Today, Gaijin Entertainment has revealed several visual and graphical improvements coming to War Thunder Eagle’s Shadow major update. The changes include a completely rebuilt dirt and snow system for ground vehicles, improved aircraft vapor effects, more realistic water lighting and reflections, and enhanced sky rendering.
Previously in War Thunder Eagle’s Shadow, snow could appear as a flat, milky coating, while dust and mud lacked realistic textures and often settled inconsistently across different vehicles. The redesigned system introduces three-dimensional snow textures, grainy dust, and bumpy mud, with each material responding more accurately to the vehicle’s shape and surrounding conditions.
Dirt and snow will now collect around rivets, welds, hatch rims, and other recessed areas, while lighter dust can travel higher across a vehicle’s hull and heavier mud remains closer to the tracks. Snow will also accumulate in shaded areas and crevices, gradually thickening during snowfall, and engines will now generate enough heat to melt snow around engine decks, radiator grilles, and exhaust pipes, while firing the main gun heats its barrel and clears away accumulated snow.
Aircraft visuals are also receiving significant improvements through a new humidity model that determines the intensity of vapor effects based on weather conditions, speed, altitude, and angle of attack. Vapor effects will be considerably stronger in humid environments, such as over the ocean or beneath low cloud cover, compared to dry conditions.
The War Thunder Eagle’s Shadow update also introduces wing vapor sheets, which form when air pressure and temperature drop around an aircraft’s wings. These effects appear at critical angles of attack, become more pronounced during high-G maneuvers, and gradually fade toward the trailing edge. Aircraft with variable-sweep wings will also see the vapor effects adjust as their wing positions change.
Naval combat is receiving additional visual improvements through enhanced lighting and water reflections. Previously, sunlight was the primary source of reflections on the water, leaving other light sources such as muzzle flashes, fires, explosions, and searchlights without corresponding effects. The new system will allow every light source to reflect across the water, with reflections refracting naturally across waves and ripples. At night, light will also spread beneath the surface, illuminating the surrounding water. These improvements will be available on High and Ultra water quality settings.
War Thunder Eagle’s Shadow also addresses longstanding sky-rendering issues by eliminating the dark bands that previously appeared at high altitudes due to the way fog and haze were processed, while introducing smoother atmospheric effects, a sharper horizon, and more natural-looking haze over the sea. The improvements also restore crepuscular rays, commonly known as godrays, which had been removed in an earlier workaround for the visual banding problem, bringing back the sunbeams that shine through clouds.
Finally, the Eagle’s Shadow update will eliminate repeating cloud patterns that could become noticeable when flying at high altitudes in cloudy weather. The redesigned cloud-generation system gives each section of the sky randomized cloud shapes and positioning, blending them to create more natural formations without requiring additional system resources.
Gaijin Entertainment ended the Steam post surrounding the update by stating that it will share more details about the updated rendering technology in the coming weeks.
