Update 1.0: The Second Beta — HD Garage, Glacier Map, and Music

Beta Phase Two for Update 1.0 is here! If you haven’t tried it out yet, there’s never been a better time to join the Beta, get hands-on with 1.0 and help fine-tune the update! Here’s what to expect:

Garage — Now with People and In Stunning HD!

The Garage has received a major renovation. The old Garage has been knocked down and now your tanks will been shown in all their glory amongst Mother Nature. Located deep in the forest, you might notice there are a selection of vehicles dotted around the garage.

Tanks are par for the course in any Garage, but there’s something you’ve never seen before — people!

The crew have set up camp and can be seen wandering around, sitting by the campfire or even chopping logs to fuel the fire. Crew members certainly bring a whole new level of atmosphere to your Garage.

At present, the crew cannot be interacted with. Come on, they’re busy guys after all and have jobs to do, they don’t need to be bothered!

I Need a Hero

There’s one tank you will notice in all its glory, the Hero. Displayed behind your selected tank, the Hero will change intermittently and just like your tanks, you can interact with it in great detail. By simply clicking on the Hero in the background, the camera will fly over and this tank will take the foreground and all its vital information will be displayed.

Also, at the bottom of the screen, you will notice the “PURCHASE” button, which if you click on, you will be sent to the Premium Shop. We would ask you to test out the feature properly to make sure that it works correctly. Don’t worry, you will not be buying anything and no in-game currency will be taken from your account, this is simply to see if it is working as intended.

Get Closer Than Ever Before

With the previous Garage, the maximum distance you could get away from the tank was 12m. Now, you can zoom out even further (perfect for viewing the gigantic Japanese super heavies).

You can also zoom in further than before so you can see a level of detail, you’d never noticed before especially if you’ve ever had trouble reading the script on a gun.

If you are inactive for a period of time, the camera will go to work and flyover the tank. This can be disabled or tweaked in the settings.

Also, when using the Garage, parallax scrolling is now in effect (meaning the screen moves with your mouse). If this is something that brings on motion sickness for you, don’t worry: the effect can be turned off in the settings as well.

Glacier

The latest map to be added takes you and your tanks to Scandinavia. Battle in the midst of ships lodged in the ice with these steel behemoths forming the very landscape around you.

The active zone for light tanks. Thanks to the landscape and terrain, you won’t be left out in the open. But be careful, those pesky tanks might be hiding up by the carrier.

Tank destroyer spots. Good viewpoints, often with concealment, and even with a thinly armored vehicle, you can still do some damage.

There’s a large number of small shelters that won’t protect you from enemy artillery fire here and bushes. It’s a perfect spot for the mediums and not a bad location for tank destroyers either.

Tank destroyer spots. Good viewpoints, often with concealment, and even with a thinly armored vehicle, you can still do some damage.

In the case of a successful enemy advance to the center, take position on top of the aircraft carrier. By controlling the aircraft carrier, your team can help your heavies break through. Even by locating yourself by the sides of the carrier, you can help support your team in the center.

Designated spot for heavies. The perfect place for the heavies to fight, covered from artillery fire, there’s a plenty of options to maneuver amongst the blocks of ice and frozen shipwrecks.

1. The active zone for light tanks. Thanks to the landscape and terrain, you won’t be left out in the open. But be careful, those pesky tanks might be hiding up by the carrier.

2. Tank destroyer spots. Good viewpoints, often with concealment, and even with a thinly armored vehicle, you can still do some damage.

3. There’s a large number of small shelters that won’t protect you from enemy artillery fire here and bushes. It’s a perfect spot for the mediums and not a bad location for tank destroyers either.

4. Tank destroyer spots. Good viewpoints, often with concealment, and even with a thinly armored vehicle, you can still do some damage.

5. In the case of a successful enemy advance to the center, take position on top of the aircraft carrier. By controlling the aircraft carrier, your team can help your heavies break through. Even by locating yourself by the sides of the carrier, you can help support your team in the center.

6. Designated spot for heavies. The perfect place for the heavies to fight, covered from artillery fire, there’s a plenty of options to maneuver amongst the blocks of ice and frozen shipwrecks.

Music to Your Ears

A large-scale project for the World of Tanks team, the new soundtrack was recorded by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and aims to create military “tank” music that is as authentic as possible for each map. Drawing inspiration from the music all across the globe, the music aims to match its locale. There certainly are some great tracks with hidden references in, see if you can find them!

Take a Listen!  

Encore

Don’t forget to test your system to see how well Update 1.0 will perform with the EnCore program. After all, we’ve optimized graphic processing so you can enjoy it on lower settings.

ENCORE  

Discover how you can join the Beta Test:

How the testing works

New to testing? Check out our handy guide to public tests.

Eligibility: All players registered prior to 21:59 CET (UTC+1) on 3 February can participate in the test.

Feedback: please post your general feedback about the test version and bug reports in the special thread on our forum.

Test client
  • Download the test client installer (4,9 MB).
  • Make sure you pick a save location that is different to your regular World of Tanks game files.
  • Save and run the installer.
  • Run the new copy of the game. The launcher will download all the additional data.
  • Log in and start playing.
Server restarts

The test server will be restarted regularly, according to the following schedule:

  • First Periphery: 04:00 UTC every day. Average duration will be around 25 minutes.
  • Second Periphery: 05:00 UTC every day. Average duration will be around 25 minutes.
  • Central Database: 09:00 UTC every day. Average duration will be around 2 minutes.

The test server may be subject to unscheduled restarts and maintenance.

feedback  


Head over to our dedicated forum thread to tell us what you think, and stay tuned for more news on Update 1.0

 

Preliminary List of Changes

Expand

New Garage

  • The Garage is implemented with the new graphics technologies of Core.
  • Added animated characters to the Garage.
  • New camera in the Garage:
    • The distance of zooming in and out depends on the selected vehicle.
    • Changed the distance the camera passes when zooming in/out (when scrolling).
    • Added the parallax effect upon camera rotation. The effect can be disabled in the General tab of the Game Settings.
    • If the player performs no actions in the Garage, the camera starts rotating around the selected vehicle. The option can be configured or disabled in the General tab of the Game Settings.
  • A promotion vehicle is added to the Garage (it is displayed on the background behind the selected vehicle). Players can hover the mouse over the vehicle and click it to move the camera to this vehicle. The vehicle technical characteristics and crew members are displayed in the vehicle preview window. Besides, players will be able to click the Purchase button to go to the vehicle purchase page in the Premium Shop.

Music and Sound

  • Each map will receive its own soundtrack that will include the following:
    • main theme for the loading screen that is played while loading a battle and during countdown
    • 2 interactive battle-related tracks based on the main theme that can be played almost infinitely without repeating
    • 3 ending themes for the battle results: victories, draws, and defeats.
  • These soundtrack sets are unique for each map in the game.
  • The new Garage sounds including the music theme played at the battle queue screen have been added.
  • The music and visuals of the login screen have been reworked.

Maps

  • Added the new winter map, "Glacier" (HD quality).

Changes to the Graphics and Effects

  • The new water has been added to all maps; now it varies: calm lakes, swift rivers, sea surf, etc.
  • Added new effects to all maps: fires, waterfalls, burning grass, sand blown by wind, artillery strike, bees, butterflies, etc.
  • Added realistic shell tracers.
  • Reworked all vehicle effects: moving, exhaust gas, vehicles set on fire, ammo rack detonation.
  • Completely reworked the effect of shells hitting various terrain types: added more details, scattered sparkles, and shards.
  • The track effects became more realistic; added realistic effects of drifting.
  • Reworked and added realistic decals (on vehicles) of shells hits. Now, the decals look more realistic with the Physically Based Shading (PBS) technology. Thus, the metal material and pattern look properly.
  • Added the "effect of hot air" to all exhaust gases, explosions, shots, and fires. The effect will also be displayed on the hot desert maps along the horizon.
  • Now, vehicles realistically interact with water: all water effects (driving across water, hits, etc.) now have water deformation, foam, and shock waves.
  • Deformation of grass and bushes: vehicle tracks flatten the grass, and the shock wave of shots and explosions realistically interact with grass and bushes.
  • The smoke and dust cast shadows.
  • Reworked all shards of the destruction effects: they look more realistic and detailed thanks to proper lighting and normal maps.

Other innovations

  • the boundary (red line) of the map can now be adjusted. It can be done in Settings / Battle Notifications / Map boundary.

Bootcamp

  • Bootcamp has been completely reworked into HD (including the corresponding Garage).
  • Battle loading screens have been reworked.
  • Minor changes to the Bootcamp difficulty.
  • Improved behavior of AI-driven vehicles.
  • Added new notifications displayed when shooting at enemy vehicles. They include:
    • notifications about causing damage to an enemy vehicle
    • notifications about ricochets and damage blocked by armor
    • notifications about critical hits 

Fixed Issues

  • Fixed the issue when at the standard graphics settings cloud of dust appeared around the vehicle and followed it.
  • Fixed the issue of several indestructible objects on the maps.
  • Fixed the issue when some trees had behavior of bushes, when interacting with them.
  • Fixed the issue of impossibility to open the crew member's Personal File, when the vehicle is in battle.
  • Eliminated artifacts on the Paris and Ensk maps at the minimum terrain quality (previously, the terrain texture were black or colored, while different terrain artifacts were visible to players).
  • Shell craters are now processed properly, and vehicles do not hover in the air.
  • Fixed the issue of black textures displayed on buildings located far from the player.
  • Now, all trees can be knocked down properly.
  • Fixed the issue of vehicles moving through several trees without knocking them down.
  • Fixed several bugs related to the terrain textures.
  • Fixed the issue of improper display (splitting) of vehicles when in the Sniper Aim.
  • At the beginning of a battle on the Mines and Mannerheim Line maps, vehicles are no longer spawned lying on the side.
  • Fixed the issue of the game client freezing upon exiting a battle.
  • Fixed the issue related to the vehicles featuring magazine reloading systems.
  • Fixed the issue of the Garage freezing after purchasing days of Premium account. 

Known Issues

  • Improper display of large knocked down trees on the Live Oaks map.
  • The suspension of some vehicles is displayed improperly at the minimum settings in the SD client.
  • When switching to the full-screen mode during the first login, the entire Garage background is green after automatic detection of the graphics settings.  To eliminate the issue, restart the game client.
  • Freezes in some cases when the player's vehicle is destroyed.
  • FPS drop in the sniper mode when aiming through semi-transparent bushes.
  • The map loading time may exceed the expected duration.
  • Low performance at the Ultra settings during the first seconds after loading a map.
  • Performance drops in some cases when switching to the sniper mode.
  • Performance drop when objects are destroyed by the HAVOK technology.
  • Improper names of settings in the game client.
  • It takes much time to load vehicle textures when entering a battle.
  • When in the full-screen mode, the signal (game) frequency does not correspond to the screen refresh rate.
  • The issue related to the vehicle silhouette outline.
  • Sometimes, decals are not displayed on vehicle armor upon receiving a hit, or decals are displayed in a different location.
  • Players can get to areas that are not intended for playing. Example: a pillbox on the Siegfried Line map.
  • Sound gets muted in one of the channels (left or right).
  • The sounds of receiving damage is not played.
  • The red flash effect displayed when a shell hits the player's vehicle is excessively bright and distracting.
  • Vehicle silhouette outline is not displayed when aiming at the vehicle through fences.
  • The terrain shape in the client differs from the terrain shape on the server on the Paris map at square K 3–4.
  • Players can get into the castle on the Himmelsdorf map.
  • Graphics artifacts are displayed in the sky on the Ruinberg map.
  • A rock is displayed hovering in the air on the Redshire map at square B8.
  • Artifacts are displayed on tesselated latices on the Himmelsdorf map.
  • Sometimes, the actual default condition of the map border does not correspond to the map border default option.
  • When playing on the Cliff map, wet vehicles are "flickering" at particular camera angles.
  • Shadows flickering on the player's vehicle in the Garage.
  • Gamma Settings may work improperly.
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