![War Thunder background](https://warthunder.com/i/bg-fon/site_theme_alpha_strike_hungary_aircrafts.jpg?v=)
- For PC
- For MAC
- For Linux
- OS: Windows 7 SP1/8/10 (64 bit)
- Processor: Dual-Core 2.2 GHz
- Memory: 4GB
- Video Card: DirectX 10.1 level video card: AMD Radeon 77XX / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660. The minimum supported resolution for the game is 720p.
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Hard Drive: 17 GB
- OS: Windows 10/11 (64 bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5 3600 and better
- Memory: 16 GB and more
- Video Card: DirectX 11 level video card or higher and drivers: Nvidia GeForce 1060 and higher, Radeon RX 570 and higher
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Hard Drive: 95 GB
- OS: Mac OS Big Sur 11.0 or newer
- Processor: Core i5, minimum 2.2GHz (Intel Xeon is not supported)
- Memory: 6 GB
- Video Card: Intel Iris Pro 5200 (Mac), or analog from AMD/Nvidia for Mac. Minimum supported resolution for the game is 720p with Metal support.
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Hard Drive: 17 GB
- OS: Mac OS Big Sur 11.0 or newer
- Processor: Core i7 (Intel Xeon is not supported)
- Memory: 8 GB
- Video Card: Radeon Vega II or higher with Metal support.
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Hard Drive: 95 GB
- OS: Most modern 64bit Linux distributions
- Processor: Dual-Core 2.4 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB
- Video Card: NVIDIA 660 with latest proprietary drivers (not older than 6 months) / similar AMD with latest proprietary drivers (not older than 6 months; the minimum supported resolution for the game is 720p) with Vulkan support.
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Hard Drive: 17 GB
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04 64bit
- Processor: Intel Core i7
- Memory: 16 GB
- Video Card: NVIDIA 1060 with latest proprietary drivers (not older than 6 months) / similar AMD (Radeon RX 570) with latest proprietary drivers (not older than 6 months) with Vulkan support.
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Hard Drive: 95 GB
In the upcoming big update War Thunder 1.95 “Northern Wind”, our game will look even better, thanks to the latest graphics technologies!
Scalable global illumination
Hi! This spring at the NVIDIA GeForce RTX Launch Event at Gamescom 2018 conference we presented our own vision of scalable global illumination for large scenes, Ray Traced Global Illumination, compatible with DirectX 11. We are already successfully using this technology for our other projects, such as Cuisine Royale and Enlisted. In the upcoming update, Ray Traced Global Illumination will appear in War Thunder at low and medium graphic settings for any GPUs with DirectX 11 support!
![](https://static.warthunder.com/upload/image/!%202019%20NEWS/12%20December/968_shot%202019_cec15920d11174f7a92073f8a657b879_12_cec15920d11174f7a92073f8a657b879_12%2018_cec15920d11174f7a92073f8a657b879_00_cec15920d11174f7a92073f8a657b879_15_cec15920d11174f7a92073f8a657b879.jpg)
![](https://static.warthunder.com/upload/image/!%202019%20NEWS/12%20December/968_shot%202019_1825ffe9f284abfa80dcdb26f9e6d807_12_1825ffe9f284abfa80dcdb26f9e6d807_12%2017_1825ffe9f284abfa80dcdb26f9e6d807_59_1825ffe9f284abfa80dcdb26f9e6d807_56_1825ffe9f284abfa80dcdb26f9e6d807.jpg)
In our game, there are three large groups of locations: air battles, mixed battles (a.k.a. “tank” locations) and naval environments. The prototypes for War Thunder locations are the most diverse corners of our planet - from the African desert to snowy Russia, from the Pacific islands to the American plains. For each group of locations, different times of the day are provided, from the first dawn rays to late at night, as well as the most diverse weather conditions - clouds, haze, rain, storm, blizzard, and so on. The nature and properties of global illumination for each location in any weather and time of day is an important feature of the picture, which gives the realism and involvement to what is happening in the battle.
Our Ray Traced Global Illumination technology provides natural, photorealistic illumination in the entire game world for every battle, automatically adjusting to the time of day and weather set by the mission conditions. Such illumination dynamically responds to in-game events - moving vehicles, tracks appearing on the ground, the movement of leaves and grass, explosions and the destruction of objects, creating naturalistic shades, sky illumination and reflective illumination.
The realism of the picture has grown, but the load on the gaming hardware has not changed. Is it possible? Yes! You will not notice significant changes in system performance either on PC or on consoles. As the update is released, only “medium” and “low” quality settings will be available. High quality settings for global illumination are expected next year.
![](https://static.warthunder.com/upload/image/!%202019%20NEWS/12%20December/968_shot-2019_1c3a3deded8d042dce26515426a0b359_12_1c3a3deded8d042dce26515426a0b359_13-18_1c3a3deded8d042dce26515426a0b359_57_1c3a3deded8d042dce26515426a0b359_43_1c3a3deded8d042dce26515426a0b359.jpg)
![](https://static.warthunder.com/upload/image/!%202019%20NEWS/12%20December/968_shot-2019_e21c73da83d047fe63ca6bf8ffc6c383_12_e21c73da83d047fe63ca6bf8ffc6c383_13-18_e21c73da83d047fe63ca6bf8ffc6c383_57_e21c73da83d047fe63ca6bf8ffc6c383_11_e21c73da83d047fe63ca6bf8ffc6c383.jpg)
![](https://static.warthunder.com/upload/image/!%202019%20NEWS/12%20December/968_shot-2019_0b980b1e6241577f8d0f24aeea167735_12_0b980b1e6241577f8d0f24aeea167735_13-22_0b980b1e6241577f8d0f24aeea167735_32_0b980b1e6241577f8d0f24aeea167735_32_0b980b1e6241577f8d0f24aeea167735.jpg)
![](https://static.warthunder.com/upload/image/!%202019%20NEWS/12%20December/968_shot-2019_ce9a75f13abb723ed317796feccf89dc_12_ce9a75f13abb723ed317796feccf89dc_13-22_ce9a75f13abb723ed317796feccf89dc_32_ce9a75f13abb723ed317796feccf89dc_10_ce9a75f13abb723ed317796feccf89dc.jpg)
HDR - High Dynamic Range
The dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and brightest parts of a picture. Modern technologies make it possible to add additional depth and realism to the picture, adding depth to the transitions of shadows and lights that are visible to the eye in such areas. For monitors and TVs with HDR support, we are able to make light sources brighter and add contrast to the image, while shadows and highlights will retain their naturalness.
HDR shows more color gradations, making banding artefacts disappear. Also, HDR presents more information both in dark areas of a picture (shadows), and in light areas.
![](https://static.warthunder.ru/upload/image/!2019/12%20December/DB/968_SDR_9bd7a6ccc112eb2e445b216a2fc6a359.jpg)
![](https://static.warthunder.ru/upload/image/!2019/12%20December/DB/968_HDR_a2ece8b94bdba53ec8f700c169bf5e67.png)
Since some monitors are unable to display HDR images, we want to show you the visible differences between HDR mode being on vs off with this comparison.
An HDR setup will be available to players on PC and Xbox: on computers, this option is enabled in the graphics settings, and for the XBox One X use the 4K HDR setting. HDR won’t affect system performance either.
Physical sparks
Another small improvement is sparks from hits, explosions, fires and shots with its own physical model. They occur at the moment of the shot at the muzzle of the barrel, at the moment the projectile hits the surface that can produce sparks - for example, armour; and also at the time of fire or explosion inside the vehicle when it is hit. Now sparks reliably fly away from the center, each spark falls off and dies out after some time, and at the moment of falling off, the friction force and elasticity of those objects along which each spark rolls over are taken into account. “Physical” sparks make battles more beautiful and do not require connecting additional resources of your system.
Previous development blogs
Comments (160)
Awesome changes
Fantastic.
By saying "As the update is released, only “medium” and “low” quality settings will be available.", does this mean that ultra low quality will be unavailable? If so, I won't be able to play anymore, and I have been playing for 5 years so that would be pretty disappointing.
The new global illumination will only be available at low or medium everything else will stay it just can’t have global illumination.
This is very welcome! Keep it coming :)
Wow, this is fantastic, Gaijin! Excellent work! o7
it's amazing!
Great ! But when we will get all this shiny stuff under Linux ? When will be Vulkan rendered released to public ?
All i see is too dark shadows and yellow everywhere. No thanks.
Update 1.95 "Northern Wind" when Gaijin?
S o o n
I think last year's December update was released on the 21st, so Northern Wind will probably come in the following week
Will planes get the same improvements at a later date, such as fires, sparks, smoke, debris falling off and etc?
Agreed. Plane damage mechanics are broken currently and need an overhaul. A more modular damage system would be nice, like only half of control surfaces being shot off, and even jammed avionics. Make it so flaps, aileron's, and other parts can get stuck in position from damage
shadowstrike115, mechanical/hydraulic/pneumatic flight control systems are not avionics, avionics is a portmanteau of "aviation" + "electronics", the closest avionics we have in game are tha radar systems for airplanes, that's about it.