September Visual Update

This update focuses on how the battlefield looks: new volumetric clouds and atmosphere (Definitive Edition only), an in-house ocean, and a clearer top-down module view for your vehicle. We've also done a round of optimization for low and medium graphics settings and for combat smoothness.

New Sky and Volumetric Clouds

Everything in this section is available only on the Definitive Edition client. Sky and weather are unchanged on other versions.

The weather system now runs on our own renderer. Clouds are no longer a sheet of paper pasted onto the sky — they have depth, light and shadow, and drift with the wind.

• Clouds have volume and lit edges: At midday you'll see billowing cloud masses with silver-lit rims; overcast and stormy weather presses down a thick, low ceiling
• Cloud shadows fall on land and sea: As the cloud layer moves, light and shade shift across the battlefield
• 11 weather types with continuous transitions: Clear, few clouds, partly cloudy, overcast, dense cloud, fog, light rain, heavy rain, light snow, heavy snow, and storm. Cloud shape, lighting, and visibility all transition together — no hard cuts
• Sunrise, sunset, and night sky: The sun, moon, and stars follow real-world positions, and the Milky Way is visible at night on high graphics settings
• Rain and snow land on the camera: Droplets slide down the lens in rain; snowflakes settle and melt. Vehicle surfaces stay wet for a while after the rain stops, and upward-facing surfaces can accumulate snow in snowy weather (high-quality vehicles)
• Volumetric light and aerial perspective: Fog, god rays, and distant haze are driven by the same sky system, so the sky reflected on the sea and on hulls matches what you see
• Aircraft can fly through clouds: On PC at high graphics settings, approaching or entering a cloud layer switches to per-pixel volumetric clouds, letting you break out through the other side

Time, weather, and dynamic day/night options in the Definitive Edition pre-battle setup are still available. The "Sky Quality" setting in graphics options can be adjusted on its own and controls cloud detail: low and medium use a lightweight cloud layer, while full volumetric clouds require high or above.

New Ocean

The ocean has been rebuilt from the ground up. Waves, foam, ship wakes, and underwater effects are all driven by the same sea state — no more flat, shiny plate.

• A sea surface that responds to wind: Light wind gives fine ripples, strong wind whips up whitecaps across the surface, and wind and rain from the weather system feed directly into the sea state
• Shoreline wash and water color: Foam and shallow-water transitions near shore, with the open sea blending naturally into the horizon — no more washed-out dividing line
• Ship wakes: The two bow crests and the foam trail astern can stretch a long way, and once a wake has spread out it doesn't vanish the moment you slow down
• Bow spray: Cutting through waves at speed throws up spray at the bow
• You can go underwater: Once the camera submerges, the waterline follows the real wave motion, and high graphics settings add caustics, bubbles, and sun shafts
• Torpedo wakes: Torpedoes leave a foam trail after entering the water
• The sea reflects the sky: Clouds, sun, and sunset all show on the water

The "Ocean Quality" setting is adjustable (shown on paid versions where the device supports it). Low keeps the water readable and playable; high enables denser waves, close-range ripples around hulls, and fuller underwater effects; the heaviest features such as refraction are enabled only at the highest setting.

A Clearer, Cheaper Module Top View

The top-down module view for your own vehicle in the upper left of the combat HUD has been rebuilt.

• Damage colors read at a glance: Red and orange are no longer reduced to a thin outline, and they use the same palette as armor analysis and the module list
• Obscured internal modules are visible: Ammo racks, the driver, and other parts under the turret now show as a hatched overlay once damage reaches moderate or above, instead of being completely covered by the parts above them
• Clearer layering: The front-to-back relationship between turret, hull, and tracks is more obvious, and adjacent modules of the same color are separated by dividing lines
• More stable, less costly: The whole vehicle no longer redraws every frame while panning, and small gun elevation changes no longer make the diagram jitter. This HUD element's performance cost during combat is noticeably lower

The diagram can still be turned off on low graphics settings to save performance.

Other Optimizations

• Lower cost on low and medium settings: Mobile medium no longer pays for full-screen weather effects and depth copies it doesn't use, and the low-setting ocean no longer forces a full depth pass
• Smoother combat: Logic updates are now staggered, reducing periodic stutter
• Wreck effects preserved: Tracks and dust remain after a vehicle is destroyed, instead of the whole vehicle freezing instantly
• Invisible objects are no longer drawn: Crew and infantry that are off-screen or not visible are skipped during rendering
• More reliable Workshop downloads: Transfers now close out correctly when interrupted, when they fail, or when quitting the game, and updates to already-installed packages take effect on next launch
• More stable sky on some devices: Clouds and sky reflections on Vulkan / OpenGL ES are less prone to corruption, flickering, or washing out entirely

Suggested Way to Try It

1. On the Definitive Edition client, start a battle with dynamic weather enabled, set the time to early morning or dusk, and cycle through overcast and storm a few times
2. Pick a map with open water, take a ship out to trail a long wake, then submerge the camera and look around
3. During combat, watch the module top view in the upper left: after the turret is penetrated, check whether the ammo rack or driver underneath is still identifiable from the hatching
4. Tune "Sky Quality" and "Ocean Quality" to your hardware — medium is fine on mobile, and you can raise it on PC if you want the full volumetric clouds and underwater effects

Thanks as always for your feedback. See you on the battlefield.

— The Panzer War Development Team