Dev Diary: Environment Destruction

Welcome back to our dev diary series for Call to Arms: Panzer Elite. In our previous entries, we’ve taken deep dives into our Component-Based Damage system and the intricate details of our Penetration Physics. Now, it's time to shift our focus from the internal workings of your tanks to the dynamic world around them. Get ready to learn about how we’re bringing truly Destructible Environments to life, ensuring every battle feels incredibly immersive and impactful.

Forget static battlefields; in Call to Arms: Panzer Elite, the environment is a living, breathing, and most importantly, a destructible entity. From the smallest crate to the largest building, nearly every element can be altered. Immerse yourself in the chaos of tank warfare as you drive, shoot, and blast your way through environments that react to your every move.

From the very beginning, we set out to create a destruction system tailored specifically to the needs of Call to Arms: Panzer Elite – one that could handle a massive variety of destructible buildings, props, and foliage, all within a fully multiplayer environment. This led us to make a significant decision: we poured a tremendous amount of effort into creating a Custom Destruction System from the ground up. This system allows for full multiplayer support and handles the massive scale of destructible elements, all while ensuring every surface type – be it wood, glass, metal, or stone – reacts with accurate physical properties. The visual effects react dynamically to the physical surface and are supported by destruction sounds that enhance the atmosphere of combat. They also scale with weapon caliber – so whether it’s a light machine gun or a high-velocity tank shell, the difference in destruction and visuals is obvious, letting you instantly recognize what kind of firepower is targeting you.

Building Destruction

The building destruction system delivers a visually detailed experience. Watching a large structure collapse under sustained fire adds a dramatic element to the battle. More than just eye candy, destroyed buildings fundamentally shape the battlefield as the battle progresses, providing crucial cover for your tanks and altering tactical possibilities.

Our buildings are incredibly detailed, often made up of hundreds of individual pieces. These include Walls, Roofs, Floors, Windows, Doors, Glass, Shutters, and Corners, all designed to break apart realistically.

Buildings also offer numerous cover opportunities. Each window, for example, can be utilized by infantry, forcing players to pay close attention to open windows and keep a watchful eye out for enemy anti-tank infantry to avoid being ambushed.

To achieve realistic collapses, our buildings use an anchor system that not only links structural elements together but also evaluates the structural importance – or “weight” – of each anchor point. This ensures that when critical supports fail, the upper floors collapse in a believable and consistent manner.

In addition, we developed a system that makes destruction even more realistic by dynamically adding extra details to the fractured and damaged parts.

Unique Prop Destruction

Beyond the standard structures, Call to Arms: Panzer Elite features larger Unique Props with custom hand crafted animations, visual effects and sounds for their destruction.

Medium and Small Props

For smaller, more common objects such as fences, boxes, hay bales, and barrels, we employ a more generic approach to destruction. While still physically accurate and visually satisfying, these elements are designed to be efficiently processed given their abundance on the battlefield. This ensures good performance even with a fully destructible environment.

Foliage

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