The whole reason for World of Tanks 1.0 update is that the existing Bigworld client engine simply couldn’t keep up with Wargaming’s ambition of keeping the game up to 2018 graphics standards. That’s why the team built the new Core engine, that could handle the new features all sorts of new technologies. So let’s take a detailed look at exactly what kind of new tricks and technologies the new engine uses.
Havok Destruction
A much requested feature, Havok’s middleware allows for much more realistic destruction and deformation of objects. A must for those moments when you just have to drive your Maus through someone’s house.
Glacier is the map World of Tanks level designers always wanted to build but just wasn’t possible in the old Bigworld client engine. The new Core engine on the other hand does the winter landscape real justice, properly rending the hot springs, geysers and ridges that make the map so distinct. Glacier is absolutely the best way to experience the new engine.
Global Illumination
In the new Core engine light now bounces off surfaces realistically, allowing objects to be lit by diffuse light bouncing off surfaces instead of just by direct light sources. It makes the world look far more real and connected.
Virtual Texturing
The new Core engine blends together all the textures needed to create a properly detailed battlefield, saves it, and then only shows those parts that the player sees. This means the game can use much more detailed textures without a performance drop.
Water Reflections
Water in World of Tanks now creates real reflections, instead of the simplified ones it used to. It now reflects shots, smoke and shadows as well as objects, and the reflections change depending on the angle the water is viewed from.
New Waves
Another water improvement: it’s no longer eerily calm. Now lakes, rivers and seas all behave differently, with ripples forming and waves radiating outwards until they reach the shore.
Adaptive shadows
Shadows are now calculated when the level is first loaded and only re-calculated when something changes. This gives a great boost in performance, and looks especially good on low end hardware.
New LOD system
The transition between distant objects and textures and their more detailed close range counterparts is now much smoother. There should be far less ‘popping’ and jarring transitions as you approach.
Better Tank Tracks
Obviously very important for a tank based game! Track motion is now calculated for each segment, meaning that tracks now move naturally and realistically.
Improved Particle Effects
High resolution particle effects now only appear only at the edges, with lower resolution ones in the middle. This makes for much better performance when the air is full of smoke and dust, as it inevitably will be when the battle is at its thickest.
Sponsored by Wargaming