- 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
Today, we’re taking a look at motion blur in War Thunder — what it is, how it’s implemented in the game, and what challenges we were facing. War Thunder goes to the movies!
What Is Motion Blur?
In a video game, images are created from scratch, each frame displays a single point in time.
Real cameras or even our eyes don’t work like this. Taking a picture takes time, and over this time the world doesn’t always stand still. If an object moves while we’re taking the picture, it will appear in all those places at the same time on the final image. This is what we call motion blur.
Explanation Of The Basics
To simulate the effect of motion blur, we need to know how every pixel has moved since the last frame. This requires all animations and moving effects to report their current and old positions. It can be one of the hardest parts of making this feature work. But thankfully we already had this working for anti-aliasing techniques. The few animations that didn’t support this became very easy to spot because motion blur turned them into a big blurry smudge. So we fixed them quickly!
For a starting point, we used a proven technique for implementing the effect, you can read more about that here. Basically we check where a pixel was in the last frame and where it is now, then we blur this pixel along the line in between.
To make calculations more efficient and smooth out some edges, the line is also blurred in the forward direction extending the line past the current pixel position. To speed things up further we make some decisions together for bigger blocks of pixels based on their general direction.
Each pixel’s distance from the camera also needs to be considered to let us blur the background and the foreground separately. The blurred line of a background pixel can sometimes pass behind a still standing, sharp object in the foreground. Other times we need to keep the background sharp while a foreground pixel is blurred on top. When two objects blur together in a single pixel, their individual speed is also important because sometimes neither must stay sharp.
Technical Challenges In War Thunder
Of course we needed to make some tweaks to shape it to our needs. To decide how to blur a pixel we need to know its speed. But what if there’s no single answer because there is more than one thing visible in the same point? Without special care, transparency is invisible to the algorithm.
In War Thunder, we have glass cockpits and colored light bulbs attached to planes flying over trees while breaking the sound barrier. So we needed to treat glass surfaces somehow. Here, we have completely different speeds all on the same pixel. The glass is steady but the forest behind it is very fast.
We ended up using a similar trick as with the background-foreground separation. If we see something through glass, we treat that as one category, while directly visible objects are another. We don’t blur one category on top of another but we allow mixing within categories.
This way we achieve images where the background is blurred through the glass but the glass itself can maintain its sharp silhouette.
Note: at the time of writing this post, special treatment of transparency is only enabled if Motion Blur is maxed out.
Limitations
Since we only have a single known speed for each pixel, fast moving transparent objects won’t be blurred, only the background objects you can see through them. This also means that reflections on such surfaces can only be blurred based on the background.
To create a perfect effect we would need perfect information. Even if we know a pixel’s screen position in both the past and the current frame, we don’t know what path it took between the two. We just blur it in a line, as if it was moving straight, which is almost always good enough. One important exception is the wheels of vehicles. Here, one point on the wheel can move to the opposite side in a single frame’s time. Assuming straight movement here is far from reality.
For the time being this issue is not solved, wheels will need a custom method for correct motion blur that works on different principles.
Is It Realistic?
Motion blur is visible not only for fast moving objects, but also if the camera itself moves. On film this is a very common effect, but in our natural vision the eye usually locks onto objects keeping the world more steady for us. Video game motion blur is cinematic — it looks like a real movie made with real cameras. But it’s not like seeing the world with your own eyes.
To better simulate human vision, we added an option to disable motion blur caused by the movement of the camera. This will still blur fast moving objects like planes flying by, or exploding debris, but will keep the image sharp when you’re just looking around.
Camera blur off, only the turret is moving
Turning the turret with full motion blur
Is Motion Blur Good For Our Games?
We hear this question a lot and internally had conversations about this as well. Some say it gives the feeling of motion and makes the experience more immersive. While others say it makes it harder to aim for moving targets, it removes clarity that’s important for competitive play. Well, they are both right. It’s a matter of taste and what you want from the game. If you’re most interested in winning and climbing the ladder, it may not be for you — feel free to turn it off. We’re completely fine with that. But if you’ve already won and you’re making a highlight reel from your replays, or just want to feel the speed as you’re flying, you can max it out and use it for a movie quality effect.
Comments (55)
Comments will be premoderatedmotion blur always off in games, despite the maxed out settings
Real, however I think in this game especially with the speeds it contains object blur could be nice
GamingCheeto, makes me and a lot of people motion sick and strains/ hurts my eyes. Its off for most people
In other games the overwhelming amount of players turn this feature off. In my opinion it is wasted development time. But maybe I am wrong.
Some will switch it off, some will leave it. Thanks to it game looks better.
Nobody realy likes motion blur. Its only nice for scinematics and stuff like that but for gameplay it just suxs
you=/= everyone
I very do like the Motion blur, your opinion isnt everyones
Glad you guys kept it as a personal choice without forcing it on like some games do these days. Motion blur makes me extremely nauseous in games so being able to keep it turned off is great for me. Good changes for those who want it, and great for those who dont.
Absolutely, I am very sick (not literally) of motion blur being forced on in game. Very thoughtful of them to give several options/quality levels so that people can manage framerates and what they want the game to look and feel like.
So, how we off the motion blur in the games?
In options.
Skimmed the article to find if I can turn motion blur off. Yes, I can. Happy.
Motion blur is the most annoying feature and always turned off in any game.
Gaijin just unleashed a new major player for cinematic action in this game. Absolutely amazing
so since this is such a needed thing we need, when are bomber cockpits getting properly modelled?
As we already stated numerous times, we do not have plans to create detailed cockpits for multiengine bombers.
Stona_WT, Cockpits for bombers would be really nice, and in my humble opinion (but i think a lot of people agree) a better feature than motion blur.
Personally I'm quite happy to see this, low flying in air SIM battles is gonna be a lot more immersive. I tried motion blur in the other fighter jet game and loved the perception of speed you were getting. Overall I'm so happy with all the new changes coming into the game, SIM battles are about to feel a lot more immersive
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