Sound effects
Sound effects are effects incorporated into RuneScape Classic to enhance certain actions such as fighting a monster. They are a members-only feature and as such corresponding sound effects file would not be loaded on free-to-play worlds. There are 34 unique sounds that can be found while playing the game. Out of those, 3 are combat related and involve a set of 2 sounds - when it is the player's turn to attack and when it's the enemy turn. A sound called "combat1" was intended to be triggered when training at a dummy and when cutting a web, but no such sound exists in the client.
Many of the sound effects were created by long time Jagex sound designer Ian Taylor, who was working with a custom softsynth developed by Andrew Gower himself, and the rest were done with the help of Gill Gower.
Unique sound effects appear for the following actions:
| Action | Sound |
|---|---|
| Being under attack | |
| Retreating | |
| Fighting against armoured npcs or a player | |
| Fighting against undead npcs | |
| Fighting against all other types of npcs | |
| Fighting against a dummy / Cutting a web | |
| Being victorious after the fight | |
| Dying after the fight | |
| After issuing a projectile | |
| Running out of ammo | |
| Casting successfully a spell | |
| Failing to cast a spell | |
| Activating a prayer | |
| Deactivating a prayer | |
| Recharging prayer points at an altar | |
| Passing through a secret door | |
| Opening a door | |
| Closing a door | |
| Filling a jug, pot, or bucket | |
| Taking an object (Picking it up) | |
| Dropping an object | |
| Paying at a shop | |
| Eating | |
| Picking up from a resource field such as wheat, potato, etc | |
| Operating something such as hopper or spinning wheel | |
| Clicking on an inventory item to equip | |
| Cooking | |
| Fishing | |
| Mining | |
| Doing prospect at a rock | |
| Finding a gem whilst mining | |
| Cutting a gem | |
| Smithing at an anvil | |
| Mixing ingredients | |
| Advancing a level |
File format[edit | edit source]
RuneScape Classic uses an early API for sound in Java from Sun Microsystems that is now deprecated. Each sound effect is stored as headerless mono 8000 Hz mu-law (see μ-law algorithm). This is very low quality, and comparable to a standard phone call in North America and Japan.
The format is identical to the original version of the Au file format, which would normally use the .au file extension. However, despite not using standard linear PCM encoding, Jagex chose to use the .pcm file extension for these audio files.
In Unix-like operating systems implementing Sun's audio interface, such as illumos and NetBSD, the RuneScape Classic sound files can be played by piping them to /dev/audio. For example, to stream the death sound effect on NetBSD: ftp -o - https://chisel.weirdgloop.org/rsc/files/sounds1.mem/death.pcm > /dev/audio
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- The Strange looking wall in the Crandor and Karamja dungeon does not produce the sound of a secret door, despite being classified as one.
- There are places where the opening and closing doors sound effects play consecutively. Notably the gates that re-lock themselves after being open.
- Sound effects such as those for cutting down trees, making a fire and other ones never got into Runescape Classic.
- In Runescape Classic hitting a dummy triggers a sound effect with no duration. This was possibly an oversight or could have been forgotten.
- Some skills feature both a sound effect and a bubble.
- The cooking sound effect is a recording of Andrew Gower's mother cooking bacon in her kitchen.
| Features | |
| File formats | |