In a recent Wargaming stream, MeatheadMilitia, Thaine, and Andrey revealed that the maps in World of Tanks will be receiving a massive visual overhaul. In an hour-long stream, the three men discussed a host of new changes coming to World of Tanks, with one of the most important discussions revolving around the big changes coming to Matchmaker.
As the stream was nearing its end, the men shifted gears toward visual fidelity and graphics. MeatheadMilitia was particularly excited about this reveal, and as you can see from the video, the emotion is justified.
What makes this little clip so exciting is we get to witness not one, but several maps that are already well-underway in their visual upgrades. These maps are receiving not just an increase in texture quality, but in some cases, completely rebuilding new areas and adding in new structures.
During the stream, Andrey detailed some of the challenges the development team faced with tackling this herculean task. The team had to build the necessary tools and expand their knowledge of what maps weren’t working. From there, the team had to solve the problem of differing PC setups, stating they wanted to ensure high and low-end PCs had to be taken into account and this task is, “never easy.”
Thaine confirmed that all the old maps will be seeing a visual upgrade, and not only will these upgrades be released in the near future, but they'll continue to be released on a consistent basis. The entire endeavor is huge, as not only does the technical team need to create a new engine, but the artists need to go in and design completely new assets to populate these maps.
The footage reveals some significant changes to the landscape, which begs the question, will these changes affect sightlines as well as strategies? Whatever the case, the updated maps are looking incredible and they’re sure to be gorgeous homes to all manner of battles, especially with the newly announced introduction of Tier 9 and 10 Light tanks.
We can’t wait to get our tracks onto the dirt and see what these new battlefields look like. Let us know in the comments what you think of the visual overhaul coming to World of Tanks’ maps.
