War Thunder overhauls Sun City, American Desert and all weather presets in next major update

Gaijin Entertainment has shown off reworked versions of the Sun City and American Desert maps in War Thunder, along with overhauled weather settings. According to Gaijin, all of it will arrive in the next major update. The source doesn’t give a date.

Sun City

Sun City used to look like an oasis from the air, cut off by surrounding sand. Gaijin says that’s been fixed: the whole location, aircraft areas included, is now one continuous urban landscape stretching along the coastline.

Buildings, vegetation, roads and vehicles have all been redone, and the streets are filled with smaller detailed objects. Gaijin compares the waterfront’s mood to 2000s games about criminal life in a sunny resort town, with palm trees, the ocean and pink sunsets.

The headline feature is destructibility across the environment:

• Tiles fall off walls if you crash into them.
• All windows can now be shattered.
• Shopfronts have interiors behind the glass, so a building with a bank sign shows a bank inside.

Gaijin says this doesn’t change navigation. You can’t punch new paths through building walls, so tactics stay the same.

American Desert

This Ground Battles map gets a full environmental overhaul too. Gaijin paid particular attention to making the rocks and stones look realistic, and every building, tree, bush, road and minor detail has been reworked.

Familiar routes and recognisable features are staying put. That includes the arriving train, which can still collide with any tanks in its path.

Weather settings

All twelve weather presets have been reworked, from a clear sky through to a harsh storm. Gaijin says there are new cloud formations with more realistic shapes and density, plus improved lighting that interacts with surfaces differently depending on the preset.

The studio describes a few examples. Clear has a deep sky and sharp shadows, fog blurs distant silhouettes, and rain brings wet surfaces, glints on armour and ambient sound. Storm adds heavy clouds, stronger winds and torrents of water.

The aim, according to Gaijin, is for each setting to match its name better.