As part of its continued push into new technologies and to preserve the legacy of military history, Wargaming has developed special augmented reality technology. World of Tanks AR Spectate, developed by Wargaming Sydney, is ”
cutting-edge augmented reality technology to show World of Tanks PC game battles on any surface, with tanks battling it out in front of the viewer in miniature.”
According to Wargaming;
AR Spectate uses proprietary local streaming technology to achieve WoT highest-end PC graphics on an iPad, using Apple’s ARKit to keep the AR 3D content rock-solid, stable and believable
World of Tanks AR Spectate was shown off to World of Tanks fans at Gamescom and Tankman Day 2018.
World of Tanks AR Spectate
Developed internally at Wargaming and with the initial tech developed at Wargaming Sydney, World of Tanks AR Spectate uses “local cloud rendering” to create the best possible visuals. It works by using the iPad like a 3D mouse, “meanwhile [the] PC does all rendering & sends that back to iPad as video.”
The AR experiences is based on ARKit for iOS and iPad sends its constant position/orientation to PC, in-game camera in World of Tanks on PC matches the iPad’s position/orientation and sends what it sees back to iPad as video. WoT skybox is made transparent, and the app controls what “slice” of the map in a replay the visitor is seeing at any time
Right now, World of Tanks AR Spectate only works with pre-recorded replays from the game. It’s not yet a playable experience.
At D-Day Conneaut in August 2019, World of Tanks was on hand at the festival in Ohio. An updated World of Tanks AR Spectate, using the D-Day map and vehicles was shown to attendees.
Wargaming also filmed a follow-up with the History Channel, this time focusing on the Battle of Normandy. You can watch both episodes above.
This features our “Overlord” D-Day-inspired map from World of Tanks, including specular reflections from wet beach sand, and dynamic AR water spilling from the Normandy beaches all over the AR table, with many of the in-game vehicles that fought in The Battle of Normandy storming the beach, playing cat & mouse against Axis armor in the Bocage
Wargaming and The History Channel previously teamed up for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk. You can watch both episodes above.
Check out some more images of the AR tech below.
