Custom Sights is one of those parts of War Thunder that the game introduces once and never revisits.

Short answer

Short version — it is exactly what it looks like, and the confusion comes from a similarly named thing nearby.

  • It rewards attention rather than preparation.
  • Note where it first appears, so you can go back if you need to.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.

War Thunder models more of the vehicle than it tells you about, and the grind punishes guessing. The game introduces it quickly and assumes you picked it up, which is where the confusion starts. The wiki entry is thorough and buries the actually useful part six paragraphs down.

Whether it is worth going out of your way for

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Early impressions of it are usually wrong in the same specific way. Its role has changed across updates, so older discussion describes something slightly different. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

Community shorthand around it has drifted far enough from the original meaning to cause arguments. Knowing this does not make you better at War Thunder, but it does make the rest of it legible. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

What it changes in practice

The name is descriptive if you already know what it does, and opaque if you do not. It is the kind of thing veterans forget they ever had to learn. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

  • Do not build a plan around it before you have seen it work.
  • Read the in-game description once, then ignore it.
  • Write down what you changed, so you can undo exactly one thing if it goes sideways.
  • Expect its role to have shifted at least once across updates.

Common misunderstandings

There is a persistent myth attached to it that has never been true in any version. The in-game description is technically accurate and practically useless. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. It is more consequential in the late game than the early one, which is why first impressions mislead.

Most guides mention it in passing and none of them stop to define it. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. It shows up in more places than its introduction suggests, once you know to look.

Where you encounter it

Two similarly named things exist, and mixing them up explains a lot of contradictory advice. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. It became noticeably more relevant after a change the patch notes barely mentioned.

Its practical value is narrow and real, rather than broad and theoretical. War Thunder is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. It appears in supplementary material in more detail than it does in the game itself.

How it connects to the rest of War Thunder

If you only remember one thing about it, remember where it appears. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Whether it is worth going out of your way for depends entirely on how you are playing.

Where people go wrong

  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.

War Thunder FAQ

Why do people disagree about it?

Usually because they are describing different versions, and occasionally because a similarly named thing exists alongside it.

Has it changed recently?

Its role has shifted across updates more than once. Anything you read without a version attached may describe an older form of it.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

What is Custom Sights in War Thunder?

The short answer is above. The longer one is that it fills a specific role, and understanding that role explains why it keeps coming up.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.