How is it ugly? Please tell as your feedback is important. We really do our best to make it look as good as possible. Have you read the article? It's told there several times that we are not going to make it look realistic, quite the opposite actually. Does it look real to you?

In one of our latest videos about the development of the new Tanki Online on Unity, we shared with you the creative process involved in designing and building objects such as bridges, tunnels and houses, to breathe life into the new world of Tanki. Texturing is an important part of this procedure. A texture is a graphical image applied to a surface or an object. It allows you to distinguish between a sandy road and an asphalt one, or between stone and metal. We are currently in the process of creating terrain textures. The Terrain is what makes up the map’s landscape: sand, rocks, pavement, grass and so on. There are different ways of creating textures. You can take a picture of a real object or material and apply it as a texture within the game. While this method creates a very realistic and intricately detailed model, games seldom require such level of minute detail. This can actually be counter-productive as it creates “extra noise” on the screen. The image becomes overburdened with detail, which in turn makes it too difficult to absorb and enjoy. For the new Tanki Online we will be using hand-drawn textures, created by our team of talented artists. This approach allows them to be selective on the details, focusing on what brings a texture to life, and doing away with what is unnecessary, distracting or cumbersome. The end result is a map rich in graphics that are soft and harmonious -- a world perceived as a single canvas, rather than a mess of objects and textures that clash with one other. This does not mean that the new Tanki will be any less detailed. Quite the contrary. Unity will allow us to push the level of detail to a much higher level than it in the current incarnation of the game. This hand-drawn sand texture is a perfect example. While it is intricately detailed, displaying volume and texture, it retains clarity by not being overburdened by unnecessary detail. Some people have the misconception that “hand-drawn” means “cartoonish”. While this is not necessarily the case, we deliberately distance ourselves from realistic graphics. We do not need hyper-realistic tanks and objects, as experience has shown us that it detracts from the gameplay and often prevents players from enjoying a game’s full potential. Of course, we are still committed towards bringing you a game that is nothing less than visually stunning. Also, at a technical level, hand-painted textures generally require less resources. They are less demanding of your GPU, so the game will load faster and consume less cache memory and hard drive space. As we develop the game on Unity, we will be adopting the engine’s standard technologies, such as normal mapping, as well as implementing our own in-house developments. Normal mapping technology uses pixel shaders. Adding a normal map to a default texture creates a sense of volume and complexity. At the same time, the texture remains easy to perceive, without overloading the scene or making it overly detailed. The texture is flat, but the interplay of colour and lighting makes it appear more vibrant and dimensional, resulting in a completely different feel. The pic below shows the difference between a default texture (lower image) and the same texture with added normal map (upper image). The new Tanki will feature an array of complex materials such as metal, glass, reflecting surfaces, wood, bark and water, none of which exist within the current environments due to technical limitations. With Unity, the use of these complex materials will become possible, and we intent to take full advantage of that feature. As opposed to the current incarnation of the game, the new Tanki will automatically adjust texture resolution to achieve balance between performance and visuals. Low performance devices will feature simpler materials and reduced complexity in glare and normal maps. The goal is to provide our players with a game that runs smoothly on as many devices and hardware combinations as possible. Creating textures for terrains is essentially the last step in texture creation. The majority of these are ready, but as mentioned in our video, our artists may need to create additional textures in the process of developing new objects. Of course, let’s not forget the actual tanks. We’ll soon be telling you more about the making of fearsome battle machines for the new Tanki. Stay tuned!

Dates: - Paints are available for purchasing till 4 pm (UTC+0) on April 12. - Crystal prizes will be sent to players' accounts in 2 hours after the battle's finished. - Paints will be removed from the game on April 14.

The voting is over. Thank you everyone! Results can be found in this topic.

Tankers, you've made your choice! Viking has received the most votes, so this Friday and Saturday only, you can buy any of its modifications at a 50% discount! Dictator and Hunter have also had their prices slashed by 30% and 20%. The discount runs for 2 days, from 5 am (UTC+0) on Friday, April 11, up until 5 am (UTC+0) on Sunday, April 13. Enter your garage right now and get yourself three rock-solid hulls at bargain prices!

The main post has been updated! Make sure you read it!

Pavel Vakhrushev, Aleksandr Shafer and Dmitry Pobegaev (in the photo from left to right) are three of our youngest programmers. This trio works closely with the community management and marketing teams. But here’s an interesting fact - these guys love what they do so much, they spend their free time… programming! Dmitry, Aleksandr and Pavel are into competitive programming and have already taken part in numerous competitions and championships. The team’s highest achievement is a prestigious Second Degree Diploma in the World Programming Championship. Moreover, Dmitry earned himself a place amongst the TOP-3 in the Russian Java programming competition.

Tankers, we finally know who will face NooBest in the finals. According to results of today's battle, their opponent will be Scorpions.

Will be known today at 7 pm (UTC+0). Depends on how many people buy both paints, and how many of each paint will be purchased. We'll post extra info on that later, stay tuned!

Tankers, it's time to choose the hull you want to get at half price! Vote for Viking, Dictator or Hunter and buy the hull with the most votes at a 50% discount this Friday and Saturday! Hulls that will come second and third will be available 30% and 20% cheaper respectively. The voting is held in English, Russian and German communities of the game. Results in them will be summed up and announced on Thursday, April 10. And of course, make sure you enter the game from 5 am (UTC+0) on Friday, April 11, to 5 am (UTC+0) on Sunday, April 13, and get yourself 3 decent hulls at discounts you've chosen! Vote! It's all up to you!

Cybersport 2.0 has only started to develop, it's too early to say that it is good or bad. Things change all the time, everywhere. We are not stupid, if it doesn't work we'll change it. But for now it works for the most of players. Of course there are no paints for each league but that was done on purpose. A CS paint shows that you are special, you get it for achieving something. This is exactly why only top clans receive paints. If you have a good idea for a player-made contest, PM me and we'll make one together. I'm serious about that.

The Clan Championship has come to its end. After 4 rounds of truly intense combat, we are finally ready to officailly state it... NooBest is the best clan of Tanki Online! Every player that supported NooBest by buying their paint in the garage receives 3090 crystals. Congratulations to the mighty NooBest and their fans in all communities of the game! And of course, if you've missed the battle and would like to see how it all happened, make sure you watch the recording on our cybersport channel!

The article can be found here. Feel free to share your thoughts and impressions in comments below!

The sale is over! We hope you managed to upgrade your favorite turrets, hulls and paints at a 50% discount! To all of you who weren't happy with the sale, stay tuned. There will be more discounts on various things, including turrets and hulls. PS Learn from the other communities, guys, they are happy about every sale!

The discount has started! Don't miss it!

The discount is coming to an end. We really hope you liked the first ever one-week sale. Thanks, everyone!

Thank you for voting! Results will be announced tomorrow, on April 4.

It's too early to talk about that, but we will do our best to make the game work well on all sorts of hardware.

The new graphics will not bring another rebalance. We will do our best to make all turrets and hulls work and feel the same as they are now. Do not worry.

Our game designer Semyon Strizhak has a slightly weird but exetremely exciting hobby. He's a true master of Pump It Up, a famous music video game. So far, Hazel-Rah's highest achievement is 3rd place at Russian Pump It Up Festival.

Dear players! The time has come to choose the best entries for Miss Tanki Online contest in the Tankers' Choice nomination. All correct videos sent by members of the English community can be found below. As usual, you can only vote for one video. Let's start! triptotan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT9U9HAw2Sc Gabri6 hesham2564 SSister http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkJ2Z3xZ9A

Guys, we are aware of the issue and will most likely fix it tomorrow morning. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Years pass. Seasons come and go. Only one thing remains the same — people that do their best to support the game, constantly improve it and make your life in Tanki Online better and easier. Here they are... best helpers of March! Best chat moderators: Pabloblue Tombapapa Shar0n PC-JACK EVISITORS Access.Denied Winged_Angels Killer93 Miki_Bax Doza_Schastya S-N-E-G S.E.V.E.N trusen1 Gunmachine MAZUTA777 PaVeRs Helenka_2 C_E_H_O_K_O_C NathanYoung Vistat1 Lascos l_GVA_l oj OpuraMa Oshpa skorpion1611 ANSO1982 Shade_Game Moya_Prelest AHrEJI.XPaHuTeJIb OldMan166234607 I_Kofe_I Dim1971 Meryem1987 Sergeant_Tom beliver74 Best forum moderators: joostcool Issho_Fujitora FederalBureauFBI yele Flanagun tvikvik Vio-Vio Dance_Commander prioritet22 raffnix tarnk Best consultants: Issho_Fujitora Shadow_Error_X FederalBureauFBI ANUBIS32 26333 sentinel7 slonozavr Cereris ALerTs xxxxJumperxxxx General_Dietl1 Kommander_Hansegilde Best Reporters: Raphael2 Lhamster Conanthedestroyer Les_Alterman Sanitar-13 Vio-vio tarnk Karamellbonbon Best Cybersport Staff: SuperNick95 GeneralVeers Dance_Commander BTAHKE_RUS Vio-vio anti_v.i.rus_64

Tankers, enter the game right now and upgrade parameters of your turrets, hulls and paints twice cheaper than usual. The 50% discount applies to microupgrades as well as their speed-ups. For example, the first step of upgrading M1 Railgun's damage costs 454 crystals, while its speed-up is 2 577 crystals. However, today it will only cost you 227 and 1 288 crystals respectively. It means that you can upgrade your equipment cheaper and faster than usual! The special offer is only valid till 5 am (UTC+0) on Saturday, April 5. Don't miss it!

No, we only give consolation prizes when we have several videos of basically the same level. This time this one was by far the best.