Hello everyone! We recently introduced an updated version of the War Thunder graphics engine Dagor Engine 6.0, which brought many improvements to the game’s appearance. We are continuing to work on visual effects in the next major game update.

New effects for gunshots

After the introduction of the re-worked shot effects for aviation, we have improved the muzzle flashes for all guns in the game, both ground and naval.

Now guns of all calibres, from machine guns and autocannons to tank and naval guns, will receive the new shot effects. Muzzle fire is now modeled with particles, it has reliable reflections on the surrounding surfaces and perspective correction. The size of the flash depends on the calibre of the gun. The flash from a shot has received the property of photometric brightness, making it look more realistic. Large-calibre shots are now followed by voluminous clouds of muzzle gases, smoke and dust. The dust cloud from a shot looks different depending on the different types of surfaces: soil, snow, water or sand.

Physically-accurate caterpillar tracks

In the upcoming War Thunder major update, we will introduce physically-accurate caterpillar tracks for several armored vehicles. Such tracks will be the first to appear on a few of the most popular ground vehicles from various ranks; in the future, we will rework all tracked ground vehicles.

New caterpillar treads in War Thunder armored vehicles consist of separate segments - treads, each of which has physically accurate properties. When driving, treads have their own mass and inertia. When passing over humps and potholes, the caterpillar bounces on the wheels. During acceleration and braking, it tightens or whips, and also sways for some time after the vehicle stops. If your vehicle bounces on obstacles, rolls on to its side from recoil or being rammed, the caterpillar will sag under the force of gravity. When a shell hits a track, the tread  breaks exactly at the segment where the impact hit. If a tank drifts on stone or concrete, or turns sharply on asphalt, the all-metal track will give off a sheaf of metal sparks! Together with the reliable operation of the tank suspension, a realistic effect of the tank movement on different types of surfaces is created. 

GPU objects

 

Game location with biome enabled.

In the last Dagor Engine update, we made the surfaces in locations of the game more detailed thanks to terrain displacement mapping. In Dagor Engine 6.0, we have implemented a generation of landscape-native objects using your computer's graphics card. We have divided all locations in the game into several biomes, each of which has its own set of objects - rocks, pebbles, debris, plants, moss, mushrooms, and so on. These small details are created and placed on the stage using only the GPU, so they don't take up much hard drive space and don't slow down the game.

The War Thunder Team