The ‘slightly crazy’ developers behind insane update to World Of Tanks game

THE free online multiplayer game, World Of Tanks, has undergone a massive transformation — and who knew it could be so much fun?

THE most important part of a tank is arguably the really big gun in its turret, followed closely by all that rather important armour keeping the crew operating said gun safe.

But without an engine, a tank can’t go anywhere, which rather limits the usefulness of its gun and armour — and the better the engine, the better the tank’s performance when it rolls out.

The same analogy applies to the hugely popular, free to play, multiplayer game World Of Tanks, published by Wargaming on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile devices.

The tank combat game has been trundling around since 2010 but has just undergone a massive transformation as part of the World Of Tanks 1.0 development, which was unveiled recently at a media event in Bangkok, Thailand ahead of its March 27 rollout.

The game has had a complete overhaul. Picture: Wargaming

The biggest component of the PC-exclusive update is the change to a completely new graphics engine, known as “Core” — a proprietary engine developed in-house by Wargaming.

In gaming terms, a game’s engine is the architecture around which the game is built, covering important things like how the graphics are rendered, how the game world’s physics operate, and a host of other similar aspects of how the game generally works.

The Core engine provides a graphics overhaul to the existing game, adds some destructible buildings and environment features to the maps, and a completely reworked soundtrack.

Regional publishing director Alex de Giorgio said the World Of Tanks 1.0 update had been more than three years in the making and was about putting the game on a strong footing for the next decade or so.

“It’s a really great opportunity for us to not only bring ourselves into the modern era, but really take us to the next level and put us in a good position for the future of the title for the next 10, 15 years moving forward,” he said.

He said Wargaming had been working on the new engine after realising that existing, off-the-shelf game engines wouldn’t provide the flexibility the developers wanted for the game, hence the development of Core.

“Once we built it, we then had to integrate it into the game. So, we had a game with millions of players playing it and from one day to the next it’s not so easy to say, ‘Oh, here’s a new engine, here you go, I hope you enjoy,’” he said.

“So it took another year for us to rebuild all the new maps — all the maps that we had in the game plus start to work on new maps that take advantage of the new engine as well.”

While a lot of the technical improvements in the new engine are under the bonnet, the graphics have been given an overhaul as well and are the most noticeable improvement for players.

“It’s not just about the visuals, it’s about that sense of immersion — so all the technologies we built into this core engine are all about, ‘How would a tank react?’” Mr de Giorgio said.

“How does a tank react when it goes into water? How does a tank react when it goes behind a tree? When it smacks into a building?

Can you see all the hard work that went into this scene? Picture: Wargaming

“Luckily for us we have some insanely talented and slightly crazy developers who spend a lot of time looking at every single aspect. What happens to snow when it lands on a tank and starts to melt over time?

“These are things that some players may never even notice, but for us it was all about how you get that sense of realism. That’s what we strive for. Maybe we don’t always get there, but that’s our aim, and that’s our goal.”

While the game has been updated, you won’t need to upgrade your machine. Picture: Picture: Wargaming

The game’s soundtrack has been reworked as well, with each map now having its own theme music — intended to resonate with the setting and create a unique atmosphere for every battlefield.

As a bonus, the official soundtrack is being published by Sony Music Entertainment and Wargaming has said it will be available for listening and downloading for free on all major music platforms.

One of the attractions World Of Tanks has for players is that it runs on a wide range of systems, ranging from what gamers refer to as “potatoes” (very low-end systems, often getting on in years) through to the up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge gaming rigs. Mr de Giorgio said that accessibility remained a key element of World Of Tanks 1.0 as well.

“I think the thing we are most proud about — and it doesn’t sound sexy, but to me it’s what really matters — is the optimisation that we did on this engine,” he said.

“This is an eight-year-old game. We have players who’ve been playing this for eight years, and some are playing on the same machine they were playing on eight years ago. Not everyone can afford to upgrade their machine to the latest, newest, most powerful PC.

“Building this fancy new engine, all the latest hi-tech graphics and then asking our players to spend thousands of dollars to upgrade their machines in order to play just wasn’t going to work. So optimisation was absolutely the focus, and I think what took probably the longest.

“We were fortunate that we were able to collaborate with (computer processor manufacturer) Intel on this, and Intel helped us a lot in terms of testing and ensuring that we could really build an engine that could work on existing machines.

“The machine you’ve been playing on today, you can still play the game at a higher level of quality and performance than you could before. That was our goal and we’re really happy to say we’ve achieved it.”

Royce Wilson attended the press event as a guest of Wargaming.