Wargaming.net – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

September 4, 2019

World of Tanks VR to Manoeuvre Into VR Arcades Next Week

Wargaming has been experimenting with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) versions of its popular MMO World of Tanks for several years now, most notably launching World of Tanks VR as a location-based entertainment (LBE) experience in Russia last year. Next week the videogame will be rolled out to VR arcades worldwide using the Synthesis VR distribution platform.

World of Tanks VR was created specifically for the LBE market, featuring specific motion controller support so players can drive, aim, and shoot these war machines quickly and fluidly. Arcades will be able to offer 2-4 multiplayer battles with three tanks (LTTB, T-144, IS-3) offering their own strategic advantages and disadvantages available at launch. The LTTB is light and nimble yet poorly armoured while the IS-3 is a giant brute with plenty of power but very slow. That makes the T-144 the balanced medium tank.

With deathmatch and team deathmatch modes to chose from, three realistic maps (medium-sized summer – Citadel, small winter – Monastery, and large winter – Blizzard) featuring hilly terrain with all kinds of obstacles, shelters and destructible objects will be on offer. The matches are designed for high-velocity gameplay taking approximately 8 min per session with an optional tutorial and 2 battle rounds of 3 min each.

For VR arcades Synthesis VR mentions in a blog post that: “All LBVR operators will have access to license WoT VR without a subscription to Synthesis, making WoT VR available to every arcade non-exclusive of any management software.”

World of Tanks VR image2

When VRFocus first tested World of Tanks VR we noted: “It’s very much a simplified experience; one designed less for the passion of tanks and more for the thrill of battle. That’s no bad thing however, as World of Tanks VR stands as an interesting LBE title that may introduce new audiences to the core online experience.”

Distributed directly through Synthesis VR’s content delivery network, World of Tanks VR will be made available to hundreds of arcades across the globe on Friday 13th September 2019. To celebrate the launch the companies will be hosting a World of Tanks VR Global Arcade Invasion Day featuring competitions and prize giveaways. For further updates on World of Tanks VR, keep reading VRFocus.

August 27, 2018

Preview: World of Tanks VR – Well On Track

A long time ago VRFocus questioned Wargaming about the possibility of a virtual reality (VR) edition of World of Tanks. Given the success of competing online war machine simulator War Thunder within the new medium it seemed only natural for Wargaming to be looking into doing the same. At the time a representative of the company explained that it wouldn’t work for tanks in the same way as planes, and that a great deal of experimentation would have to be undertaken before World of Tanks could make such a jump. That jump, it seems, is into location-based entertainment (LBE).

World Of Tanks VR - Logo Wargaming, with the support of Neurogaming and VRTech, unveiled World of Tanks VR earlier this year. It’s most definitely an aside to World of Tanks – a spin-off experience designed for fans and newcomers alike – opposed to integrating VR into the existing online videogame. That brings both strengths and weaknesses into play, but also allows for Wargaming to pitch the experience perfectly for LBE execution.

Limited to four players, each dons their HTC Vive and prepares for war by choosing their preferred tank. In a significant update from when VRFocus first experienced World of Tanks VR, there are now a small selection of tanks available each one with statistics bars demonstrating firepower, reload speed, acceleration etc. Players are no longer limited to fast or slow, heavy or spread. Tactical ambition is now at play not just in the positioning of your tank, but also in the way you engage your enemies.

The World of Tanks VR controls are complicated at first, but soon it becomes natural. The tank will accelerate forward towards the direction the player faces, however given the large bulk of machinery may take some time to turn tight corners. Meanwhile, the player’s central viewpoint will always represent their firing arch in real-time. The player must combine navigation and maneuvering with lining-up that shot on the weak point in the enemy tank’s armour for maximum efficiency, and their best chance of escaping unhindered.

World of Tanks VR - Key Art

With a new map also on display at Gamescom 2018, Cologne, players were invited to work on new strategies revolving around a central chokepoint. The previous map VRFocus experienced was designed to grant a height advantage to those who lied in wait upon a hilltop, with an open plane providing little in the way of cover below. This new map, conversely, is too uneven to offer much in the way of an overview, but pushing into the busy central area looking for a kill can leave you open to attack from every direction; a bridge that provides access to spawn points at either end of the map makes you an obvious and easy target even for those shooting from the hip.

Matches in World of Tanks VR are only a few minutes long and consist of two rounds. It’s very much a simplified experience; one designed less for the passion of tanks and more for the thrill of battle. That’s no bad thing however, as World of Tanks VR stands as an interesting LBE title that may introduce new audiences to the core online experience in a sort of role-reversal for Mario Kart Arcade GP VR: World of Tanks is a franchise set to benefit from VR, opposed to being a benefit to its reputation.

You can also check out our hands-on with augmented reality (AR) counterpart World of Tanks AR Spectate from Gamescom, here.

August 23, 2018

Hands-on: World of Tanks AR – Augmented eSports at its Best

Augmented reality (AR) in its present form for public consumption offers a fairly basic visual experience due to the processing power of the device being used, namely either a smartphone or tablet. But what if you had access to more juice, say a decent high-end PC for example, what could be created then. Wargaming.net has been experimenting with AR (and virtual reality (VR)) for a while now, with its R&D department having previously rolled out World of Tanks AR for both iOS and Android devices. At Gamescom 2018 this week the team had something new to share, a possibility for the future.

Essentially an upgrade for World of Tanks AR, the new app being demoed was highly experimental and conceptual due the nature of its design. While the freely available AR app shows a couple of tanks blasting away at each other, this new idea was to make you an AR spectator in World of Tanks matches in as higher quality as possible.

World Of Tanks AR Spectate As this was purely a concept the emo didn’t feature live matches, rather several short segments across three levels, giving that idea of what could be possible when technology catches up to their ideas. The reason being that while an iPad was being used for the demonstration there was a substantial cable attached to the device which then connected to a PC to run the simulations. The level of quality and detail that Wargaming.net had produced was way out of the remit of a portable device.

And it’s this graphical prowess that was the main star of the demo. It looked exactly like the World of Tanks so many players know and love. In fact, at points it looked even better thanks to the way you could manoeuvre about a scene. Designed to be viewed entirely on a tabletop, moving the iPad in closer didn’t distort the graphics at all, allowing tanks to be seen up close and personal, or viewed further away for an overview.

This same detail featured across the battlefield, from the trees, bushes and other foliage, to the crumbling buildings and damaged wrecks. There was no hindrance in movement, just like other tabletop AR experiences World of Tanks AR allowed complete free-roaming around each scene.

That was it mind. There was no interaction of any sorts in the build, allowing you to pick points on the map to view, or dropping inside a tank for a first-person point-of-view. It was simple a trial to see how far AR can be pushed, and certainly from this test AR could (at some point) offer a completely new way to view your favourite esport.

Of course don’t get your hopes up this will happen anytime soon. As with any R&D prototype it was unwieldy to use and completely not practical due to the PC umbilical cord. Yet it’s still nice to glimpse into that future and see what could be. Maybe in another five years mobile devices might have caught up enough so that Wargaming.net can offer viewers the option of being an AR spectator at the latest World of Tanks tournament.

March 6, 2018

World of Tanks VR Brings Location-Based Warfare to Consumers This May

Creating a virtual reality (VR) videogame has its challenges, especially when tackling the subject of motion sickness. VRFocus spoke in-depth with Tamaz Murgulia, Chief Experience Officer of Neurogaming about their latest VR videogame World of Tanks and how they tackled it by looking at field of view (FoV).

VR hasn’t hit mass market yet, this means that your average consumer or the general public have still not adopted VR at home. Until the prices for VR headsets has gone down, there’s been a resurgence of arcades dedicated to VR. These out-of-home entertainment locations have started to appear in numerous locations around the world. This is exactly the space and target audience for Neurogaming, who are seeking to revive the local arcades. “It’s too clumsy to come into your home right now with all the wires, but perfect for out-of-home entertainment where you have a spare fifteen minutes,” Murgulia explains.

Creating a VR videogame has it’s own challenges as well, especially when it comes to motion sickness. Murgulia seems to remember painful memories of trying to do this, explaining that their first concept for a VR tank game was to put various players in the same tank with different roles. Neurogaming have spent around a year prototyping, experimenting with what works and doesn’t work in VR. Their first experiment RevolVR proved to be their first success. A videogame experience that lasts only eight minutes where players had to fast draw against others and win. A simple game that made players completely exhausted but had them extremely excited. “This is the experience we want to deliver,” Murgulia says, “we wanted to do something like this but with different mechanics.”

Murgulia explains that when it comes to tanks in VR, “motion sickness would be the main enemy. The adversary that hasn’t been beaten yet, no one know how to do this except us. You cannot avoid it, but you can trick your mind into not feeling that you’re motion sick.” He explains that their first step towards success is by creating intuitive controls, and that they’ve invented a mechanics of movement control which didn’t make you think too much. Players can aim separately to the movement of the tank by simply using the touchpad, this way players can look around them whilst moving around a map.

Their second solution was solving the field of view. All corners of the tanks have to be visible, and you can’t be too low or too high. You have to see the corners of the whole tank, but not on turret height and certainly not near the ground. Murgulia says that, “your mind is effected by screen resolution, and should get sick but it doesn’t because it doesn’t have much time for this. it has a goal, it’s completely taken with the idea of killing, evading, of getting kills, shooting and all this.”

So far players, even those who have never tried VR before have not experienced any motion sickness.

Currently World of Tanks is in beta mode in one location in Moscow. This is just to get feedback and will be launching to all of the locations Cinema VR exists around the world starting from May. World of Tanks by this time will have more than just team death match, but also various maps and a progression system as well.

World of Tanks can be played with four players in real time in Cinema VR, but Neurogaming are also currently looking to increase this and connect two Cinema VR systems together so four players can battle it out with tanks with four other players. This would make for a total of eight players fighting against one another in real time. To find out more watch the video below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.

August 31, 2017

Don’t Think VR Has A Future? Wait Until You Try Wargaming.net’s Free Roaming VR

Wargaming.net is renown around the world for its online tank-based multiplayer World of Tanks (WoT). The company also dabbles in plenty of future tech like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to ensure it stays up with current trends, such as its VR spectating experiment during the WoT 2016 Grand Finals or the Tank 100 app. Then earlier this month the company announced a partnership with Russian VR specialist VRTech, to bring its location-based entertainment to Europe. The first unveiling of which took place at Gamescom 2017 and VRFocus was there to try it out.

If you’ve read VRFocus‘ previous coverage you’ll know that VRTech’s system comes in two flavours, Cinema VR and Polygon VR. The former is the simpler of the two which VRTech franchises out. This involves a setup rig that’s 5 metres by 5 metres, consisting of four HTC Vive’s suspended from the top of the metal framework. This allows all cabling to be off the floor giving players a reasonable movement range much like you’d have in a home setup. The system also allows up to four players in one session.

Wargaming-VRTech

For the Cinema VR demonstration one videogame was playable, a first-person shooter (FPS) called RevolVR. This was essentially a wild west shootout scenario, very similar in fact to Dead and Buried. After activating the character select wheel – which chooses automatically – each player finds themselves dotted around a small level, with a limited amount of cover to hide behind. It’s then a case of killing your opponents as quickly as possible, either with body shots or a few well placed headshots with the pistols provided – no other guns were available.

This sort of title is ideal for a setup like this, limiting movement to ducking behind cover and popping up to take a shot. While it won’t amaze gamers who are well attuned to VR, it will certainly impress those who’ve never even tried VR – and that’s the point – as the locations will be in shopping centres or amusement arcades for example. And for this purpose Cinema VR does an admiral job.

Switching to Polygon VR however is another ball game entirely. This is wireless, complete free roaming gameplay, much like The VOID or Zero Latency. This has an area of 10 metres by 10 metres, using an MSI backpack, StrikerVR gun, and a customised Oculus Rift headset. Again, this is designed for four players but now there’s plenty of kit to wear as the system tracks your entire body. So attached to your feet, legs, waist, elbows, hands and head are markers – similar to mo-cap setups – enabling operators to track every movement of your body for full immersion.

This is definitely not the sort of attraction you’ll find in a shopping mall, it’s way to big, complicated and time consuming to setup, this is one for theme parks. Just getting everything hooked up and ready took at least 20 minutes, with the videogame taking about 15-20 minutes to complete. Here’s the thing, put four friends into Polygon VR and they’re going to have a brilliant time, or they should do. When VRFocus tried the experience it was with two strangers who only spoke pigeon English which made it hard to build up a team dynamic with a solid plan on achieving success, but it was easy to tell how that would work with some buddies.

The actual videogame on demonstration was called Paragon, a military shooter where you had to ascend a tower, taking out machine gunners and snipers, punching in codes to activate sections to eventually free a UFO before getting picked up in a helicopter.

VRTech - CinemaVR

In parts it was amazing, just like VR in general has to be seen to be understood, this type of VR takes the technology to a whole different level and you’d want every immersive experience to be like this. However it wasn’t all plain sailing, at times things glitched out and became almost unplayable.

When things ran smoothly the ability to just wander around a platform, picking off enemies, then moving to another position, seeing a team mate and having to remember to physically walk around them was as equally weird as it was brilliant. Home consumer VR is immersive that’s for sure but this dials that up to eleven – laser quest just won’t cut it anymore.

Now this may have been due to Gamescom and the fact that any sort of wireless communication is horribly unstable, there were times when things just didn’t work. Trying to punch a four digit code in became a test of perseverance and luck, hit the wrong number and trying to delete it would erase the previous numbers, building that feeling of wanting to hit the keypad before realising it wasn’t physically there.

Then at times the tracking went so suddenly one of the other team members would have their feet above their heads, arms contorted into some unfathomable position like a freaky Picasso painting. The most annoying however was when the gun lost tracking, it was visually there but not in the same place as the actual gun, or it would glitch about so trying to shoot a sniper nestled into a tower became almost an impossibility.

So there were some issues granted. After finishing the demo though all that fell away to leave a feeling of excitement. Like any new tech finding its feet there are going to be hurdles to cross, and VR has overcome many with plenty more still to go. One thing’s for sure, location-based, free-roaming needs to be a part of VR’s future and Wargaming.net and VRTech are on the right path, now where are the tanks!

August 18, 2017

Wargaming to Showcase VRTech’s Polygon VR and Cinema VR at Gamescom 2017

Earlier this month VRFocus reported on World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net announcing a partnership with Russian virtual reality (VR) specialist VRTech, to bring the latter’s location-based immersive experiences to Europe. Well that’s happening sooner rather than later with Wargaming.net’s stand at Gamescom 2017 to showcase Polygon VR and Cinema VR.

Polygon VR and Cinema VR are essentially two sides of the same coin. The first provides the experiences and tech required to play in VR, with VRTech creating its own in-house first-person shooter (FPS), a ‘School of Magic’ team exercise and a puzzle solving adventure, all of which are multiplayer based.

VRTech - CinemaVR

While Cinema VR is the location solution that VRTech franchises out to various locations across Russia. With enough play area for up to four people.

Alongside VRTech, Wargaming.net will also have plenty of tank related stuff going on, taking up 1400 m² of show floor with new iterations of World of Tanks on PC and consoles, World of Warships, and a public world premiere of Creative Assembly’s Total War: ARENA.

Talking about Gamecom 2017, Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming said: “For Wargaming and each of our employees, who are gamers by heart, the shows and meetings at our two gamescom booths are the highlight of each year. We are so proud to finally unveil all our latest achievements, future games and put on a great show to our true fans plus thousands of new players. We’ll have chance to chat, get their feedback and deliver truly legendary and fun experience during five amazing days in Cologne. This is also our chance to meet most of our current and potential future partners in person to strengthen our business relationships and to be even more successful together in the future.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Wargaming.net, reporting back with the company’s latest VR projects.

August 11, 2017

Wargaming and VRTech Forge Partnership Providing Location-based VR Gaming

World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net has announced a collaboration with Moscow-based virtual reality (VR) company VRTech to bring location-based immersive experiences to the European market.

VRTech is known for location-based VR solutions, including CinemaVR and PolygonVR. The collaboration is set to combine VRTech’s solutions and Wargaming’s expertise in game design and visual effects.

VRTech - CinemaVR

“The potential of taking location-based VR to a new level is an opportunity we had to capitalize on,” said Aleksandr Zezulin, R&D Operations Director at Wargaming in a statement. “With this partnership, we are planning to change the public perception of VR from a one-time experience to a source of fun, re-playable entertainment. This type of new business for Wargaming is a scalable, successful set-up that will help us produce high-quality entertainment.”

“We’re excited to announce our strategic partnership with Wargaming,” said Yuri Krylov, CEO of VRTech. “This unique collaboration has all the chances of changing the VR market, and we welcome location and IP owners in EU to join our partnership on this exciting journey.”

VRTech launched in December 2016, bringing its VR booths to over 20 locations in cinemas and malls in Russia’s largest cities. Its first European showcase of CinemaVR and PolygonVR technology will happen during Gamescom 2017 this month.

Wargaming.net has supported VR and augmented reality (AR) in various forms over the last couple of years. Promotions have included a partnership with the Tank Museum at Bovington, as well as creating content for other museums around the world, such as the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the RAF Museum, and the Pacific Battleship Centre.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Wargaming.net, reporting back with further VR updates.

July 17, 2017

World of Tanks Rolls Into Reality With Google Tango and Hololens

We began today on VRFocus with a Life In 360° focused on historical miltiary aircraft now we get our head out of the clouds and back down to earth for some ground-based machines of war.

We’ve reported several times on the efforts of World of Tanks developer Wargaming who have previously experimented with 360 degree video, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in tandem with various videogames in its World of… series. This has usually been courtesy of Wargaming’s ‘Special Projects Division’ which has taken on a number of partnerships with institutions such as museums, as Wargaming seek to not only be a gaming platform but use that to help educate on the realities behind their title.

World of Tanks screenshot 05 One of the museum partners is the Tank Museum at Bovington, found in the in the South West England county of Dorset. As part of the recent Tankfest 2017 event the Special Projects Division revealed a brand new experience featuring World of Tanks’ ultra-rare model the German-made Sturmtiger or ‘Assault Tiger’, part of the series of assault vehicles built on the design platform of the devastating Tiger I tank. Wargaming’s team, in collaboration with Gravity Jack, this time utilised support for both Microsoft’s Hololens head-mounted display (HMD) and Google’s Tango platform. Having the Sturmtiger roll straight into the museum before showcasing its movement, firing and gives both an ‘exploded’ and cross section view of what makes up the tank.

You can see a video of what visitors to Tankfest could enjoy below. VRFocus will bring you more updates on the latest uses of MR and the the Hololens and Tango platforms as we get it.

May 17, 2017

World of Warships to Launch Virtually Inside HMS Cavalier for London Tech Week

Wargaming.net, the developer behind World of Tanks and World of Warships, has announced a partnership with Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust and Ballista Media, as well as Google Arts & Culture, on a virtual reality (VR) experience called Virtually Inside HMS Cavalier.

An immersive exploration of the last of the British Royal Navy C-class WWII destroyers, the developer will be holding a launch event at Google’s new building at King’s Cross, for the beginning of London Tech Week, starting on 12th June.

Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust-HMS-Cavalier-1

The event will feature a selection of guest speakers, including: Dan Snow, historian and TV presenter; Richard Cutland, Wargaming military adviser; Tracy Spaight, Director of Wargaming special project division; and Admiral Sir Trevor Alan Soar, former Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet of the Royal Navy and now Chairman of the Chatham Dockyard museum.

“The 360 VR project on HMS Cavalier is a natural next step in our mission to bring naval heritage alive for global audiences using new media,” explains Spaight in a statement. “Through the use of VR 360 video on the Google Arts & Culture platform, we can take our audience places that not even on-site visitors can go. Exploring the ship in this way leads to a deeper appreciation for the speed and power of these vessels – and the courage of those who served on them.”

Snow and Cutland will showcase a mixed reality (MR) exploration of off-limits areas like the ship’s Engine Room. While online viewers will be able to experience the ship from Wargaming.net’s VR drone and watch as load one of the ship’s six inch deck guns is loaded with HMS Cavalier veteran and author Barry Krell. The experience will then be available on Google Arts & Culture web portal, mobile app, and will be fully compatible with Google Cardboard headsets.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Wargaming.net, reporting back with its latest VR related experiences.

January 15, 2017

Wargaming’s Special Projects Division Attending VR Connects London

Tomorrow sees the return of the annual PG Connects London event with the inaugural VR Connects London taking place alongside. VR Connects London is an industry focused conference which’ll feature virtual reality (VR) professionals and companies from across the world. Most recently World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net announced it’ll be in attendance, with its director of special projects Tracy Spaight set to discuss content marketing.

Wargaming.net maybe best known for its popular online vehicle combat title World of Tanks, but over the past year or so the studio has been actively keeping the history of the vehicles and events they took part in alive through VR and augmented reality (AR) experiences. These have included content for museums around the world, such as the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the RAF Museum, the Tank Museum at Bovington, and the Pacific Battleship Centre.

“The Wargaming team is passionate about history,” said Spaight. “We are committed to ‘getting it right’ in the exacting recreation of each of the tanks, planes, and ships represented in our games. Our players appreciate our attention to historical detail and support our museum partnerships over the past few years.”

Tank 100

For VR Connects London, Spaight’s talk in the business track segment, titled Content Marketing Through VR & AR, looks at these partnerships with the official description stating: “Through these collaborations we have helped to solve some of the outstanding challenges faced by museums today – to wit, how to reach ‘digital natives’, who grew up in a different media environment than baby boomers, and how to make inaccessible areas of the museum (such as the engine room of a destroyer) accessible. This talk explores why we work with museums, the challenges of doing so, and the benefits (to both parties) of these exercises in content marketing and corporate social responsibility.”

VRFocus will be following what’s going on at VR Connects London, so stay with us for more details.