort to maximise performance and I think it is safe to say we have achieved far more from Intel GPUs than any other modern game engine – many of which do not even work on Intel graphics. Even with some eye candy enabled, we were able to consistently produce 30fps on Intel HD CPUs.

    Even if you have an Intel GPU from before the HD series – things like the X3100, GMA 945, 'Intel 4 series', etc. from as far back as 2005 –we have you covered. Literally no other modern game engine even considers targeting these cards, because from a developer’s perspective they are fundamentally broken as well as painfully slow. And yet we actually managed to get NXT working on them – you can expect around 10-15 fps on a PC equipped with one of these, which is slightly higher than the Java client and still manages to look slightly better.

    4K and 144Hz monitors

    Unfortunately, our 4K support has not changed. As with Java, it will work, but the interface will not scale up. This is something we plan to correct. On the bright side, 2K/1440p monitors look really good, and are actually what we use for development.

    Unlike Java, we have no FPS limit, so more powerful computers can take full advantage of 144Hz monitors. We also offer a range of VSync options – beyond the standard on/off we also offer support for Adaptive VSync, which automatically turns off VSync when the framerate dips to give you the smoothest possible experience while also minimising tearing.

    Our irradiance system brings global illumination to Runescape, simulating the effect of sunlight bouncing off surfaces and adding a whole new depth to the lighting (off above, on below)

    CPU requirements

    In terms of CPU, generally anything that can run the Java client will have no issues keeping up with NXT. At the lower graphics quality settings, NXT requires dramatically less CPU power than Java, so if CPU was previously your bottleneck you will see increased framerates.

    Multithreading comes up regularly, and there has been some confusion about our answers on this front in the past. We do use threads, but in an MMO game such as RuneScape there is actually very little work that needs to be done on the CPU – unlike other games, we have no client-side AI or physics to worry about. So while we do make use of threads for things like asset loading and audio, do not be surprised to see disproportionately high main thread CPU usage.

    We have not neglected CPU optimisation, but rather we have focused on SIMD and memory/cache optimisation over adding additional threads, so even players with single core CPUs can experience good performance – and only 2 cores are necessary to achieve ideal in-game performance. Loading times and the degree of stutter when moving between areas will still improve further with more than 2 cores.

    Optimisation in action

    As we are using SIMD instructions to boost performance, we require a CPU that supports at least SSE 2. If you are running Windows 8+, your CPU definitely supports SSE 2. If your CPU was made this side of the millennium and isn’t an AMD Athlon XP (1999-2004), your CPU supports SSE 2. It’s probably not something anyone needs to worry about.

    For AMD CPU users, we have seen generally slower performance than Intel CPUs (which is to be expected from their specs), though for the most part it is not something that you need to be concerned about unless you are aiming for 60 fps on max settings. The impact is lessened if you have an Nvidia graphics card, which we have observed to have a lower CPU overhead than an equivalent AMD graphics card. We are continuing to work on optimising the performance on AMD CPUs and hopefully stable 60 fps on max settings on an AMD CPU + AMD GPU will become a reality.

    We will support both 32-bit and 64-bit computers, and will be shipping a native 64-bit executable to machines that support it. Performance may be marginally better for 64-bit, but there shouldn’t be too much difference. For anyone using Linux, we will only be supporting 64-bit at launch. On Windows, 32-bit is fine - we'll even be supporting Windows XP!

    RAM

    Currently 2 GB of RAM is enough to run NXT at lower draw distances, while 3 GB is necessary for higher settings (we officially recommend 4 GB to be on the safe side). These figures are total system memory – the actual consumption stands at around 1GB at lower settings to around 2GB at max. If necessary you can get away with less, particularly with a dedicated graphics card – we have run NXT successfully on a machine with just 1 GB of dedicated RAM.

    Disk space

    In one of our live streams, it was stated that 10 GB of disk space would be required for NXT. Some people misunderstood this to mean that you would need to download 10 GB of data before being able to play NXT. That is not the case – NXT works exactly like the current Java client and will allow you to play immediately after downloading the client itself, which is just a few megabytes. The cache - which is what 10 GB referred to - will be downloaded in the background while you play, just like it is currently. The total download size is actually much less than 10GB (about 1.9GB), as the data is all compressed during transmission. Also, 10 GB is a conservative estimate and it will likely use around 75% of that. The current client already uses almost as much, so hopefully this will not be a problem.

    As NXT displays many fewer loading screens, those of you with faster, less fragmented disks will experience less stuttering when moving between areas. This is exactly the same situation as any other open-world game. Overall, you won’t be disappointed in the loading performance even if you are stuck on a 5400 RPM hard disk. You don't need to buy an SSD just to play RuneScape!

    Summary

    -Any computer that can run NXT will run it smoother and with better quality than the current Java client.

    -We are aiming for over 99% of players to be able to use NXT on their current computers.

    -You can run NXT on high at 1080p 60 fps with an i3 CPU and GTX 460 / Radeon HD 7770.


    Mod Dark
    Graphics Engine Developer
    Last edited by Clarity; 02-02-2016 at 07:42 PM.

  3. #53
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    So will it be OpenGL or DirectX?




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    Quote Originally Posted by Obscurity View Post
    So will it be OpenGL or DirectX?
    Yes ^

    (It sounds like both options to me - they said they're going to use DX for computers that can't do OGL)

    Is there any vague timeline for when us regular folks can try this (without buying a year's membership)?

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    Quote Originally Posted by 3Garrett3 View Post
    Yes ^

    Nope ^.

    It's actually pure OpenGL calls being made. They are using an API called ANGLE (Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine). The API translates OpenGL calls to Direct-X calls to support older cards. It's slower than using Direct-X directly and is usually a fallback option but seems to do good enough for Web.

    This is what Chrome uses to render WebGL. The calls are exactly OpenGL calls (plus a few extra). Hooking it is the ALMOST same too: https://github.com/Brandon-T/xWebGL

    Whereas for OpenGL you hook one set of calls, for ANGLE, you CAN hook two (EGL/GLES and OpenGL).


    If anyone is going to hook it, you're better off hooking OpenGL and the translation has to be done anyway. Later you can add the extra functions for the ANGLE layer. You could also hook Direct-X but you'd be targeting an edge case.

    It makes it easier on Jagex because they just code all of their stuff in OpenGL and it gets translated to Direct-X for the older cards. They don't have to write any Direct-X code and maintain both GL and DX.


    I highly doubt they can just "easily" add Direct-X 12 support seeing as they don't even have a base for it. They're probably hoping ANGLE gets updated and supports it -_-
    Last edited by Brandon; 02-03-2016 at 03:01 AM.
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    http://services.runescape.com/m=news...ing-a-load-off

    Dev Blog | Taking a Load Off

    Next up in our NXT Dev Blog series, it's Mod Dunk telling us all about the changes needed to achieve seamless movement in the new RuneScape client.

    RuneScape is a huge game filled to the brim with characters to meet, quests and regions to explore. 15 years of content weighs heavily on the current Java client, and NXT aims to bring you a modern engine that can efficiently handle RuneScape’s sheer size – now and in the future.

    Loading is a problem in game development – particularly for open-world games like RuneScape. Since a player could go in any direction, and the area is too large to keep in memory, the game has to smoothly load assets without interrupting the gameplay.

    Now, this is where you might think, 'Wait, I’m pretty sure RuneScape pauses the game to load' – and that’s because it does. In fact, every RuneScape player is probably familiar with the ‘Loading – please wait’ box that pauses the game as you walk around.

    This little box is no longer needed in NXT – here’s the 'load-down' on how we did it!
    Streaming

    The world of RuneScape is divided up into map squares. As you move, the squares ahead of your character are loaded in, while the ones behind you are removed to save memory. The Java client will halt the whole game as it does this, hence the pausing.

    One of the main objectives with NXT was to make this loading happen in the background, never interrupting the gameplay. The technique for doing this is called 'streaming' or 'asynchronous loading' because it is done in parallel to the main process or thread of the game.

    To do this, we encapsulate each loading request into a 'job' object, and hand each job over to one of a set of worker threads. These worker threads then process these jobs on their own and simply return the results when they’re finished.

    Unfortunately, this required all of our processing for 3D models, animations, textures, particle systems, scripted objects - everything in the game - to be rewritten. As you might imagine, this was a huge task, but definitely worth the effort because it allows us to offer smooth movement around the world that would be impossible in the Java client!
    Packing

    Being able to load many fragments of the world quickly is an essential requirement for supporting our extended draw distances in NXT.

    The maximum draw distance in NXT is more than 4 times the Java draw distance, and this means that NXT requires roughly 16 times the number of models loaded at any one time. Loading in parallel is one thing, but the sheer number means that we need to load each individual bit faster too.

    With every model that Java loads, it does a lot of processing to calculate the information necessary for its rendering. As with any game, every 3D model is made up of triangles that form its visible surface. The 3 corners (or vertices) of a triangle each contain information such as a surface normal, a colour, and texture coordinates.

    In the Java client, the loading code runs algorithms to calculate these values, which can be very slow. For NXT, we now pre-compute them in an external packing stage, and simply read the values directly at runtime. This greatly speeds up loading times (but increases the size of the assets that must be downloaded), and is our preferred approach whenever possible.

    Similarly, we have an external packing stage for compressing textures, and this means less data to process at runtime.
    Java Draw Distance NXT Draw Distance

    Above: Java view distance. Below: NXT view distance.
    Preloading

    In the Java client, reaching the login screen itself requires a loading screen. In NXT, this time has been cut down significantly. We now do a lot more of the necessary work while the player is in the lobby. At this stage, the computer is not doing anything other than rendering the menu anyway, so we have spare time to pre-load as much as we can.

    The main work done here is in pre-loading the world. If you logged out in Lumbridge, for example, the client will pre-load that area in the background, as we know that is where you will be standing when you get back into the world.

    Another thing done at this stage is shader preloading. Shaders are small programs that run on the graphics card and perform rendering calculations. In NXT, we maintain a list of commonly used shaders and make sure that they’re available before play begins.
    Map Square Level of Detail

    In NXT, we optimise the loading for distant map squares by only building and rendering the most important objects. For example, the walls of a building should always be visible at a distance, but the interior details of the building don’t need to be loaded until you get close enough to see inside it. This 'level of detail' system is very effective at speeding up loading and rendering when draw distances are so long.
    Armadyl's Tower

    Large objects such as Armadyl's tower are still loaded from far away, but small detail such as grass or flowers around it would not be
    Shader permutations

    RuneScape has many objects in the world, made from various materials. Each material can use a combination of visual effects, such as environment mapping, texturing, specular lighting, alpha transparency, emissive lighting and more.

    In NXT, we have introduced further features, including hardware animation, improved fog, and shadow mapping. Allowing every feature to be toggled independently caused many hundreds, or even thousands of shader permutations (or variants) to be generated. Thankfully, we have whittled this number down to around 100, and further code to reduce this is in development.

    We achieve this in a few ways:

    We identify the shader features that are producing the most permutations, using in-house shader debugging output.
    Highlighted features that are cheap to use are simply made available all the time.
    Highlighted features that are expensive to use can be changed to switch themselves on or off inside the shader program itself.

    A big issue with generic game engines such as Unreal or Unity is that a user can easily create different materials that require many thousands of shader permutations, increasing the time it takes to load them all. Since NXT only has to deal with a very specific (though large) set of data, we can optimise our rendering and shader code to perform the job more efficiently by generating fewer permutations.

    All of this work has been towards a worthy goal – to make sure that the NXT client can show much more of the RuneScape world, and still beat the Java client on loading times.

    Mod Dunk
    Senior Engine Developer

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    The NXT beta starts 19th feb sooo exited

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    Honestly I'm pretty pumped about it, despite not having much interest in RS3 lately.

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    "For anyone using Linux, we will only be supporting 64-bit at launch."

    Good to see they're supporting it at all but no 32-bit is going to mess me up
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    Double post report @Clarity;

    Will look into the client when i get home.

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    would be great if somebody could provide the binaries!
    I am especially interested in the linux client

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    I should certainly hope not, this account's banned! :3
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    So far I am VERY impressed!

    The draw distance increase is amazing, I don't feel like I am walking into fog when I take 3 steps. It feels more real being able to see the ground below you in Priff among seeing other clan areas while mining the seren stones.

    I usually run on the lowest settings so I can get the best performance when I play and its not all laggy and slow.

    I went to world 2 GE and Burthorpe to find a group of people and get among them and there isn't any issues of lag or slowness running on the highest setting.

    It was pretty cool teleporting to a new place because when you first get there mostly just the ground texture is loaded and then itll load all the other 3D models just after you get there. Im jumping from place to place just to see this. hahah!

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    Can you provide a screenshot of the min settings? I'll see when I get home from work later, but I'm not that patient. Lol.




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    Quote Originally Posted by Obscurity View Post
    Can you provide a screenshot of the min settings? I'll see when I get home from work later, but I'm not that patient. Lol.
    Check out the reddit page, people are finding some really good viewing points. Mine isn't the best ha.

    The first is minimum settings and the second is max settings.


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    Doesn't look all that different to me lol
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clarity View Post
    Looks amazing, but didn't they say this beta is only for the weekend?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jagex;
    It’s finally here! The first NXT closed beta weekend begins today at 12:00 UTC and will wrap up on Monday 22nd February at 12:00 UTC. We can’t wait for you to get started!
    Does this mean it's open beta for everyone else afterwards?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lucidity View Post
    Looks amazing, but didn't they say this beta is only for the weekend?



    Does this mean it's open beta for everyone else afterwards?
    Only for the weekend/following weekends. They said they would gradually add more people to the beta overtime.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clarity View Post
    Only for the weekend/following weekends. They said they would gradually add more people to the beta overtime.
    Do you have any idea as to what they based their selection on?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clarity View Post
    Okay that looks way better
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    Anyone know the player cull distance? Can we see players from that far (or NPCs)? I assume no, which is too bad as it makes the world seem empty

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    It's pretty decent. you can see everyone in teh GE.

    with the draw distance set to max i wouldn't want to see that many players anyway. at one point i was standing on a small hill and i could see the black knight fortress, the dwarven mine, falador park, the cooks guild, draynor manor all of edgville and part of the GE.

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