World of Tanks 1.0: Second Common Test Patch Notes

 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.