Serious simulators. Travel in the world of professional simulators

Serious simulators. Travel in the world of professional simulators

Not so long ago we have already talked about the most unusual gaming simulators. Today we have a new tour. Together with you, we will look beyond the borders of the usual gaming space-into the huge and amazing world of professional simulator simulators. With their help they teach to fight and engage in business, treat people and manage the most difficult technique.

We conducted our own research: we excavated the most non -standard and complex professional simulators; I figured out how they work; They found out how it all started; talked with people involved in the development of these mechanisms; Interviews from the player in ordinary car symbols, who had a chance to become a real racer. Our story is about the amazing world of game systems that settled at the very junction of the two worlds, real and virtual, and brought them closer that sometimes the border between the two universes simply disappears.

I would go to the army

The first attempts to take computer games for the public service were made by military. In 1981, the US Department of Defense ordered companies Atari Military simulator based on the game popular in those days Battlezone , where the most advanced three -dimensional vector graphics were used. Some creators of the game turned out to be pacifists and refused to work on a military order, but in the end Atari still released The Bradyy Trainer , Simulator Arrow BMP M2 "Bredley".

Nowadays, the game would not even pull it to the arcade. From the landscape – only the horizon line, the enemies do not shoot in response, the only way to finish the game is to shoot all ammunition or get into an ally. But the simulator more or less accurately reproduced the BMP management elements and could teach the basics of handling weapons: the use of optics, a change of type of cartridges, aiming the released rocket using a laser target designation system. The simulator did not go to the series, only two slot machines were released.

One of The Bradley Trainer machine guns went to the army, where the soldiers seemed to have broken it, and the second survived and now occupies an honorable place in a private collection.

In the nineties of the last century studio ID Software made a revolution in a three -dimensional schedule. Many still recall gloomy corridors with nostalgia Doom 2 , But few people know what exactly doom 2 was used to train American marines. Of course, in the classroom they did not fulfill the standard for the killing of demons and did not report to the sergeant for shameful death from a banal mancubus. For soldiers, they created a mod Marine doom , where a more realistic weapon was added, and the corridors teeming with monsters were replaced with a virtual landfill with houses, barbed wire and firing positions.

Quickly corridors of the computer center of the Marine Infantry Base in Kantico (Virginia) were filled with loud cries of soldiers undergoing: “Collection next to the western end of the bunker! We go to the open space on the left, go towards the bunker! You are led, nugent! Strive, move after him! Well, moved!"So brave marines worked out team interaction, learning the distribution of duties and coordinated actions. For more simulators of that time were not suitable, but the beginning was supposed to.

The US Department of Defense has not forced the love of high technologies at all to start training in the virtual space, but the budget cutting. Trips on combat equipment worth millions of dollars and shooting with real cartridges cost too expensive. So youth training began to gradually transfer to the virtual world, and by the middle of the first decade of the 21st century the army spent tens of millions of dollars on the development and maintenance of the latest virtual complexes. But it was still cheaper than arranging real exercises.

A profitable business

Creating serious games is profitable and reliable. There is no piracy, and there is no need to hope for capricious players who can buy not five million copies of the game, as publishers planned, but only a couple of hundred thousand. They also pay well. So familiar names are often found here. Crytek For 57 million dollars, a new generation military simulator made a military simulator for the US Army Dismounted Soldier Training System. The schedule is amazing – it is only a pity that this time the military decided not to share with civilian America’s Army , Leaving such an expensive “toy” strictly for personal use.

In turn, Epic Games Not so long ago, the US Army and the FBI sold a whole series of licenses for Unreal Engine 3. With it, they will make a simulator to study the crime scene and a couple of simulators for field doctors.

Russian developers also do not shy of military orders. Remember how in the spring of 2006 the fans of the Aviasims were waiting for the simulator output "Ka-50" Black Shark "? The game really came out in the spring, but only two years later. They say that the delay is explained simply: the creator of the game, Moscow studio Eagle Dynamics , temporarily tied up with games and began to fulfill the military order, creating a flight simulator for them. Who pays the money, that music and orders.

Army hardcore

The special forces group imposes explosives on the door. The explosion sounds, the door flies from the hinges, light grenade flies inside the room. Another explosion, and a special forces team burst into the room through a cloud of smoke into the room. Two men sitting at the table fall on the floor and on all fours are trying to get to the machine guns lying nearby. After a second, the entire room is filled with a booming roar of shots.

This is not a description of the police operation and not neutralizing the terrorist group with special forces. This is just a game. A game with real bullets, real explosives, real arrows, but virtual victims. At the virtual training ground LVS (Laser Shot Virtual Shoot House) Fort Bragg military base is trained about 70% of all American special forces.

With the help of dozens of projectors, the computer broadcasts the image on the walls of the landfill, and the walls themselves are made of high -tech material, which completely excludes ricochel. After the bullet enters into such a wall, the hole is tightened by itself. Sensors monitor the location of the projectile, the speed and angle of entry, after which the computer calculates the further trajectory – and the real bullet turns into virtual, continuing its flight already in cyberspace.

The first version of the famous America’s Army downloaded seventeen million times in a couple of years. They say that the success of the game greatly helped to accelerate the introduction of simulators into the US Army.

The program is created by the company Laser Shot Inc. Its director Kevin Bass in the past was engaged in the creation of games, worked not somewhere, but in InterPlay. According to him, work on the creation of a virtual combat simulator is no different from the development of the game, except that priorities are others. For example, a soldier is not too worried about how beautiful you made a flower, does he have a shadow and grass around. All he needs is to make the flower of the flower in the wind tell him the speed and direction of the wind. And so that a bullet fired from a sniper rifle has made the same way as in real life. If at least the slightest mistake crept into the calculations of ballistics, in real battle it can be a very unpleasant surprise. But there are no errors, verified by real shooting.

Unlike static targets at a regular training ground, LVS targets have artificial intelligence: “They are well oriented in the situation and can adequately respond. Most virtual enemies act according to pre -recorded scripts, but are also capable of independent actions. They will try to kill a soldier in any way available to them. The unarmed first of all trying to choose their machine. Some have the vests of suicide bombers stuffed with explosives, ”says Kevin Bass.

And you signed up as a volunteer?

Not only the US Army takes care of finding new recruits by releasing propaganda games. Competitors are not asleep. So, in Iran, American shooters are often forbidden to sell, especially those who portray Islamist fanatics-terrorists who can only die under bullets. Instead, they make their own ideologically sustained games there.

For example, the Card of the Islamic Revolution ordered a shooter on World War II, where the player should protect the Iranian port of Enzeli from the invasion of Russians and the British. Iranian Hezbollah (the USA and their allies declare it with a terrorist organization, others consider it simply a political party) ordered a shooter Special Force. The plot is just an anti -Semite dream: a player as an action movie Hezbollah resists the aggression of the Israeli army. By the way, the game became profitable and acquired a sequel.

Yasir Arafat financed the creation of at least two games that helped him with the recruitment of youth in the ranks of the organization of the liberation of Palestine. You can laugh, but racists from Ku-Kluks-Clan, those who hate blacks, united with skinheads and began to release games about the superiority of the white race. They hope that such propaganda will help them attract more people. One of the games, Ethnic Cleansing , sets records for the degree of delusions of the plot: the main character needs to prevent a Jewish conspiracy to capture the world, headed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (the game was released in 2002, a few years before the illness of the prime minister).

The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs released a “exciting” action movie last year ” Police ", Telling about honest and brave ministers of the Georgian forces of law and order. On Unreal Engine. Trash, however, came out the first -step.

Real Batlefield

In the LVS simulator, electronic boobs can give back: if the soldier fell under a virtual shelling, then a special device in a special cooler will “knock” him at the place of hit. This, of course, does not hurt. But on a civilian, a supersimulator was created, in which the effect of a bullet is recreated using Paintball machine guns. Here, bots can instruct the player of real bruises! To the output of the shooter Battlefield 3 authors of the popular British program The Gadget Show built for 650 thousand dollars an absolutely incredible building called Ultimate Battlefield 3 Simulator.

[Bullet]] The US military base on the shores of the Persian Gulf received a patrol boat simulator capable of simulating sea pitching. To complete the training course, you need to check the skills of sailors in various weather conditions, and before everyone literally sat and waited by the sea of ​​weather, now you can conduct exercises at any time.

Five projectors recreate the picture on the walls of the dome with a diameter of nine meters and four heights. Running paths with rollers diverging from the center allow the player to go in any direction, remaining almost in place. Kinect controller monitors the player’s position, and twelve paintball rifles imitate shelling. If you ever played paintball yourself, then imagine what this means: from a distance of several meters, the hit of the ball with paint can cause pain even to a person in protection.

The first attempt to "play truly" ended sadly. The journalist who tried to go through the mission could not stand even one shootout: the system of tracking the movements of the weapon failed, and the camera rested against the sky. The bots simply shot a defenseless person, taking revenge on him for billions of fallen comrades. After a few seconds of such an execution, the simulator had to be turned off to pull out a somewhat bruised and swearing on which the journalist stands on the light.

Battlefield 3 simulator with paintball guns. Armed and very dangerous.

If LVS is created for training marines, then the simulator VAE (Virtual Army Experience) performs a slightly less serious task: with its help, the American government raises young people for military service. It is engaged in its creation Zombie Studios , creating many military shooters (the last of them – Blacklight: Retribation ). A mobile caravan with equipment drives throughout the country, deploying here and there its huge inflatable pavilion with an area of ​​almost two thousand square meters. And every time huge queues line up to him. Let it be impossible to shoot with real cartridges here, but in the VAE assortment there are six simulators based on real army jeeps of Hamvi (its civilian version is known as Hammer) and two full-size copies of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Briefing from real soldiers prepares participants for their virtual adventure, and special campaign videos talk about military service and glorious history of the US Army.

The defense mission of the convoy lasts only a few minutes – the pavilion passes for an hour to 230 people, so it is impossible to allow visitors to sit in any way. All weapons are an exact copy of the present, and a special pneumatic mechanism imitates a return on shots. Another device exactly reproduces a shaking from driving and explosions. With such accompaniment, not even the most outstanding graphics from America’s Army makes a completely indelible impression.

The attraction is available for free, but, of course, there is a catch. Winging to ride a jeep or helicopter is registered, and each young man of suitable age (and let it go there from 13 years old) falls into the field of view of army recruiters.

Fiction

The rebels who fought against Gaddafi’s troops had no studios to create their own games, but several “game” stories still happened. The revolutionary movement attracted a lot of intelligentsia into its ranks: the former university teacher turned out to be the main gunner of the artillery group, armed with mortars captured by the enemy.

He told The Times to reporters, as an engineer named Ahmed Aizer, he taught them to bring mortars to the artillery positions of enemies with the help Google Earth. And the field commanders adapted for the training of recruits Call of Duty. According to instructors, the game is quite suitable for working out fighting skills in urban conditions. At least graphics, weapons and scenery in the game are much more realistic than in a modified Doom 2 , where the American commandos trained.

We play the doctor

Doctors and military are largely similar: both professions are dealing with people's lives, and the price of their mistakes is sometimes very high. Every 6-8 years, the amount of knowledge in medicine doubles, and doctors have to study constantly, despite the venerable age and the presence of 20-30 years of practice. Therefore, doctors rejoiced no less than the military, when virtual simulators began to produce for them even for them.

The Virtual Army Experience program is a fascinating trip to jeeps in a very hostile territory.

The first medical simulators appeared in the sixties. For example, electromechanical mannequin Harvey was released in 1968. The mannequin looked like those that we see in clothing stores, but in reality it was a serious cardiopulmonal simulator that could imitate 27 heart disease. Modern simulator robots can imitate such a list of diseases that it can be published by a separate book: their pupils react to light, they can cough, sweat, mouth and nose are filled with saliva and mucus, the robot may well be soaked and bleeding, it needs to measure pressure , consider the pulse, listen to a stethoscope, measure the temperature and much more. Chopped chest wound? No problems. Gap of the spleen? Infarction? There will be everything you order. Medical mannequins can even speak and make different sounds that help doctors in diagnosis. Unfortunately, the price interferes with wide distribution … The simplest of these devices cost tens of thousands of dollars, and the cost of expensive models exceeds a quarter of a million.

[[Bullet]] Here are such lines to the inflatable virtual army Experience pavilion.

But there are things much cheaper: software simulators cost much less. Any computer is enough to start them – of course, not as clearly as with a bleeding mannequin, but more opportunities. One of the vivid examples is the program Interactive Trauma Trainer , by order of the British military doctors. Game studio is engaged in development and support Blitz Games , which released a bunch of low -budget projects that did not bring it to her or money (from the last masterpieces it is worth noting the game on the cartoon "Cat in Boots"). But, having taken up a serious business, the company created a really useful simulator of a surgeon of a military hospital who won many awards and received worldwide recognition. This is both a test, a cheat sheet, and a visual aid: for example, how to save a life to a man who received a wounded wound of the neck? Closing the mouse, the user can conduct a whole virtual operation, and even a person unfamiliar with medicine will receive a general idea of ​​the necessary actions and information about possible complications.

Simulators greatly help the introduction of revolutionary technologies. In the nineties of the last century, Malo -invasive surgery was widespread, in which the operation is conducted by the finest tools inward through small punctures in the skin. Control is carried out using screens, at the end of the operation, even you need to sew anything. The problem is one: a person and his organs are three -dimensional, and the image on the screen is two -dimensional. How to do not cut off too much! Continuing apparatuses MIST VR – As a “joystick” here are two layouts of tools for the operation. Only we dig them not in living people, but in the virtual space, learning to navigate the monitors among internal organs.

[[Bullet]] On the mannequins, the military learn to save the wounded in battle of comrades.

Do not forget that medicine treats not only the body, but also the soul. Currently, future psychologists and psychiatrists train their skills on each other, arranging professional role -playing games, as well as passing practice in hospitals. Perhaps the situation will change soon: this year, at one hundred and twentieth annual congress of the American Psychological Association, psychologist Albert Ritzzo presented two programs-a virtual 16-year-old boy Justin with a disorder of behavior and a 15-year-old cyberdevochochka Justin, a victim of sexual violence. It turned out that building a simulator of one mental disorder is much more difficult than the simulator of hundreds of bodily diseases. The developers provided the program with a speech recognition system and artificial intelligence – the doctor just sits in front of the screen with a microphone, asks questions and receives exhaustive answers. Communication with such a simulator is no less impressive than the virtual boy Milo, whom Peter Molinya showed during the presentation of Kinect. And there and there, a person calmly communicates with a computer as if with a real interlocutor. And the matter does not stand on the spot: the research of Professor Ritzo is sponsored by the US Department of Defense, which wants to use such technologies for teaching military doctors.

Venus is medical

Perhaps the most unusual robot manecene is a birth simulator. And although students of medical universities have long been accustomed to such things and, if these lines are reading now, they are perplexed – what's the strange thing – for ordinary people the simulator looks intimidated. Some mannequins have no arms, legs and head. Anyway, nothing from this during childbirth is needed. But everything that remains is modeled in detail.

When the robot is turned on and the "child" begins to get out – this is not a sight. On plastic babies, midwives work out different techniques for taking complex births. For example, you knew that the baby can be pulled out with a vacuum suction cup? This is something like a vacuum cleaner with a vantouss nozzle. Such a thing is inserted inside, put to the baby’s head, it is sucked up, and you can pull it – you can pull. Only very carefully and on the right path. Instead of suction, special forceps are sometimes used, but this is an outdated method in which the risk of injuring mother or child increases.

Fly hunting

Last fall, a terrible tragedy happened near Yaroslavl-the Yak-42 reactive liner fell, on which the Lokomotiv hockey team flew. Of the 45 people, only one sorcerer survived, whose life, despite the most difficult injuries, did the doctors still managed to save. They say the pilot's mistake: I didn’t press it, I did not look. The commander of the vessel Andrei Solomentsev studied at the Sasovsky Flight School of Civil Aviation – until recently, they trained here on prehistoric simulators issued in the fifties of the last century. Yes, and the school itself after the collapse of the USSR fell into decay, experienced instructors have gone, and the ancient An-2 and Yak-18T still make up the basis of the air park.

[[Bullet]] Fashion trend: Systems for professionals make their way to tablets, starting to resemble casual arcades. ARCHIEMD Training Simulator Simulator offers ready -made answers, and some questions are so simple that anyone will answer them.

Fortunately, the situation begins to change for the better. The main reason for pride-this year future pilots began to master the latest Russian-made computer simulators released in St. Petersburg, costing from 30 to 60 million rubles each. Expensive? These are not the most expensive models. Flying on real aircraft is also not cheap, the same old man An-2 easily burns 120 liters of aviation gasoline every hour, and this is almost ten thousand rubles. At the same time, you cannot learn how to manage the Boeing on an AN-2 and gain work experience in emergency conditions.

[[Bullet]] serious games do not only for adults. For example, the bright and funny simulator of the Ludomedic hospital is designed to save children from fear of doctors.

The development of such advanced devices is engaged in the St. Petersburg company "" Transas ". It was here that the first Russian flight simulator was created with a mobile cabin of the highest level D. The simplest levels of level A can move the cabin in only three directions-tilt up and down, to the side and left and right. Level B requires a more accurate flight simulation system. Level C can move the cab in six directions, thereby imitating accelerations, failures to air pits. At the highest level D, virtuality becomes almost indistinguishable from reality. Inside, the simulator completely simulates the cabin of the aircraft (in this case-An-148), and a shell is worn over the cab, on the internal walls of which the image is projected using projectors. All this design is placed on powerful electr -pneumatic pistons that provide mobility. With the help of aerial photography, programmers recreate a rather accurate virtual copy of any area so that the pilots learn to navigate on the ground.

All this is not a simple whim and an extra waste of money. Each trifle is important. In 2001, the A300 Airbus crashed in the United States, which claimed the lives of 265 people. At first they suspected a terrorist attack, but then it turned out that his tail fell off the plane. And he fell off due to the fault of the pilot, which on the old simulator is used to actively using the direction of the direction to restore the stability of the aircraft in the turbulence zone. The virtual plane withstand such unceremonious appeal, but the real one -. A modern class D modern simulator is so accurately modeling a real aircraft or helicopter that if a professional pilot has passed on it to a new type of aircraft, then it will allow it to skip the preliminary flights and immediately release on a commercial flight.

The LVS virtual landfill combines a shooting range and a training simulator. And also – door knocking simulator. They have to be changed regularly here.

Sea simulators are also carried out in Transas, known far beyond the borders of Russia. If only a few people manage by plane or helicopter, then on the ship the number of personnel is calculated in dozens. Therefore, one simulator cannot be dispensed with. You have to develop individual systems for almost every workplace in all its options. One list could take a whole article: the simulator of the captain of the small vessel, the swimming simulator in the ice conditions, the simulators of the ship's power station, the machine department and even the unique, who https://deal-bet-casino.co.uk/ has no analogues abroad, the refrigerator simulator simulator.

[[Bullet]] Get to know Harvey, one of the first robots-manecenes to simulate diseases.

You will say what to simulate here: open the door, closed the door. Only when it comes to multi -ton refrigerated plants of fishing trawlers – problems can be more serious than ice in the freezer. For those who sit for the simulator, it is better to find out in advance how the filters change, what to do in the case of ammonia leakage or a breakdown of the solenoid valves in the refrigerant systems, how to cope with the wet stroke of the compressors and eliminate the aggravation in the refotes.

[[Bullet]] Laparoscope simulator, one of the main tools in minimally invasive surgery.

To finally make sure how realistic such simulators are, you need to look at the fleet control simulator. It looks unpretentious – like a regular computer class. Students can take on different roles, starting from the gateway manager and ending with the manager of the whole port. While the system acts on its own, it is just a simulator, an exact 99%. To overcome the remaining percentage, it is enough to connect the vessel monitoring system, after which the simulator can be used to manage real fleets! Drawing up a schedule, a plan of transportation, response to emergency situations – all this is embedded in the program and can be used both in the computer class and in real life.

The virtual horse does not look in the teeth

Hobbies of equestrian sports are expensive, and all wealthy people, as a rule, live in cities and are busy with business. You can’t get a horse in the apartment, you won’t jump on it in the park, and the useful organic fertilizer produced by the horse is not particularly valued. A good alternative to a living horse is a rider simulator.

Professional models for the asses are little like a horse. They are low, do not even have a screen – it is rather a sports shell to maintain physical shape. But training models, especially expensive ones, are just great. Complete mechanical stallions have real dimensions, so they have to climb on them with stirrups. The screen installed ahead allows you to take part in virtual jumps – for example, in the competition in the jungle or a competitive.

The simulator teaches newcomers to competently control the horse, give her commands in time and stay tight in the saddle during jumps. The simulator is also useful for experienced riders who need to maintain their qualifications. If you do not want to learn to control the horse, you can buy a very simple and cheap (only $ 14 thousand) simulator Panasonic Joba Horse , imitating the process of jumping. His only purpose is to strengthen health: a trip in the saddle accelerates blood circulation and body metabolism, corrects posture, develops the muscles of the back, hips and abdominal press.

Business is a business

How to sell a car? What will happen if you give a habit to the client? How to find a right approach to him? All these questions will be answered by the branded program created by the French auto giant Renault. This is a simulator of an intractable buyer, on which about 20,000 employees of the company were trained, in an understandable interactive form, comprehending the wisdom of the conclusion of business transactions. The program teaches how to work in a team with colleagues, proprietary techniques of managers, psychology, communication skills and much more. Let there be no question of people's lives, but money is a serious matter, so before starting working with living customers, it is worth it to practice once again.

An-148 airbus simulator, first Russian class D.

In general, the game began to penetrate into the business sphere for a long time. Now few people remember the cosmic shooter The Colony , published in 1988 on Apple Macintosh. Three -dimensional schedules, and fairly detailed rooms (tables, chairs, TVs, even pots with flowers!) Randed in real time, which at that time was simply amazing. James Cameron immediately clung to such an opportunity and ordered for filming the film " Abyss »A modified version of the game, which was used as a virtual camera for planning and testing the scenes.

And the next project someone can even take their dreams for the game. This is a business simulator SharkWorld , imitating the work of the director of the aquarium for sharks, and part -time – a swimming pool. Do not be afraid, sharks and visitors will swim separately, and this is not important, because we have completely different tasks. You need to look after the construction, calculate the risks, negotiate, collect the team. And you can be calm – your work will not be calm. The developers added almost a detective plot to the game, starting with the mysterious disappearance of the previous leadership of the project, so get ready for all the troubles that can only be.

[[Bullet]] Captain of virtual tugboat enters the port.

If ordinary games reward successful players with Achivka, then serious games and prizes are serious. One of the largest Dutch legal companies, Houthoff Buruma , released the absorption simulator of corporations. According to the plot, the Chinese ministry decided to invest a lot of money in one energy project. But for its implementation, six unique devices and technologies that are in the hands of the Dutch company, but not simple, but with centuries -old traditions, are a family business, and a very successful. In 90 minutes, the player needs to convince a sufficient number of shareholders to sell you a control package of shares, and then prepare a “letter about intentions”, so that the former owners do not hire killers as an expression of their discontent. It is difficult to win in this game. But the prize is worthy. A graduate of the Law College, who showed his skill in the absorption of companies, receives a position in the company and can count on a good career.

Serious simulators gradually cease to be the lot of professionals alone, penetrating deeper into our daily life. Sometimes we don't even notice this. For example, a newcomer-photographer who bought a mirror today instead of reading multi-page Talmudes can simply start the Camerasim program-a camera’s virtual simulator, clearly demonstrating the effect on the quality of a picture of focus, diaphragm, aging and other parameters. Those who want to play on the Forex virtual exchange before spending real money can practice the Forex Tester Exchange simulator. The ability to do something independently, albeit for a little one, automatically puts simulators a cut above all other ways of learning. And this is not news. After all, two and a half thousand years ago, Confucius said: “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Let me do – and I will understand ".

The line between the worlds

Interview with Mark Schulzhitsky – a player who, thanks to car symphulators, has become a real racer

Some modern game simulators in terms of execution very closely approached professional simulators-for example, Formula-1 riders use a car symbol F1 2012 to prepare and study the tracks that are simulated in the game very accurately. And the company Sony together with Nissan I decided to take away the best racer from the simulator Gran Turismo 5 and turn it into a pilot of the Nissan GT team. Eighty thousand Russian players competed among themselves for the title of best. The victory was won by a 23-year-old resident of Vladivostok Mark Shulzhitsky, who will become a partner of the famous Russian race carrier Roman Rusinov and will take part in a 24-hour race in Dubai by a Nissan 370Z GT4 car. We contacted and talked with Mark that he thinks about the connection of the real world and games, and is modern gaming auto -shims so far from driving a real machine.

Mark, is there any fundamental difference between driving a real car and a good computer simulator?

Simulators look very impressive today. I remember how in childhood I played races on prefixes and a personal computer. And was delighted with Grand Prix. Every year interesting new simulators appeared, the game GT Legends and GTR 2 was very remembered. I was struck by how realistic the behavior of the car was. PlayStation 3 I bought purposefully for the game Gran Turismo 5. I was always delighted with the number of cars in this game and management. To add realism, I bought the steering wheel Logitech G27 – it is amazing, the quality just struck me.

Of course, it cannot be said that driving on the simulator and real driving is the same. Driving a racing machine is a rather risky occupation and requires serious physical and moral preparation. And the error can be very expensive, maybe life. Playing at home on the couch, you do not risk anything, and it's good. New simulators make it possible to try a variety of racing carriers and tracks. For example, in front of my racing weekend on an unfamiliar highway, I train on a virtual simulator. This helps to find out the trajectory, some features of the track. Today the simulator and real driving are very connected, they complement each other.

There is a common opinion that simulators can instill in the player “false skills” that will only interfere when retraining to a real machine. Is it so? Or after all, the experience on simulators can go into offset as an experience conducted after a real steering wheel?

It depends on the simulator, there are many of them today, and in quality they, of course, differ. Gran Turismo 5 – a worthy simulator. And, as you have already noticed, the past winners of the Gran Turismo Academy demonstrate good results and speed in real high -level competitions. This is proved by the fact that if you are fast in the game Gran Turismo, it will not be difficult for you to go quickly on a real car.

We know that now you are undergoing special training in a training camp in Silverstone. Tell us how they teach?

Yes, at the moment I and three more winners from other regions are passing a three -month training course on the Silverstone highway and participate in various UK championships to get an international license. The program includes not only driving, but also constant physical training, since the race in Dubai is a serious test. You must be in very good shape. We also continue to practice driving on the simulator and on maps, we visit media training. Experienced instructors work with us who are successful in this sport – this is Christian van and Rob Jenkinson. The preparation is very intense, as you need to have time in three months, and this is a very short time.

This is very cool-to visit such legendary tracks as Donicing Park, Brand-Hatch or Silverstone. The machine I act is the GT4 Nissan 370Z with a capacity of 430 horsepower, with a sequental six -speed gearbox. Quite fast car, speed on straight lines – over 230 km/h. It will be interesting to see what result we can show in Dubai.

Ordinary drivers can easily find real driving shortcomings: small speeds, little drive. And what does it look in terms of pro? What is the Simulator game better than real participation in a serious sports?

Today, simulators allow you to feel a wide range of emotions. Of course, this is not all that real racer experiences. But most sensations are like in life. Participation in simulators does not require any space investments or costs. This is available to everyone, anyone can try and feel the taste of defeat or victory. But when you try real races-it does not matter whether it will be a jacket or racing on body machines, or maybe a formula class-it will seem to you with something unimaginable. But the simulators after that will still remain a pleasant pastime for you.