I’ve been watching the BMS forum lately. Seems like we’re close to a 4.34 release based on comments I’ve seen from some of the devs there. It looks like the new update is going to include a Japan theater with updated graphics. One of the 3d modeler’s there has been updating tons of models for JSDF and others.
Here’s some of his comments from this thread:
_Hey guys I’m sorry it was just a little joke ! _
I just wanted to kid a little bit with those screenshots coming from nowhere.
_F-14 is from FSX with some custom earth tiles. F-2 is from BMS and you will get this one soon. _
Nevertheless, the quality of what is depicted here is close to what you will have in my upcoming Japanese theater.
And, many real surprises will come soon from me to you…
Korea is still my favorite theater in any flight sim. I wish some day we will get a pacific theater in DCS but for some reason that region doesn’t appear to interest the ED devs.
Korea, Japan, Taiwan, South China Sea… so much potential there.
What they have been doing for Falcon has been incredible. My time with BMS was some of the most consistently enjoyable virtual flying I have done. And it is still the best single player title in my library. Too bad there’s is so little love for VR among the team.
I’m not sure I can blame them - they went from DirectX 7 to DirectX 9 or 10 (can’t remember) somewhere around the 2014-2015 timeline which was apparently a herculean effort for a team which does this as a hobby.
Enabling VR would require upgrading to DirectX 11 (or 12) at a minimum and then presumably a whole laundry list of bugfixes and new plumbing in the software as you try to get an emerging feature from 2017 compatible with a game originally released almost 20 years prior. Ouch.
I still say it’s the best $6.99 or $9.99 (Steam vs. GoG) you can spend if you’re into flight sims and don’t mind scaling a cliff-like learning curve.
Nothing wrong on the multiplayer side as well, I think only the 1st VFS has moved permanently to DCS… MP is just a little different is Falcon BMS, i.e. mostly squadron based PvE. Apart from that Falcon Online managed to do a couple of PvP campaigns last year and it was a blast however… it involves subscribing, a SOP-exam etcetera to safeguard against crashes because the code is a bit old and not terribly suitable for an online campaign with a large population.
Anyway about 4.34 I think we’ll have to wait a bit longer, I read somewhere that the bug tracker says they’re past halfway but still some way to go. For some reason my F5 button doesn’t seem to speed up the progress .
The latest iteration of the Billion Soft Falcon 4.0 total conversion modification - Benchmark Sims 4.34 U1 - is available for you to enjoy as of RIGHT NOW!
BMS 4.34 U1 requires a legit installation of a Falcon 4.0 (all older and newer versions are accepted alike, i.e. Microprose, Hasbro, GOG, Steam, Retroism). The check is performed both at setup time and every time you start BMS. If no valid installation is found, BMS will exit with a corresponding error message.
U1 is an incremental update on top of 4.34 base , so you need to have the BMS 4.34 Full Installer package available on your PC. You can both update your existing 4.34 base installation as well as perform a fresh 4.34 base + U1 installation from scratch, as you like. See the installation instructions below for details.
For those of you who are still in need of a legit Falcon 4.0 version, note that Retroism currently has a holiday sale (lasting until Jan 3rd 2020), you can grab the whole Falcon Collection there with a hefty 60% discount: Falcon Collection – Retroism
This mod may not be used for any commercial purposes. Any such use may constitute a violation of the intellectual property of Billion Soft (Hong Kong) Limited and the non-commercial Terms and Conditions under which Benchmark Sims make this mod available to you.
Happy to help out with any questions chipwich, I mainly fly bms. The rampstart checklist is ok-ish but there are a couple of things missing, such as proper epu safety timing (and bit) iff /c&i knobb mismatch with dtc loading, hotstart check (yes that happens) and omg throttle indent before jfs. I recommend this one from a squadron buddy of mine, it’s just as basic, not ultra realistic, but better and modular in terms of checks:
Been playing one of the new short campaigns they stuck in which is kind of a large exercise in South Korea with the US / Japan as the Red Force Vs NATO the Blue Force.
Although I get to fly an old school F-16 aggressor against Typhoons and Rafales I was doing okay after day 2 thanks to having B-2s and A-10s on my side and wiping out their airfields.
That’s excellent Easy. I take it that the Tests in yellow can be ignored unless you care to do the long version?
I made the dubious choice of trying to learn both the DCS and BMS Vipers concurrently, hoping that their would be some synergy. But about 2 days in my VPC T-50 MC2 throttle showed up and I ended up having to build my controller profiles from scratch for both sims. The DCS version was pretty easy, but of course nothing is easy in BMS due to its age and complexity.
For instance, BMS only recognizes 32 buttons, while the CM2 throttle has 60. Not that I would use them all, but some of the critical ones are above 32. So I had to use the Virpil software to split the throttle into 2 virtual controllers. Last night, I finally was able to get most of the critical HOTAS controls mapped, with one caveat. The throttle axis in BMS don’t have a check box to reverse the direction. So, it’s pull for power (@BeachAV8R would chuckle at this), and Ill be damned if I’m going to do that in the Viper! You don’t happen to know if I can reverse those axis in Alternate Launcher that I keep hearing about?
One more question please. In the A2A refueling training mission where you have a straight and oval track choice, my Viper catches on fire up about 5 minutes after spawning. I never make it to the tanker. Weird, because there are no warning lights in the cockpit. There is some bright orange flashing and the motor quits. Any ideas? Thank you.
That sounds like a ton of fun MB. Love the skin on your Viper. I’ve been watching some of mission replays on YouTube and they are intense.
I have an old school fcc cougar for which support is plenty so I’ve never tried ; as far as I can see the easiest thing is to invert the throttle axis using virpil software, but I wouldn’t be surprised if chirmobello’s tool could help you out too.
The dcs and bms vipers are both similar of course ; apart from the still to be added features in dcs (cursor zero comes to mind) i find the biggest difference tactically is datalink in which the link 11 system in bms requires some thought in larger packages. And of course bvr is a little more bvr, and dead/sead is quite unpredictable, you really have to hunt.
When used to DCS, this excellent document will really help you with the different threat parameters in bms (much better than the native tacref): Threat Guide
Regarding the MaD campaign, it’s awesome. I’ve been planning a large package to try take down the sa17 with tgp assisted sdbs on fukuoka to open it up for an oca strike, a real planners challenge to open up a 20 minute window there on the edge of the sa10 threat.
That’s a new one for me, the only thing that comes to mind is that you’re actually not in one of the f16 training flights but in a support aircraft (if you jump into a Sentry or Tanker flight for instance you’ll see an f16 cockpit in 3d as the proper cockpit is not implemented). Fooled me once!
Thanks again Easy for another outstanding link. A massive amount of work in that doc. I would have been happy with pages 51-52 -what’s shooting at me and how long do I have to live.
Ah, the Cougar. Such a unique throttle design. Too bad TM has seen fit to continue with a metal version.
Thanks Easy. That was it. I’m still learning the interface and didn’t realize that I needed to pick the correct flight and aircraft. I was automatically assigned to the first slot, which was indeed the tanker flying the track on the E coast of Korea. Also, was able to invert my throttle axis in Virpil software, so HOTAS is good now.
Found the tanker, but had to knock off for the night before attempting AAR.
On behalf of the entire BMS development team, I am happy to announce that the latest iteration of the Billion Soft Falcon 4.0 total conversion modification - Benchmark Sims 4.34 U3 - is available for you to enjoy as of RIGHT NOW!
BMS 4.34 U3 requires a legit installation of a Falcon 4.0 (all older and newer versions are accepted alike, i.e. Microprose, Hasbro, GOG, Steam, Retroism). The check is performed both at setup time and every time you start BMS. If no valid installation is found, BMS will exit with a corresponding error message.
U3 is an incremental update on top of 4.34 base + U1 + U2, so you need to have the BMS 4.34 Full Installer package and Update 1 and Update 2 available on your PC. You can both update your existing 4.34 base + U1 + U2 installation as well as perform a fresh 4.34 base + U1 + U2 + U3 installation from scratch, as you like. See the installation instructions below for details.
This mod may not be used for any commercial purposes. Any such use may constitute a violation of the intellectual property of Billion Soft (Hong Kong) Limited and the non-commercial Terms and Conditions under which Benchmark Sims make this mod available to you.
— The build number string in the Falcon UI will read “4.34.3 (x64) Build 21079” after the update.
— The shortcuts in the start menu and on your desktop will NOT be renamed to U3, they will still read “Falcon BMS 4.34” after the update.
— If you have any questions or found bugs regarding the change log items please always(!) reference the revision number, e.g. “(r12345)”.
— The original 4.34.0 manuals remain valid (but please see the U1/2/3 changelogs for possible updates).
— None of the .ini or .cfg files will be changed.
U3 FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS:
========================
Code:
=====
r21020
Fixed calculate fuel available when flight never deagged or loadout page never used
Fixed squadron weapons and fuel use and resupply when flights are created and return back to base
r21019
Fix attempt for mismatch between client and server when vehicles are destroyed
r21018
Fixed time schedule MP sharing missing in ATM
Fixed error at flight / package creation online
r21017
Give 10 seconds room instead of 3 seconds when entering waiting screen to give time to react and change spawning method
Allow clients to enter into waiting room even if host is not in 3D
Clients will wait in the waiting room until host is in 3D even if their takeoff time has passed
This allows to accelerate to X64 if everybody commits at the same time (as in the good old days) though host will always be the first in 3D independently of his own takeoff time
r21016
CTD fix in ATC formation landing
r21015
Global fix for Flight / Package Creation / deletion
Fixed “Add_Package” being inactive on client after a package deletion
Fixed packages being wrongly set up when a flight has been deleted => CTD fix if flight creation after a #5 flight deletion
Made sure squadrons are correctly resupplied when flights are deleted from a package
Made sure that we can not delete the first flight of a package unless this is the last renaming flight
Made sure that the airbase runway occupation is not taken into account for players created flight since players have no way to know the airbase runway schedule
r20944
CTD at MP connection fix candidate
r20816
Updated code copyright strings to 2020
Data:
=====
r12110
Fixes to generic.dat
r12087
TvT:
C-160 role score adjusted in dedicated DB
Replaced P’Yong’Taeg and Sondok airbases by Kimhae and Manp’o airbases
PRI files adjusted to permit C-160 Airlift missions again
Fixed some inconsistencies in the save0.cam file
r12085
Fixed airbase 21_03 taxi point issue:
Rwy 21 side taxi point 5 was branched to itself when it should have not been branched at all
This caused a gap between taxi point 4 and 5 with no taxipoint
en trying to commit to that side of the airbase, the sim would hang in the pie screen
r11900
Updated credits and legal splash screen copyright strings to 2020
I’ve been watching some of mission replays on YouTube and they are intense.
