Developer console

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:Debug Console

"2" redirects here. For the scenery from Lunar Diplomacy, see Two.

Console screen view with commands

The Developer console is a tool that was made available to players with the release of Z-buffering on 15 September 2010. It may, according to Jagex, "prove useful in tracking down the cause of more technical issues with the client on the computer." Jagex Moderators use the console to develop the game. The developer's console available to the players is a restricted version, so players cannot affect the game in any way with it.

A list of commands can be viewed by typing either help or commands in the console. It also displays the current build number in the lower right corner. The latest build number is build 926.4.

To get to this console on the desktop version, hold down Alt and then press the ` (quote/grave accent) or ² (superscript 2). It is found to the left of the '1' key on most QWERTY keyboards. The tilde ~ is on the same key on some keyboards. Typing in the alt-key code for "²" (Alt+0178) will also open the console. To open the console on RuneScape Mobile, perform a four finger swipe down. If it cannot be closed, try holding Shift while pressing any of these buttons or using the AltGr key. On Mac computers, it is opened using option and then <>. The console is usable on the login screen. At the moment, the developer console can only be used with an English keyboard layout (the extended and international versions will not work); however, the console can be opened on non-English keyboards by using the on-screen keyboard program.

Commands

The displayfps debug text

Command	Action
commands	Lists commands.
help
cls	Clears the console screen.
clear
cpu	Prints CPU information
displayfps	Toggles frames per second (FPS) and other information screen.
displayfpsfull	Toggles frames per second (FPS) and other information screen with expandable graphs. Only for NXT.
displayfpssmall	Toggles frames per second (FPS) display only. Only for NXT.
renderer	Prints graphics renderer information
heap	Prints Java memory information. Not in NXT client.
getcamerapos	Prints location and direction of the camera for use in bug reports.
deletejs5caches	Deletes the game cache. Only for NXT. Does not work in lobby.
enablesnow	Enable the snow effect in the debug console.
disablesnow	Disable the snow effect in the debug console.

All entered commands will be deleted upon logout and cannot be retrieved.

Player and Forum Moderators have no additional access to console commands; they only have access to the standard player commands, as the console is primarily only for Jagex Moderator usage.

Details

Throughout this section, the units used are of base 1024, rather than base 1000. For example, a mebibyte is 1024 kibibytes, which are 1024 bytes each (1 MiB = 1,048,576 B); as opposed to a megabyte being 1000 kilobytes, which are 1000 bytes each (1 MB = 1,000,000 B)

displayfps

The displayfps command is the only command that does more than print to the console - it toggles the debug text in the interface. The debug text appears in the top-right of the login screen and the lobby, in the Debug text box in customisable interfaces (which can be moved in edit mode), and to the left of the minimap in legacy interfaces.

The text displayed by displayfps is modified in the NXT game client compared to the Java client.

Java

The debug text has several pieces of information:

• Fps
  The current frame rate the game is running at - this is capped at 50 frames per second. In brackets, the render time of each frame is given in milliseconds (this is 1/frame rate, so 50 FPS is a result of a 20 millisecond render time). The higher the frame rate, the smoother gameplay will feel and the lower the frame latency.
• Mem
  The amount of memory current used by the game and the amount reserved by the game. This is the Java heap, an area of dynamic memory allocation managed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM); it is measured in kibibytes. This number turns red when more than two-third of the allocated memory is used. When the amount used gets too close to the amount reserved, the garbage collector is run, which will reclaim a large amount of memory at once.
• Game
  This shows various network statistics relating to the game server selected:
  • In
    The rate of transfer of data from the server to the client, represented in bytes per second. This increases with the more things that are happening around the character, like other players and NPCs moving and interacting.
  • Out
    The rate of transfer of data from the client to the server, represented in bytes per second. This is closely tied with the amount of inputs the player is giving to the game (resulting in more server queries): doing nothing has a minimal 'out rate', while rapidly moving the mouse over many objects (for example, a line of item icons in the bank) generates a large 'out rate'.
  • Ping
    A ping is a measure of network connectivity and latency, represented as the time for the client to send a small amount of data to the server, the server to generate a response, and the response travelling back to the computer (the round-trip time). The higher the ping, the higher the latency, commonly experienced as clicking to move, but not moving for a few game ticks (though there may be other causes for this). The lower the ping, the more responsive the game will feel - especially important for places where quick responses are necessary (such as bosses).
    A high ping has many causes, including but not limited to: The amount of bandwidth the client and other programs on the computer (or other computers on the network) are using, the geographical and network distance from to the ISP, the geographical and network distance from the ISP to the server chosen, whether there are any issues along the network, how loaded the server is (generally only applies to almost-full worlds or very busy locations), and to some extent, the load on the computer (generally only applies to very low CPU computers).
• Lobby
  This provides the same statistics as Game but for the lobby server the player is connected to. Only one of these will be active at a time (but both are always displayed).
• Offheap
  This is the current size of off-heap storage, measured in kibibytes. This turns red when it reaches 60 mebibytes. The off-heap is an area of memory which is not under the management of the JVM, so garbage collection does not occur. This is used to store data which does not change (models, text, etc) and may include any data stored on graphics memory (such as textures). This number generally does not reduce once it has increased - the only way to do so is by restarting the client.
• Cache
  This gives the percentage of the Jagex cache that is present on the computer. The percentage is given in two ways - presumably percentage of total size and percentage of number of files. If the cache is not at 100%, the game will attempt to download the remaining files. Playing with a very low cache percentage will result in many assets missing, such as opening the bank and finding it empty, as all of the item icons have not been downloaded yet.

NXT

Many of the points are only slightly modified versions of the above points. Several of the options have a live graph of the values, which can be hovered-over to expand it to a larger graph and some additional information. Graphs and values generally range in colour from red for the "worst" values through orange, yellow, green, and blue to purple for the "best" values (e.g. the higher the FPS, the closer to purple it becomes).

Below, "the current session" ends when changing worlds or exiting to lobby, and values tracked per session are reset.

• FPS
  The current frames per second as described above. Additionally shows the mean, minimum, and maximum FPS of the last 30 seconds. The graph shows FPS over the last 15 seconds, with lowest and highest points of the graph shown on hover-over (Peak FPS and Lowest FPS). If VSync is enabled (not set to "off") in Graphics settings, the maximum FPS is capped at what the monitor can support (adaptive) or 60 (on).
• Memory
  The amount of memory in use by the client, much like "mem" above. Memory in NXT is generally more actively cleared and doesn't rely on garbage collection like java. The graph shows memory usage over the last 15 seconds, and the peak memory usage of the current session is shown shown on hover-over.
• Disk Cache
  The amount of storage space used by the game on the drive. This is equivalent to "cache" above, but the percentage is replaced by the actual size. The full cache is around 8.5 to 9.1GB, depending on the amount of extra files left over from previous updates and/or NXT beta participation. The graph shows disk access over the last 15 seconds, with the amount of activity each tick and the loading queue shown on hover-over.
• Data
  Status of the data connection. If the cache is not complete, the game will attempt to download the remaining files, showing the total data send, received, and the rate here. The graph shows the transfer rate over the last 15 seconds, with no additional information on hover-over. If the cache is complete, it simply states Disconnected.
• Game
  Similar to "game" above, this shows the total bandwidth used by the game, with labels Sent and Rec (received). This is the total amount of data used by the game in the current session. Additionally, Ping is shown, which follows the above.
• Lobby
  When in the lobby, the "Game" line is replaced by "Lobby", which functions the same way. Unlike the Java client, the NXT client only shows one of these lines at a time.

renderer

Java

The renderer command prints a number of details about the current render mode and device to the console.

• Toolkit ID is the identification number of the rendering toolkit in use - 0 for safe mode, 1 for OpenGL, and 3 for DirectX.
• Vendor is the identification number of the specific software used to run on the machine.
• Name is the name of the render mode used - OpenGL, Direct3D (DirectX), Pure Java (safe mode).
• Version is the version of the renderer used.
• Device is the device the game is being rendered by (for example "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970") in DirectX and "geforce gtx 780/pcie/sse2" in OpenGL. Displays "CPU" for safe mode.
• Driver Version is the version of the driver the render device is using.
• Caps is a list of numbers which defines the capabilities of the render device and driver, used internally to determine if certain options can be used (e.g. anti-aliasing, bloom, etc).

NXT

• Backend is the name of the rendering API, which currently is only OpenGL
• Version is the version of the renderer used, which is usually related to the graphics driver version
• Vendor is the name of the manufacturer of the graphics processing unit (GPU)
• Renderer is the name of the rendering device ("device" above)
• Capabilities is a long, multi-column list of capabilities the GPU and driver support, much like "caps" above (but a list of variable names instead of just some numbers)

heap

The heap command prints the amount of memory reserved by the game to the console. This is given in the standard Java way with a single-character suffix if required, where K is kibibytes, M is mebibytes and G is gibibytes. The heap command is not available in the NXT client (as there is no heap size to query).

Developer Coordinates

This article has a calculator here. Calculators determine experience and costs based on real-time prices from the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

The getcamerapos command on the Developer console provides access to the developer coordinates, which allow one to precisely identify any game map square, even in map areas (such as dungeons) where the sextant does not work. For example, this is used to describe the Keldagrim penguin spawn. A map square is described in developer coordinates as a 5-tuple of non-negative numbers (z, x₁, y₁, x₂, y₂), with the origin in the unexplored ocean to the southwest of RuneScape.

The x₁ and y₁ coordinates identify a 64-square by 64-square map block, while the x₂ and y₂ coordinates provide the offset within the map block. The z coordinate gives the map level—0 for ground, 1 for the 1^st floor^[UK]2^nd floor^[US] of buildings, etc. While one might expect dungeons to be at negative levels, they are in fact at ground level, but in distant parts of the map, so descending into a dungeon is like teleporting to a different part of the map. Historically, entering a dungeon was in effect teleporting 200° due north. More recent dungeons have sometimes been placed wherever they may fit, and so the "southern" ground level end of the map and the "northern" dungeon level do not overlap cleanly.

When not in freecam mode, the returned Look coordinates will give one the location of one's character, however, as the look-at position of the camera changes in freecam, determining the developer coordinates of a location when using freecam takes two steps. First, align the camera to the north-south axis, use the developer console to find the camera position, and note the x₁ and x₂ values of the Pos coordinates. Then rotate the camera 90° around the point so it is along the east-west axis and again use the developer console to find the camera position and note the y₁ and y₂ values. Taken together, these provide the developer coordinates for the square towards which the camera was pointing.

The conversion from developer coordinates (z, x₁, y₁, x₂, y₂) to conventional coordinates (n_deg^° n_min^' [n|s] e_deg^° e_min^' [e|w]) is as follows:

$N=(64\times y_{1})+y_{2}-3161$

$E=(64\times x_{1})+x_{2}-2440$

If N is negative, the coordinate will be south of the observatory origin; if it is positive, north. Similarly, if E is negative, the coordinate will be west of the origin; if it is positive, east.

$n_{deg}=\left\lfloor {\frac {\left\vert N\right\vert }{32}}\right\rfloor$		$n_{min}=\left\lfloor {\frac {15}{8}}\times (\left\vert N\right\vert {\bmod {3}}2)\,\right\rfloor$
$e_{deg}=\left\lfloor {\frac {\left\vert E\right\vert }{32}}\right\rfloor$		$e_{min}=\left\lfloor {\frac {15}{8}}\times (\left\vert E\right\vert {\bmod {3}}2)\,\right\rfloor$

and converting the other direction:

$X=d_{ew}\times \left(32\times e_{deg}+\left\lceil e_{min}\times {\frac {8}{15}}\right\rceil \right)+2440;{\text{ where }}d_{ew}={\begin{cases}1&{\text{if east}}\\-1&{\text{if west}}\end{cases}}$

 

$Y=d_{ns}\times \left(32\times n_{deg}+\left\lceil n_{min}\times {\frac {8}{15}}\right\rceil \right)+3161;{\text{ where }}d_{ns}={\begin{cases}1&{\text{if north}}\\-1&{\text{if south}}\end{cases}}$

$x_{1}=\left\lfloor {\frac {X}{64}}\right\rfloor$		$x_{2}=X{\bmod {\,}}64$
$y_{1}=\left\lfloor {\frac {Y}{64}}\right\rfloor$		$y_{2}=Y{\bmod {\,}}64$

Alternative appearance

Occasionally the developer console will change appearance, usually in relation to an event.

• In build 666, the background colour changed from purple to red, a joke referring to 666 being the 'Number of the Beast' or the devil's number.
• During the Christmas periods since 2011 the developer console has featured snowflakes on the interface. The snow continues to pile up on the background until the interface is completely filled, taking roughly 45 minutes. Closing the interface or resizing the client window reset the snow status on the Java client. This was active again in 2017 but this time with updated physics and only visible on the NXT client.

• 

  Console as seen during Build 666 (with commands)

• 

  Console as seen during December every year since 2011.

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 12 October 2020 (Update):
  • You can now display your client's FPS on mobile.

• patch 1 September 2020 (Update):
  • FPS should no longer drop rapidly while curing a plant at the Livid Farm on Lunar Isle.

• patch 25 February 2019 (Update):
  • The festive snow in the developer's console has been disabled.

• patch 14 May 2018 (Update):
  • Fixed an issue where Ping was missing from the displayfps console command.

• patch 11 May 2015 (Update):
  • The debug layer which contains FPS and other stats is now movable.

• patch 28 November 2011 (Update):
  • The FPS display is no longer covered by the minimap.

Trivia

• Pressing the PgUp or PgDn keys on the keyboard can list the previously used commands in the Developer console.
  • When using the NXT client up-to the last 100 commands used will be inside this history initially.
• Text that has been copied from another source can be pasted into the console using Control-C (copy) and Control-V (paste). Text in the console can be copied using Control-A (select all) and then Control-C when the console is open.
• When the developer's console is open, clicking somewhere will have the normal effect. The keyboard commands, such as the F1-F5 hotkeys or the arrow keys that move the camera position, won't work until the player closes the developer's console again.
• When one enters a command, the time of entering it is displayed in UTC.
• The cls command will clear the console but will not delete the previously entered commands. When one has cleared the console and then presses Control-A, they will still select all hidden previous commands (and any commands not hidden). This can then be copied and pasted somewhere to see the cleared commands.
• For a period of time, the commands cam_shake_test and cam_shake_reset could be executed by players. These were removed in a hidden update.
• toggle_mobile is a command used by Jagex Moderators to switch the game interface into the mobile UI.