20.3.2014

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Okay, today’s news – FTR was down for half a day and we don’t know why, something created insane traffic, but it seems to be alright now. We think someone hotlinked the pictures from FTR too much. Sorry for that, everything should be fully functional right now.

According to Storm, 9.0 test will come tomorrow.

- regarding WoT Blitz, “developers are more familiar with iOS than with Android”, that’s why iOS version comes earlier (there however will be android version as well)
- regarding the T-54, Tiger and Sherman models, released today: each of them is a bit graphically different. This is intentional: there are several ways that the developers (graphic designers) can follow and the goal (of test 9.0) is to find out, which one do the players prefer and then to follow it
- in first round of 9.0 test, only 3 HD models will appear (T-54, Tiger, Sherman), the remaining 7 will come in 2nd round
- the rest of the models will apparently be reworked to follow one of these three variants in style


- the HD color of Tiger is historical Panzergrau
- the HD T-54 hull is the “new” one (with log in the back), it will get the older hull once alternative hulls are implemented as well
- the HD T-54 turret shape is correct, there were several types of shapes and mantlets
- the fact T-54 HD model doesn’t have holes in tracks (and the other two HD models do) is a bug, it will be fixed
- currently, the best modelled (material-wise, eg. metal and such) HD tank is the Sherman, the fact it looks a bit like a plastic toy is actually historical, it looks much like the real vehicle (where Tiger has it a bit worse)
- 9.0 test will come out “within days” (Evilly states that if all goes well – this week even, but it won’t be a regular 9.0 test of a complete patch, rather than a partial test of the components, that are already finished)
- Storm stated that the fact that the Tiger I in game looks very smooth (as in, the paint is glossy and smooth) is historical, that’s how the vehicles looked (unless they were repainted 50 times)
- all German models will become darker, they will be repainted the way the HD Tiger is
- Q: “Want rust and dirty look? Go play the other game” (SS: War Thunder)
- War Thunder Tiger model looks really good, because according to Storm, it was a showcase model where many polygons were used, while later models have significantly fewer polygons
- Maus HD model is being worked on
- the main goal of test 9.0 will be the testing of historical battles
- HD IS-3 will come either in 9.1 or 9.2
- apparently, the IS-3 model is, angle-wise, correct as it is now
- this year, improved graphics will transfer to DirectX 11
- Dx11 support will come after multi core support
- according to BigAngryCat, there was a small issue with the Sherman texture. Apparently, the first idea was that under the scratches in paint, there should be primer color visible. It turned out that Americans actually didn’t need to use primer, because they actually treated the armor so that its surface was sort of “rough” and the color “soaked” into it, creating a very persistent layer of paint
- alternative hulls will come in 9.4 or later
- HD models (updated ones) will have the independent suspension
-

One more Tiger I comparison

Old:

old

New:

new

Oh yea, and Storm’s “leak”: new hangar (premium)

hangar

And Sherman:

sherman

93 thoughts on “20.3.2014”

  1. Hmmmm Sexy. Also notice when they update the small things it is normally unnecessary. Normally modders were far ahead of them. Modders make so many different hangars its ridiculous.

          • Omfg, you dont need new pc, you might need new pc if you will enable havioc in the future or run at high settings. But yeah if you can barely run wot as it is now on low/medium then yes you need a new system, which can be build pretty cheap with used parts. Stom whining.

    • Just give me the outdoor Christmas ‘hangar’ w/o the decorations.
      Camo tanks look great ‘in’ them.

  2. “apparently, the IS-3 model is, angle-wise, correct as it is now” i call this bullshit

    • Storm stated that the fact that the Tiger I in game looks very smooth (as in, the paint is glossy and smooth) is historical, that’s how the vehicles looked (unless they were repainted 50 times)
      - this is bullshit too.. Tanks with gloss paint historical? Lol, just lol. if a tanks is painted glossy is easier to see it because the vegetation is matt. The tanks were painted matt whatever storm says…
      Correct me if I’m wrong

      • Here’s the correction: you’re seeing the stock color that the things had when they exited the factory. So they’d be actually be brand spanking new.
        Once on the field, they’d become dusted out, painted in whatever color suited the fighting environment best that came over the stock paint.

        As no cammo paint is available yet…

      • Try paint a metal – it will be glossy… Tracks should be little rusty – and that’s all. (and all WT tanks are much too much rusty)

        • Yeah tanks are painted as not to rust, jeez. The only thing that comes from wear and tear are the shiny edges where the paint gets scraped off, but there rust can’t form because the spot is being scraped over and over.

          • The steel used in tanks was also of higher quality than mild steel and does not develop a patina nearly as quickly.

            Look at the T28/T95, it has no paint, a heavy patina. but little pitting of the steel. (http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/33935936.jpg) And that thing has been sitting outside for decades, not days-months like most tanks built in WWII.

        • Hmm, didn’t know that. Thanks !

          But

          I still think that the in game models are still far to glassy compared the the real tanks

        • Paint metal with gloss paint, it will be glossy, paint metal with matte paint, it will be matte.

          You’re right about the rust, only tracks and places where paint is damaged will have a patina.

        • Wouldn’t the tracks of a tank that’s in active use also be fairly rust-free on account of the constant mechanical action scraping it off?

          • It’s rare to see rust on the tracks or road wheels of an active duty tank; for one they’re moving a lot and they also are the most commonly replaced components in regular maintenance. The areas of a tank that get the most rust are the corners of the hatches where water can collect and sit for long periods of time.

        • funny thing in WT you can have both, shiny new factory tank or rust bucket, or anything in between. The power of textures, hell you can even have your own skin and every one see it.

          • Your own skin and everyone able to see it? Dear lord that sounds awful! I can just imagine driving around in my battle worn Tiger and then someone pulls up beside me in a My Little Pony styled Panther. Eugh…

            • yeah cool for him hes dead anyway in 10 seconds because he will be spotted across the map thanks to his shit colors

              • Haha! That’s why you use a flat black “Nightmare Moon” Skin… MLP has got every color covered :D

  4. The new Tiger looks… weird. I don’t know why, but there is something odd about it.

    • Maybe because it’s not rusty anymore? (And those drunk repairmen painted it even more dark.)

      • That’s how it actually would have looked when it was new. Your perception is probably biased by the fact that you’ve only seen old Tigers and grainy, dirty footage. The only functioning one, in Bovington, has desert camouflage paint if I recall correctly, so it isn’t really comparable. The metal also probably isn’t very smooth anymore, and they retained (and even highlighted) the pits in the armor that disabled the vehicle.

        In short, like so many people on the internet, I’m afraid you’ve fallen victim to believing that “reality is unrealistic.” See: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic

    • definatelly, that is not how I imagine a Tiger tank, nor how it looks in real life footage. I think that the old one is better, less HDfullres1080p3Dohmygoditcomesoutofmymonitor, but still looks more “familiar”

      • Authentic real-life footage tends to be shot with monochrome Forties camera equipement and film-developing techniques.
        The things might as well be *pink* for all you can tell from the average period photo.

    • Well, first of all it’s painted black (dark gray) for some odd reason, and secondly they picked some very weird shader… I guess (hope) it’ll look much better in the game while moving.

      • It is because is worse modeled than the rest of the HD tanks. Look at their wheels: are flat with a texture and no poligons. Don’t know why.

        • Take a closer look and you’ll see they new wheel are (or at least appear) now properly circular instead of the old thinly disguised polygonals. And given that this pattern of roadwheel looks like *this*…
          http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/TigerI_Saumur.jpg
          …and the inner wheels are barely visible in most circumstances anyway it’s not hard to see why they’d just normalmap it. At least for the time being.

          I’ll give you there’s always a risk of attracting mutant ninja turles that mistake them for pizzas though.

  6. Hm… in comparison with other tanks, old Tiger looks enough nice. And it’s gonna be some more better.
    And Tiger’s hangar photo… Oh, Viktor, it’s awesome!

      • I hope they do not mean their “Havok brings Multi-Core support” line from the Physics video but true multi-core support for the game as a whole.

        • Yep. If that “multi core” means “physics will be multicore, game engine not” then people complaining about performance won’t notice any difference.

  8. So, uh, if the garage used to stress GPUs as it were, now I guess it’s gonna fry GPUs of 50% of the playerbase :)

    • Hotlink is when you post an image link in your website or fb account. The image displays but it is being “read” from the original site where the image file resides.

      Many blogs and websites restrict hot linking since it can eat bandwidth like a hungry man in a feast.

  12. Is it just me or anybody else noticed the Willys MB and the KV poster (and mybe a Panzer 2 under the rug?) ? “Authentic”. :)

  14. Pfff, all the fuss about new tank models….hardly any difference, especially whilst playing the game so better start improving gameplay plz!

  16. Now, I think I’ve got their trick to make HD models.

    First, they take the 3D texture & shadowmap of a non-HD-textured tank, which is, say, 2048×2048 (vertically and horizontally, remember that the *.dds textures we use in WoT are square) pixels in size. After that, they re-make them into something 2 to 4 times bigger in size, say, 8192×8192 pixels. Then they apply this new “HD” texture to the tank model file and voila! You have a HD-textured tank.

    As for the improved suspension, they just added some more joint points to the model files.

    Correct me if I’m wrong, as a graphical designer and a programmer, this is the way I’d do it.

    • The larger the texture the larger the drop in FPS. HD models involve more polygons, thus the wheels become more round instead of being dodecagons (12 sided polygons). This also means that the 3d model will need more maps to cover it. It is very unlikely that the texture themselves will be larger than 4096×4096.

      • The “Tiger” tank comparision pictures hint that they only increased the texture size for now… Because I didn’t see any model-wise changes as the models were seemingly same in size.

          • Ja, I did… Well, it HAS changed, but only a very tiny bit… Just a couple re-made corners here and there… Pssh. Tiger deserves a better re-model job.

                • Just realised but you can see the “old skool” smooth-faced dish wheels on the VK36H (logically enough) – and honestly, they’re not much to look at. HD ain’t gonna do much about that since there’s very little detail to work with in the first place.

            • The polygon count has increased a lot. Cylinder objects like the gun barrel or the road wheels are more rounded instead of squarish like in the old model. To achieve near circular perfection means that the polygon count has increased per object. There is more to a model than just the texture. The underlaying 3d frame structure is more important than the map and it can choke a low power computer very easily.
              Each vertex in the model is a point that must be calculated for movement. It follows that a 3D object with more polygons will put a higher strain in a computer. For these HD models, low end computers need not apply.

              • HD models will be optional as fas as I have heard, as well as all other graphical improvements. You will still be able to run on low end settings, or the textures will be lower res like it is now on low.

  17. I prefer the old Tiger textures with the dirt/mud in certain places. The new one looks too shiny.

    • That tiger is factory fresh. The old one has at least 3 coats of paint and been in the field for a while.
      My tiger has cammo so I want to know how the HD version of the cammo will look like.

  18. “It turned out that Americans actually didn’t need to use primer, because they actually treated the armor so that its surface was sort of “rough” and the color “soaked” into it, creating a very persistent layer of paint”

    The surface treatment process was most likely Parkerizing or phosphatizing which is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of an electrochemical phosphate conversion coating. The converted surface layer is absorbent and has good oil and oil based paint retention properties.

  19. new tigers paint job, while nice, looks far darker than anything i’ve ever seen

  20. So.. what’s the difference in style between either of these? Looks for me like it’s all the same style.

    Oh, and BTW: I always thought that Tigers weren’t painted BLACK.

  23. Another thing…
    If you look at this picture of a Tiger I than they might be correct… you can see it was taken during the day time, sunny day and it still looks kind off black-ish : http://ron.heavengames.com/cpix/library/articles/modelingtutorial/TigerIref.jpg
    something similar: pz 38 http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/ww-german-panzer-t-light-tank-summer-black-white-34479419.jpg

    And here is a picture of a brighther one … more like the old model:
    http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/567387-1/424940

    But i dont know… pictures were taken with a different !black-white! cameras, in a different lightning, (except for the pz one and the tank was repainted anyways)

    • You ever even seen what blender can do? I could make a better looking tank than these using only blender. A crap artist with expensive tools is still a crap artist