Testing Priorities

We decided to deploy maps to the Sandbox first, as it allows us the most flexibility in terms of hot fixes and other adjustments. As we test the HD maps together, our priorities are polishing overall gameplay and performance optimization. The main intention is to ensure visual improvements have an overall positive impact on the experience and don’t damage gameplay. Plus, we want to check how new maps run on your gaming stations, test a variety of presets, and ensure their release has no adverse effect on framerate and game stability.

Gameplay

When exploring reworked maps, you’ll f.i.n.d new objects here and there, and notice that some familiar areas got a solid makeover. Each map now tells a story of its own and doesn’t feel lifeless and abandoned. The mountain on the Mines was replaced with the ruins of a medieval castle. You’ll see a turned over tanker spilling oil on Al Halluf. There’s an ancient Greek temple overlooking the Cliff, and a giant artillery piece on the Steppes.

We injected maps with extra detail to give each battlefield a unique, distinguished flare and provide even deeper immersion. If you f.i.n.d yourself driving through the village on Westfield, for example, you’ll notice how much livelier it looks now, thanks to smaller, newly-added objects. They create a feeling that the battle you’re fighting is part of a much larger conflict with its traces seen everywhere.

We kept gameplay-defining elements where they are for the first 12 maps. Routes along with main gameplay themes and overall focus remain the same. If you look at the improved Malinovka, for example, the wide open field, hill, and houses are right where they were. Although the sheer number of new graphical content makes it appear unfamiliar and a little overwhelming, go ahead and do what you always do on Malinovka. Rush to the hill, use a house for cover, and scout the field in the first seconds of the battle. These time-proven tactics will work just fine.

NOTE: Further down the road, other maps might undergo a more solid makeover with sensible changes to gameplay. The graphics overhaul gives us a chance to fix long-standing gameplay issues you reported to us over the years, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

You’ll also notice that your tank causes ripples and waves rolling through a river and its tracks crush the grass, leaving traces. Worry not; these effects won’t give away your position as they’ll only visible to you and are there for the purpose of adding extra realism.

New elements, effects, and graphical improvements won’t change core gameplay on the 12 maps being tested, but seeing them for the first time might leave you confused for a second. Luckily, these are exactly the things we’re going to dive into today, in as much detail as possible, to get you battle-ready.

Visual Enhancements

Unlike vehicle models that we reworked for HD in batches over the last few years, applying the same approach to maps is virtually impossible. There’s more to the process than just creating realistic trees and terrain—we had to completely overhaul the underlying technological base— because enhanced visuals weren’t the only goal. This time round, we wanted to lay the groundwork for future improvements, which would let us advance graphics in tandem with technology.

Lighting, water, terrain, flora, sky—every single element you get on a map went through a proper makeover to meet modern graphical standards. These enhancements lead to a far greater boost in image fidelity than a simple resolution increase. Space is more realistically illuminated, battlefields feel more dynamic and active, and everything looks much clearer and nicer. It’s a staggering difference from the game as you know it. World of Tanks looks and feels differently now, but at its core remains the same game we all love so much. To deliver this level of visual fidelity, we used the latest Physically-Based Rendering technology for graphical content processing and rendering.

Revamped Terrain

Vast outland: Remember how scenery would morph into foggy nothingness several hundred meters beyond battlefield borders? Well, it doesn’t now. We added space by increasing the terrain to 32 km2. Each arena actually is a vast expanse of land now, and although it’s the same 1 km2 battlefield, you can see beyond its borders like you would in the real world. We used Outland technology to let you look into the distance and created unique terrain for every map, designing miles upon miles of outland.

Realistic textures: The old graphic engine limited texture blending to four layers, giving the land a somewhat artificial look that fell dramatically short of real 3D. The new graphics engine lets us blend 16 textures so that terrain looks truly volumetric, detailed down to the smallest blades of grass. There’s also a special procedural virtual texture that now delivers realistic landscapes with no added pressure on performance.

Terrain deformation: Let’s talk magic tricks. The one that most of you must have seen is the so-called ghost shell, when the damage the first shell caused to terrain disappears upon firing eleven times. We fixed it so you can fire as many as you want and still see where each went, and it’s now more vivid as the new effect deforms both grass and terrain.

Soaking: Have you noticed how a tank would come out of water completely dry? It must have raised about as many eyebrows as disappearing shell traces. With the new graphic engine, tanks do get wet, just like any other environmental object that interacts with water.