Umbra 3 Middleware for World of Tanks

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Hello everyone,

so, we all know noone really reads the legal stuff that appears with each patch, right? Well, maybe we should, sometimes an interesting info (well, for those who know what this is) appears. It is known that for quite some time, World of Tanks uses the Umbra middleware. I think I heard the name mentioned very long time ago, like two years back? Either, Umbra logo was noticed in the 9.2 legal stuff by player Taifuuni:

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Further googling revealed a cooperation announcement (regarding Umbra 3) from April 2014 between Umbra Software and Wargaming.

So, what exactly IS Umbra 3 though? Well, check this out, this is from the Umbra 3 site:

 

 

Wargaming uses the Umbra software to increase World of Tanks performance. I actually wonder, how much does such middleware influence the game development itself, is it possible it influences for example the render distance?

35 thoughts on “Umbra 3 Middleware for World of Tanks”

  2. sounds like this could be the first step to bigger maps and higher render distance.

      • as long as they are not mirrored yes we dont need bigger maps
        but if we take the cliff case where they are mirroring the south side with the north side then there is a problem

      • What needed is fully accessible maps like Kharkov – its a 800×800 map, but feels like 1000×1000

          • Bigger maps, yes, but not THAT much bigger….1,5×1,5km at max. But definitely no more small maps like 600×600 or 1x1km maps where majority of terrain is useless(hidden village mountain)

            • If anyone has played the Kursk battle in WT you’ll understand the benefits of big maps. If you aren’t familiar with it then just go test drive a tank in WT, it’s the Kursk map.

  3. This might be good but i found out that it can be quite taxing on HDDs as you need to reload the files for the buildings and environments as you move your camera around.

  4. I think I remember seeing something about this in Guild Wars 2 as well I noticed Arenanet was one of the devs using it in the video pretty cool.

      • It’s not about shooting only. But yes, i’d ocasionally shoot at them :P , that’s what “sniper” tanks are for…

    • If you didn’t understand why the render distance is as it is, i will not go into it. But strap yoursel in because it will be a bloody long wait or that mod…

    • “Well, i’m still waiting for a mod that removes tank render distance…”

      If you remove the tank render distance, you wont see any tanks at all :D

  7. They use Umbra since they develope WoT. The only real new thing is that they now shift to Umbra v3 after 3 years. Umbra 3 was out there in 2011 and I talked about that with Overlord in the good old Q&A long time ago. In the past they said they will shift, but not when. So this is a really good news for all of us. Umbra is used for many decals and enviroment stuff in WoT and it is heavily multithreaded.

    • Well yes and no, it all depends on how WG implement v3. It can boost up fps in wide open maps and in city maps.

      • no it can’t, occlusion culling prevents objects to be rendered if they are hidden by other objects. on a open filed, there is nothing to occlude so no help through umbra

        • Its not only about the Occluder? Who said that? They are also streaming the enviroment and the depth buffer, beside the effect of the dynamic obejct handler…..

          SO its not all about the occluder. It is a main feature, but not the only one. I work with Unity and get in touch with Umbra, but what I am talking about…..

          • dynamic object handler – I’m assuming you talking about LOD levels, are handled in-engine
            objects in open maps are quite scarce

  9. AFAIK its one of the things that was preventing WG from implementing better multi-threading with their render

  10. Wow, the guy reading the stuff in the video has a very bad Finnish accent :s