War Thunder and video game technology: how Timur Bekmambetov recreated the feat of the pilot Devyatayev in the cinema

For the filming of air battles in the military action "Devyatayev", for the first time in Russia, video game technologies were used, with the help of which the latest blockbusters of Marvel and Star Wars were filmed.

Air battles in the new adventure film "Devyatayev" will be the most realistic in the history of cinema about the Second World War. Timur Bekmambetov was the first Russian director to recreate them in virtual reality using video game development technologies and online simulation software solutions. Until now, the game engine has only been used in movies in Hollywood - in the latest blockbusters about the superheroes of the Marvel universe, the new Star Wars and the Mandalorian series. Pilots of the popular online simulator of military equipment War Thunder took part in staging the scenes of air battles in Devyatayev, and the program data of War Thunder itself helped to convey the geometry and technical features of the flight of aircraft plausibly, which differs from other military action games in the historical accuracy of military equipment and the realism of its use. in battle.

You can watch the air battle scene recreated with the help of War Thunder pilots in the VK community: https://vk.com/wall-13137988_4182174

“The air battles in which Devyatayev participated were simulated by some of the best pilots of the military online simulator War Thunder. The game engine saved technical data about these flights: angles of attack and turns, turns, slopes, even in what position the plane was when the flaps opened. As a result, we transferred to the film a realistic picture of air battles from the Second World War,” says the film’s director Timur Bekmambetov.

“Usually scenes of dogfights in movies are drawn by CG artists, so they look spectacular, but not always believable. In Devyatayev, the planes on the screen exactly repeat the physics and flight path of virtual pilots in an online simulator that takes into account the smallest factors - from the characteristics of the aircraft, weather and terrain to the behavior of the enemy, ”comments David, consultant for the Devyatayev film on military equipment Kennedy, director of aerial combat in the Hollywood film Pearl Harbor and consultant for the blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow

Experienced pilots of War Thunder, participants of world aerobatic festivals, on joysticks and in virtual reality devices controlled Soviet and German?with their aircraft to set up scenes of air battles. Evgeny Squier Moiseev, Vitaly VAT=IRSS=Vit Nishchev, Mikhail VAT=IRSS=K51 Seregin, Ekaterina VAT=IRSS=K51 Volkova and other pilots had hundreds of air-to-air combats, the recordings of which were used in the production of the film. In addition, well-known War Thunder content makers such as FallFire, 4CB, Alan Lucker, CrewGTW helped Pavel Priluchny, the lead actor, pilot Mikhail Devyataev, get used to the game and take part in virtual filming.

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“This is an interesting experience for our aerobatic team. It is not as easy as it may seem to get a group together, maintain the required speeds, certain formations, modes and perform maneuvers in a way that suits the dogfight scenario. All this with a view from the cockpit in the simulation mode of the game,” says Vitaly Nishchev, commander of the IRSS virtual aerobatic team.

“We liked the visualization of air battles, which was made by fellow filmmakers based on flight tracks recorded by virtual pilots. Flight geometry, speeds and combat situations look much more real than in other modern war films. It's great that War Thunder can be used not only as a game,but also as a working tool that helps to make movies better,” says Vyacheslav Bulannikov, producer of the War Thunder game.

The game engine helped the filmmakers with the pre-visualization of the aerial battle scenes. Their staging was carried out in virtual reality using the environment created on a computer. It was projected onto screens on set so that the actors could imagine what the scene would look like in the film. The film's cameraman, Elena Ivanova, flew one of the virtual planes and filmed a reconstruction of the battles inside the game with a virtual camera.

“This is the return of movie magic: the cameraman does not shoot something on the green screen that the CG artists will then create, but sees the scene approximately the same as it will be in the film. As a result, you can accurately place the camera, grab some details right in the battle. No one has done this before us, ”Ivanova comments.

Produced with the help of the game engine, the combat previs was then finalized with the help of special effects artists and computer graphics engineers. At the same time, the film uses real backgrounds taken from a specially equipped aircraft.

"Devyataev" is released on April 29 and tells about the feat of the pilot Mikhail Devyataev, who managed to get out of captivity and return to the river.alone, hijacking a German plane. The main roles in the adventure film were played by Pavel Priluchny, Pavel Chinarev, Daria Zlatopolskaya and others. Filming was conducted under the direction of Timur Bekmambetov and Sergey Trofimov. The premiere of the film will take place on April 22 as part of the opening of the Moscow International Film Festival. The joint production of Bazelevs, Voenfilm and MTS Media is being produced by Sony Pictures with the support of the ROSSIYA 1 TV channel.