Developers Console...

[jettrider]

Hasn't communication from the developer mods and the community mods always been operating as if they were fogged or bottle-necked? The mistakes in the knowledge base on the main website for things like dungeoneering weapon stats, the stat resets being bugs, etc.

 

If they strengthened this it would address all sorts of problems and the company's image.

 

Knowledge base writeups are most likely based on dev documents, and some sections written by the developers themselves. It's not the website team's fault if bugfixes and last-minute design changes didn't make their way back into those documents. Some of the smaller differences are typos, and it's quite hard to do enough proofreading to get rid of every typo on thousands of KB pages.

 

What is unacceptable is that CM mods try to post on game-related issues.

 

CM mods are only trained to provide community events/content/competitions and to compile feedback from players to developers. When they try to speak for Jagex on issues like this, it just shows that they don't communicate effectively in the opposite direction.

 

The solution, as always, is to hire more developers instead of more CM mods. Then the Jagex feedback could encompass both community-related and game-related issues. I'm constantly amazed at how creating artificial content for daily community-oriented newsposts takes precedence over something like responding to game queries.

[Wkw]

On that note, they should allow you to zoom out, period.

 

People who play on full screen, or any size other then fixed have the advantage of being able to see more then those on fixed screen.. About 30% or so more.

 

[brainymidget]

Geroff my chatbox

 

P.S. You blocked my name on the first one, but not the second :D

[Markup]

Top result for "runescape ortho"

http://www.stellardawncentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16034

At RuneFest Jagex announced that they were working on "Ortho" mode for RuneScape which will allow the game to run on low-spec devices (e.g. the iPad).

 

Ortho comes from the Greek word meaning "straight" and orthogonality relates to "representing a three-dimensional object in two dimensions". Ortho Mode seems to be a form of isometric axonometric projection (a type of orthographic projection).

Ooh, Orthographic Projection! I love that stuff!

 

Okay, here's what Orthographic Projection, or "Ortho Mode" is, in a nutshell.

 

Normally, when you have a three-dimensional object... Let's say it's a cube. Anyway, you've got this cube. It has six faces. You can freely rotate the camera around the object, and it'll show all the visible faces from every conceivable angle.

 

Now... When you have an orthographic projection, you introduce two limits. One, you can only position the camera in one place, like an Isographic image, but with less squarishness. Why is that important? Because it allows for a major performance increase, as you can effectively "remove" all polygons that you can't see. For instance, if we take our cube again, and we look at it from one of the corners, we can see three faces. In an orthographic projection, it would lock the camera to this angle, and only render these three faces.

 

Less polygons rendered equals less load on the system, allowing for higher graphics capability with minimal computing intensity.

 

You can have better quality on worse devices.

 

Edit:

Not mine, found this little tidbit:

 

 

Early damage control, anyone?

 

Lol classic Jagex denial. Then again these are the same guys who said that stats getting reset was a bug and not a punishment, :lol:

http://[use Quick Find Code]/[Please Use QuickFind Code]?14,15,484,62703412,goto,1

Edited April 25, 2011 by Markup

[Wkw]

I installed the RS client and noticed this in the terms agreement thingamybob

 

The Jagex Launcher is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 with the Classpath exception, a statement of which is given below. This licensing does not apply to any software run within the Jagex Launcher, including but not limited to the Jagex products for which the launcher is intended; see the statement of the Classpath exception at the bottom of this document for details.

The Jagex Launcher is copyright 2010 Jagex Limited.

 

This program contains a modified subset of OpenJDK, which is also covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 with the Classpath exception.

OpenJDK is copyright 1997-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For more information, please see <http://openjdk.java.net>

 

The GNU General Public License (GPL)

 

Version 2, June 1991

 

Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

 

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license

document, but changing it is not allowed.

 

So, by editing the source code you are violating the GNU. Heh.. but can Jagex even detect it?

[Riptide Mage]

I installed the RS client and noticed this in the terms agreement thingamybob

 

The Jagex Launcher is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 with the Classpath exception, a statement of which is given below. This licensing does not apply to any software run within the Jagex Launcher, including but not limited to the Jagex products for which the launcher is intended; see the statement of the Classpath exception at the bottom of this document for details.

The Jagex Launcher is copyright 2010 Jagex Limited.

 

This program contains a modified subset of OpenJDK, which is also covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 with the Classpath exception.

OpenJDK is copyright 1997-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For more information, please see <http://openjdk.java.net>

 

The GNU General Public License (GPL)

 

Version 2, June 1991

 

Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

 

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license

document, but changing it is not allowed.

 

So, by editing the source code you are violating the GNU. Heh.. but can Jagex even detect it?

 

Reread what you highlighted, it says you may distribute the LICENSE DOCUMENT but cannot change it. What you pasted says nothing about the program itself.

[Wkw]

Ah yes, now that I read that I feel like an idiot. I shouldn't read legal documents early in the morning :P

 

So, being open source, you are legally allowed to edit it as you wish right?

[Alphanos]

I don't remember whether this was previously addressed on this thread or others.

 

When people talk about the Runescape "client", they're actually talking about two different things: 1) The packaged browser and Java kit that Jagex offers for download on their website as one possible option for playing Runescape, and 2) The Runescape "client" as in the client-server programmatic sense of the term, which is the Java-based software alll players must use in order to access Runescape.

 

1) Is either partially, or perhaps wholly, covered by open source licenses. Any parts covered by those licenses can be freely modified; however this has no relation to the Runescape game/interface/etc. It would be like modifying Firefox or Internet Explorer.

 

2) Is entirely the intellectual property of Jagex, and modification can get you banned or possibly even facing charges if Jagex gets really irritated at you specifically and local laws allow for it. Changes to this client allow messing with things like zoom level, ortho, or potentially even making video "fakes" which show millions of partyhats. It has been a long time since anything other than the cosmetic can be done through client-side alteration.

[Wkw]

So, when people are changing their zoom settings, they are talking about editing the files thatr is the GAME client, not the web client, which is open source?

 

But I thought by changing the web client it also changed the web client, as the web client doesn't require java to be installed...

[RSBDavid]

The downloadable and installable client you get from the download section of the website is something totally different the the game client itself. All the downloadable client does is create a mini java virtual machine and invoke the game which is stored locally on your hard drive.

 

The game client is held in a jar file stored on the webs servers such as world99.runescape.com. Using an applet stub, it is possible to run it outside of a typical applet as well.

 

In the jar file there are several obfuscated class files which control how the game runs. There is one file in particular which contains a line of which that tests your user rights, if you bypass or remove the test, you get access to the real developer commands. This is against the TOS for the client:

 

2. What type of third-party software is NOT allowed?

 

 

Modified or replacement versions of our game applets. Reverse-engineering our game applets is strictly prohibited. Using a modified version of our game applets is not permitted for any reason.

 

So downloading the jar, extracting the classes, deobfuscating them, changing a line of code, and then repacking them to get access to the extended developer console is against the rules and is probably easily detectable.

 

I hope this clears some of the confusion between the different clients and if it breaks the TOS or not.

[Wkw]

Yeah, that makes sense. Still, I want the ability to zoom out.. Because for some reason the game won't let me get into f ull screen under open gl or direct x.

[RSBDavid]

Yeah, that makes sense. Still, I want the ability to zoom out.. Because for some reason the game won't let me get into f ull screen under open gl or direct x.

 

 

Change the max screen size under custom settings to the maximum then try setting the fullscreen dropdown to your screen resolution and click the fullscreen button.

[Wkw]

Yeah, even if I change it to 800x600 and hit fullscreen, it says loading, and times out back to fixed or resize..

 

I think I have to update java or something

[Peronix]

Interestingly, after having ortho mode enabled on the custom client with one of my throwaway accounts, when I logged on today to play on the normal client it was still in ortho mode.

 

I wonder if Jagex can even track what display mode you're in. I wouldn't want to get banned for being naughty and using stuff only developers normally have access to.

[BioIce]

Interestingly, after having ortho mode enabled on the custom client with one of my throwaway accounts, when I logged on today to play on the normal client it was still in ortho mode.

 

I wonder if Jagex can even track what display mode you're in. I wouldn't want to get banned for being naughty and using stuff only developers normally have access to.

 

If you can't accept the possible consequences of your own actions for toying around with what's clearly illegal in their eyes, then why even feel tempted to do this?

[Alphanos]

Interestingly, after having ortho mode enabled on the custom client with one of my throwaway accounts, when I logged on today to play on the normal client it was still in ortho mode.

 

I wonder if Jagex can even track what display mode you're in. I wouldn't want to get banned for being naughty and using stuff only developers normally have access to.

 

In addition, I hope you considered their likely capability to link accounts together based upon IP address. In all likelihood Jagex isn't wasting their time seeking out players messing with ortho mode, since no actual harm seems to be caused. However, if they are, most people messing around with it will be caught. It would take some relatively convoluted preparation to run Runescape communication through proxies to avoid such IP-based detection - no regular proxy would do it.

[Riptide Mage]

Interestingly, after having ortho mode enabled on the custom client with one of my throwaway accounts, when I logged on today to play on the normal client it was still in ortho mode.

 

I wonder if Jagex can even track what display mode you're in. I wouldn't want to get banned for being naughty and using stuff only developers normally have access to.

 

It would be quite easy for the jar to check its own checksum and report it to jagex if it didn't match the expected value. If they actually bother to do this, I do not know.

[BioIce]

 

In addition, I hope you considered their likely capability to link accounts together based upon IP address.

 

They already do this to track some bot users and their mains before banning, I think. Been hearing a few disgruntled ops in that direction.

[captianant]

What's so confusing to me is how tight-fisted they are with their game client. Part of what WoW players love is that they can endlessly change their gameclient to display information that they want specifically so their game can be made exactly to their tastes (dps meters, drop comparisons, precise timer warnings, etc). If Jagex even opened up their client to allow for only changing the viewstyle (or just made those commands work for the general public), I think people would be pretty happy about it, especially Jagex being a bit more open (which I'm sure we all can agree upon heartily).

 

However, this is but a pipe dream because that company is being run into the ground by fools who don't know how to keep its playerbase happy.

[BioIce]

However, this is but a pipe dream because that company is being run into the ground by fools who don't know how to keep its playerbase happy.

 

Oh, I don't know about that, since it's a tad difficult to lump the entire playerbase together and state they're unhappy. I think most people are more or less content, with the usual ragging on and complaining over current glaring issues like that dead horse we know called bots and RWT.

[Wkw]

I think it is safe to assume that a large majority of players don't like how the game is run

 

Especially the people who:

-Lost really rare DG binds when the world crashed

-Couldn't play for hours after the worlds crashed

-loose large amounts of wealth due to obvious bugs

-aren't on the "inside" and can't benefit from intentional bugs/changes (sigil drops, climbing boots)

-Don't like being lied to

[BioIce]

Worlds crashing were due to a bug being abused by players.

 

When you're having your displayFPS console open, you'll notice that for every action you take, your bytes/second will rise. Basically, we managed to delay the incoming data we recieved from clicking an item, causing all the bytes/second to be released at the same time. Several worlds went offline

 

People have always been lied to in this game. Look how they reverted free trade.

[Wkw]

So, the worlds went off line due to players doing normal things, but only after Jagex changed something.

 

That sounds like your car breaks gave out when you tried to stop at a red light, but only because the manufacturer changed how they built breaks.

 

That clearly wasn't players fault, it was Jagex's fault.

[BioIce]

Could blame Jagex for not finding the bug first, sure.

 

It's still the players who ganked the worlds offline.

[Wkw]

No, its not.

 

If Jagex made a change where, if you killed a goblin and it dropped a goblin mail, the world crashed, that wouldn't be the players fault for crashing the world. It was a changed Jagex made, and thus their fault. Especially if the "goblin mail" in this example was something more widespread, like "doing an action". Everyone "does an action", and they mostly do it a lot. To blaim the players for doing what they normally do as the cause of the bug is madness. Yes, "doing an action" is the trigger for the bug, but it's not the fault of the bug.