Ninth Wave: New Water and Naval Battle Effects

In the Ninth Wave major update, we’ll be adding completely reworked water and updated effects for naval battles!

New Water

In the Ninth Wave major update, we’re introducing the result of extensive work on updating the visual component of water in War Thunder’s naval and combined battles. Unlike singleplayer games, where ripples on the water are primarily shader-based texture processing on the graphics card, water must also exist on the server in multiplayer games. However, the server doesn’t render any images, instead it operates purely mathematically. Therefore, generating water to ensure a synchronized image for all players in a multiplayer session must be done on the central processor. This approach significantly limits our implementation capabilities; we can only use CPU calculations without the need for graphics resources. Nevertheless, even with this toolkit, we have managed to significantly improve the physics and visual appearance of water in War Thunder.

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A separate area of ​​work focused on shading, which is how surfaces interact with light and the camera. Subsurface scattering was implemented in the new render, calculating the distribution of light as it interacts with objects beneath the water’s surface, creating a sense of the water’s interior volume. A new principle for anisotropic distribution of reflections on the water surface at different viewing angles complements this imagery under varying sea conditions.

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The foam generation system also required special attention. It’s now based on the physics of vortices and wave resonance, rather than a random mask. Foam is generated in turbulent zones when wavefronts collide with obstacles or each other, and its behavior is governed by the laws of physics. The foam structure itself now has a microrelief: an overlay normal map causes highlights to glide across the bubbles, creating the effect of a three-dimensional, slowly settling suspension.

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After

Water Effects

Along with physically accurate water, completely new physically accurate effects were also required. One of the key changes was the support for an animated height map for water effects. This allows the geometric shape of the water to change according to the needs of each effect, such as a bullet cutting through the water's surface, a bomb explosion, the wake from a torpedo slicing through water, or even a raindrop disturbing the mirror-like water surface. This effect is procedural, meaning it literally deforms the surface mesh, creating a sense of tangible depth even in static frames.

Alongside this, the transparency and blending algorithms have also been reworked, which is especially noticeable when two different elements meet — like when foam particles or splashes overlap opaque objects, such as rocks or ship hulls. New logic for the transparency and render modes has also been developed, these improvements eliminate artifacts that previously distorted reflections at sharp viewing angles. Now the water’s surface maintains clarity and physically accurate brightness even at minimal angles to the camera.

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We’ve also carried out reorientation of water environment particles to increase the detail on all image planes at every graphics setting, and at every lighting intensity in each part of the image. The water doesn’t just correctly reflect light; it has a “physical” structure now, reacting authentically and dynamically to changes and interactions!

Naval Battles

We get the closest perspective on water in naval battles, and now, aside from the updated water and splash effects, we’ve reworked all of the effects that can be seen in battle. Every interaction with shells, bombs, bullets, and even shell casings with the water has been improved. Shell and bomb