War Thunder News

To mark the release of the Firebirds major update, we’re presenting a trophy today that includes 40 camouflages from 38 authors from WT.Live! You’ll find 18 camouflages for ground vehicles, 18 for aircraft, 2 for naval and 2 for helicopters for most ranks and nations. Since this is the second autumn trophy, we’re traditionally returning several of the most expensive and popular camouflages from previous trophies. In addition to camouflages, you can get a unique decal and rare vehicles — and all this is in the form of coupons!

[h2]Contents of the Firebirds trophy:[/h2]

• Coupons for rare vehicles.
  
• 18 camouflage coupons for ground vehicles.
  
• 18 camouflage coupons for aircraft.
  
• 2 camouflage coupons for naval vessels.
  
• 2 camouflage coupon for helicopters.
  
• Coupon for the “Firebirds” decal.
  

Some camos in this trophy:
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[h3]

To unlock the trophy, you’ll need the new “Firebirds” key that can be purchased on the Market for GJN. Read more about the Market and Gaijin Coins on the Wiki.

[/h3]

[h2]How to get the trophy[/h2]
Camouflage trophies can be earned with a certain probability after any battle on vehicles rank II or higher, with activity of no less than 50% (except for [Assault] PvE mode). PlayStation and Xbox players can purchase the trophy in the Item Shop and open it with Golden Eagles. Read more on our Wiki.

PC players must purchase a key from the Market to open the trophy, with part of the cost going to the camouflage creators. You can activate a key from the trophy on your account or sell it on the Market for Gaijin Coins — just like the trophy itself.

You can become a creator of user camouflages — check out an updated guide on our wiki! It will bring you both glory and real money as a part of the War Thunder partnership program!

[h3]Meet Firebirds, War Thunder’s second to last 2024 major update! [/h3]

Immediately worth mentioning is that the F-117A has joined the ranks as a squadron vehicle, providing brand-new stealth capability to the game! Several jet aircraft including the Tornado GR.4, Su-34 and F-15E Strike Eagle have entered the fray, as well as several cockpit remakes and two brand-new helicopters. As for ground vehicles, Firebirds focuses on lighter vehicles and filling gaps, including the Skink and T77E1 SPAA for the US, Ram II and Scimitar for Great Britain, the PLZ05 for China and three Dutch Leopards for France. Dunkerque takes center stage for naval, while the Abandoned Factory map has received a visual update, providing a freshened experience for tankers. Test flights have been greatly expanded with more enemies, options and new airfields, and lastly the game has seen a large amount of updates to graphics & effects, including Ray tracing, new afterburner visuals, LERX vapor and much more.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]There’s many fixes, new vehicles and other features — take a look at what we’ve included in this major update.[/h3]

Please feel free to leave your feedback on this Major update in the feedback thread here.

[h2]Ground Vehicles: SPAA & Lighter Vehicles Take the Spotlight[/h2]
Firebirds sees the addition of several lighter vehicles to fill many roles in several trees. First off is the Scimitar, Luchs A2, ICV (P) for Great Britain, Germany and Japan respectively, and the BMP-2MD squadron vehicle for Sweden, giving their respective nations more diversity in multiple lineups at their ranks. We’ve also supplemented the US’s SPAA line with the T77E1 and Canadian Skink, giving this nation some additional anti-air capability across more Battle Ratings. The USSR now has the Object 140 premium tank, Israel the Sabra Mk.1, Great Britain the premium Ram II and China the PLZ05. Several nations have the Osa-AK added to their SPAA lines, and France has received three Dutch Leopard variants to give top-tier lineups more options.

Object 140 (pack)

[h2]Aircraft: Stealth Technology Enters War Thunder with the F-117A![/h2]
Something special and unique has come to the game in the Firebirds update! Please welcome the F-117A, a squadron vehicle aircraft with a lower IR and radio signature thanks to its stealth technology. For other nations, the Su-34 and Tornado GR.4, both featuring the brand-new to the game “Grom-2” guided bomb and “Brimstone” guided missile, plus the famous F-15E Strike Eagle, all providing supreme CAS capabilities. Three new jet premiums, the Thai AV-8S Harrier for Japan, JA37DI for Sweden and the Su-22M4 for Germany provide these nations with some additional research options. We’ve also given several aircraft cockpits an update — check the full list below!

F-117A OCIP II (Squadron Vehicle)

[h2]Helicopters: South African Super Hind & Cockpit Updates![/h2]
Another South African helicopter enters the fray — meet the Super Hind for Great Britain! This squadron vehicle brings with it the devastating tandem warhead Ingwe missile, capable of striking fear and devastation into enemy tanks. The USSR now have the modern Mi-8 AMTSh-VN, a powerful beast with Ataka missiles, a premium Pakistani Mi-35M for China and lastly cockpits for the OH-58D and A-109EOA-2 have been updated with a ton of detail.

Super Hind

[h2]Naval Fleet: The Formidable Dunkerque Takes Center Stage![/h2]
France’s top tier naval capabilities have been greatly extended with the addition of the Dunkerque Battleship, featuring two turrets with eight 330 mm (13 inch) guns and excellent armor! Great Britain now has HMS Repulse with 381 mm (15 inch) guns, comparable to the HMS Renown already in the game through a previous event. Closed beta testing of the French Coastal fleet has ended as well, meaning you can research any of these boats without needing to have a pack or complete tasks.

Dunkerque



[h2]Locations & Missions: Visually Updated “Abandoned Factory” Map![/h2]
We’ve given Abandoned Factory a makeover! This map has been visually updated in almost every aspect. The aim of this graphics update was to give the map a more up-to-date look and a greater “abandoned” feel with the addition of more foliage and broken structures.


Additionally, with no new location in this major update, we’ve taken the time to improve some of the older maps as well. Please check the full details in the changelog.

[h2]Airfields & Test Flights: Greatly Improved To Provide A Better Experience[/h2]
In Firebirds, we aimed to greatly improve airfields and test flights. We’ve not only improved aspects inside of them, but have also added several new options. Firstly within the test flight itself are more enemies to shoot at as well as bases to bomb. Airfields now feature better and richer details such as a taxiways, a control tower, hangars and finer details such as aircraft skid marks at each end of the runway. These new airfields are also available in standard, high-ranked Air battles.


Three new options have been added to the test flight menu! One long-awaited feature is the ability to spawn in the air instead of just the airfield, with altitudes ranging from 500 m to 7 km for planes and up to 2 km for helicopters. You can also choose several location types and the rank of enemy targets, and carrier-based aircraft can select an aircraft carrier or airfield to spawn at. Additionally, you can choose a hostile air defense zone to spawn at — in these areas SAMs and SPAA will attack your aircraft, allowing you to test out defense ranges and your evasive skills.




[h2]Graphics & Physics: Beautiful Visual Upgrades and Moveable, Non-Playable Vehicles[/h2]
Firebirds brings with it a wide variety of upgrades for graphics and effects all across the game. From new afterburners to LERX vapor on aircraft, to new rain and snow effects for maps, to more dynamic fires on ships and debris from destroyed vessels floating on the water, there’s an update everywhere you look! Tracer visibility has also been greatly improved, helping you to better aim your shots (or draw a love-heart in the sky!). We’ve taken great care to ensure that these new graphical improvements don’t impact game performance. There’s plenty more, with the full list in the changelog.

Train carriages and most non-playable vehicle map assets were previously completely static and could not be pushed. In Firebirds, we’ve made it so that train carriages can be moved around with ground vehicles, which will provide new gameplay elements through this new form of soft moveable cover. Cars located on all maps have received new destruction physics, allowing them to deform and not necessarily stay in place when destroyed.



[h2]More Graphic Settings & Ray Tracing Comes to War Thunder![/h2]
War Thunder now has a Ray Tracing solution that doesn’t cut corners. We have all maps in ray tracing structures, and it can perform a range of graphical features based on it! The following Ray Tracing options have been added to the game. A description of each one is mentioned in the major changelog.

• Ray Traced Shadow Maps (RTSM)
  
• Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO)
  
• Ray Traced Reflections (RTR)
  
• Ray Traced Water Reflections
  
• Ray Traced Translucent reflections
  

A new graphics API option (Direct3D 12) and new anti-aliasing options (FSR 3.1, DLAA, XeSS and TSR) have been added to the graphic settings menu. Additionally, the graphic settings menu has been given an overhaul! We’ve added in-game screenshots and clearer descriptions for each setting, allowing you to see exactly what each one changes.



[h2]Following the Roadmap: Portable Ammunition Boxes[/h2]
Boxes of ammunition can now be built in ground battles, with these boxes allowing you to replenish ammunition outside of capture points anywhere on the map. To build, simply press the default key shown on the hotbar in-game and place the ammunition box down when it turns green, meaning it can be placed. There’s a small construction time, but once done a physical box and ammo icon will appear! From here, you can drive near it and your ammunition will start to replenish.



Only specific vehicle types can build ammunition boxes. They include: Tank Destroyers, ATGM carriers (stat card type, not any vehicle with an ATGM), all SPAA vehicles and ground vehicles with additional rockets and bombs (Calliope, M26 T99, RBT-5, Cromwell V (RP-3), Matilda Hedgehog, Magach Hydra).

[h2]Following the Roadmap: Profile Expansion![/h2]
Your player profile is the perfect place to see the stats and details of your account that you’ve accumulated over the years. We’ve improved this area to make it feel more personal. The profile menu is now fullscreen and all important aspects are shown on the main page. Please bear in mind this is only the first stage of profile improvements, more will be coming down the line — we’re working on some cool things.



[h2]Shot Replays: See Where Your Shots and Enemy Hits Landed Post-Battle[/h2]
Ever wondered where your vehicle took a hit or where your shots landed on an enemy? We've added a new feature that lets you see exactly that! Simply click the "Hit Analysis" button to simulate the incoming and outgoing shots from your previous battle. Each shot is individually labeled, showing the type of projectile used and the range it was fired from. This feature works for all vehicles and all ammunition in the game.



[h2]Awards: New Awards For Your Efforts[/h2]
Ever shot down a nuke aircraft after they dropped the bomb? Or have you gained enough spawn points for your nuclear aircraft but didn’t manage to drop it before the battle ended? We’ve added two new awards, “The end is near” for shooting down one of these aircraft that has already dropped their nuke, and “One minute to midnight”, awarded for completing a mission while in a nuke aircraft without the nuke detonating. Each award will give you some Silver Lions.


[h2]There’s plenty more to see![/h2]
That’s it for this news, but be sure to check out the full list of changes in the provided changelog, as there’s many bug fixes, improvements and additional vehicle changes not mentioned here. Let us know what you think and be sure to leave your feedback on our forums and official social media channels — we’d love to hear.

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Due to spatial constraints, the full changelog cannot be listed below.[/h3]
Please see the full changelog here.

[hr][/hr]

[h2]New locations and missions[/h2]

• Aircraft test flight logic and locations have been updated. Now there are multiple locations as well as air spawn points available. Rank of targets presented in the test flight can now also be changed. Respawn logic, similar to the one present in tank test drive has been added for targets. Airfield models have been replaced with the new ones in all test drive locations.
  

[h2]Location and mission updates[/h2]

• Abandoned Factory — the location has been visually reworked with new assets, redrawn ground textures and new effects.
  
• Flanders — adjusted the rock cover in square E7 where players could safely fire at the northern team’s spawn and its passages.
  
• Abandoned Town — in square C2, the mountainside where players could get stuck has been removed.
  
• Sun City (all missions) — play area in the location has been increased. Detection area at spawn points has been increased.
  
• Finland — positions on rocks near the northern spawn in the adjacent area of ​​squares B4 and B5 have been blocked.
  
• Second Battle of El Alamein [Domination #1] — positions allowing fire on the northern team spawn on the hills in squares C5 and B5 have been blocked off.
  
• Aral Sea — density of bushes on lines 1 and 2 have been reduced. A bug where bushes did not disappear when destroyed has been fixed.
  
• Wagons on maps are no longer static. They can be moved by a ground vehicle and from explosions.
  
• South Africa — the collision models of large islands, blurred shore textures and flying trees have been fixed.
  
• [Conquest #3] Karelia — the detection zone in the bottom spawn point has been fixed.
  
• Eastern Europe, European Province — incorrect destruction of fences near bridges has been fixed.
  
• Vietnam (the ground forces map) — the incorrect rendering range of trees in the aircraft part of the map have been fixed.
  
• Maginot Line (winter) — trees that had incorrect settings and ones where their visual model did not match their collision model have been removed. Additionally, the tree destruction model that led to an incorrect behavior when receiving damage has been fixed.
  
• All locations — oak trees that had trunks that behaved unnaturally when receiving damage have been removed.
  

[h2]Economy and research[/h2]

• The mechanics of new vehicles have been extended to the requirement for the number of vehicles to unlock the next rank. If there are few vehicles at the current rank (less than 5 or 6, depending on the type of vehicle and rank) and a new vehicle is added there, this new vehicle will not increase the requirement to unlock the next rank for 28 days from the moment of its release. For example, in this update, when adding the Sabra Mk.I to rank VII of Israel’s ground forces tree, the number of vehicles required to unlock rank VIII will remain equal to three (based on the number of “old” vehicles and vehicle groups at this rank), until the Sabra Mk.I is no longer considered new.
  
• F-4F KWS LV — Battle Rating in all modes has been reduced to 13.0.
  
• Leclerc, Leclerc S2 — both have been moved from rank VII to rank VIII. The OFL 120 G1 APFSDS round, which was previously located at tier I in the modification research window is now available by default. Silver Lions and Golden Eagles spent on researching this modification have been refunded.
  
• Vextra 105, AMX-40 — both have been moved from rank VI to rank VII.
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• A new full-screen player profile window has been added.
  
• The in-game shop for “Rookie trophy” now displays the exact drop chance for each item.
  
• The ability to move the range scale horizontally has been added to the sight settings menu. The scale is moved by dragging it with the mouse cursor.
  
• The ability to delete a custom sight preset has been added to the sight settings menu.
  
• The sorting in the lists for selecting a sight preset and selecting a reticle has been changed, now player-created files are displayed first.
  
• The ability to enable and configure the display of the type or name of the shell in the sight has been added to sight settings menu.
  

[h2]Game mechanics[/h2]

• In Ground Battles at night, illumination shells that periodically fired over the map by mission logic have been disabled.
  
• Saving of player shots and hits received by the player to the replay log with the ability to separately play back each hit in the protection analysis after the battle has been added. The server point of impact, angle of impact and state of the shell are saved in this log, and then the result is played back in the shot animation using this data. Currently only direct hits are logged, hits by close explosions of shells, rockets, missiles and bombs are not.
  
• Following the Roadmap: Added mechanics for building boxes of ammunition with vehicles classed as Tank Destroyers, ATGM carriers (type listed in the stat card, not any vehicle with an ATGM), all SPAA vehicles and ground vehicles with additional rockets and bombs (Calliope, M26 T99, RBT-5, Cromwell V (RP-3), Matilda Hedgehog, Magach Hydra).
  
  • Building and destroying boxes: Building boxes takes some time, during which the player must remain stationary next to it. The movement of the vehicle is not blocked. Boxes have a full damage model and can be destroyed by a hit or ram. The ability to destroy boxes is only available to the enemy and the player themselves. To avoid bad behavior, allies are not able to destroy the player’s constructions in all game modes.
    
  • Additional box details: The number of built boxes depends on the number of vehicle weapon groups, from one to three: a separate box for artillery weapons and separate one for each additional group (SAM / rockets). For tanks with rockets and bombs, only one box can be built — the one for additional weapons, while the ammunition of main weapon can only be replenished at capture points, as before. Each built box contains as many shells / rounds as the player had at the time of respawn in battle, and will allow you to replenish the ammunition up to this amount. Only the player who built the ammunition box can replenish ammunition from it. After running out of shells in the box, it will automatically be destroyed. When enough damage is dealt to the box, the ammunition in it ignites, with the fire not only destroying the box, but also showing its position with a visual effect and causing damage to exposed vehicles if they fall into the radius of its destruction. Ammunition boxes can be rebuilt as many times as you like (including after they are destroyed), but there will only be remaining, unused shells inside. This means that at the beginning of the battle, the player could receive potentially double the amount of ammunition, which can be used at their own discretion through changing positions and replenishing ammunition from portable boxes.
    
  • Arcade Battles replenishment changes: The mechanics of replenishing ammunition from boxes logically and technically conflict with the mechanics of arcade reloading of additional weapons, which activates after the complete use of additional weapons in Ground Arcade battles. In addition, the mechanics of arcade reloading blocked replenishment of ammunition for additional weapons at the capture point. The mechanics of arcade reloading have been removed, since replenishment of ammunition from boxes and at capture points are, in our opinion, more understandable with universal game mechanics.
    

[h2]Graphical[/h2]

• New Graphics API options:
  • Direct3D 12 (beta): A more modern graphics API, which allows us to do optimizations and add new features, not available for Direct3D 11. This includes the use of FSR Anti Aliasing, Ray Tracing and more in the future. It also helps to optimize existing features, like rendering the scenery is less demanding on the CPU.
    
• New Anti Aliasing options:
  • FSR 3.1: The Anti Aliasing (including the native one) and upscaling solution from AMD. Works under Direct3D 12 and Vulkan (currently available for Linux only), on all capable GPUs. Opens the door for frame generation in future updates.
    
  • DLAA: DLSS is now updated to the latest version. Has a Native upscaling option, which is also known as DLAA. Opens the door for frame generation in future updates.
    
  • XeSS: The Anti Aliasing (including the native one) and upscaling solution from Intel. Works under Direct3D 12.
    
  • TSR: The next generation of TAA Anti Aliasing we already had in the game. Has the same performance but better image quality.
    
• New feature:
  • Ray Tracing (beta): War Thunder now has a Ray Tracing solution which doesn’t cut corners and works for all objects and map elements. It has allowed us to implement a wide range of high-quality graphical effects based on it. Ray tracing is currently available only for NVIDIA GPUs.
    
• New Ray Tracing options:
  • Ray Traced Shadow Maps (RTSM): Replaces traditional shadow maps, for pixel perfect and physically accurate shadows. Works for sun shadows and also for dynamic lights, for high end GPUs.
    
  • Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO): Replaces traditional screen space ambient occlusion for physically accurate ambient shadows.
    
  • Ray Traced Reflections (RTR): Replaces probe and screen space reflection techniques. Enabling physically accurate reflections and also reflections of objects off screen.
    
  • Ray Traced Water Reflections: Replaces planar reflections used on water. While planar reflections were already good looking, this improves them, as the distortion is based on actual wave geometry.
    
  • Ray Traced Translucent reflections: Replaces probe based reflections on translucent glass surfaces for accurate reflection of the world.
    
• The afterburner effects for aircraft have been updated.
  
• New effects for ground vehicle movement depending on the surface and type of vehicle have been added.
  
• The effects of rocket boosters for aircraft have been updated.
  
• A new system that physically and correctly simulates wind flows on the location, taking into account obstacles has been added. It allows for improved behavior of particles, which are now able to bend around the landscape, buildings, and other objects in the scene when moving.
  
• New system of vehicle contamination during battle has been added. The system of interaction between the environment (dust, dirt, water) and vehicles has been reworked. Now different parts of the game location have different effects on the appearance of ground vehicles.
  
• LERX Vapor effects have been added.
  
• New rain and snow effects have been added.
  
• The dynamics of the visual spread of fires on ships has been changed.
  
• When anti-aircraft missiles are destroyed in the air, there is now a chance for the engine compartment to continue moving purely visually.
  
• New effects for launching anti-aircraft missiles on ships and anti-aircraft missile systems have been added.
  
• During rain, the effect of water jets is shown from some objects, such as roof slopes.
  
• Physical behavior of all sparks in the game from shots, explosions, shell hits, fires, etc have been improved.
  
• When ships sink, debris will begin to float to the surface of the water.
  
• New visual effects when a ship is flooded have been added.
  
• Physics of debris and particle behavior in explosions and impact effects have been reworked.
  
• Visual effects for sliding aircraft fuselages and wings on different surfaces have been added.
  
• Tracer visibility has been increased.
  
• The visual effect of flaming fuel spillage from fuel tanks of ground vehicles has been improved.
  
• Effects for targeting smoke have been improved.
  
• The effects of rocket explosions in the air have been reworked.
  
• Aircraft movement effects on different surfaces have been improved.
  
• Visuals for destruction of non-playable vehicles (cars, trucks) on maps have been improved.
  
• Trees lose branches when damaged so that after falling on the ground they obstruct less vision.
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hey everyone. On November 19th from 08:00 GMT, the War Thunder game servers may be unavailable due to the release of the Firebirds major update!

Be sure to catchup on what content is coming in this update by looking at our dev blogs while you wait for your game to download. The major update announcement and full major changelog will be published when the update is released and ready to play.

We apologize for any inconvenience experienced.

Thanks for submitting your awesome screenshots this week! The heavy-hitting cannons can be a challenge to use against smaller targets or at longer ranges, but the reward for landing a knockout makes it worthwhile! The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!

[h2]Let’s begin the 146th edition of our competition![/h2]

Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen146. You have time until the 22nd of November to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.

[h3]Terms:[/h3]

Your screenshot must feature snow, or a winter camouflage.
You must add the #WTscreen146 tag (title cannot have any other text in it).
Artists may only win by popular vote once per four screenshot competitions.
• Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.
  
• You need to be the author of the screenshot.
  
• Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.
  
• We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).
  
• You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.
  
• You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.
  
• Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 14 working days.
  

[h2]And now, time for the winners of the competition’s 145th edition – High Caliber![/h2]

[h3]Winners selected via community votes:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363518748
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3362988175
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3362831220

[h3]Winners selected by our judges:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363268519
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363893722
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363392785

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!

Today, we’re taking a look at motion blur in War Thunder — what it is, how it’s implemented in the game, and what challenges we were facing. War Thunder goes to the movies!

[h2]What Is Motion Blur?[/h2]
In a video game, images are created from scratch, each frame displays a single point in time.
Real cameras or even our eyes don’t work like this. Taking a picture takes time, and over this time the world doesn’t always stand still. If an object moves while we’re taking the picture, it will appear in all those places at the same time on the final image. This is what we call motion blur.

Actual screenshot from War Thunder (Seek & Destroy trailer)

[h2]Explanation Of The Basics[/h2]
To simulate the effect of motion blur, we need to know how every pixel has moved since the last frame. This requires all animations and moving effects to report their current and old positions. It can be one of the hardest parts of making this feature work. But thankfully we already had this working for anti-aliasing techniques. The few animations that didn’t support this became very easy to spot because motion blur turned them into a big blurry smudge. So we fixed them quickly!

For a starting point, we used a proven technique for implementing the effect, you can read more about that here. Basically we check where a pixel was in the last frame and where it is now, then we blur this pixel along the line in between.

Clean separation of foreground and background

To make calculations more efficient and smooth out some edges, the line is also blurred in the forward direction extending the line past the current pixel position. To speed things up further we make some decisions together for bigger blocks of pixels based on their general direction.

Each pixel’s distance from the camera also needs to be considered to let us blur the background and the foreground separately. The blurred line of a background pixel can sometimes pass behind a still standing, sharp object in the foreground. Other times we need to keep the background sharp while a foreground pixel is blurred on top. When two objects blur together in a single pixel, their individual speed is also important because sometimes neither must stay sharp.

[h2]Technical Challenges In War Thunder[/h2]
Of course we needed to make some tweaks to shape it to our needs. To decide how to blur a pixel we need to know its speed. But what if there’s no single answer because there is more than one thing visible in the same point? Without special care, transparency is invisible to the algorithm.

In War Thunder, we have glass cockpits and colored light bulbs attached to planes flying over trees while breaking the sound barrier. So we needed to treat glass surfaces somehow. Here, we have completely different speeds all on the same pixel. The glass is steady but the forest behind it is very fast.

We ended up using a similar trick as with the background-foreground separation. If we see something through glass, we treat that as one category, while directly visible objects are another. We don’t blur one category on top of another but we allow mixing within categories.

This way we achieve images where the background is blurred through the glass but the glass itself can maintain its sharp silhouette.

Note: at the time of writing this post, special treatment of transparency is only enabled if Motion Blur is maxed out.

Blurred background through sharp glass

Blurred background through sharp glass


[h2]Limitations[/h2]
Since we only have a single known speed for each pixel, fast moving transparent objects won’t be blurred, only the background objects you can see through them. This also means that reflections on such surfaces can only be blurred based on the background.

To create a perfect effect we would need perfect information. Even if we know a pixel’s screen position in both the past and the current frame, we don’t know what path it took between the two. We just blur it in a line, as if it was moving straight, which is almost always good enough. One important exception is the wheels of vehicles. Here, one point on the wheel can move to the opposite side in a single frame’s time. Assuming straight movement here is far from reality.

For the time being this issue is not solved, wheels will need a custom method for correct motion blur that works on different principles.

Foreground motion blur with overblurred wheels

[h2]Is It Realistic?[/h2]
Motion blur is visible not only for fast moving objects, but also if the camera itself moves. On film this is a very common effect, but in our natural vision the eye usually locks onto objects keeping the world more steady for us. Video game motion blur is cinematic — it looks like a real movie made with real cameras. But it’s not like seeing the world with your own eyes.

To better simulate human vision, we added an option to disable motion blur caused by the movement of the camera. This will still blur fast moving objects like planes flying by, or exploding debris, but will keep the image sharp when you’re just looking around.

Camera blur off, only the turret is moving

Turning the turret with full motion blur

[h2]Is Motion Blur Good For Our Games?[/h2]
We hear this question a lot and internally had conversations about this as well. Some say it gives the feeling of motion and makes the experience more immersive. While others say it makes it harder to aim for moving targets, it removes clarity that’s important for competitive play. Well, they are both right. It’s a matter of taste and what you want from the game. If you’re most interested in winning and climbing the ladder, it may not be for you — feel free to turn it off. We’re completely fine with that. But if you’ve already won and you’re making a highlight reel from your replays, or just want to feel the speed as you’re flying, you can max it out and use it for a movie quality effect.

Comparisons
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Before

After


Before

After


Before

After

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