Meet the “Firebirds” Major Update!

Welcome to Firebirds! Meet Firebirds, War Thunder’s second to last 2024 major update!
Immediately worth mentioning is that the F-117A has joined the ranks as a squadron vehicle, providing brand-new stealth capability to the game! Several jet aircraft including the Tornado GR.4, Su-34 and F-15E Strike Eagle have entered the fray, as well as several c*ckpit remakes and two brand-new helicopters. As for ground vehicles, Firebirds focuses on lighter vehicles and filling gaps, including the Skink and T77E1 SPAA for the US, Ram II and Scimitar for Great Britain, the PLZ05 for China and three Dutch Leopards for France. Dunkerque takes center stage for naval, while the Abandoned Factory map has received a visual update, providing a freshened experience for tankers. Test flights have been greatly expanded with more enemies, options and new airfields, and lastly the game has seen a large amount of updates to graphics & effects, including Ray tracing, new afterburner visuals, LERX vapor and much more.



There’s many fixes, new vehicles and other features — take a look at what we’ve included in this major update.
Please feel free to leave your feedback on this Major update in the feedback thread here.[steamcommunity.com]

Ground Vehicles: SPAA & Lighter Vehicles Take the Spotlight Firebirds sees the addition of several lighter vehicles to fill many roles in several trees. First off is the Scimitar, Luchs A2, ICV (P) for Great Britain, Germany and Japan respectively, and the BMP-2MD squadron vehicle for Sweden, giving their respective nations more diversity in multiple lineups at their ranks. We’ve also supplemented the US’s SPAA line with the T77E1 and Canadian Skink, giving this nation some additional anti-air capability across more Battle Ratings. The USSR now has the Object 140 premium tank, Israel the Sabra Mk.1, Great Britain the premium Ram II and China the PLZ05. Several nations have the Osa-AK added to their SPAA lines, and France has received three Dutch Leopard variants to give top-tier lineups more options.


Object 140 (pack)
T77E1 Scimitar PLZ05 Luchs A2 USA

• T77E1
  
• Skink
  

Germany

• Luchs A2
  
• Osa-AK
  

USSR

• Object 140 (Pack)
  
• Osa-AKM
  

Great Britain

• Scimitar
  
• Ram II (Premium)
  
• Osa-AK

Japan

• ICV (P)
  
  

China

• PLZ05
  
  

Italy

• Osa-AKM
  
  

France

• Leopard 2A4NL
  
• Leopard 2A5NL
  
• Leopard 2A6NL

Sweden

• BMP-2MD (Squadron Vehicle)

Israel

• Sabra Mk.1

Aircraft: Stealth Technology Enters War Thunder with the F-117A! Something special and unique has come to the game in the Firebirds update! Please welcome the F-117A, a squadron vehicle aircraft with a lower IR and radio signature thanks to its stealth technology. For other nations, the Su-34 and Tornado GR.4, both featuring the brand-new to the game “Grom-2” guided bomb and “Brimstone” guided missile, plus the famous F-15E Strike Eagle, all providing supreme CAS capabilities. Three new jet premiums, the Thai AV-8S Harrier for Japan, JA37DI for Sweden and the Su-22M4 for Germany provide these nations with some additional research options. We’ve also given several aircraft c*ckpits an update — check the full list below!


F-117A OCIP II (Squadron Vehicle)
F-15E Su-34 Tornado GR.4 Mirage 2000 RMV USA

• F-117A OCIP II (Squadron Vehicle)
  
• F-15E
  
  
  

Germany

• Ju 87 (all variants) — c*ckpit model has been updated.
  
• Su-22M4 WTD61 (Pack)
  

USSR

• Su-34
  
• BB-1 — c*ckpit model has been updated.
  
• Su-2 (all variants) — c*ckpit model has been updated.

Great Britain

• Tornado GR.4
  
  
  
  
  

Japan

• AV-8S (Pack)

China

• Mirage 2000 5EI

France

• Mirage 2000 RMV

Sweden

• JA37DI
  
• JA37DI F21(Pack)

Israel

• F-15I Ra’am

Helicopters: South African Super Hind & c*ckpit Updates! Another South African helicopter enters the fray — meet the Super Hind for Great Britain! This squadron vehicle brings with it the devastating tandem warhead Ingwe missile, capable of striking fear and devastation into enemy tanks. The USSR now have the modern Mi-8 AMTSh-VN, a powerful beast with Ataka missiles, a premium Pakistani Mi-35M for China and lastly c*ckpits for the OH-58D and A-109EOA-2 have been updated with a ton of detail.


Super Hind
USA

• OH-58D — detailed c*ckpit has been added.

USSR

• Mi-8 AMTSh-VN

Great Britain

• Super Hind (Squadron Vehicle)

China

• Mi-35M (Premium)
  
• OH-58D — detailed c*ckpit has been added.

Italy

• A-109EOA-2 — detailed c*ckpit has been added.

Naval Fleet: The Formidable Dunkerque Takes Center Stage! France’s top tier naval capabilities have been greatly extended with the addition of the Dunkerque Battleship, featuring two turrets with eight 330 mm (13 inch) guns and excellent armor! Great Britain now has HMS Repulse with 381 mm (15 inch) guns, comparable to the HMS Renown already in the game through a previous event. Closed beta testing of the French Coastal fleet has ended as well, meaning you can research any of these boats without needing to have a pack or complete tasks.


Dunkerque

USA

• USS Bagley

USSR

• Pr.253L

Great Britain

• HMS Repulse

Japan

• JDS Murasame
  
  
  
  

Italy

• MS 444
  
• RN Francesco Caracciolo
  
  
  
  

France

• Dunkerque
  
• Closed beta testing of the French Coastal fleet has concluded. The ability to research these vessels is now available to all players.

Locations & Missions: Visually Updated “Abandoned Factory” Map! We’ve given Abandoned Factory a makeover! This map has been visually updated in almost every aspect. The aim of this graphics update was to give the map a more up-to-date look and a greater “abandoned” feel with the addition of more foliage and broken structures.

Additionally, with no new location in this major update, we’ve taken the time to improve some of the older maps as well. Please check the full details in the changelog.

Airfields & Test Flights: Greatly Improved To Provide A Better Experience In Firebirds, we aimed to greatly improve airfields and test flights. We’ve not only improved aspects inside of them, but have also added several new options. Firstly within the test flight itself are more enemies to shoot at as well as bases to bomb. Airfields now feature better and richer details such as a taxiways, a control tower, hangars and finer details such as aircraft skid marks at each end of the runway. These new airfields are also available in standard, high-ranked Air battles.

Three new options have been added to the test flight menu! One long-awaited feature is the ability to spawn in the air instead of just the airfield, with altitudes ranging from 500 m to 7 km for planes and up to 2 km for helicopters. You can also choose several location types and the rank of enemy targets, and carrier-based aircraft can select an aircraft carrier or airfield to spawn at. Additionally, you can choose a hostile air defense zone to spawn at — in these areas SAMs and SPAA will attack your aircraft, allowing you to test out defense ranges and your evasive skills.




Graphics & Physics: Beautiful Visual Upgrades and Moveable, Non-Playable Vehicles Firebirds brings with it a wide variety of upgrades for graphics and effects all across the game. From new afterburners to LERX vapor on aircraft, to new rain and snow effects for maps, to more dynamic fires on ships and debris from destroyed vessels floating on the water, there’s an update everywhere you look! Tracer visibility has also been greatly improved, helping you to better aim your shots (or draw a love-heart in the sky!). We’ve taken great care to ensure that these new graphical improvements don’t impact game performance. There’s plenty more, with the full list in the changelog.

Train carriages and most non-playable vehicle map assets were previously completely static and could not be pushed. In Firebirds, we’ve made it so that train carriages can be moved around with ground vehicles, which will provide new gameplay elements through this new form of soft moveable cover. Cars located on all maps have received new destruction physics, allowing them to deform and not necessarily stay in place when destroyed.



More Graphic Settings & Ray Tracing Comes to War Thunder! War Thunder now has a Ray Tracing solution that doesn’t cut corners. We have all maps in ray tracing structures, and it can perform a range of graphical features based on it! The following Ray Tracing options have been added to the game. A description of each one is mentioned in the major changelog.

• Ray Traced Shadow Maps (RTSM)
  
• Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO)
  
• Ray Traced Reflections (RTR)
  
• Ray Traced Water Reflections
  
• Ray Traced Translucent reflections

A new graphics API option (Direct3D 12) and new anti-aliasing options (FSR 3.1, DLAA, XeSS and TSR) have been added to the graphic settings menu. Additionally, the graphic settings menu has been given an overhaul! We’ve added in-game screenshots and clearer descriptions for each setting, allowing you to see exactly what each one changes.



Following the Roadmap: Portable Ammunition Boxes Boxes of ammunition can now be built in ground battles, with these boxes allowing you to replenish ammunition outside of capture points anywhere on the map. To build, simply press the default key shown on the hotbar in-game and place the ammunition box down when it turns green, meaning it can be placed. There’s a small construction time, but once done a physical box and ammo icon will appear! From here, you can drive near it and your ammunition will start to replenish.



Only specific vehicle types can build ammunition boxes. They include: Tank Destroyers, ATGM carriers (stat card type, not any vehicle with an ATGM), all SPAA vehicles and ground vehicles with additional rockets and bombs (Calliope, M26 T99, RBT-5, Cromwell V (RP-3), Matilda Hedgehog, Magach Hydra).

Following the Roadmap: Profile Expansion! Your player profile is the perfect place to see the stats and details of your account that you’ve accumulated over the years. We’ve improved this area to make it feel more personal. The profile menu is now fullscreen and all important aspects are shown on the main page. Please bear in mind this is only the first stage of profile improvements, more will be coming down the line — we’re working on some cool things.



Shot Replays: See Where Your Shots and Enemy Hits Landed Post-Battle Ever wondered where your vehicle took a hit or where your shots landed on an enemy? We've added a new feature that lets you see exactly that! Simply click the "Hit Analysis" button to simulate the incoming and outgoing shots from your previous battle. Each shot is individually labeled, showing the type of projectile used and the range it was fired from. This feature works for all vehicles and all ammunition in the game.



Awards: New Awards For Your Efforts Ever shot down a nuke aircraft after they dropped the bomb? Or have you gained enough spawn points for your nuclear aircraft but didn’t manage to drop it before the battle ended? We’ve added two new awards, “The end is near” for shooting down one of these aircraft that has already dropped their nuke, and “One minute to midnight”, awarded for completing a mission while in a nuke aircraft without the nuke detonating. Each award will give you some Silver Lions.
The end is near One minute to midnight
There’s plenty more to see! That’s it for this news, but be sure to check out the full list of changes in the provided changelog, as there’s many bug fixes, improvements and additional vehicle changes not mentioned here. Let us know what you think and be sure to leave your feedback on our forums and official social media channels — we’d love to hear.

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Due to spatial constraints, the full changelog cannot be listed below. Please see the full changelog here.[warthunder.com]

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New locations and missions

• Aircraft test flight logic and locations have been updated. Now there are multiple locations as well as air spawn points available. Rank of targets presented in the test flight can now also be changed. Respawn logic, similar to the one present in tank test drive has been added for targets. Airfield models have been replaced with the new ones in all test drive locations.

Location and mission updates

• Abandoned Factory — the location has been visually reworked with new assets, redrawn ground textures and new effects.
  
• Flanders — adjusted the rock cover in square E7 where players could safely fire at the northern team’s spawn and its passages.
  
• Abandoned Town — in square C2, the mountainside where players could get stuck has been removed.
  
• Sun City (all missions) — play area in the location has been increased. Detection area at spawn points has been increased.
  
• Finland — positions on rocks near the northern spawn in the adjacent area of ​​squares B4 and B5 have been blocked.
  
• Second Battle of El Alamein [Domination #1] — positions allowing fire on the northern team spawn on the hills in squares C5 and B5 have been blocked off.
  
• Aral Sea — density of bushes on lines 1 and 2 have been reduced. A bug where bushes did not disappear when destroyed has been fixed.
  
• Wagons on maps are no longer static. They can be moved by a ground vehicle and from explosions.
  
• South Africa — the collision models of large islands, blurred shore textures and flying trees have been fixed.
  
• [Conquest #3] Karelia — the detection zone in the bottom spawn point has been fixed.
  
• Eastern Europe, European Province — incorrect destruction of fences near bridges has been fixed.
  
• Vietnam (the ground forces map) — the incorrect rendering range of trees in the aircraft part of the map have been fixed.
  
• Maginot Line (winter) — trees that had incorrect settings and ones where their visual model did not match their collision model have been removed. Additionally, the tree destruction model that led to an incorrect behavior when receiving damage has been fixed.
  
• All locations — oak trees that had trunks that behaved unnaturally when receiving damage have been removed.

Economy and research

• The mechanics of new vehicles have been extended to the requirement for the number of vehicles to unlock the next rank. If there are few vehicles at the current rank (less than 5 or 6, depending on the type of vehicle and rank) and a new vehicle is added there, this new vehicle will not increase the requirement to unlock the next rank for 28 days from the moment of its release. For example, in this update, when adding the Sabra Mk.I to rank VII of Israel’s ground forces tree, the number of vehicles required to unlock rank VIII will remain equal to three (based on the number of “old” vehicles and vehicle groups at this rank), until the Sabra Mk.I is no longer considered new.
  
• F-4F KWS LV — Battle Rating in all modes has been reduced to 13.0.
  
• Leclerc, Leclerc S2 — both have been moved from rank VII to rank VIII. The OFL 120 G1 APFSDS round, which was previously located at tier I in the modification research window is now available by default. Silver Lions and Golden Eagles spent on researching this modification have been refunded.
  
• Vextra 105, AMX-40 — both have been moved from rank VI to rank VII.

Interface

• A new full-screen player profile window has been added.
  
• The in-game shop for “Rookie trophy” now displays the exact drop chance for each item.
  
• The ability to move the range scale horizontally has been added to the sight settings menu. The scale is moved by dragging it with the mouse cursor.
  
• The ability to delete a custom sight preset has been added to the sight settings menu.
  
• The sorting in the lists for selecting a sight preset and selecting a reticle has been changed, now player-created files are displayed first.
  
• The ability to enable and configure the display of the type or name of the shell in the sight has been added to sight settings menu.

Game mechanics

• In Ground Battles at night, illumination shells that periodically fired over the map by mission logic have been disabled.
  
• Saving of player shots and hits received by the player to the replay log with the ability to separately play back each hit in the protection analysis after the battle has been added. The server point of impact, angle of impact and state of the shell are saved in this log, and then the result is played back in the shot animation using this data. Currently only direct hits are logged, hits by close explosions of shells, rockets, missiles and bombs are not.
  
• Following the Roadmap: Added mechanics for building boxes of ammunition with vehicles classed as Tank Destroyers, ATGM carriers (type listed in the stat card, not any vehicle with an ATGM), all SPAA vehicles and ground vehicles with additional rockets and bombs (Calliope, M26 T99, RBT-5, Cromwell V (RP-3), Matilda Hedgehog, Magach Hydra).
  
  • Building and destroying boxes: Building boxes takes some time, during which the player must remain stationary next to it. The movement of the vehicle is not blocked. Boxes have a full damage model and can be destroyed by a hit or ram. The ability to destroy boxes is only available to the enemy and the player themselves. To avoid bad behavior, allies are not able to destroy the player’s constructions in all game modes.
    
  • Additional box details: The number of built boxes depends on the number of vehicle weapon groups, from one to three: a separate box for artillery weapons and separate one for each additional group (SAM / rockets). For tanks with rockets and bombs, only one box can be built — the one for additional weapons, while the ammunition of main weapon can only be replenished at capture points, as before. Each built box contains as many shells / rounds as the player had at the time of respawn in battle, and will allow you to replenish the ammunition up to this amount. Only the player who built the ammunition box can replenish ammunition from it. After running out of shells in the box, it will automatically be destroyed. When enough damage is dealt to the box, the ammunition in it ignites, with the fire not only destroying the box, but also showing its position with a visual effect and causing damage to exposed vehicles if they fall into the radius of its destruction. Ammunition boxes can be rebuilt as many times as you like (including after they are destroyed), but there will only be remaining, unused shells inside. This means that at the beginning of the battle, the player could receive potentially double the amount of ammunition, which can be used at their own discretion through changing positions and replenishing ammunition from portable boxes.
    
  • Arcade Battles replenishment changes: The mechanics of replenishing ammunition from boxes logically and technically conflict with the mechanics of arcade reloading of additional weapons, which activates after the complete use of additional weapons in Ground Arcade battles. In addition, the mechanics of arcade reloading blocked replenishment of ammunition for additional weapons at the capture point. The mechanics of arcade reloading have been removed, since replenishment of ammunition from boxes and at capture points are, in our opinion, more understandable with universal game mechanics.

Graphical

• New Graphics API options:
  
  • Direct3D 12 (beta): A more modern graphics API, which allows us to do optimizations and add new features, not available for Direct3D 11. This includes the use of FSR Anti Aliasing, Ray Tracing and more in the future. It also helps to optimize existing features, like rendering the scenery is less demanding on the CPU.
• New Anti Aliasing options:
  
  • FSR 3.1: The Anti Aliasing (including the native one) and upscaling solution from AMD. Works under Direct3D 12 and Vulkan (currently available for Linux only), on all capable GPUs. Opens the door for frame generation in future updates.
    
  • DLAA: DLSS is now updated to the latest version. Has a Native upscaling option, which is also known as DLAA. Opens the door for frame generation in future updates.
    
  • XeSS: The Anti Aliasing (including the native one) and upscaling solution from Intel. Works under Direct3D 12.
    
  • TSR: The next generation of TAA Anti Aliasing we already had in the game. Has the same performance but better image quality.
• New feature:
  
  • Ray Tracing (beta): War Thunder now has a Ray Tracing solution which doesn’t cut corners and works for all objects and map elements. It has allowed us to implement a wide range of high-quality graphical effects based on it. Ray tracing is currently available only for NVIDIA GPUs.
• New Ray Tracing options:
  
  • Ray Traced Shadow Maps (RTSM): Replaces traditional shadow maps, for pixel perfect and physically accurate shadows. Works for sun shadows and also for dynamic lights, for high end GPUs.
    
  • Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO): Replaces traditional screen space ambient occlusion for physically accurate ambient shadows.
    
  • Ray Traced Reflections (RTR): Replaces probe and screen space reflection techniques. Enabling physically accurate reflections and also reflections of objects off screen.
    
  • Ray Traced Water Reflections: Replaces planar reflections used on water. While planar reflections were already good looking, this improves them, as the distortion is based on actual wave geometry.
    
  • Ray Traced Translucent reflections: Replaces probe based reflections on translucent glass surfaces for accurate reflection of the world.
• The afterburner effects for aircraft have been updated.
  
• New effects for ground vehicle movement depending on the surface and type of vehicle have been added.
  
• The effects of rocket boosters for aircraft have been updated.
  
• A new system that physically and correctly simulates wind flows on the location, taking into account obstacles has been added. It allows for improved behavior of particles, which are now able to bend around the landscape, buildings, and other objects in the scene when moving.
  
• New system of vehicle contamination during battle has been added. The system of interaction between the environment (dust, dirt, water) and vehicles has been reworked. Now different parts of the game location have different effects on the appearance of ground vehicles.
  
• LERX Vapor effects have been added.
  
• New rain and snow effects have been added.
  
• The dynamics of the visual spread of fires on ships has been changed.
  
• When anti-aircraft missiles are destroyed in the air, there is now a chance for the engine compartment to continue moving purely visually.
  
• New effects for launching anti-aircraft missiles on ships and anti-aircraft missile systems have been added.
  
• During rain, the effect of water jets is shown from some objects, such as roof slopes.
  
• Physical behavior of all sparks in the game from shots, explosions, shell hits, fires, etc have been improved.
  
• When ships sink, debris will begin to float to the surface of the water.
  
• New visual effects when a ship is flooded have been added.
  
• Physics of debris and particle behavior in explosions and impact effects have been reworked.
  
• Visual effects for sliding aircraft fuselages and wings on different surfaces have been added.
  
• Tracer visibility has been increased.
  
• The visual effect of flaming fuel spillage from fuel tanks of ground vehicles has been improved.
  
• Effects for targeting smoke have been improved.
  
• The effects of rocket explosions in the air have been reworked.
  
• Aircraft movement effects on different surfaces have been improved.
  
• Visuals for destruction of non-playable vehicles (cars, trucks) on maps have been improved.
  
• Trees lose branches when damaged so that after falling on the ground they obstruct less vision.