Wargaming launches Warships at E3 2014
June 2014 – Following the successful launch of their tank battle World of Tanks Blitz earlier this year, the Russia headquartered Wargaming.net group has now tacked the water with their media preview of World of Warships. The water battle presented a number of new complexities to the visuals and controls on the game over the tank battles, and make sure they were right is a key element of the game.
Warships first of all have a water background with a dynamic wake generated by the ships in motion. This is normally a very GPU/CPU intensive activity to do the calculations to realistically have waves, crests, and foam movement around the ships. The team utilized a number of the advancements in the OpenGL / OpenCL releases as well as creative rendering and artwork to minimize the computing overhead to make the game playable on standard gaming PCs. This reduction in computing on the water features allows the game to operate with changing backgrounds (morning, midday, evening) and weather effects (smoke, fog) as are found in the World of Tanks and World of WarPlanes games.
World of Warships ship detail
A second major change was the introduction of multiple guns on the ships. The tanks have a single large weapon. On the warships there are not only multiple guns, but multiple types. The team took great care not only in developing realistic models and replicas of the ships, but duplicating all the weaponry that was available – and making sure that they can all be fired. An example is the ship below with twin sets of rotating triple big guns and then a series deck guns that line both sides. The game allows both levels of engagement in the battles.
The naval battles include a variety of ships such as aircraft carriers that can provide allies with air support, swift cruisers that area for reconnaissance missions, destroyers that can carry torpedoes and finally the heavily-armed battleships. In addition to the variety of vessels the game play can include a wide range of combat options such as sudden strikes, flanking attacks, and open head-to-head encounters.
The World of Warships joins the full Wargaming.net net universe and with an account ID enables the sharing of in-game Gold and Free Experience points. If the user has a Wargaming Unified Premium Account it allows them to benefit from premium features across all of Wargaming’s titles. The game is currently in Alpha release and will be enerting the closed Beta stage in the near future. The E3 media preview was the first detailed look at the game with a large audience.
