Today, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force of China celebrates its 75th anniversary, being founded on November 11th 1949. The modern PLA Air Force consists of five branches. In addition to aviation, it includes ground air defense forces, airborne troops, radars and other support units. The PLA Air Force has more than 3,500 aircraft and 400,000 people in service.

In honor of the PLA Air Force’s anniversary, the J-7D is temporarily available at a 50% discount

To get to the Gaijin Store through Steam, go to the in-game hangar > Shop > Online Store!

When: From today until November 18th (14:00 GMT).

Was: 69.99 Now: 35

• J-7D (Rank 7, China)
  
• Premium account for 20 days
  
• 2500 Golden Eagles

About this aircraft

• In air battles, the J-7D relies primarily on its impressive speed and rate of climb, where it can easily catch up with an enemy and disengage from combat. It’s armed with a powerful 23 mm cannon and can take a number of IR-guided missiles. It has flares for use against air-to-air missiles, and for hitting ground targets has rockets and small bombs.

Available for this day!


“PLAAF Flag” decal

When: From today until November 14th (07:00 GMT).
Task: Play 3 battles using Chinese aircraft at rank III or above to receive the “PLAAF Flag” decal!

Additional details:

• Your activity must not be below 70%.
  
• You can complete the task in random battles, except for Enduring Confrontation missions, [Assault] mode and Helicopter PVE battles.
  
• Track your progress in the hangar by clicking Nickname → Achievements → Holidays → PLA Air Force Day.
  
• You can find the decal in the “China -> Aircraft” tab in the Customization menu.

On November 11th 1918, Germany signed the Armistice of Compiègne with Entente, ending World War I. It allowed Poland to declare its independence for the first time since the 18th century. In modern Poland, Independence Day is widely celebrated as the most important national holiday. It’s accompanied by a military parade in Warsaw, the laying of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the raising of flags throughout the country.

Lanovski’s own plane is available for 6,090 Golden Eagles!

When: From today until November 14th (07:00 GMT).
Where: USA > Aviation > Premium Vehicles.



About this aircraft

• The Lanovski’s P-47M-1-RE combines all the advantages of the famous Thunderbolt fighter, adding an even more powerful engine and improved maneuverability. Its armament consists of eight 12.7 mm Browning machine guns and up to two tons of bombs. This fighter was flown by Witold Lanovski, a Polish pilot who served as an instructor in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and then flew combat sorties in the last year of the war as part of the U.S. Army Air Force. He shot down at least six aircraft, including four when he served in the 56th Fighter Group, 61st Fighter Squadron.

We’re once again returning the Winged Hussars camouflage temporarily for the Soviet Mi-24V!



When: From today until November 14th (07:00 GMT).
Task: Play 3 battles with an activity above 70% while flying the Soviet Mi-24V to receive the “Winged Hussars” camouflage for this helicopter! This camouflage can only be obtained in random battles against other players.


Available for this day!


“Kotwica” decal

When: From today until November 14th (07:00 GMT).
Task: Play 3 battles using British or US vehicles at rank III or above to receive the “Kotwica” decal!

Additional details:

• Your activity must not be below 70%.
  
• You can complete the task in random battles, except for Enduring Confrontation missions, [Assault] mode and Helicopter PVE battles.
  
• Track your progress in the hangar by clicking Nickname → Achievements → Holidays → Poland Independence Day.
  
• You can find the decal in the “Holidays” tab in the Customization menu.

We loved seeing all of your screenshots last week, thank you! This week, large caliber submissions! There is much to pick from- planes like the Kingcobra, or all-time classics such as the KV-2. The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!


Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen145. You have time until the 15th of November to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.

• Your screenshot must feature a vehicle with a large caliber.
  
• Aircraft and Coastal Vessels: 35mm or greater, Tanks and Ships: 130mm or greater.
  
• You must add the #WTscreen145 tag (title cannot have any other text in it).
  
• Artists may only win by popular vote once per four screenshot competitions.

[/b]

Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.

You need to be the author of the screenshot.

Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.

We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).

You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.

You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.

Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 14 working days.

[/list]


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359442219
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359166849
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359124423

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360769445
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359888738
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360035670

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!

With the Firebirds update, War Thunder has support for Ray Tracing (RT) and is capable of doing several RT based visual effects, like shadows, ambient occlusion and reflections. In today’s blog, we’ll be taking a closer look at the details!

For RT to be used, we need to build and maintain a so called “Bounding Volume Hierarchy” (BVH). BVH is a triangulated representation of the whole world where all RT effects can work on that. Many games cut corners on what to include in BVH and what fidelity. Like only using less detailed models, removing everything at a relatively close distance. But that has a price. With such approach, it’s impossible to get accurate shadows.

With War Thunder, we decided to go for the real deal, so we can employ a wider range of effects in the long run. In War Thunder, almost the whole battlefield is accessible for RT effects at the same fidelity that is rendered in the game, so all of those effects can be physically correct and accurate.



Doing this has a price as the BVH building process makes use of as many CPU threads as possible, so a modern CPU is recommended.

Now we have BVH ready, we can start tracing rays in it and get some effects out of it. We have three main effects available at launch.

This replaces texture based shadow mapping and instead traces rays from every point on the screen onto the surface of the sun. As it’s using the whole surface of the sun, and not just the center point of it, shadows get a physically correct penumbra, depending on the shadow caster object’s distance, as one would expect.




The result is physically correct and pixel perfect shadows from the sun.

On high end GPUs one can also try shadows from dynamic lights. It enables hard, pixel perfect shadows from all dynamic lights, like explosions, muzzle flashes and the like. This is a very demanding feature, and aimed for high-end GPUs.




Ambient occlusion is a technique used to simulate object features blocking the ambient lighting, like the sky itself — a sort of ambient shadow. That’s why it’s darker under your bed.




Traditionally we do this with screen space techniques like SSAO or GTAO. RTAO is a ray traced version of these screen space techniques, and can correct errors, typical to screen space techniques, like when something casts ambient shadows outside of the screen. Screen space techniques can’t deal with that, but RTAO can. Similarly to when something casts ambient shadows, which is occluded by another object. Usually in these cases, you see shadows where it should not be, or vice versa. RTAO fixes all of these issues.

This is the most complex feature. RTSM and RTAO is really just about shadows, but with RTR, we’re visualizing BVH itself. In a mirror, you basically see what is in BVH and we’re working hard to make it match the rendered image closely as possible.

Again, even before RTR, we had reflections. Probe based and screen space reflections were used, but just as with SSAO, they have their limitations. Actually very similar. Handling out of screen or occluded objects for screen space, and positioning issues with probes. RTR has the whole scene to trace, so naturally it can reflect objects from any location.

There is another complication for RTR, namely surface roughness. A rough surface like concrete has reflections which are very soft and blurry, while gloss surfaces like glass or flat water has mirror like sharp reflections. Additionally, there’s everything in between. Simulating this is actually one of the hottest topics in computer graphics.

Our approach is rendering noisy reflections based on roughness, and using a so called denoiser to get physically accurate reflections.

The effect is sometimes obvious, like in the case of mirror like reflections.




Other times, it’s less obvious but makes the rendered image just more correct, making it look natural. If you look at these shots, take a look at the vehicle and its surroundings. On the non RT one, it is basically glowing in the shadow, as the building which should block the sky from the reflection on it is not on screen, so screen space techniques can’t know the sky should be blocked. On the RT version, this blue tint is gone, as BVH has the building, regardless of it being on screen or not, and blocks the sky correctly.




Again RTR is fixing the issues traditional screen space and probe based reflections have.

A sub feature of RTR is reflections on translucent glass surfaces. In these glass surfaces, you can now see an accurate reflection of the world, instead of the probe we used before. The result is accurate reflections again.

And finally another sub feature is reflections on water.

Our water reflections are using planar reflections in the game, which is a very accurate way to have reflections, and then it’s distorted based on the waves. With RTR water, the reflection rays are shot out correctly, based on the wave normal vectors. The reflection itself is simply more correct, as it’s not just distorting a 2D image, but actually use different reflections per pixel.




The difference is sometimes larger, sometimes smaller.

Ray Tracing is heavy lifting, but there are many scalability options to make it more accessible.

First of all, all three options can be enabled/disabled independently, meaning you can use only the effect which you are care about the most if you have an older RT capable GPU.

Then there is the quality levels. In general, RTSM with dynamic lights is for the latest high end GPUs. Normally it’s not much more expensive than just sun shadows, but in the middle of the action with many fires and explosions, it can become very demanding.

For RTAO, low quality is using a lower internal resolution for the calculations. This is however the same resolution as with the screen space techniques, but without the screen space errors. Medium gives you higher resolution and high gives better de-noising. This is really only visible in certain circumstances, but we wanted to give you the control over it.

For RTR, low is a good tradeoff. It lacks RT shadows in reflections, improving speed considerably. Medium has RT shadows in reflections. Both low and medium is using a so called checkerboard rendering to double performance by tracing half the number of rays. High disables this checkerboard rendering, but the denoiser actually does a great job hiding the checkerboard pattern, so the difference is small. Again, it’s up to you to decide.

RTR also has a control to render at full or half resolution, both for water and normal surfaces. The difference is mainly visible in mirrors, and look good on half resolution even if you don’t have a beefier GPU.

Finally the RTR translucent glass reflections can also have RT reflections inside the reflections on high, or not on medium. This usually impacts performance slightly as these surfaces are not very common in the game.

For an optimized setting, where you get a good tradeoff on performance/image quality we recommend using the Medium RT preset. Pushing beyond further improves the quality of the effects but at greater price in performance. But if you have the latest top of the line GPU, go for it! :)

When using RT effects, we recommend using an upscaling anti aliasing method, with a preset that suits your graphics card. Like DLSS, FSR, XeSS or our TSR. With these upscalers you can achieve great performance and image quality. Balanced presets are usually a good middle ground for ray tracing, but on an older GPU, there’s nothing wrong in going for the performance preset if you want to enjoy the RT benefits.

We’re committed not just to add more RT features in the future, but also to improve the performance of existing ones, so stay tuned for future updates.

At launch, RT effects are supported on Nvidia graphics cards. Making it work on both AMD and Intel cards is a priority for us. It’s working with our internal builds, but not ready for release, we need to iron out some issues specific to these GPUs. It will be ready soon, along with the current generation consoles.

The Esports III Trophy is now complete, with camouflages created by the authors on WT.Live! This new wave of additions includes 20 camouflages for different vehicles: 9 aircraft and 11 ground vehicles. We’re continuing to showcase mid-level vehicles with unique creations by our artists.




Like the previous Esports trophy, the new trophy can be obtained by simply playing regular War Thunder battles. In the future, it’ll also be possible to obtain by participating in Esports events in War Thunder tournaments with an increased chance! PlayStation and Xbox players can purchase the trophy in the Item Shop for Golden Eagles.

Read more on our Wiki.

To open it, you’ll need to purchase a key on the Market (income is shared with the authors of the camouflages). You can either activate the coupon on your account, or trade it on the Market to get Gaijin Coins (GJN). A trophy can be sold as well!

To unlock the trophy, you'll need an “Esport” key that can be purchased on the Market for GJN.


Read more about the Market and Gaijin Coins on our Wiki.



Air Superiority tournament sponsored by Thrustmaster, this weekend, from 13:40 GMT, Twitch Drops will once again be accompanying the final stages of the last Major Esport event of the year! Here’s a sneak preview of the BO7 matches on Saturday 9th November.



Watch the tournament and get Twitch Drops also on the official English, German, French and Russian War Thunder Esport channels!





In this pack:

• "Flanking Snail" decal
  
• "Slick flanker" title
  
• 300 Golden Eagles

Let’s have a look at the Mirage 2000D RMV, an upgraded version of the strike variant of the Mirage family of aircraft and one of its most modern variants currently in service.

At a glance:

• Top speed of Mach 2.
  
• Access to advanced missiles.
  
• Large caliber laser bombs.
  
• HMD

Vehicle History
[expand type=details]
In an effort to modernize the Mirage 2000 and extend its service life, Dassault launched the ‘Rénovation Mi-Vie’ (RMV) program in 2015. As part of the program, the Mirage 2000D RMV received updated avionics and was enabled to carry GBU-48 and GBU-50 guided bombs. Although demonstrator had been built by and exhibited at the 2017 Paris Air Show, the conversion of the first operational aircraft to the RMV standard started in 2019, the first aircraft was delivered 2021 and test flights were conducted shortly afterwards by the Air Force. The Mirage 2000D RMV subsequently entered service in 2022 with 55 aircraft being upgraded to this standard.  
[/expand]




The Mirage 2000D RMV is on its way to the top rank of the French aviation tree in the Firebirds major update, becoming the most advanced strike aircraft available. Building on the airframe of the Mirage 2000D, the RMV modification brings with it key upgrades to the Mirage’s strike capabilities, further increasing its effectiveness against ground targets. Let’s take a closer look!




Representing a direct upgrade of the Mirage 2000D-R1, the RMV modification inherits much of its key characteristics from its predecessor. As such, the aircraft maintains superb flight characteristics, thanks to its delta wing design as well as the powerful SNECMA ATAR M53 afterburning turbofan engine. This combination in particular enables the Mirage 2000 to retain excellent maneuverability, representing a signature feature of the Mirage family of aircraft.

Unlike the R1 variant which precedes it, the Mirage 2000D RMV is specially outfitted to accommodate the installation of the more advanced GBU-48, GBU-49 & GBU-50 guided bombs, which most prominently feature GPS guidance in addition to the traditional laser guidance system.




Apart from these new weapon options, the Mirage 2000D RMV also retains some more familiar faces in its arsenal, such as conventional 250 kg bombs, MATRA rockets or the BGL-400 and BGL-1000 laser guided bombs. Lastly, the aircraft can also be equipped with the new CC-422 gunpod which houses a single 30 mm DEFA 553 cannon. All in all, these upgrades further increase the Mirage’s lethality against ground targets and thus make it a must-have in any top tier Ground Battle lineup. 



That’s it for this one! The Mirage 2000D RMV is on final approach and is expected to arrive in the Firebirds major update. In the meantime, make sure to keep a close watch on the news for other dev blogs that we’ve got planned!

Please note that this vehicle’s characteristics may be changed before it is added to the game.

On November 10th, 1888, outstanding Soviet aircraft designer Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev was born. He designed over 100 types of aircraft, including the Tu-2 frontline bomber, which was widely used in WWII, the Tu-4 strategic bomber, and the first Soviet passenger jet aircraft, the Tu-104.

This Soviet premium bomber is available for 3,416 Golden Eagles!

When: From today until November 11th (07:00 GMT).
Where: USSR > Aviation > Premium vehicles.



About this aircraft

• The Tu-1 is fast but fragile. It features two 23 mm forward-firing cannons as well as two 45 mm cannons. Additionally it has bombs and torpedoes, including three powerful 1,000 kg bombs capable of destroying any ground target. While working on the Tu-2, Tupolev wanted to make a truly multi-purpose aircraft capable of escort, interception and attack, which is how the Tu-1 project began. Work on it was completed only after the war, and the prototype did not go into production, since it was inferior in characteristics to jet aircraft.

Today we’ll be taking a look at the Renown-class Battlecruiser, HMS Repulse, coming to Great Britain’s Bluewater fleet research tree!

At a glance:

• 381 mm (15 inch) guns!
  
• Good mobility but mediocre protection.
  
• Weak air defense capability.

Vehicle History
[expand type=details]
The development of a new type of ship for the Royal Navy, which was to become an improved version of the Revenge class, began in late 1914. Despite the high pace of work, both ordered ships did not make it in time for the famous Battle of Jutland. The lead ship of the class, HMS Renown, was enlisted into the fleet on September 20th 1916, while the second ship, HMS Repulse, entered service a little earlier in August. The only battle that HMS Repulse participated in during the First World War was the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. From the first months of the Second World War, HMS Repulse was actively used in combat, participating in the Norwegian Campaign. In 1941, she went to Indochina, where she joined up with the battleship HMS Prince of Wales. In December 1941 both ships were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea. The place where the ships sank has been discovered and well studied, and the remains of the ships are recognized as a military burial site.
[/expand]


The Battlecruiser HMS Repulse will be one of the best ships in Great Britain’s Bluewater fleet tree when it arrives at rank VI in the Firebirds major update. HMS Repulse is the second and final ship of the Renown-class, with the lead ship of this class, HMS Renown, already in the game. What are the differences between the ships and what are the strengths and weaknesses of HMS Repulse? Let’s have a look!




In the game, HMS Repulse will be coming in its latest 1941 upgrade. The immediate and most noticeable difference is the composition of the auxiliary weapons and the absence of a radar — after all, HMS Renown as we know was significantly rebuilt in 1944. Instead of 114 mm universal guns, HMS Repulse carries three-barreled anti-mine caliber mounts with 102 mm BL Mk IX guns, as well as single 102 mm Mk V guns, which can fire at aircraft. The engine and transmission are also different, with the max speed of HMS Repulse being 28.4 knots (52.6 km/h).

Interesting: The motto of HMS Repulse was “Qui Tangit Frangitur”, which in English means “Who touches me is broken”.



One key advantage of HMS Repulse is its powerful main armament: six 381 mm guns (15 inches) in three turrets, with two turrets located in the bow of the ship and one in the stern. A well-trained crew can reload the guns in 30 seconds, so the density of Repulse’s broadside salvo is quite high! These beefy guns can fire excellent semi-armor piercing shells, which are inferior to armor-piercing ones in terms of armor penetration at short and medium distances, but cause incomparably greater destruction due to the larger amount of TNT.

Did you know? HMS Repulse and HMS Renown were often referred to as HMS Refit and HMS Repair, due to the enormous amount of time spent on repairs and modifications.



In terms of protection, HMS Repulse is ambiguous. The armor belt hides most of the engines and transmission, but its thickness does not give it a chance to survive for long under fire, even from cruisers, not to mention battleships. The main caliber gun magazines are also almost completely unprotected, leading to a catastrophe if these areas are hit accurately. On the other hand, the elevators and main battery turrets are protected much better. In general, getting involved in long-range firefights will not be to the advantage of HMS Repulse — it’s better to rely on the relatively good speed to control the engagement distance, and utilize Repulse’s maneuverability to reduce incoming damage.



That’s it for today’s dev blog! HMS Repulse, being a complex and interesting ship, will come to the game in the Firebirds major update, coming soon — everything is nearly ready. See you!

Please note that this vehicle’s characteristics may be changed before it is added to the game.

War Thunder Mobile is now in its second year! Featuring realistic vehicles, this game has now reached more than 10 million players. Not tried it yet? Then join us! The game can be downloaded on iOS and Android for free.

In honor of the release of the “Steep Dive” major update in War Thunder Mobile, we’re continuing to do joint-events where you can get vehicles in both games by completing tasks in War Thunder Mobile. This time, the list of rewards has been expanded with an aircraft!

All tasks need to be completed in War Thunder Mobile to receive these rewards in War Thunder.

[NEW!] Bf 109 C-1 in a Unique Camouflage

• Research or purchase 4 aircraft in War Thunder Mobile.

This variant of the legendary Bf 109 features a more powerful engine and two additional 7.92 mm machine guns in the wings. Double the firepower!

M4 in a Unique Camouflage

• Take 1st place three times in your team in a tank battle.

The M4 Sherman is a true classic of medium-tier tank battles. Featuring a 75 mm gun and good armor-piercing shells, the M4 Sherman has good hull and turret protection at the front.

Hatsuzuki in a Unique Camouflage

• Win 3 battles.

The Hatsuzuki destroyer (Japanese for “New Moon”) is one of the heaviest ships of this class and is distinguished by its excellent armament of eight 100 mm main guns, numerous 25 mm anti-aircraft guns and 610 mm torpedoes.

Player Icon

• Complete 5 battles.

“War Thunder Mobile” Decal

• Complete 10 battles.

All tasks need to be completed in War Thunder Mobile.

[NEW!] Bf 109 C-1 in a Unique Camouflage

• Research or purchase 4 aircraft in War Thunder Mobile.

M4 Sherman platoon

• Take 1st place three times in your team.

M4 Sherman platoon: M4 Sherman, M10 Wolverine, M24 Chaffee, M16 MGMC.

Hatsuzuki

• Win 3 battles.

Player Icon

• Complete 5 battles.

Nickname Decorator

• Complete 10 battles.

War Thunder players can log into War Thunder Mobile with their Gaijin account. War Thunder Mobile players will simply need to link their existing Apple ID, Google Play ID, or Facebook ID to their Gaijin account. If you’re already playing War Thunder Mobile using your Gaijin account, then you’re all set!

The Firebirds major update brings with it an array of improvements to the aviation portion of the game, specifically test flights, airfields, cockpit models and graphical features. In today’s dev blog we’ll be diving in and taking a look at them, so let’s get started!

Introducing the new Test Flight for aircraft, coming in with a range of improvements. You can now choose the terrain type for the test flight itself, from Western Europe, Eastern Europe Winter, Desert, Mountains, Jungle or Middle East Mediterranean. Previously you were only able to spawn on the airfield, but that has changed! Before going into a test flight, you can now select a spawn point: either on the airfield as normal, or from 500 m to 7 km in the air for planes, and up to 2 km for helicopters, or at an enemy air defense zone to test out your evasive maneuvers. Naval-based aircraft can now also choose between spawning on an aircraft carrier as well.

Airfields themselves have been greatly improved too. There’s new airfield buildings, light indications on the airstrip and even aircraft skid marks at each end of the runway. The test flight itself now has a much more diverse range of targets for you to test out your weapons against, and from different eras. Static and moving ground vehicles, from trucks to tanks, enemy aircraft at different altitudes, bases to bomb, different types of ships, and active air defense systems. When selecting the target rank as “High”, surface-to-air missile capable vehicles will attack you with missiles and ping you with radar.

Original test flight settings are still available, such as gamemode, time of day and weather, unlimited fuel or ammo, configuring gun targeting distance and vertical targeting, fuel amount and ammo belts, secondary weapons and countermeasures.



We’ve upgraded several cockpit models for some planes and helicopters. For planes this includes the entire line of the Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber including the cannon variants, the Soviet Su-2 attackers and lastly the BB-1. For helicopters, the US and Chinese OH-58D as well as the Italian Agusta A.109EOA-2 cockpit models have been updated.



For fans of jet aircraft and modern helicopters, there’s some really important improvements to the immersion while in first-person cockpit view. The indication of warning systems (RWR) is now displayed in the cockpits exactly as these systems would work in reality on specific models of aircraft. Threat markers and signs of their status (for example locked on, launch, new threat, etc) can differ for the third-person camera and cockpit view. For a full list of onboard RWR models and their functionality in first-person view, take a look at the Firebirds major changelog once it releases!



For those who fly in first-person view, the Firebirds major update will add a radar screen and RWS screen to the JAS39A Gripen, a multi-functional display (MFD) for the Platan optical-electronic system in the Su-34 cockpit, and authentic digital indicators for multi-functional displays, as well as a HUD for the F-15E.



When taking your aircraft out in air battles in the Firebirds major update, you’ll definitely notice improvements in terms of graphical effects! For example, the afterburner flame effect for jet aircraft and the effect of rocket boosters have been updated. Brand-new LERX Vapor effects on different surfaces of the aircraft’s wings when gaining altitude and performing maneuvers will now appear, as well as new effects when aircraft slide on different surfaces such as concrete, snow and sand.

That’s not all, as the effects of air-to-air missile and anti-aircraft missile explosions in the air have been reworked. After the explosion occurs, in some cases you’ll be able to see how the engine motor of the missile continues to move along the flight path for a brief time.