NXT

NXT is ezpkez gang new game internal code name for an upcoming downloadable client written in the ezpkezlanguage  that is intended to be released on 18 April 2016. Players can download a pre-load of NXT from 15 April 2016. When NXT is released there will be a showcase of in-game areas called Benedict's World Tour that players will be able to complete to see the benefits of NXT and to receive an experience lamp. It will be possible to start this by talking to the NPC Benedict Encumberyak in Burthorpe or Prifddinas. To complete the tour players will have to follow a booklet of clues which will lead them to stand in specific locations and collect objects. Players will have to be using the NXT client to take part in the tour.

NXT was first teased at RuneFest 2014 as the evolution of the scrapped HTML5 client, though work on NXT has been under way for around two and a half years. NXT aims to deliver better performance over the existing Java -based client, better graphics than the previously planned HTML5 client, and more platform and operating system support. One of the core design goals of the new client is the ability to load a larger map area and preload maps in the background.

NXT's launch has been preceded by betas taking place in the live game. There have also be weekly Developer Blogs in early 2016 to show the progress of NXT's development. The final phase of NXT's development will involve working on optimisation, bug fixes and compatibility fixes. Jagex are planning to fix more systematic bugs (that occur in multiple places across the world) and bugs that cause game play issues before NXT is released; more minor, graphical bugs may not all be resolved before the new client is released. One issue that is still being resolved is the increased draw distance allowing players to see things that they should not be able to see, i.e. when differently located in-game areas are next to each other. To address this Jagex are adding individual restrictions for loading these areas and creating a system to replace the things that shouldn't be seen with things that should e.g. adding sea around an island.

After the release of NXT Jagex wish to phase out the use of the Java based client, to free up resources to make further improvements to NXT, rather than continuing to maintain 2 clients. The timescale for phasing out the Java client will be based on beta data. Players using NXT will be playing with users of the old Java client, and will keep their progress. A new installer needs to be downloaded and run to use NXT, as it cannot be run directly from the current downloadable client.

Graphical improvements

 * Increased draw distance and ability to see players and NPCs from further away than before. The player will be able to see a bit less than the "size of Lumbridge Castle around you in a square" when playing on maximum settings. The maximum draw distance with NXT will be 4x more than that of the Java client. Loading for distant map squares will be based on rendering most important objects first.
 * Fully dynamic lighting and shadows. Shadows will be cast in real time, rather than being spot shadows, and will fall onto the player's character and other scenery rather than being cast onto walls and floors.
 * Improved water with normal mapping of waves; real-time reflection of objects and shadows, including the character's shadow, in the water; and refraction (seeing objects through water when objects are underwater).
 * Fog augmented with physically correct atmospheric scattering. This will remove harsh cut-offs in fog, with a fade to "haze" in the distance.
 * Use of MSAA anti-aliasing rather than the previously used FXAA anti-aliasing.
 * NXT will be going back to using Java sky domes, rather than the current cubic environment maps from HTML5, so that the Art Team do not have to maintain 2 sets of sky boxes.
 * Will support normal mapping.

Environment

 * Ability to zoom in and out on the minimap. The minimap will be rendered from above rather than being built out of metadata.
 * The world map will look the same but will have faster loading times.
 * Audio aspects will still be distributed in the same way but they will be streamed dynamically, eliminating some of the lag between audio being downloaded and it being played.
 * A full screen client option will be supported for all operating systems. There will be a borderless full screen window mode.
 * Expected not to have any loading times when moving between areas - loading will happen in the background through asynchronous/streaming loading.
 * Faster loading of login screen and preloading of the world and shaders (programs performing rendering calculations) in background before the player logs in.

Technical

 * Better performance and visuals than Java-based client on all machines. More capable PCs will have exponentially better performance.
 * No difference between DirectX and OpenGL graphics modes. OpenGL will be the preferred display mode, but DirectX will be indirectly supported as a fallback for OpenGL when graphics cards are not able to work correctly with OpenGL. OpenGL has been selected due to its superior cross-platform support and backwards compatibility - OpenGL 2.0 will be the minimum possible supported.
 * More efficient processor core management. Multiple cores will be made use of in loading and creating new rendering assets as well as helping with increased draw distance. Focused on SIMD and memory/cache optimisation so that even players with single core CPUs can experience good performance and players with 2 cores can achieve ideal in-game performance. Loading times and stutter when moving between areas will be improved further on machines with more than 2 cores. A CPU supporting at least SSE 2 will be required.
 * Will support dedicated and mobile graphics cards, automatically using the dedicated graphics card when possible.
 * NXT will have support for 32 and 64 bit Windows, with its installer automatically detecting which version is needed. Performance may be slightly better using 64-bit. Initially there will only be support for a 64 bit version for Linux. Windows XP will be supported.
 * Will be possible to run multiple clients at the same time, but this will affect performance, especially on older, single core PCs.
 * Players can enable Vsync to lock the FPS to the monitor's refresh rate; however, this can be turned off to provide an uncapped FPS.
 * Equal performance between equivalent Nvidia and AMD GPUs. A Radeon HD 7770 or a GeForce GTX 460 will be able to max out NXT at 1080p 60 fps. NXT even works on cards like the Nvidia GeForce 6150 from 2005 and the ATI Radeon 9800 from 2003.
 * With Intel HD graphics and an Intel Core i3 or better CPU players will be able to play at 60 fps with better graphics quality than in Java. Intel GPUs from before the HD series, e.g. X3100, GMA 945 or the Intel 4 series should be able to play at 10-15 fps.
 * Currently 2 GB of RAM is enough to run NXT at lower draw distances, while 3 GB is necessary for higher settings. Actual system memory consumption is around 1GB, at lower settings, to around 2GB, at max.

Beta
Beta weekends to test out NXT have been held ahead of the new client's release. These were only available to Gold Premier Club members, players who have had continuous membership since 31 January 2012, and players who have title from contributing to previous RuneScape betas. The first beta weekend took place from 19 February to 22 February 2016.

The recommended system specifications are as follows:


 * CPU - Dual core, Intel Core i3 CPU / AMD Phenom II @ 2.4+ GHz
 * RAM - 4GB
 * GPU - Nvidia GeForce 4xx series, AMD Radeon 7xxx series, Intel HD 4xxx series
 * A very fast HDD (7200rpm) ideally a Hybrid HDD (HDD with SSD cache) or SSD

There are no limitations or non-disclosure agreements associated with the beta.

Limitations

 * No browser version will be available on release. This is due to lack of support, e.g. lack of support for threads, and performance problems when using browsers.
 * NXT will not be supported on tablets and mobiles.
 * Uses more storage space because more data is stored uncompressed. It will use at most 10GB of space, compared to 4GB with the Java client. NXT will have more offline processing of assets. As with the current client, players will be able to play the NXT client immediately after downloading it. The 10GB cache will be downloaded in the background. The download size will be around 1.9GB as data will be compressed during transmission.
 * It will not be possible to see players on other levels. Though it is possible for this to be enabled, Jagex has decided not to do so as there are some graphical glitches. Summoning familiars like Steel Titans and enemies like Gargoyles, for example, would poke up through the floor. Thus, it will not be activated until this and other issues are fixed.
 * Support for modding will not be added to NXT.
 * Dynamic weather will not be added as this would interfere with the themes of different areas e.g. area lighting.
 * 4K monitor support will not change: as currently, interface sizes will not scale up.