A developer who was working on an HD modification of Old School RuneScape has been asked by developer Jagex to stop. The RuneLite HD mod should have been released on Monday after two years of development. The mud 117 obeys the request.
Modder 117 writes on Reddit that it received a message from Jagex just before release, in which the developer of RuneScape asked the modder not to release RuneLite HD. Jagex says it is working on a similar graphical enhancement to Old School RuneScape, which is said to be in a “relatively early research phase.” That’s why 117 should stop his mod.
The modder himself suggested taking RuneLite HD offline as soon as the official graphical improvement is available and giving Jagex ‘collaborative control’ over the visual style of RuneLite HD. Jagex would have refused this. 117 says they have put in about 2,000 hours of work over two years on the project. on Twitter shows 117 multiple screenshots view of the project.
RuneLite HD is a third party client that comes with graphical improvements for Old School RuneScape. The mod is an extra part on top of RuneLite, also a third party client that has been around for years and gives extra features such as an XP Tracker, a button to change attack styles and extra chat functions. In addition, the game uses the GPU of the PC to get a higher fps. Both RuneLite and RuneLite HD work with Old School RuneScape’s servers and are open source.
It’s not the first time that RuneLite and Jagex developers have clashed; in 2018, Jagex demanded that the RuneLite project stop. A few days later, Jagex approved the project. Jagex confirms it has asked 117 to discontinue RuneLite HD; the developer wants there to be “consistency” in the visual style of Old School RuneScape and so wants to avoid having mods that render the game differently than Jagex wants. The developer says he wants to include 117 in feedback sessions for the graphical improvement of Old School RuneScape.