GHPC Early Access has been updated to version 20250902. This is a regular update, introducing new features, adjustments, and bug fixes. We've got plenty more in the works for GHPC! As always, you can get additional info by visiting our Discord server and YouTube channel. Links are on the GHPC website.

ABRAMS OVERHAUL

As some of the flagship tanks in GHPC, the M1 and M1IP Abrams get an outsized portion of the attention and play time. In light of this, the art team felt that it was time to revisit the vehicle's internal and external modeling, in order to take care of some improvements we've had on the to-do list for a while. Their parallel work on the Abrams overhaul is now ready to release in this update.

The most obvious change is the new commander's weapon station, featuring a corrected and more intricately detailed .50 caliber machine gun with all of its mounting hardware. This weapon, much like the M85 machine gun on the M60A1 and M60A3, can be operated from inside the tank and has its own gunsight. (Note: the commander's machine gun reticle cannot be illuminated - this is a recreation of its real-life abilities and is not a bug!)

This weapon is useful for engaging helicopters and light APCs at close range, as well as suppressing troops outside of coaxial machine gun range, and all without exposing the tank commander to bullets and shrapnel from outside of the tank. It may struggle frontally against Warsaw Pact light armor, as most of the Soviet troop carriers were designed with this threat in mind.

More impactful than the .50 cal is a much more subtle change: the completely overhauled damage model of the Abrams fighting compartment. Careful inspection in X-ray mode during AAR will reveal the extent of the changes: a transformation of the formerly empty interior into a cluttered space full of vital equipment and support structures. Penetrating hits on the center of the tank will now find plenty of things to interact with, including several flammable components like hydraulic reservoirs and ammunition boxes.

The main effect of this change is that the Abrams will much less frequently be a "pin cushion" happily soaking up dart after dart and continuing to fight like nothing happened. In many cases, the consequences of such a tactical failure will now be a burning tank and a crew bailout, just like with every other tank in the game.

Of course, there's plenty of other detail that can be included in a tank model, and our art lead has painstakingly recreated several new items that were not present in the previous iteration of GHPC's Abrams. The full list of details is perhaps best left as a trivia challenge for enthusiasts, but you may notice things like expanded skirt and sprocket configurations, an engine grille guard, new spare road wheel mount points, and the quirky clear plastic roadwheel hubs that allow crews to check their lubrication levels. We've also given the base model M1 its early gunsight reticles in the Gunner's Auxiliary Sight (GAS) and Thermal Imaging System (TIS), which were noticeably different from the later iterations.

(As an aside - with the addition of the remote-controlled .50 cal on the Abrams, an obvious question is whether we'll be adding other controllable heavy machine guns, such as the remote-controlled commander's weapon system on the T-64. The answer for this is the same as it was for the Abrams until this update: we are indeed working on these and will add more of them when they are ready.)

VEHICLE AUDIO IMMERSION OVERHAUL

While the programmers pour most of their hours into the upcoming Command Mode feature, our audio engineer has been plugging away at a series of improvements to the soundscape. With this update, the soundscape for moving vehicles has been totally changed, replacing the simple track noise loop and basic suspension "clunk" sounds with a lively and dynamic audio environment. The noises you hear while driving around will now respond to exactly what the vehicle is doing, including tire noise, track pin strain, torsion bar flex, and the various rattles and resonances created in a 40-ton hulk careening through the countryside.

Meanwhile, for the moments when you're not racing around but instead sitting in defilade lining up shots on targets, there are now a series of switch click sounds for optical controls. These are designed to resemble the actual sounds of the knobs and throw levers found in the real-life vehicles, from the polarity switch on the Abrams to the clicks of the zoom wheel on the Soviet 1G42 gunsight found in the T-64B and T-80B.

There have also been various other improvements to the stability and coherence of the soundscape, including fixing an issue in the recent updates that led to distant explosions being inaudible.

OPTIMIZATIONS

A look at the full change log will reveal a significant number of optimization-related entries. It's very typical for us to try to optimize the game in small ways as we work, especially if we're adding new features that will demand more of the performance budget. Sometimes, though, we manage to get multiple optimizations in at the same time and make a larger impact. This update is one of those times.

While the exact impact will depend on each user's specific hardware and the nature of its performance bottlenecks when running GHPC, we think a significant portion of the player base will notice the game running more smoothly with this update. (And if not, don't worry - there are still plenty of performance improvements being worked on for the future.)

If your system is struggling with CPU load when running GHPC, don't miss the new option to disable vegetation interaction in the graphics settings. This should help ease the processing load slightly and buy you a few more frames.

NEW MISSION

Most of the mission team's effort has been devoted to preparing a nice set of missions for Command Mode, but they did find time to add a new standard mission in this update. You can find "Echelon Engagement" in the Fulda Outskirts mission list.

CHANGE LOG

NEW CONTENT

• Added usable commander's weapon station to Abrams tanks

• Overhauled M1 and M1IP Abrams exterior models to include new details and improved resolution in key areas

• Overhauled Abrams interior component models to include more complete set of equipment in the fighting compartment (including several flammable hydraulic components and ammunition stores)

• Overhauled vehicle chassis soundscape to make it more immersive, lively, and reactive to the way the vehicle is moving

• Added audio for kinetic projectile impacts on terrain

• Added audio for switching optics magnification or vision mode

• Added new mission "Echelon Engagement" in Fulda Outskirts

FEATURES AND ADJUSTMENTS

• Early model M1 Abrams now has early style reticles for auxiliary sight and Thermal Imaging System sight (TIS)

• Vegetation interaction can now be disabled in the game's graphics settings to boost performance

• Tracers are more prominent in thermal scopes

• Switching optical magnification now includes a visual effect

• Improved muzzle blast dust effects

• Improved ricochet visuals for directional consistency

• Improved falloff and muffling of some vehicle sounds

• Optimized rendering of decoration objects and fences

• Optimized rendering of some particle effects

• Optimized memory usage of visual effects

• Optimized and stabilized vehicle audio effects

• Optimized some aspects of the physics system

• Optimized the thermal rendering system

• Optimized the vegetation interaction system

FIXES

• Fixed certain objects being able to fall through the map forever and cause game instability

• Fixed AI vehicles driving too fast or too slow when following a route

• Fixed platoon members stopping permanently for no reason

• Fixed platoon members driving away in a specific direction for no reason

• Fixed various sound effects being overly quiet at distance

• Fixed Malyutka aim being vertically inverted if the hull was facing in certain directions

• Fixed Marder A1+ night sight flipping upside down when X-ray mode was on

• Fixed overactive steering on Bradley, Marder, and M113

• Fixed an issue that could lead to a vehicle getting frozen while pivot turning

• Fixed animation issues with infantry weapons

• Fixed reticles being white instead of green in some thermal sights

• Fixed some Abrams hatches not animating

• Fixed camo nets not fluttering when the vehicle is in motion

• Fixed many cases of floating or misaligned grass

• Fixed visual issues at map edges

• Fixed missing terrain details in some locations

• Fixed some events in missions

• Fixed certain visual effects appearing black in thermal vision

• Fixed controls list not including a night vision mode entry

• Fixed rendering issues in map view while game is paused

• Fixed timed mission triggers not properly syncing with mission time