Bloom lighting effects

Zanaris with bloom lighting.

File:Bloom comparison.png

Comparing particles with bloom.
Left: Without bloom lighting. Right: With bloom lighting.

Bloom lighting is used to give lighting a more realistic look, giving shiny halos of light to particularly bright objects, as is seen with most camera lenses. The effect was mentioned in the developer blog for RuneTek 5 as one of the additional graphical effects that will be possible in HD mode with the new engine. Note that bloom lighting does not work with all graphics hardware and drivers, and may fail to work in either OpenGL mode, DirectX mode, or both. Bloom is not supported in Software mode. When enabled in DirectX mode, if the player is not in fixed screen mode then Bloom will currently turn antialiasing off, regardless of the setting in the custom graphics options menu. This can be worked around by enabling forced anti-aliasing from the graphics card's control panel program and switching to full screen (you can switch back to non-full screen after this).

Current uses

Bloom lighting was introduced as a graphics option on 28 November 2011. Here are examples of areas and objects where bloom lighting is currently in use:

• Animations - The sparks that appear when smithing items on an anvil
• Areas - The path west of Barbarian Village to Falador, Barrows, Zanaris, Port Phasmatys
• Emotes - Breathe Fire, Firemaking cape, Attack cape, Magic cape, Prayer cape
• Items - The orbs on lava battlestaves, Completionist cape, Steadfast boots, Glaiven boots, Ragefire boots, some Dungeoneering keys, some halos, Torches from the Gielinor Games and other items that use particle effects
• Magic - Fire spells, Home Teleport and standard spellbook teleport spells (and anything that uses the same animation), Ice Spells, Earth spells, Claws of Guthix, High Level Alchemy, Lexicus Runewright's normal magic attack and the explosion from book barrage, Night-gazer Khighorahk's jump-ball attack, all of Shadow-Forger Ihlakhizan's attacks
• Monsters - Aberrant spectres, Tormented demons, Rockslugs, Pyrefiends, the insides of tomes of Ranging, Magic and Strength, Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter,
• Players and NPCs - Players who are viewing the world map, Light creatures, the flowers on the chests and hats of some Tool leprechauns
• Portals - Castle wars, Player-owned House entrance portals and Portal Chambers, Pest Control, Kuradal's Dungeon energy barriers, Har'Lakk's portal attacks
• Scenery - Fires and standing torches, lava, the four lamps in Gypsy Aris's tent, the falling particles of Magic trees, Dungeoneering furnaces, "overhead" lighting in the starting room on abandoned and furnished floors
• Summoning - Calling a familiar, Summoning obelisks, the Bunyip and Unicorn stallion's healing effects, Lava Titans, fire titans, pyrelords, obsidian golems.

• An Aberrant Spectre with bloom lighting on.

  An Aberrant Spectre with bloom lighting on.

• A spell with bloom on.

  A spell with bloom on.

• 

  A lava titan with bloom on.

• A place where bloom is applied.

  A place where bloom is applied.

Simulated bloom effects

File:Bloom lighting house portal.png

Comparing a house portal with bloom.
Left: Without bloom lighting. Right: With bloom lighting.

There are instances where particles are used to simulate bloom effect around specific points of light. The halos of light found in these are NOT bloom effect. They are particles, and they register in the particle count output, which is accessible through the developer console. Here are a few examples of areas and objects where bloom lighting is simulated using particles:

• The 10th anniversary cake.

  File:Bloomfire.png

  Comparing a fire with bloom.
  Left: Without bloom lighting. Right: With bloom lighting.

• The spirits in the 2011 Easter event.
• The pumpkins and candles in the 2010 Halloween event.
• The trees and candles in the 2010 Christmas event.

Trivia

• Zanaris was originally meant to be updated with bloom effect with Fairy Tale Part III on 13 May 2010, but technical difficulties had postponed the implementation of bloom lighting.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in the Sophanem bank, where the entire area would become completely white except for the off-map areas which would be black as normal.
• There have been numerous cases of turning bloom lighting on causes the game to crash upon entering a world. To resolve this, log back in to the lobby and turn the bloom off before logging into a certain world. In fact, most computers with inferior graphics cards cannot handle bloom and will crash the game instantly. Some players have confirmed that using the "Fixed" screen mode allows the use of the bloom effect after all.
• There is currently a glitch with bloom lighting in the smoke dungeon spectres chamber, causing the screen to be covered in smoke and colours to be changed.
• There is currently a glitch with bloom lighting in the Paterdomus temple that causes almost everything to become black and white. This has not yet been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in the Dorgesh-Kaan - Keldagrim Train Station that caused almost everything to become black and white. This has now been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in Dreamland during the Lunar Diplomacy quest that caused almost everything to become black and white. This has now been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in the Chaos Tunnels that caused almost everything to become black and white. This has now been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in Rantz cave near Gu'Tanoth that caused almost everything to become black and white. This has now been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in the Water Ravine Dungeon from Spirits of the Elid in the Kharidian desert that caused almost everything to become black and white. This has now been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting in the final room of The Lair of Tarn Razorlor that caused almost everything to become black and white. This has now been fixed.
• There was a glitch with bloom lighting when entering the rope swing pit in the Barbarian Ou

  File:Fish bowl.jpg

  A fish bowl with bloom lighting enabled.

  tpost Agility Course where the entire area became completely white except for the off-map areas which were black as normal.
• There is a glitch with bloom lighting in the Hopelessness Room in the quest A Soul's Bane that cause almost everything to become black and white.
• A fish bowl on the ground will glow. This may be a bug and has not been fixed.
• A lot of the bugs above were fixed on a Patch Notes update.