Many players have probably noticed that the new vehicles added to the game are much more detailed than the tanks that were gradually released during the phased HD-update era. Many years have passed since then, and although the game’s overall graphical style has changed relatively little, the new vehicles have received significant improvements.
The easiest way to see these changes is on the fan-favorite Leopard.
Leopard 1 was upgraded to HD textures in 2015 with update 0.9.8. At that time, the game’s graphics were still in SD, but the developers tried to improve the tanks as much as possible. Now, however, it looks outright blurry.
Lion was added to the game client in 2022. During this period, the quality of new models increased noticeably. Compared to the Leopard 1, this model likely has twice as many polygons and significantly improved texture quality. The detail of the headlight glass has also been drastically improved.
Leopard 120 Verbessert was introduced in 2025 in update 2.0. Here we can already see major progress compared to the Lion. The detail of all level 11 vehicles has increased several times over. Compared to the first HD models, we can confidently say the quality has increased roughly threefold.
Leox is currently the latest tank of the new graphical generation, and even in SD quality it has higher detail than the Leopard 1 in HD. This suggests that model quality has increased dramatically.
The new 2.0 hangar and its lighting have generally improved the visual perception of vehicles, but upon closer inspection the older tanks still noticeably lag behind. Converting all old vehicles to the updated HD quality would take the developers a lot of time. However, with the current pace of new vehicle releases, it should be possible to allocate resources to gradually update the old models.
Many tanks, especially low-tier ones, do not require extremely high detail due to their size and limited number of components. Still, updating the older models would likely make many players happy. The new 3D styles partially hide the flaws of old models since they are created at a higher quality, but not every tank has such styles available.
Some might think that updating all tank models to modern quality standards could affect gameplay performance, but as we have seen, even having only level 11 vehicles in the same battle had no impact on FPS. The most that could happen is an increase in the game’s already large file size. Although by today’s standards WoT does not take up that much space, and the new level 11 tanks do not weigh much more than previous models.
It is unlikely that the developers still have high-quality versions of all old tanks beyond what we currently see. Creating high-polygon models was expensive in the past and remains expensive today. However, slightly higher-quality textures may still exist because textures are often reduced before release. This is especially noticeable when compared to concept art, which uses maximum model quality. It only needs to be adapted to the game client.
SD Vehicle Icons: a Quiet Horror
Complaints are not limited to the models themselves. The tank icons in the game are also outdated and stand out due to their SD models. Since most icons are prerenders, they could be updated all at once instead of partially. In 2.0 this has become especially noticeable. Very noticeable.
have you also noticed that on the map nordskar beige colour like american standard one or british or italian on the tanks is different than on the rest of the maps? its like entire pallette of colours on that map is twisted, it looks so valoranty cartoonish like wot: heat; its terrible
Must be the lighting. The textures are surely the same.
yes, pallete of colours is bent over and screwed
I think its a style choice rather than mistake in palette. They just tried to emulate cold icelandic like atmosphere. I like it…and the black sand sticking on tanks as well.
Same issue with Studzianki, and another map. The colours are washed out, so especially if you have any style with reds or oranges, they’re terribly muted and dull.
In 2025 it is sqd that there is no RT or 4K native supp….
this is an interesting point and overview, thx for that.
It makes sense as time goes on, so do graphics while costing less RAM etc.
One of themain factor for better graphics I believe was to remove 32Bit Windows support, as now WG can use more than 3GB ob RAM for minimum specs.
The change on minimum also probably allows for even SD Models to look much betetr than old HD ones.
I would love to see texture updates rather than modelupdates though – If you take a look at the track flaps you can see a LOT of improvement but they are still muddy in WoT 2.0.
I would personally prefer a relaunch of old vehicles in HD Model aswell though.
I also noticed the texture differences on the Nordskar map — the colors look really off compared to other maps. It might be because of the lighting, but it gives the whole map a kind of cartoonish vibe. Feels like the palette is completely twisted, and it’s pretty jarring when you’re used to the usual look of the tanks and terrain. By the way, I also recommend checking out this website https://king-maker-at.com/ , which has many high-quality gaming offers.
The ability to see where your tank is actually being hit would be more useful than pretty colours.
I feel sure that if a 100mm shell smacks into your tank… you actually know where it hit
But no no no… lets do pretty colours.
Awwww pretty colours…
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