There were dual CPU motherboards long before multicore CPUs became a thing.
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Even so, AFAIK Falcon 4 was never multi-threaded. I guess I can check task manager next time I play it (still have the vanilla version 1.08 running on my system). IIRC even BMS started to implement multi-threading only recently.
Edit1: From Kevin Klemmick interview: :: Falcon 4 history - Interview
What were the biggest technical problems that you had to face and solve in the other areas engineered by you (AI, Multiplayer, Coms, etc)?
The biggest technical challenge for me was doing everything I wanted to with the Dynamic Campaign in the CPU slice we budgeted, which I believe was something like 5% of the CPU. To really get AI to work well you need to do a lot of pathfinding and data crunching, all of which is CPU intensive. So there was definitely a lot of compromise in AI quality because of this.
Even from this you can tell all the code run on single core, since they had to budget 5% CPU time for the campaign computations. If it was multi-threaded there would be no need for that.
Edit 2: Wait wait… it appears that Falcon 4 did supported Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) but apparently it wasn’t optimized. I’m curious now if this actually will spread the work on at least two threads on modern CPUs. Will have to check this out, really interesting.
Source: https://www.simhq.com/_technology/technology_060a.html
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They had to design it for the typical machine of the time, which had neither multiple logical nor physical cores. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t able to take advantage of one when available.
It may have come up a few times over the years - here is one from iHawk:
Fact (and I stated that in the past many times) - BMS and the original F4 source are actually over-threaded - Means that since the beginning, even though there weren’t any available extra cores on CPU, the original team believed in a design with multiple threads
Fact - BMS has a couple of main threads:
- Sim thread - Runs all sim logic (physics, FM, weapons, avionics etc)
- Rendering thread - Runs all the necessary for graphics (draw calls preparations, vector/matrices calculations etc)
- Campaign thread - I’m no expert here but I guess mostly the campaign logic
- VU thread - Runs all VU stuff, management of the entities, lifetime management, position updates, garbage collection etc
- New (DX11) rendering engine thread - Execute the draw calls on the device in a pure async fashion (i.e while the rendering thread prepare the draw calls, there is no more access from there to the device, but the device is locked by the engine and only the engine is allowed to run directly on it - There some edge cases exceptions though, but the general idea is clear)
Now, other than those, there are also some worker threads for various tasks.
So, stating that BMS code is single-core oriented isn’t only wrong but is actually opposite from the truth, and can be verified easily by watching task manager CPU graph (you won’t see 1 core maxed out and the rest doing nothing, which is the ONLY way that a single core oriented application can run).
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Could it be that F4 was based on codebase originally intended for .gov/.mil usage? Dual processor motherboards were fairly common in server motherboards and similar applications for a while. Even had some workstation PCs for autocad and the like that had dual CPUs for a bit.
You can make Software Multi-Threaded and still run on single Core CPUs, all the threads will just use the same core and alternate CPU cycle time.
But when F4 was in development, there was already dual Pentium Boards., Hyperthreading debuted on Consumer Pentiums in late 2001/early2002.
They developed the sim to be future proof, mission accomplished.
Having a Single thread, even on a Single Core CPU, slows the Program down, because it has to wait for each thread to complete before starting another.
Making it multi-threaded allows for one thread to continue working asynchronously from another.
Single Core CPU does not mean it can only process 1 thread at a time.
If you bring up your system taskmanager you likely have between 3 to 5K Threads running just sitting on your desktop.
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BMS podcast
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Falcon BMS 4.37.3 (Update 3) is out!
This release has been 8 months of hard work from the team to bring you A LOT of new features:
- New 3D format (BML)
- New 3D shaders
- Fully playable F-15C (ramp start included) – See changelog for systems implemented!
- A lot of fixes and improvements
- …
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Can I just say how much I love the 80s power ballad style cover of “Somebody That I Used to Know”?
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Almost makes up for the late 90s LoD on the 3D Models 
Free and smooth must count for something 
Also, the F18 got a very slightly upgraded (or at least more IRL looking) flight deck with a monochrome radar.
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except it’s not free.
$5 compared to at least one order of magnitude more is close enough in my wallet.
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Technically it is, it does require however base game that is 25 years old at this point, which if you don’t own already you can get it dirt cheap from GOG or Steam. OTH DCS base is free while each module will cost you at least 10x more than Falcon 4.0. Yes, it’s presentation is a bit dated (which will surely improve with 4.38), but its dynamic campaign is still unbeatable to this day.
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I’d be surprised if many of us don’t have an old copy of F4 lying around somewhere…
I just did a count: I have two physical copies and also own it on Steam (it came with the Microprose pack that was on sale years ago). So I can legally install and play it on every games PC in my household 
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You’re technically correct, which is the best kind of correct. 
That said, I’d make the mistake of calling it ‘free’ too. 
I guess to be precise, BMS is free, but Falcon 4.0 is required to run it. In the grand scheme of things, $5 pretty close to free in this hobby especially considering the incredible sim you get.
ETA: @Torc already said exactly that, I just didn’t read well enough.
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I have 1 Floppy Set (Likely unreadable at this point), 3 Disc Copies (Bought 1 full size w/ binder, 2 other discs I bought in bargain bins as Disc Case only versions to have as backups incase the other CDs (or floppies) went bad. those came w/ no printed manual everything was pdf on the discs for 9.99 and 14.99 respectively).
I also bought the falcon collection on steam for some random cost of lunch amount a few years bad.
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In a box. That I look in once every, oh, five years and think, “wonder what’s in that box…oh that’s right, old PC games…ahhhh…simulators”.
PS: This fulfills my kitty gif requirement for the year 2023. Cuttin it close.
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