Over the past few months, the Runescape community – yes, that MMORPG is still active after all this time and has actually expanded with its arrival on Steam – has been looking forward to the release of Runelite HD, at least until Jagex decided to end it.
For those less familiar with the matter, Runelite is an open source client based on Old School Runescape. Its creator, Adam1210, provided some development resources to the modder 117scape, who has been tweaking the graphics for a long time with the mod that concerns us: it has better shadows, textures, shaders, drawing distance and more. Everything, keeping the original modeling.
The result is frankly attractive for such an old game, as you can see in the attached image. Jagex decided to put an end to it, yes, just a day before its premiere: they did not want a project made by fans to compete with their own improved version of Runelite, which doesn’t exist yet, but it could.
Needless to say, the community reacted badly to the news, so the developers have decided Go backwards: “We listen to your impressions loud and clear and we have been talking about it all day” they explain on the official blog. “Although the discussion continues, we definitely want to do something about it. We understand that you have a vote at Old School, and sometimes that voice can be one of frustration with our decisions. “
Apologizing for the blunder, Jagex is determined to rectify: they will work hand-in-hand with 117scape to bring their project to fruition, at least until the Official version is available.