Condottieri A-class light cruisers were the first Italian cruisers to be built after the First World War. In the 1930s, these heavily armoured scouts were designed in response to the new French destroyers; the Jaguar, the Lion, and the Aigle. With an excellent maximum speed of 37 knots, the Italian light cruisers also boasted much more powerful armament and 24mm belt armor. The primary armament included eight 152 mm guns (four turrets with two in each), as well as six 100 mm long-range cannons, two twin 533 mm torpedo tubes and mines. The anti-air armament comprised two 40 mm autocannons and eight large-calibre Breda Mod 31 13.2 mm machine guns in four twin mounts.
In clashes between three of the major military powers of the 21st century, players will battle against each other in combat in the some of the world’s most powerful nuclear submarines. The three dimensional depths of the ocean, realistic physics and modern strategic weaponry will become available this weekend! All players will be able to take part in the initial first test.
The test session will be held from 12:00 GMT on March 31st until 12:00 GMT on April 3rd
In the test version of the game, players will be able to try modern nuclear submarines from the three major military powers, the United States, Great Britain and Russia, where each vessel is armed with a unique selection of guided torpedoes and missiles.
The test will be held in a location inspired by the Spitzbergen ocean area, players will battle to capture one of the strategic zones, and once it’s captured cruise or ballistic missiles will be launched.
WAR THUNDER PRESENTS Update 1.77 “Advancing Storm”
“Advancing Storm” has brought us a new version of the Dagor engine – 5.0 and with it improved graphics, detailed landscapes and weather effects. Locations are more beautiful and realistic, the sounds are more impressive and we have added two dozen new vehicles including five tanks at the 6th rank: Т-64B, M1 Abrams, Challenger, Leopard 2K and AMX-30 Brenus.
Improved graphics and sound
We have greatly improved the graphics! The picture has become more voluminous and textured, the shadows now look more life like and on roads and tracks, after rain there are puddles and mud. Relief detailing has transformed the landscape diversifying the terrain already familiar to the eye and thanks to the new algorithm of smoothing and contact shadows; buildings, grass, foliage and other small details look even better.
Download the game to see it with your own eyes!
Be sure to listen to how cool the reworked sounds in the game are. Each shot is now collected from several sound “layers” so that the sounds of shots become more detailed.
A fighting vehicle that needs no introduction – The M1 Abrams is one of only a small number of tanks that have gained such a reputation and worldwide fame that surpasses legendary status by a long shot. War Thunder tankers and fans of modern military vehicles rejoice! The M1 Abrams is charging at full speed to the top ranks of War Thunder’s ground battles with the upcoming update 1.77 “Advancing Storm”. Get ready!
History
Once the unsuccessful joint German-American MBT-70 project had been shut down in 1971, the Congress redistributed funds to the further development of the XM815 project, later known as the XM1 Abrams. The development of the XM1 Abrams was a competition between two designs of the Chrysler and General Motors companies, respectively. Early July 1973 marks an important date for the project after representatives of both companies travelled to Great Britain to witness the development of the new composite armor, named Burlington. Impressed by what they saw, both companies decided to reevaluate and optimize their designs’ armor layout to increase its effectiveness, with General Motors changing the front shape of the turret to a sloped surface, whilst Chrysler retained its vertical design. By 1976, the XM1 prototypes were being readied for testing, with the finishing touch being the installation of the M68 cannon.. Testing of both prototypes took place in the presence of the new German Leopard 2 tank, which was shipped to the U.S. for comparison purposes. Once testing was concluded and the results evaluated, the turbine-powered Chrysler design was proclaimed the winner of the competition and thus the Chrysler design would soon enter production as the M1 Abrams.
The AMX-30B2 Brenus is a late modification of the famous French second generation main battle tank, which most notably received ERA armor to increase protection against modern ammunition types. Players can expect the AMX-30B2 Brenus to make its appearance in the game as part of the update 1.77 “Advancing Storm”!
During the mid to late 1990s, AMX-30B2 tanks of the 1er/ 2e Chasseurs tank regiments, which formed France’s rapid reaction force in peacetime, underwent upgrading under the Brenus modernization program, whilst two further regiments received modifications to quickly upgrade their AMX-30s with the Brenus package if needed (2e/5e Dragons). The Brenus upgrade package (acronym for briques réactives de surblindage) most notably allowed for the installation of 112 ERA blocks developed by the GIAT company across the front portion of the hull and turret. To compensate for the additional weight of the ERA packages, an improved 8-cylinder 750 horsepower MACK E9 diesel engine was fitted. The Brenus modernization upgrade was among the last to be fitted to the original AMX-30 tank.
In the coming major War Thunder 1.77 update, we’re planning to introduce a whole host of tweaks and additions to sound in the game. Today we’re going to talk about part of the main changes.
We have completely overhauled how weapon firing sounds for all vehicles are formed – now each shot is made up of several “layers” of sound, which form peak (attack) and residual (reverberations) effects for each salvo. We have assembled brand-new firing sound effects for all weapons, ATGMs, automatic cannons, and machine guns on ground vehicles, including sounds that the player hears from the opponent’s weapons. Reverberatory “tails” have been added for all ground vehicle weapons (cannons, howitzers, anti-tank rockets, machine guns), so that the player can identify a weapon’s calibre by the sound it produces when fired. We have also added a global reverberation effect for interiors (tank turrets or armored vehicle cabins) and exterior sounds (fields, areas with few buildings). For ultra-low frequencies, we have added separate layers representing the rumble of large-calibre shots, the operation of a tank’s suspension or the crash of collapsing buildings.
Now the sounds of battle heard by players in a clash of ground vehicles will be significantly different depending on the chosen view. We have added details to the interior sounds – empty casings dropping, loading mechanisms, breech shutter. By controlling from the gunner or commander view you will be able to hear how these sounds are reflected from the walls and details of the habitable space of the tank turret, while the external sounds will be muffled and contrastingly, from 3rd person view the sounds of battle will be heard in all their glory. Depending on the player’s view (driver, gunner or commander) the surrounding situation will be heard differently. For example: a “Marder” driver in the closed cabin will hear reduced sounds of battle and in less detail than a gunner or commander who is in the open area of the vehicle.
Also, sounds of machine guns and cannons of ground vehicles now depends on the density of the terrain. In open field the shot sounds dry, almost without the typical “tail” because the sound wave quickly dissipates without encountering obstacles. In cities or in ruins, debris and amongst rocks, the sound of the shot is saturated with low and ultra-low frequencies, and the reverb “tail” is long and heavy.
In combined battles, the audibility of aircraft has been changed – from the ground, aircraft sound loud and thunderous, and you will be able to make out an aircraft by the sound of its engine, such as a dive bomber making an attack. The sound of the engine reverberates off the surface of the ground and other objects on the battlefield, enhancing the battle’s realism. From the cockpit the sound of enemy aircraft engines and allied aircraft is now much quieter which correspond to the observations of pilots in real flight conditions.
Today we’re going to talk about global changes to the creation of landscape surfaces, and we’ll demonstrate the improvements that players will be able to see in all the familiar ground locations.
We recently discussed our new algorithm for landscape relief detail (displacement mapping), that we’re planning to introduce to the game after the release of War Thunder update 1.77. However, the biggest change that Dagor Engine 5.0 will bring to the game is a new technology for creating surfaces in locations for ground battles. We have reworked the technology for creating landscapes in War Thunder in order to enhance the level of detail and realism in their component materials. So, in addition to the previously existing normal textures, translucency and albedo coloured textures, we are introducing a detailed roughness map, ambient occlusion maps and a ground type map (such as grass, sand, dirt, etc) allowing us to enhance the shading quality while adding a whole new level of ground detalization.
This required us to improve the landscape of all the game’s current locations in the current update. It’s a tremendous amount of work and we believe that it was worth the effort: familiar landscapes now look completely different thanks to the new realistic land and ground. Take a look at the level of landscape detail we have managed to achieve:
Today’s edition of our devblog will discuss how the updated Dagor Engine 5.0 render will add volume to the War Thunder world. It’s all about light and shade!
