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Ground vehicles

11 new ground vehicles and brand new mechanic - commander's sight!

Devastating beauty of the nuclear blast!

Aircraft

Rank VII for most modern jets in line with the expanded 11.0 Battle Rating

Many new aircraft, including the MiG-23M and a premium F-5C in the famous Red Menace camouflage!

Naval Fleet

6 new naval vessels and a new naval shell chase camera view for better aiming!

New locations and missions

It's fixed №7

Ground vehicle DM improvements

We have changed the calculation of effective armour penetration in cases where a projectile hits several armour elements at once, for example, a junction of armoured plates of different thickness, or several vehicle parts. 

Previously, the resulting durability was equal to the sum of protection of all parts involved at the hit point. As a result, protection equivalent at a joint’s impact point might be excessively high.

Look at the hitpoint of a 120mm round to the Tiger’s front plate. The large projectile touches the edge of the driver’s  observation device. The new calculation algorithm selects a part with minimal overlap at the point of contact of the projectile. Touching the neighbouring part does not limit the effect of penetration anymore.

Previously, a huge obliquity angle might affect a penetration calculation at the juncture of several plates, and the effective protection could be incorrect.

Previously, a high calibre projectile could overcome the side plate on the King Tiger at an acute angle ignoring the large area of the front plate. As a result, only the thickness of the side plate was taken into the calculation.

It’s fixed now in the “Red Skies” update as well!

Additionally, a new animation of the overpressure damage has been added to the hit camera in battle and the protection analysis in the hangar. Also, a value of the heading angles has been added to the protection analysis for more precise research on the ground vehicle armour.

Master your knowledge!

Tail fin model revision

This change will increase the survivability of all aircraft in the sky and make air battles even more interesting!

Previously the stabilizer (horizontal tail fin) was in the damage model as an inseparable unit and in the case of receiving critical damage, was destroyed completely no matter which part of it was shot at. In such a situation the entire aircraft lost altitude control and was destroyed.

We have reworked this DM part for US, Soviet, German, French and Chinese aircraft plus all helicopters. Now the part of the stabilizer that received damage destroyed will be exact and the remaining part will keep functionality and will allow you with skill to reach an airfield.

In the near future we will also rework the British, Japanese, Italian and Swedish aircraft.

Control of tracked vehicles

We have improved the responsiveness of tracked vehicles in dynamic turns - the vehicles will become less inertial in the direction of the turn and they will be able to complete the maneuver faster when the turn control is released. This change is most noticeable in powerful and large vehicles especially in the AB game mode.

Targeting improvements for missiles

Global targeting improvements come to War Thunder missiles with semi-automatic guidance (mouse controlled): ATGM’s for ground vehicle and helicopters, as well as SAM’s on AA vehicles.

We have improved the guiding algorithm for a missile to follow the aiming point specified by you on your mouse. The new algorithm takes into account the movement of the target or the missile carrier much better, it guides more accurately and does not lead to a swinging in the trajectory of some missiles, both with automatic and manual tracking of the target. Launch at will!

Improvements on semi-active seekers

Radar seekers now have a target lock quality indicator, making it easier for you to understand the perfect launch moment and estimate the risk of the missile losing the target and self-destructing.

The signal-to-noise indicator is displayed as a ring that grows with an increasing change of locking on target. It shows how effectively the missile seeker can distinguish  the radar signal reflected from the target against the background. A changing colour in the ring from grey to red indicates that the signal-to-noise ratio is high enough to successfully lock on target.

The outer arc shows the actual signal-to-noise ratio for pre-launch locking seekers. A red colour means the target is locked and the system is ready to launch a missile.

For missiles that lock on target after launch, the arc shows forecasted signal-to-noise ratio after the missile is launched to the time of locking on target. A red color means the lock will be successful and a missile is ready to fire.

Fixing the torpedo detonation mechanics

We have slightly improved the mechanics of torpedo detonation under different conditions and from different impacts. Now the chance of torpedo detonation with its destruction will be from 3 to 7% (depending on the destruction conditions).

A torpedo onboard can detonate with a heavy fire and detonation of other nearby torpedoes. But detonation will not necessarily be the end for the naval vessel - the weight of the explosive mass and the detonation point will be taken into account and a fair damage will be calculated.

Virtual Reality reboot

Now War Thunder uses the OpenXR standard which provides better image quality, increasing picture sharpness compared to the previous implementation at the same supersampling settings. For example a picture at 100% SS in SteamVR is comparable in quality with 140% SS in the previous implementation! The new standard allows us to fix a lot of bugs, for example the incorrect display from the gunner position or blurred object outlines. 

We using asymmetric eye protections where the depth perception and display accuracy have been improved. Also in this update we have implemented TAA support in VR mode and the owners of the RTX GPUs will be able to use DLSS to improve performance.

In addition, VR owners now have access to all graphical settings including SSAO, reflection quality, and the effect of hot air. Simulator players in VR helmets will be able to capture and broadcast the game process thanks to the special “streamer” mode that allows them to show the image of one of the screens on the monitor in the usual resolution for the live stream!

This and much more waits for you in the game!

Check out the full changelog