Runescape 3 Loading Bug causing Performance issues/Crashing

[Puremetal]

Runescape 3 currently has an issue where loading in assets can cause the game to crash if the settings are anything above minimum. Setting the graphics settings to minimum can reduce crashes however there are still circumstances where disabling textures entirely is the only way to progress in specific parts of the world map such as Ungael.

When moving though loaded areas cosmetic entities such as pieces of stone or flowers tend to flicker for an unknown reason.

Alt tabbing out and back in on borderless windowed will cause the game to flicker to a black screen and stutter.

Sometimes, the game randomly crashes for no reason without any error logging.  While attempting to test crashes, I seemed to have caused the Jagex Launcher Runescape 3 Client to be unable to load at all regardless of being in compatibility mode or or not, leading me to use to use the Steam client instead to remove my character from a zone causing consistent crashes.

A video enclosed attempts to show the alt tab glitch and the popping glitch. While the popping in and out is noticeable the alt tabbing glitch can only been recorded as lag when tabbing back in and out of the game.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you for posting in our communities.

To help me further identify the problem and offer you a solution, kindly provide the following details:

• When did the issue start, and was the game working fine before? This is to check if you have made any changes to the system that might have caused the issue.
• What troubleshooting have you already tried? so we can avoid repeating them.

We look forward to your response! 

Thank you, and have a great day ahead!

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Puremetal]

The issues started upon logging into the game, and does not differ between clients. The only change to my system beforehand was uninstalling a Nvidia GPU and installing an Intel Arc.

I have deleted the game cache to mitigate the crashing, though I cannot be sure this counts as a workaround until I test more and find a crash. After the latest update I have been able to launch the game through the Jagex Launcher and enter Ungael with textures on, though I am not exactly sure why.

No change in settings affects entities popping in and out randomly.

Leaving the game on windowed instead of borderless fullscreen prevents the alt tab bug from happening.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you so much for the quick response.

Please try to clean install your graphics driver using DDU, then install our new release graphics driver 5445.

• How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics Driver
• Intel® Graphics Driver 31.0.101.5445

And if the issue still persists, please let me know so we can raise the issue with our engineers.

Thank you, and have a great day ahead!

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Puremetal]

There has been no change from the previous driver version.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you so much for the response and for trying out the troubleshooting steps that we have recommended. 

I will now raise the case with our engineers and post the response on this thread once it is available.

Have a fantastic day, and thank you very much for your patience and understanding!

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you so much for patiently waiting on our response.

After multiple reviews of the video that you have provided, the specific issue in question remains unclear.

We would like to request that you indicate the exact timeframe within the video where the issue manifests. If feasible, a screenshot capturing the problem would be invaluable for our investigative efforts.

Furthermore, please answer the following queries, as they would also be relevant for us to deeply investigate the issue.

1. Error Codes: Are there any specific error codes displayed when the game crashes?

2. Game Settings: Could you please share a screenshot of the game settings? This will enable us to attempt a precise replication of the conditions under which the issue occurs.

3. Settings Adjustment: Have you attempted to lower the game settings to assess if this mitigates the crashing?

4. Have you tried reaching out to the game developer regarding this instability?

5. Please check this article: 'Game crashes article' from Runescape, which may offer further troubleshooting steps.

6. Browser Testing: Have you tried accessing the game through different web browsers?

7. Graphics Card Utilisation: It is crucial to confirm that the browser is set to use the Arc graphics card. Please refer to our How to Set the Default GPU for Applications and Games article for guidance on ensuring the game and browser are configured to use the Arc graphics card.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and have a great day.

Best regards, 

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Puremetal]

1. Error Codes: There are no error codes. After the latest update of Runescape I could not replicate the crashing issue.

2. Game Settings: Settings do not matter for the entity popping glitch to appear. However, Ambient Occlusion being turned on appeared to make the problem more noticeable.

3. Settings Adjustment: Lowering the draw distance/removing textures did help when I was having the issue, but at this time I have been unable to replicate it.

4. I am planning to submit a bug report to the developer.

5. N/A

6. Runescape 3 is no longer a browser game. The client can be launched from the Jagex Launcher and Steam, and both have the popping glitch.

7. N/A

The entity popping glitch can be seen in the current video, as demonstrated by showing off how entities around the displayed chapel flicker in and out randomly. This includes the candy cane outside, benches inside, the stained glass window and debris outside. This is non-standard behavior and only happens on the Intel Arc.

The Alt-Tab glitch appears to be a more general issue as I've seen it appear in multiple applications that use legacy software rending/opengl. This can be noticed when the game suddenly lags/freezes at the latter half of the video. While I notice the screen suddenly flickering black, this is not caught on video which makes the problem harder to notice.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you so much for the information that you have provided.

We will now do further investigation on this issue and again post the response on this thread once it is available.

Please let us know about any updates the developer provides after you have filed a bug report.

Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Based on the information that you have mentioned, the game crashes are not happening anymore after the recent update to Runescape.

May we confirm if the flickering issue is still happening? as we needed to verify it to replicate the issue better in our laboratory.

Best regards, 

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Puremetal]

The flickering issue is still happening. I have confirmed that it takes place on another user's PC with the same GPU (Arc A770 16GB) as mine.

Turning on or off ambient occlusion changes the intensity of the flickering, with off seeming to be worse.

A bug report has been sent to Jagex has been sent about this issue.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you so much for the response.

The information that you have shared has been highly noted. We will further investigate the issue so we can provide you with the appropriate recommendation.

Best regards, 

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ACarmona_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello Puremetal, 

We sincerely appreciate your patience while you waited for our response.

Since we have tried to replicate the issue again, we would like to inform you that we haven't been able to observe any crashes on the app or textures popping with our latest internal graphics driver. Video of our test: https://youtu.be/iOMUkvWvPTU.

To confirm, are you still encountering any new instances of the game crashing?

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Puremetal]

I have not encountered issues with the game crashing after my initial report.

The popping issue can be noticed in the video you linked from 2:06-2:09 with the gray lodestone popping in and out as the player character moves closer, and a piece of the stone wall in the background popping in and out around 2:18 as the tester moves the camera up and down. Neither of these are intended and show the problem I described in this thread, any more examples are harder to point out due to video's bitrate/fps.

I have not been able to concretely follow up with Jagex at this point. At this point the report has become a lower priority than initially expected as otherwise the game is stable the other issue I described (lag when alt tabbing in and out) is a symptom of games that use older engines.

Even if the issue isn't solved I don't believe that this is a specific case that requires immediate attention.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Thank you so much for the relevant update, and we respect your opinion regarding the case.

As much as we can, we would be happy to provide you with our assistance. In regards to this, please let me know your opinion if you would still like us to further investigate the issue or if you would like us to close the case for you.

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

Please let me know if you would still like us to further investigate the issue or if you would like us to close the case for you.

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Puremetal]

Please close the case. I was unable to respond until now because of a browser issue.

[ACarmona_Intel]

Hello Puremetal, 

No worries; thank you so much for the confirmation.

As requested, we will now close this case, and for additional information, please submit a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Thank you, and have a great day ahead.

Best regards,

Carmona A.

Intel Customer Support Technician