Particles

The first glimpse of particle effects in RuneScape

Particles are used to simulate fuzzy phenomena, which are very hard to reproduce with three-dimensional rendering. Hundreds and thousands of particles can be generated, using relatively little processing power, to create effects that would have been too costly and demanding using existing polygon techniques.

History

Fire and smoke particle effects used in Firemaking skillcape emote.

Particles were first mentioned in a Developer's Blog in August 2009. Mod Chris E stated that particle effects would be introduced into the game, along with sky boxes, bloom lighting effects, and water reflections.

Particle effects made their first appearance with the 2009 Christmas event. The first glimpse of particles was the snow coming out of the wardrobes through which players entered to get to the Land of Snow. Upon entering the Land of Snow, snowflakes would fall from the sky if the particle effects option was on. Flakes that were far away appeared smaller than the ones in the foreground, giving a three dimensional perspective of the scenery.

Mod Woody stated in the forums that magic spells, hair, smoke, and fog will all benefit from particle effects. He has also mentioned that particles might be used in upcoming quests and places, such as Zanaris and the quest A Fairy Tale III - Battle at Ork's Rift, the final quest in the Fairy Tale quest series.

A chimney's particle effects

“	There are all sorts of things we would like to enhance with particles, and we will be adding particle effects to certain areas and animations soon. This Christmas update is just a glimpse of what we have planned, as we didn't want to hold it back any longer. In the future, you could be seeing particles used for all sorts, from fountains and chimneys to fires and magic effects. We'll also be giving other snowy areas a similar treatment in the near future.	”
— Mod Woody

Many of the mentioned elements has been subsequently updated.

Appearances in-game

• On 8 February 2010, Strykewyrms were released, all three of which were the first monsters to incorporate particle effects.
• On 15 March 2010, Corpse mages, Corpse archers, and Dragith Nurn lurking in the Lumbridge Catacombs received 2D sprite cores, and all of the Undead received 2D sprite eyes.
• On 12 April 2010, the barriers and level end doors in the Dungeoneering skill were released using particle effects. Also, the official Dungeoneering trailer on Jagex's YouTube account, contained more realistic water splashing, snow, and fires with particles that will be released in the future.
• At some point in May 2012, the Mort Myre Swamp received particles.
• On 25 May 2010, Skillcape animations were updated with the use of particle effects and were also tweened.
• On 27 May 2010, The first items with particle effects were released. These include the Zamorak, Saradomin and Guthix halos and the Faithful shield. When igniting a flare, it produces particle smoke.
• On 24 June 2010, all strike, bolt, blast, wave, and surge spells from the standard spellbook were given particle effects, as well as a new animation. Instead of a coloured ball, they represent their element more and have tweened animations.
• On 22 August 2010, it was revealed that the Dungeoneering Master cape is a new item with particle effects when Telmomarques achieved 120 Dungeoneering.
• As of 12 October 2010, the Albino Rat now uses particles for its eyes, along with the new ability to blink.
• On 20 December 2010, NPCs from random events and clue scrolls, e.g. Zamorak wizard were made to use particles when they pop up.
• On 1 March 2011, particles and bloom lighting effects were added to the fire pits in the Cosmic and Chaos portion of the Elemental workshop.
• As of 15 March 2011, snowy areas used particles, such as in the 2009 and 2010 Christmas events.
• On 15 April 2011, the 2011 Easter event was released, in which the river and cloud spirit's chatheads use particles.
• On 1 November 2011, three new gloves were released which used particles: the goliath gloves, spellcaster gloves and the swift gloves.
• On 20 December 2011, the Christmas wand was released as a reward for completing the 2011 Christmas event, A Towering Feast.

From that point on, newly released content often featured particle effects.

Items with particles

• Spellcaster gloves, Goliath gloves and Swift gloves
• Christmas wand
• Tokhaar-Kal
• Igneous capes
• Dominion tower gloves
• All Master capes of Accomplishment
• Completionist cape and trimmed variant
• Any loyalty Auras
• Dragonfire shield
• Faithful shield
• Saradomin halo, Guthix halo and Zamorak halo
• Imcando pickaxe
• Blisterwood staff
• All elemental Staves, Battlestaves, Mystic staves, and Limitless staves
• Dragon battlestaff
• Splitbark orb
• Seismic singularity
• Grifolic wand
• Wand of the praesul
• Imperium core
• Staff of Sliske
• Inquisitor staff
• Roar of Awakening
• Ode to Deceit
• Malevolent kiteshield, Merciless kiteshield, and Vengeful kiteshield
• Noxious weaponry
• Siphons
• Conduits
• Pickaxe of life and death
• Hatchet of bloom and blight
• Sana's fyrtorch
• Veteran cape (15 year)
• Veteran cape (20 year)
• Stratus Cloud
• Seren symbol
• Ghostly revenant outfit

Overrides with particles

• Deathless Regent
• Revenant outfit
• Shadow Sentinel outfit
• Dwarven Warsuit pack
• Elemental (Flameheart)
• Elemental (Iceheart)
• Flaming skull
• Jousting Lance
• Shatterstorm Wand
• Firebrand Bow
• Blazing Flamberge
• Superhero Lightning
• All Battle of Lumbridge overrides
• Jas Hands
• Aurora Longsword
• Rainbow Scythe
• DarksCape
• Grotesque (Tier 3)
• Profound Halo
• Sakadagami trousers

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included – see here for how to help out!

• patch 27 August 2024 (Update):
  • Fixed an issue resulting in particle effects turning off after death.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in incorrect and missing visuals for some particle effects depending on player rotation or position.

• patch 6 February 2023 (Update):
  • Improved performance at locations containing many particle effects.

• nxt 25 April 2019:
  • Fixed client crash caused by particles on mobile

• nxt 31 October 2019:
  • Tweaked particle logic to improve performance when dealing with large quantities of particles

• nxt 10 July 2017:
  • Certain particle physics should now work correctly.

• nxt 10 April 2017 (Update):
  • Particles should no longer look washed out. Red particles will no longer look pink!

• nxt 1 March 2017:
  • Improved the robustness of particle systems which lacked textures

• nxt 30 January 2017:
  • Added support for soft particles in compatibility graphics mode.
  • Fixed particles not interacting with bloom.

• nxt 16 January 2017:
  • Environment particles should no longer sharply cut into the terrain.
  • Certain particles that were being reflected on water despite being below the water's surface have been fixed.

• nxt 15 August 2016 (Update):
  • Particles should no longer appear under a location instead of on it.

• nxt 11 July 2016 (Update):
  • Particles will now disappear correctly.

Trivia

• Not all instances of snow in the game are implemented using particles; for example the Dramatic Point emote does not use particles for snow. It actually uses polygons as snowflakes.
• Particles cannot be seen through the Ghostly robes and translucent scenery objects.