Oh man ah LAN party! now that brings back some memories!
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Thorough preperation: Strongbow on the table and Jesus on the wall 
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Doing it online is just not the same - Lan Parties were more like a…‘party’ (me and some of my super-geek friends); real beer flowing, chips…all the things that make a get-together, well, personal.
“I missed a call” or “Popcorn can be used as Flak”
A FOTI mission (think it only supported 2 players, via serial cable?)
2 X Phantoms, half way to Hanoi (no I don’t really remember the destination but it’s my story)…
Me, in trail, leaning closer to the (20 inch) CRT, “Hmmm, what is that? Is that little dot, moving towards you…hey that’s a SA…” -BOOM-. “Uh, yeah guess it was a SAM”.
Cue up a face full of high-velocity p-corn from my now dead flight lead.
And the monitors were a LOT heavier.
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And yet, smaller…
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I remember hauling a large (26”?) CRT to a LAN party. My back hurts thinking about it. It’s a wonder that we all didn’t have premature hernias 
.
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I remember vividly my old neighbour, Will. we grew up together playing games on my386 and later his 486 dx66.
When we got pentium power i had a 133 with a voodoo 2 (i think) and we used to carry them across the road to each others houses and lan party on quake and doom 2, duke nukem 3d and need for speed 2.
Great fun.
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Yes it was basically LAN Falcon BMS party. In reality we had from Saturday morning to Sunday noon each minutes presentation about:
- Bullseye
- how to properly read it on FCR/HSD, what AWACS is usining in communication
- internal VFW SOP (Standard Operation Procedure)
- checklist, what we need to do
-ROE (Rule of Engagement)
IVC radio communication bettwen flights, package, internal flight
- Communication
-ramp start
-ground (ATC, ATIS)
-air (flights, AWACS)
-VHF/UHF radio - Airports
- how to orient on big size airports
- AD charts
-ATC (taxiway, position and hold, cleared for take off) - position on runway in formations + wind aspect
- approach and landing step by step procedure
- IFR (TACAN, ILS)
- WDP (TACAN maps in cockpit)
- Combat communcation
- AA
- AG
- what we need to call to radio, on which radio (UHV/VHF), etc.
- Formation
- flight formations
- combat formations
- BVR combat
-RWR, FCR, AMRAAM, WEZ
-radio messages
-tacticts (HOT, COLD)
-defensive and offensive maneuvers (nothing, pumping, cranking) - JTAC and Buddy Lasing
conditionals, radio - IVC radio simulation
- how to use it
- COM1/COM2
- Falcon UI (F1/F2)
- Guard radio
- HARM
-HTS on which block can be used
-POS mode
-HAS mode
-HAD mode
-tactics, what is the best for use and in which situation, what SAMs will typically do, etc. - FLIR/TFR
-how to use FLIR and TFR at night missions
We flew only two tactical (hardcore) mission after Saturady midnight 
And of course I got opportunity to flew DCS World and Falcon BMS both with VR set (DCS only with Meta Quest 2 wifi) and Falcon BMS with Oculus Rift S and then with Meta Quest 2.
Because guys has RTX 3060Ti/3070 GPUs I also tried and saw Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6 and Quake 2 with RTX. BTW Quake 2 on RTX looks fanstastic! That’s why Ray Tracing was implemented by Nvidia. Forget on modern AAA games, RT is game changer in case of Quake 2 significantly.
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Of course! Czech beers and jesus on the wall coud not be missed!
On Saturday morning we come to briefing (training) room and squadron instructor (the guy with combat pilot suit on the photos up) said:
Gentlemans sit down. Welcome in TOP GUN F-16 class… my name is Nerd … and I will be this weekend your instructor.
Gentlemans you are pilots. You want to be the best combat F-16 (BMS) pilots on the earth. Therefore this training will be hard… you will fly better, harder and more precise.
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I believe that everybody who born earlier remember times when we need to take big and heavy 17/19" CRT monitor and case from thick sheet metal with a many component inside.
I remember time when competitor czech group flying on Flanker 2.5 and MSFS 2004 then invited me to meeting in Hradec Kralové city.
I didn’t have a car. So, I had to take my clothes + joystick (MS Sidewinder Precision 2 + CH throttle) to two bags (on on my back, second on shoulder) and go to public transport (tram) and later from tram station to train station with heavy PC case in my hands. 17" CRT monitor furtunately they prepared for me on place.
In Czech republic then wasn’t typically to have a trains with easy access, so I almost fell down the stairs. But we were younger, stronger and we were not used to comfort like nowadays.
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C’mon @Rapier! “Brevity Code” does not apply here 
. Give us the goods on BMS VR!
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Well, I would like to say that I don’t own any VR set so my impression from VR could be different than from somebody who is familiar with VR.
Firstly, I saw two future versions of Falcon BMS, one which would be let say release sooner then you thought, well it depends on what are you expecting as release date.
Secondly, I tried on VR sets (Oculus Rift S and Meta Quest 2) only version of Falcon BMS which would be available in next let say release.
My impressions are really good. I will compare it with DCS World F-18 experience on Meta Quest 2 in DCS 2.7 which one our guy had there.
VR cockpit in Falcon BMS looks really good, even if it’s still under development. I can’t tell you that I was missing something in compare with DCS. Impressive is also looking on my own F-16 wings with payload like AMRAAMs, Mavericks and baks. I never seen it in VR with depth of view. Missiles looks fatter and bigger than without VR.
There has been the same problem as was in DCS World, so trees and windows in buildings were shimmering and partly shaking? This was partly eliminated by using AA (Anti Aliasign) and especially AF (Anisotropic Filtering) to max. but on the other hands (surprise for me) it wasn’t possible to eliminate shimmering/shaking on the trees. And you know there is a lot of trees on the ground.
Also wires and high voltage poles were shimmering and shaking. Valid also for both simulations. Both PCs had good CPUs with GTX 1080 Pascal GPUs.
Well in case of Falcon BMS also were troubles with airfields shaking and fps drops but we are talking about developer version of BMS, not final.
The Falcon BMS GUI is fully controllable by mouse without necessary to take down your VR from head. But If I remember well, you can still do it if you want and see GUI (maps with missions) in 2D without VR.
I can’t tell what and when probably will be released but there will be let say significant changes.
Even if Meta Quest 2 is 2 years old VR kit, at least I think, it was much better VR set than Oculus Rift S. Resolution of display on eye is good but it could be still better.
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Nice! Thanks @Rapier
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Dear community,
While the team has been working hard and “crunshing” those last week to bring 4.37 development to a gold state, it is time to celebrate this end of year with joy, family and loved ones!
2022… What a year to remember!
While the world just recovered (almost) from COVID, we are struck again by events that impact us all… But… We stood united!
While we had a lot of changes internally (people, tooling, infrastructure, …), we did not forget our aim to deliver better and faster. We look towards the future more than ever (you’ll see that soon enough don’t worry!)…
Falcon entering a new era
While we keep some surprises under the hood, 4.37 will be our first VR ready release!
We also consider this version a sort of transition to prepare the ground and fondations for 4.38 which will bring our new terrain engine…
The team has focused a lot on fixing bugs, optimizing and parallelizing a lot of our code to bring even faster experience. This was mandatory for VR but also for the future…
4.37 will thus keep the strong base of 4.36 while giving you a good glimpse of our future!
Prepare to be amazed and shocked as we made a lot of choices that we think are long awaited by the community…
We hope that we will be able to release our 4.37.0 soon™ and let you enjoy our work!
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The one combat flight sim that has given me 20 years of repeat playability and loads of pleasant surprises probably cost me $50. The other two have come close from time to time and yet each has cost me at least $500. Probably much more. I have no regrets but BMS has been the greatest bank for my buck by far. Here’s to another 20 years!
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It looks like I’ll be getting into the BMS world by end of year - I’m pumped.
My sim pit is a workaround to living in a very small space, and doesn’t have a provision for a monitor in front of the seat. TIR and a monitor has never been an option for me to enjoy BMS, so DCS and VR have been my playground.
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While BMS VR is overall welcomed,
it would be the equiv of playing Lock On in VR.
The Model and Texture LOD is in that bad spot, where it’s no where near photo realistic and no where near “Arcadish”
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Skate, do you think the next gen terrain engine will help?
What I hope that it not helps to make BMS very heavy on PCs that not have lastest GPUs
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It should look something like VTOL VR. That to me is more than satisfactory.
Oh I see what you are saying. Duh. You might be right, Skate. But I’d liken it to the professional full motion sims many of us are forced to succumb to. They use circa 1990’s 256x256 orthophotos in a 3D environment (probably not true but that’s how it looks to me). It’s not beautiful. But it is adequate and just enough to suspend belief. BMS already has far better lighting and atmospherics than any full motion sim I’ve used. So I think for most users with modest expectations, BMS VR will be a pleasant step up.
What he said!
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To be fair I’ve played far worse looking games in VR than BMS and i have been absolutely convinced of the experience. Long as it runs smooth, looks ok and plays as it should with easy switching between VR and pancake for the non flying sections, it should be a great success
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