What many media outlets have learned over the last month is that not all videos shared on social media are real, and war propaganda can come from all sides.
This includes a video that looks surprisingly real and was also shown in the news media: In the twilight, several flying helicopters can be seen being shot down. Even the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense shared the video on Twitter, but then deleted the tweet. Understandable, because the clip was created in the video game “Arma 3”.
The helicopter video
At the end of March, the rather blurry video was shared on social media. also be found several times on YouTube
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also apparently spread the video in a tweet, which appears to have been deleted.

And the video also appeared in the reporting on a news channel, see HERE on YouTube, position 1:09:48.

The fact check
In fact, the video looks very real with its shaky camera work, visible details and realistic sounds. However, the widespread, blurry recording also raises doubts: for example, the sounds of the explosions can be heard with a two-second delay (which suggests that the “end of the film” is around 700 meters away), but the last two hits are absolutely synchronous. too for the scene : in the quieter seconds of the video, crickets and birdsong can be heard, and the helicopters and explosions sound crystal clear.
It becomes even clearer in a sharper version of the video, because other details are noticeable there. The YouTuber even stated in the title of the video that it was from the video game “ Arma 3 ”:
This video, which makes no reference to Ukraine in either the title or description, was uploaded on March 21st. A few days later, on March 24 , it first appeared in the blurred version with the claim that it was the shooting down of helicopters in Ukraine.
For example, in the blurred version, which was additionally “blurred” and zoomed in to make it appear even more realistic, a detail can be seen even if you look closely, which can be seen even better in the sharp version and reveals a graphic error: floating Trees!

appear almost in the blurred version, where the first explosion is only visible at the edge due to post-processing and changing the image format

In the original it is also clearly visible that the explosion can be seen very clearly and in great detail, but this seems unrealistic - probably another reason why the spreaders of the false claim also blurred the video.
But how are such almost realistic scenes possible in a computer game that, despite being 10 years old, is no longer graphically up to scratch? The answer is: clever graphics settings and various modifications (called mods).
The YouTuber “Norov” shows in a video how relatively easy it is to depict this scene in “Arma 3”, although he does not want this to be seen as a tutorial, which is why he only shows the modifications very briefly.
Here is a normal scene from “Arma 3”:

Using the time of day editor, he sets the time of day to early evening:

...and then shows “Arma 3” with the new settings in which the sky looks exactly like in the video that was distributed:

A variety of mods can be used to make gunfire, explosions and the corresponding sounds even more realistic:

Conclusion
With a computer game, the right settings and various mods, such almost realistic scenes can (unfortunately) be depicted, which at least the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and a news channel fell for. However, we have to say that it is really difficult to recognize such videos as fake unless you are intensively involved with computer games and the possibilities they contain.
The circulated video has been edited by making it blurrier and adding more camera movements and zooms to make it look more realistic. The original video is clearly from the computer game “Arma 3”.
This makes it all the more important to take a very close look at every video that is currently emerging in connection with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, because there are obviously enough people who get “fun” out of watching such false videos spread.
Also interesting:
The Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor is threatening Wikipedia with a fine of up to 4 million rubles (around 45,000 euros) if it does not delete information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that deviates from the Kremlin's portrayal.
Russia wants to delete Wikipedia information about the war
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

