World of Tanks Visibility and Camouflage System Guide

World of Tanks Visibility and Camouflage System Guide by Cifu

Visibility System Working Method::

There is visibility observation zone starting from gun mantlet on turret on your tank. From that point there are 3 ‘rays’ directed to every enemy tank. Two beams are aimed at the targets hull and 3rd one to the turret. The enemy tank become visible if no obstacles were found between your and enemy tank. The visibility check is managed 360°, so it doesn’t matter which direction you are going or where the turret is facing. (in other words: there is no penalaty if enemy is behind you).

The writings on the picture are saying:
Upper right (дom) = House. (“non-transparent” obstacle)
Lower left (Kyct) = Bush. (“translucent” obstacle)
Lower left writing (зонa…) = Reduced visibility zone
Lower center (red writing, Paдyиc…) = Visibility zone

The system care about the obstacles in two different type.

The first one is a non-transparent, like buildings, rocks, etc. If such obstacles block all beams, the tank is not been seen (if the range is above 50 meters, read below). (if i’m understand correctly, there enough one beam to reach the target, to get seen – Cifu)

The second one is the translucent type, like bushes. If you are less then 15m from the center of the bush it won’t be obstacle to you (you can see through it!). The bush size matters, for example if the body is hided, but the turret are visible by the ‘turret’ ray, the cover is not not working. If you want to check the cover is working for you, turn your camera where your suspected enemys are coming. If your outline is all greyed out, and your tanks if fully hided by the bush, you get covered. Note: the gun barrel are not counted, only the body (and turret) of the tank.

In the next picture is an another cover set-up. It’s show the enemy tanks three visibility check beams, the one is aiming your tanks center is the turret-checking beam. If you wan’t to be hide, you have to ensure all bush (green spots) are taller than your tank, from the enemy tanks viewpoint. Note the tank in the front is see your turret (middle beam), and the lower left tank see your tail (lowest beam), the other two tank won’t see you.

Okay, but what about the trees?

Treetops block above-mentioned ‘rays’ too. It works in same way as bush.
Fallen tree doesn’t block anything.

Shooting (with greater extent) and moving tank (in smaller extent) could unmask your tank for next 5 seconds. Turning the turret have no effect about the cover!

The Camouflage net works whenever you stops. It gains cumulative effect in bushes though so in bushes it gains better results.

Crew’s Camouflage skill works always. In movement, in hold, while shooting.
It works by lowering enemy’s view range. E.g, if enemy’s view range is 400m and your crew have Camouflage skill then enemy’s view range will not be 400m but much shorter. This way, it helps to cover you even if you were shooting.

Camo net + Crew’s camo skill = 125% bonus

Gun is not counted as the part of the tank. – we are talking about visibility check, of course.

On 50 and less meters, nothing will cover you. Tank gains roentgen ability

This image perhaps help to understand the different region of sight ranges, in this example, we have a 400 meter view range tank, with 100% skilled crew:

Green region: Always seen everyone. 50 meters and below, you always see the enemy below this range, even through walls.
Yellow region: Hided opponents region, 50-200 meters. A Su-14 hided in behind one bush, without camo net or camouflage skill are showed up 200 meters, a mid tier Tand Destroyer (like the Hetzer or Su-85) with camo net and high camouflage skill can only be seen around 50 meters!
Blue region: Open field opponents region, 200-400 meters. A Su-14 in open, without any kind of camo equipment or skill are showed up in 400 meters. A Hetzer with camouflage skilled crew can be seen only from 200 meters.
Red region: Above sight range, 400+ meters. You cannot spot anybody in that region.

How often check the engine about the visibility?

On the far, visibility is checked on 10s. Sometimes even sparsely. – out of visibility zone?
Visibility is checked on close tanks every second. With distance, check interval increases up to 5 seconds. – inside visibility zone
Keep in mind that visibility check is very intensive computational operation and it occupy up to 50% server’s CPU time.

How the spotting range calculated exactly?

The spotting distance is calculated from two thing. The first one is your tank sight range, your crew skill (the noted sight range of your tank are only gained with 100% crew) and your equipment (coated optics: +10%, binocular: +25% after become stationary for 5 sec), but never be more than 500m.

On the second thing, ZiggyDeath made his homework, i’m provide this based on his work (big thanks for him!):

Every tank in the game have two value for visibility, one for movement, and one for standing still. Like the Panzer IV. have 0.25 for moving, and 0.3 for still. The math looks this:

View range – (view range * visibility value) = spotting range

We are sitting a tank with 420 meters of view distance, the Panzer IV. are moving toward us:

420 – (420 * 0.25) = 315 meters

So we spotted the incoming Panzer IV. around 315 meters.

What kind of sight range modifiers exits?

Coated optics: +10% sight range
Binocular: +25% sight range, when standing still
Ventilation: +5% crew skill, with 100% crew this means +5% sight range in theory

How the camouflage net and the camouflage skill working then?

We don’t know how the camouflage net working exactly, but something like multiplied the standing still value by 1.25.
We don’t know how the camouflage skill is working too, at least yet.

So there is no point to get 500+ meters sight range?

The 500 meteres sight range cap means you cannot spot anything beyond that range. But the above mentioned calculating method suggest you can still gain from the over 500 meters sight range. For example:

You have 575 meters of sight range (460m + binocular (x1,25)), and you standing still (to gain the binocular bonus) a Su-14 are always disappear above 500 meters, and 460 meters without the binocular.
But if you have a target who has better visibility value, you experience better spotting range. For the example:

You have a 420 meter view distance, the target is a moving Sherman. You spot him around 357 meters.
You have a 500 meter view distance, the target is a moving Sherman. You spot him around 425 meters.
You have a 550 meter view distance, the target is a moving Sherman. You spot him around 468 meters.

So there is definitely worth to gain sight range above 500 meters!

With very low value (like Su-14, Maus, JagdTiger, etc.) it’s won’t worth to take the camouflage skill and/or the camouflage net?

No, because the system are multiple the values, with very low value you simply can forgot both the camo skill and the camo net, it’s simply won’t provide noticeable effect.

Do the speed of movement affect the visibility of my tank?

No, it’s not affected by the movement speed.
In other words: you won’t become easier to detect, when you travel faster.

The turning of the body of the tanks are counted moving? And the turret traverse?

The body turning are counted moving. The turning of the turret are not.

How the shooting penalty is working, and what is affecting that?

When you shooting, the bushes in 15 meter radius are get penalty for the next 3 second, when your visibility checked. Beside this, when you fire, you visibility value are get a penalty. The penalty size are depending from two thing, one is the diameter of the gun, and the existence of the muzzle brake! Cannon with muzzle brake are get more penalty. The exact numbers or formula of the penalty is unknown.

The so called “firing bushes” problem are mean there is a bush or tree more than 15 meters from the firing tank. Those covers get no penalty when the hiding tank are shooting.

The scouts (like the Luchs, Leopard, A-20, etc.) get some kind of bonuses in visibility?

Yes, the scout tanks are won’t get higher visibility penalty when moving, or precisely their movement visibility are the same as the standing still values.