Chris "BeachAV8R" Frishmuth reviews Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0

Included in the review is a 17 minute HD video showing the many new features of BMS 4.32

http://www.simhq.com/_air14/air_507a.html

I just don't get it. On my system the graphics for BMS 4.32 are far inferior to Falcon AF and nowhere near the gorgeous detail in BeachAV8R's screenshots.

I checked graphics options and video card profiles and all should be fine. Granted my system (below in sig) is now probably a LOW END system, but the GTX260 should be more than capable enough. Ground and airbase graphics are muddy and indistinct. Outside views of the Viper similarly uninspiring...all compared to the stock Falcon AF.

SOMETHING is definitely wrong, but I'm darned if I can figure out WHAT. I had exactly the same experience with Free Falcon 4 and 5 where others were blown away by the graphics engine, I was underwhelmed.

Great review, Beach! The visuals are simply great! I'm looking forward to your MP review!

I'm not sure what to say, Recluse. Even with all of the heavy framerate items (post processing, particle effects, etc.) turned off in F4Patch should still give you much better visuals than AF, and the 3D cockpit especially should look worlds better being in high resolution and fully functional. With your hardware I would think you would actually get better frames with BMS, considering the DX9.

Very nice review, although, I don't know if it was present in previous incarnations, but I would have mentioned the differential breaking and the new taxing physics. To my that's THE most significant feature EVER!

Nice review and sim looks a lot of fun! Some great graphics improvements prove there's life in the old dog yet. Interested to see how the MP performs as this was one of several areas Lead Pursuit invested in heavily for Allied Force. We worked very hard to improve both MP stability with quite a few clients connected and with things like positional updates. I think its strength was demonstrated by the MP campaign servers which ran for days with dozens of clients hopping in and out.

Regardless, this looks like a visual treat and lots of work I can see has gone into the avionics too. That cockpit is gorgeous and looks amazing -- that ICP panel just jumps out at you like real 3D too.

Great job all round.

They finally added clickable 3D cockpits??? Dammit, another sim I have to master .

The video is a fantastic piece of work!
Ciao,
nibbio

Hey Recluse..

Well, I don't know if it matters..but I have an NVidia card (I think you do too)...and these are my graphics settings in game:





Also, per a recommendation in the forums, I added an exception to my NVidia Control panel setting to make the Falcon BMS.exe anisotropic and anti-aliasing APPLICATION CONTROLLED..

I hope that helps.. There should be a big difference over Allied Force.

BeachAV8R

Indeed. I tried to put some video of the ground handling in my video.. The text of the article I tried to pare down a bit..but you bring up a good point!

C3PO - Thanks to you and your crew for providing a great, stable, and fun retail sim for us all to enjoy. I hope that the article is clear that Falcon is a continuous evolution and if it weren't for the work of those who came before we probably wouldn't be anywhere near where we are now.

I'm sure the other versions of Falcon (OpenFalcon, FreeFalcon) are also making great strides as they seek to improve on each others work..

Thanks for the comments guys.

BeachAV8R

Hell yeah. Great write up, and a great update to a legend.

Now that the original goal of Falcon 4 has been completely achieved, it's time to tackle a new goal. May I suggest that we have here the makings of a classic strategy game that's on par with Chess or the card game Bridge. If Falcon 4 is to equal of surpass the other benchmark of hard core simulations, namely iRacing, there has to be a better way of giving a score for performance and keep people striving for better and better scores.

What I have in mind here is what I'll call "Falcon 4: The Art of War", which takes elements from both Chess and Bridge to become a great strategy game. Falcon 4 Art of War has two phases, like contract bridge. You start with two teams. Each team is given a budget to go out and buy military hardware. Each team sets up that hardware in such a way as to protect its home base. The second phase is, of course, a tactical engagement/war between the two teams. The beauty of this is that to get the maximum bang for the buck each team will have to go through the entire Falcon 4 catalog looking for bargain weapons systems. This way you'll have all kinds of interesting matchups between, say, a few advanced fighters vs. dozens of cheap older generation fighters. As with chess, you can set up a tournament and find a champion.

It's not enough to be a good with a joystick; you've also got to choose your weapons carefully before the fighting starts. This is what makes Falcon Chess a more interesting war simulation. To quote "The Art of War", every battle is won before it's fought.

Mine were exactly the same except for quality level 6 instead of 7. I bumped it up to see. The outside view of the Viper looks nicer now. I have to try the Landing TE, because the last time I ran it, I could barely tell there was an airbase ahead of me, vs the gorgeous shots in your writeup and video. Another odd thing. The UFC doesn't seem to have that 3 Dimensional aspect when I am in the pit vs. your shots and vids. I NEVER REALIZED IT STUCK OUT LIKE THAT!!!

Will play around some more. Of course, the danger is that if I get the graphics tweaked I am going to have to learn to fly in

And to say that I was going to ditch my copy of Falcon 4 for a pittance on Ebay, and spend around $30 for Aerosoft's F16. And then yesterday, I came across this!

Very nice. Very, very nice!

Nice review Beach, covered most of the things that made me say wow when I installed it.

BMS 4.32 basically takes all the badassness that was OpenFalcon and pumps it up on super steroids with a side of crackrock for good measure. It's that awesome.

meh

Nice to see BMS getting SimHQ's treatement. Nice first part of the review, too.

I had tried out BMS a month ago or so, I admit I did not test it much, but very quickly only, but that is because I immediately noticed the other planes' flight models. Bombers and big birds trying to dogfight and dpoing split-S (almost), and fighters behaving as if they were heavy 737s. I admit seeing that behaviour spoiled it immediately for me.

But not one word of that in the review, so I wonder if maybe I must take into account that I had a flawed installation, or something?

Whatever, I would like to get reviewers' thoughts in the next parts about both the fighting AI and the campaign AI, and the flight model behaviours (hint-hint).

I doubt you had a flawed installation. The install is point and click and doesn't overwrite anything else - so it is what it is. Whether we are talking about EECH, Falcon 4, or pretty much any other sim the AI is always going to display questionable behavior. I have yet to find a sim that doesn't do odd things with AI aircraft.

Of somewhat interest (not for me personally) is the campaign control improvements listed on the BMS site HERE!

• Create flights after Day 1
  
• Add Naval Units
  
• Change Squadron - Yes, the virtual pilot can change squadrons mid-campaign!
  
• Decide squadron control
  
• Delete flights safely
  
• Security of User Interface (for example: Unable to delete a flight after it's already airborne)
  
• Abort Packages in real-time after takeoff
  
• Add Packages in real-time
  
• Squadron Scheduling - Slots available vs not available[/i]
  
• The user can now fully control a squadron(s) by 'disconnecting' it from the ATO. You will have full control of planning missions.
  
• A pilot now has more opportunities to join a flight, package or squadron without having to reload the campaign.
  
• There is more flexibility in managing and creating a package.
  
• The user can now set up packages by take off time or time on target.
  
• The user can modify flights / packages up to 2 minutes prior to takeoff. An abort option is present to have a package RTB before carrying out a mission.
  
• Each squadron has a schedule manager, broken down into time slots of 15 minutes. This has been revamped in BMS and made more robust.

In my scanning the many pages of the BMS website I see little in the way of mention regarding AI improvements, so I don't know if they've made any changes to it or not.

Regards,
BeachAV8R

You're welcome!

A good review and a fair one. I mean BMS is not perfect and everything we ant (F-14 Clickable pit please! :D) but itīs very good and stable. It works right out of the box and I havenīt had any CTD in over a month of playing it. I was always staying out of using FreeFalcon or OpenFalcon for stability issues. But this one is great, it just works right out of the box, or rather the download!

I agree with beach there are still things to be done, like better 3d Models for the other planes and the ground targets, or especially the custom pits for other planes, like the F-14 the F/A-18 and the older ones.

Still much better than the spayed Aerosoft FSX F-16, eh?

Recluse did you activate the TrackIR Vector Control in the Setup menu, its under controllers->advaced->Views

I have played it in the Multiplayer campaign thrice so far (damn RL! ) and it was absolutely stable, no crashes glitches or anny warping, I donīt know about the ping, I didnīt even look for it, it was just that smooth. The only problem is when somebody does connect with an empty setting in the connection bandwith, as we didnīt see the airbase, coming back, which caused me to land with 400 pounds of fuel after the Airbase reappeared. The Multiplayer campaign is just a blast! I donīt think I can go back to FC2 or DCS style mp missions after that.

Maybe I did not make clear what I mean. What I mean is that this is the worst flight models and AI that I have seen in any Falcon 4.0 incarnation, and believe me, I had a taste of all F4 stuff that came out until final patch 13 (? was it?) for Allied Force. What I mean is that I had an appearant massive detoriation in AI and flight models. You are right, all and every AI in any game has this issue, that problem, and then some. But I did not mean these principle problems.

At helosim.com/subsim.com we had a thread about that, there I was told by somebody that these problems I mentioned indeed are reported for quick missions/dogfight, but not in campaign, and I also had read it in random places on the web that there are issues in dogfight, so there IS a problem, obviously, at least in certain play modes. But I already admitted that I did not do very long tests, but I had two launchs in campaign, too, and there saw the same problems, though.

Anyhow, i just wanted to encourage to direct some work and effort for the next parts of the review being directed at examining AI and flight models. I hope for some feedback on expewriences on these things. I currently have no Falcon installed, no matter which version, I deleted BMS again. Part 1 of the review tells me that I have missed many features of the new BMS version, that is absolutely possible since I tried it only very shortly, for curiosity, maybe 5 launches I had. Okay. But these additional features are secondary only to me as long as I do not get a much greener light for AI and FM.

No dispute intended.

wow! Thanks for your time on working on the excellent review!!

I tried installing FF or BMS a few years ago and never got it to work properly. If this new version of BMS is as easy to install and run as you suggest I will give it another try!

Nice review Beach - The F-16 FM is the best in any F4 version - and probably the best in any sim 've flown by miles.

DCS A-10 is currently shelfware with everything else

Yes the only negative side is that the enemy AI is a lot easier to beat than in Allied Force - I won 6-0 against an Ace SU-27 armed with R-73s in DF mode - when you consider - I ran out of AIM-9X rounds after the second kill - for some reason they kept firing and missing - or just let me fly up behind them - in AF going in against an R-73 toting Su with guns was almost suicide.

Good to hear the MP is stable. I would have loved to have tried it out, but as I've mentioned to my friends - I can only accomplish things in 10 minute blocks these days. Have you ever tried to gently slew the TGP onto a target while keeping an eye on the RWR all while having an 18 month old hanging from your HOTAS arm?? LOL... Talk about distractions...


I'll be the voice of dissent on that one. I'd actually like to see Falcon remain a pure F-16 sim. While I appreciate that everyone wants to fly the planes that are close to their heart, I would rather see the time and effort go into refining the other 3D models, working on the AI, and tweaking the campaign. Also, I'd love to see an Operation Desert Storm theater integrated into this install somehow.


No kidding..! Even if you are into FSX for the pure civilian/flight side of it..I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to give BMS 4.32 a shot. The flight model is so marvelous..!


Good point. That is how you can get the full 6DoF and that is what really makes that UFC pop out at you. I also tend to use a slightly narrower FOV (one click forward with my mouse wheel)..


That is encouraging to hear. I hope to get some MP time in soon..

Skybird - I copy all that you've said and agree with much of it. Despite the problems I can look past some of the quirky AI stuff although it would be fantastic if BMS could work on those things. I spent a fair amount of time in the "Action View" which moves around the campaign battlefield looking at all the various entities, and noticed some problems with helos being under the terrain and some odd bombing profiles and stuff. All of that needs to be addressed obviously..but the work that went into getting the graphics up to speed, the flight model, and the 3D cockpit are big steps in the right direction. Hopefully with some of that heavy lifting out of the way BMS can delve into those other issues. (?) Thanks for your thoughts and inputs...

Regards,
BeachAV8R

Hmmm no I didnt because I didn't enable TRACKIR from the get go so I ignored those settings. Maybe I will try it. Thanks for the tip!

Hmm. So you and a guy in another squadron agree to a dogfight. One of you has to fly a Tanker with guns strapped on the wings and the other gets to fly a F-16. For laughs, each of you make a contract with God that states--If you die, you get to respawn. That takes the edge off.

What are you going to exect your buddy in the Tanker to do? Fly straight and level?

You wanted a DOGfight... you got one!

I fail to see the problem here. In Dogfight mode, I expect my opponent to try and... Dogfight me.

I'm sure BMS appreciates the criticism but I think you're being too critical here. BMS has done substantial things to improve Falcon 4.0 and for a while, Dogfight was broken in other iterations. I have yet to see one single absurd behavior by AI in campaign.

You really try hard to misunderstand what I said and give it a twist, hm? And just for the record of yours, I did not even mention MP or any buddy of mine - only the AI, and FMs. Will you please read my first and second post again before distorting my words any further. That would be appreciated, really.

BTW, I forgot to insert the link to the thread I was refering to:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=187523

An absolutely superb review...talk about thorough. Great job Beach! As I was reading this and watching the video, just spellbound...I was thinking what a great time to be a flight simmer. I mean you got this remake of a classic, the DCS series, Rise of Flight,the coming Combat Helo. I'm beside myself with fun.

One thing I love about this version is the sound.

Unless you had a hardware capable EAX or hardware direct 3d sound card,the sound would come out horrible.

This version doesn't seem to have those problems.

The new hud is absolutely a godsend.

I used to get sore eyes trying to read the fonts in the old Falcons and the green would disappear under the sun and even changing colours would bring back the eye strain after a while.

Not with this baby.

Amazing what Benchmark Sims have done to this old game which was released in 1998!!!!

LOL.

I still have the old ring binder.


I bought it a few years before I even owned a PC.

It just was something way beyond any other simulator software and still is.

I missed the boat on Falcon 3 but did play the earlier Falcons on my Amiga hehe.

Well, after a considerable span of time it looks like F4 will go back on my PC for another round of flying!



The Jedi Master

In all honesty, the review would have been more thorough (poor Doug would have spent even more time in formatting) if I had more time. A few years ago and this would have been a dozen page review. I love my little boy to death..but he does put a crimp on concentration and stream of thought. Used to be I could sit at my computer for 8 hours at a stretch..but until Kai gets a bit older (and can fly on my not yet built home LAN) I have to take my time in bits and pieces.

So whatever is missing from the review are probably legit gripes and I take responsibility for them. It is worth noting that all of the stuff shown in the video aren't necessarily new things... Some of those things have been in there since OpenFalcon and previous BMS versions, but a lot of people might have missed some of the intermediate steps between Falcon, Falcon Allied Force, and where we are now...so I figured it would be a good idea to highlight some of those features too.

I hope that BMS continues to shape Falcon going forward.

BeachAV8R

Great review! The video really was the icing on the cake. I'm gonna fire that thing up later on and fly some missions with the sniper pod.

-C-

Errm...........No! I know what youīre talking about though, my sister vistited in August, with my then four months old niece, and lord did she keep us busy, luckily we got like 15 minute shifts. My brother-in-law was out of country on buiness, so I had to play surrogate father for that time! Flight time? Which flight time! I think Iīll wait some more years! Still.........I wouldnīt have done it any other way, it was great when they were there.




A Valid point, And I think things like an F-14 pit should only be integrated after all what youīve mentioned is put in, I heard a discussion about an F-16D two seater though and that would be awesome, if they could put it in, in the near future (next two years! ) It would make training new guys much easier.


The strange thing is everybody was saying that landing was a whole different ballgame and I thought, man is the Viper even harder to land than before? And I flew my first missions and I actually could land it much better than in AF, the handling was more like I was used to from the Flanker. Felt more right, and the whole behaviour of the airplane feels more right. It was also fun to fly a dogfight agains the Mig-29 with a decent chance, that HMCS sure is helping, even without missile aiming. Damn I love the Flanker, but flying without those atmospheric Campaign missions...................




I second that, and if you look at Cliffs of Dover for example, the AI is dogfighting there also, with bombers, and other stuff like the Oberleutnant und Fritz found out! A good friend said:"For a game that is thirteen years old, that looks amazing!" and he didnīt mean just the graphics!

@Skybird Strangely I havenīt seen much of that strange AI Bevhaviour especially in the Training, but I know, the Candid is heavy, but if somebody fired a missile at you, wouldnīt you break some flight rules to evade it?

Also the AI is using the old Flight models, There is an article on bms.org about it, if you use the new AFMs on them you would have to essentially rewrite the whole AI code, or atleast very large portions of it. BMS Flightmodel Developers Notes Part 2

No, no I did not misunderstand you. Read deeper into my post Danielson. With proper time and attention, you shall see the true meaning of what I wrote. It directly pertained to what you said and the AI. Read. Think.

Beach, thanks for taking the time and energy to put this review together. As the father of a six month old, I know exactly what you mean!

Here's a handy Allied Force to BMS conversion guide I found posted over at the BMS site.

http://www.mediafire.com/?7v1ja0h4ag28jro

I'm glad I have a kid now so I can empathize with all the other parents out there. I need 28 hours in each day to get everything done that I want... And I have NO idea how single Moms and Dads do it (NONE!)...

Great review, just wish I had time to play it.

Wait 'til you have two (both under 2). One's easy.

(Got another one coming in March, Damn..)

I am blown away by this sim and Chris' video review. Not only does the sim on my rig look as good as the video, but I didn't have to pay a penny for it. That simply amazes me. I'm delighted that I kept my old Falcon 4.0 original kit (with the single greatest manual ever produced for a sim).

Chris, you are such an asset to this community. Not only do you write the most enjoyable reviews and AARs, but you seem a decent gentleman, husband and father. If you're ever in Seattle, the wife and I will have to buy you a drink. Thanks for helping to make this site and our hobby a joy to maintain.

Really liked the video.

Not a complaint just an observation. I don't play the jets sims, never could get any of them to load on my machines, so I was clueless when you used an abbreviation or two and had to look them up.
Of course I could be wrong with what I found so if you use the full term with the abbreviations that you use at least once in the article it will help the clueless like me know what it is you meant. It also will aid in our ability to look up the correct item.

Article:
CCIP - Constantly computed impact point (Yes/No ?)

Video:
CCRP - ??

Wow!, They even took the time to detail the phillips head screw slots that are holding the cockpit instruments.



Wheels

CCRP = Continuously Computed Release Point - which is kind of a primary bombing mode for dumb bombs - but also used as part of other modes like Dive Toss, and for GPS and Laser Guided bombs in the sim.

Congrats! That is hope though..down the road they can play with each other and you can sneak away for some sim time..


Thanks for the kind words. It would be a whole lot harder if I didn't enjoy our hobby so much... I stand amazed at the progress of not only this sim, but the DCS series and Strike Fighters, etc.. Now is a great time to be a simmer for sure..

Wheels - Yep..Constantly (I've seen Continuously used too) Computed Impact Point and Continuously Computed Release Point.. Interestingly, both are actually computer controlled and you are just giving consent by hitting the pickle button. In some circumstances you could actually hold the pickle button down for a dozen seconds or more before the bombs actually release.

BeachAV8R

Thanks for the explanation on the abbreviations MigB and Beach. I tried Google but it wouldn't play nice.


Wheels

What's with the sounds? The engines sound very staticy (yeah I made the word up.) Is that how it sounds in the sim?

In the video with the review - no..that is probably the result of my Adobe Premiere converting the sound portion of the FRAPS footage. Disregard that...

The difference between the two is that CCRP calculates the error between the impact point and the 'designated' target, and provides steering cues/release to hit that target, while CCIP just displays the impact point, allowing faster engagement of dispersed or opportunity targets with a reasonable degree of accuracy - errors in range may be greater as there is no 'pickle' on solution, and it relies on visual estimation of error... more than made up for by using multiple weapons, or CBU with a larger footprint...

Hi Chris
Thanks for the great review and we hope to continue to be the Benchmark in flight sims.
cheers
Ray

Thanks for the link but you need to be logged in to see that thread.


Wheels

LOL, I would have a lot more time if all I had was my 6 month old! The 3 yr old on top of that makes gaming of any kind while they're awake very difficult. So, after 9PM pretty much, and if you're lucky a few hours in the afternoon on weekends while they nap!



The Jedi Master

We have a 4 month old right now. For a while, I thought after he goes down would be a good time for games and other fun stuff...

WRONG!!!

Once he's down, it's time for momomy and daddy to get some much needed sleep! I fired up SF2 the other night from 1-3 AM after I got up to calm him down and I couldn't get back to sleep. That's the only gaming I've done in the last few weeks.

the burning wrecks are really well done. the smoke effects especially are quite superior to anything i've seen from dcs, actually.

Looks amazing! I wish I had the time and patience to learn something as in depth as this.

Yep.
Little did I know as I raced to Electronics Boutique on my lunch break and almost giddily pick up my Falcon 4.0 binder, that I'd
have to wait 13 years before the sim sitting next to me on my car seat would actually be ready.

Of course I guess now I have to repurchase the thing. ( I probably won't - no time to learn jet sims nowadays)
I do miss the campaign builder in F4 though - still the best I've seen. I used to spend more time designing missions
than flying. A few modern sims could learn a thing or three from it.

Great review Beach.

LOL..that is so funny..and so true. Although we did have some pretty good stuff in between. The FreeFalcon stuff and Allied Force were nice notches in that direction (and the previous BMS versions).. But to have stability AND beauty.. Wow..

Can't wait to MP..

Can't wait to stop working these 12 hour shifts so I can fly again. I have 4 kids 11, 10, 9 and almost 3 years old. I get to fly a few hours during the week, when the wife is at school and Friday and Saturday night from about 11pm-5am. i work Mid shift so I'm up all night and try to keep that schedule during my days off.

Four! Wow.. I don't know how you do it man.. Good on ya'.. I'm lucky that I have those night shift swings of 4 days on and I can stay up super late on those nights.

Beach, you little rippa. Thanks for the review.

My original F4 box set was (like another) going to rear its ugly head on e-bay. I guess i am going to have to try like the rest of the dads here, to find the time to re-learn this bird (never fully got into F4 as the graphics did put me off)

But one question.

As you have brought to light again... Falcon 4. Is this going to highlight the shortcommings or necessities / pros and cons of having a dynamic campaign and the lack of such things in sims like DCS (which is my sole sim atm)?

I would be intersted in your viewpoint as a fellow Sim junkie (and RL pilot) what this portion of the sim (Dynamic Campaign) means for you.

I understand my last question can be a flame thread starter, so if for interests of safety within the board community and flame retardant vests, if you prefer to not answer that question, that is fine.

Best regards,
Bogus

Hmm.. Well, it certainly is a complex question. On one hand, a dynamic campaign offers the attractiveness of relatively unlimited gameplay potential. I always enjoyed the Falcon 4 campaign, but truth be known, I actually preferred the one in Enemy Engaged a little more because I felt it had a more heavily weighted player component to it. You could sort of "go rogue" in EECH and really help the campaign along wheras in Falcon 4, you really do feel more like a small fish in a big pond (not necessarily a bad thing..but I enjoy feeling heroic in my computer flying..<g>). The drawback, of course, is a bit of repetition and not a lot of tailor made, exceptional missions. By that I mean some of the scripted missions in sims like JF-18 and Longbow 2, and the DCS series are truly phenomenal because they can be very complex (with things like triggers) and can feature special events that you wouldn't see in a generic dynamic campaign. Also, the briefings and things for a hand crafted mission are only constrained by the author's imagination. So from that side, I really do enjoy non-dynamic, or semi dynamic branching campaigns.

In my "perfect world" we'd see a whole different side of the DCS programming team devote themselves to DLC (downloadable content) that would keep their titles fresh and ever expanding. User created missions and campaigns are one thing, but how cool would it be to have $5 or $10 mission packs or theaters that had their own story? To tell you the truth, I wouldn't care if DCS feature froze their A-10 right now and didn't update the core engine for 5 years if they would just keep pushing out new modules that kept telling different stories.

And of course, in a second perfect world, DCS would eventually take the bull by the horns and create a dynamic world, but I gather that is a huge job.

Those are my abridge thoughts anyway..and I appreciate that others have a different opinion..

Regards...
BeachAV8R

Thank you for doing this review. It got my attention and I'm finally flying F4 again because of it. I own Allied Force and the Original F4.0. I am glad I didn't get rid of the original. The install worked like a champ just by having it look for my original F4 rom. Anyhow, I'm stuck with a maximum graphics quality of "3" (as opposed to your card's maximized "7", but I can't complain. I am running an ATI Radeon HD 5770 so I'm a tiny bit surprised it is capped like this, but again, can't complain. This BMS overall is extremely nice. I was getting artifacts in 3d with this card on Allied Force, but now with F4 + BMS 4.32, looks absolutely stunning throughout. Any idea what caps the graphics quality setting? (anyone?) I'm cool with where it's at, but it's nothing like Beach's shots inside the cockpit. Anyhow, nice review, and thanks for getting me back into Falcon again. It's been a while. - Peter, a.k.a. Murdock

Any guidance as to the "order of precedence" as far as the supplied manuals go? For example, if I want to operate the HARM missle, which manual should I go to first, then which of the additionally provided manuals should I refer to, in order towards final precedence. I must be missing something in the middle, as I've reviewed the original F4 manual, then looked at the BMS 4.32 supplied manual, but something isn't kosher. Instead of telling me how, I'd rather know which manuals to go to in which order; as they supply a bunch of them with the BMS 4.32 install.

I've moved my question and expanded upon it to the more appropriate forum -

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3419667.html#Post3419667

Wow, C3PO! This update has me crossing paths with all sorts names I haven't heard in years. You should be proud of the stability and playability of AF, especially the tie-in with Hyperlobby. BMS looks and plays awesome. If it works as well in MP I can see that DCS will be collecting some virtual dust on my rig. BTW, C3PO, you won't remember me but I made a nuisance of myself complaining about the "feel" of the Viper in AF. Having never flown an F16 I can't say that BMS is better but it certainly feels much better. Anyway, I'm glad you are still around.

The review was a good overview of the new BMS release. The video is a "must-see" showcase of the upgrades. Enjoyed it very much.
There remains some of the old bugs that have plagued Falcon4 from the beginning, including the dancing Viper when exiting the a/c in MP.
I have a 3 year old computer now, that has a E6600 quad2core with a nVidia 8800GT running Vista and Im getting decent frames at quality level 3.
Beyond that, the frame rates suffer too much for my system.

Another nice feature of BMS is that it has its own built in avionics extractor code that can be turned on with the configuration GUI. This allows many of the primary flight instruments and MFDs to be ported to another monitor. The only problem I had with this feature, is that I use USB LCD monitors along with the TM MFD OSB bezels; and the code does not display the MFDs via DisplayLinked USB LCDs. THe MFDs do extract to another VGA monitor quite nicely though. The cost of running the built in extractor in BMS is that the executable has to be run in a windowed mode, which further reduces the frame rate significantly on my older PC. There is an effort to patch BMS in the future so that it will work for USB LCDs (soon I hope). Programming the TM MFDs was pretty easy using the control key function mapping GUI.



Flying BMS online is a joy now. After being spoiled with the smoothness and stability of: IL2, ROF-ICE, LOMAC and A10c online coding, FalconAF didn't quite do the job for close up flying and had micro-warps and jitters. BMS is very smooth and stable. Another advancement apart from the stability is the connectivity enhancements. According to Nutty of Foxy fame, BMS now supports the connect mode where the host can both host and join on the same or different computer behind the router on LAN, and the clients can join outside the router via WAN IP (just not dynamic IP naming services, has to be an ip addy). No longer does the host need two WAN IP addys.



The Refueling works well in COOP Multiplayer, very smooth. We were able cycle through two human player even when we the lead up gave up and let the wingman go next; then the lead successfully refueled after the wingman was finished. No more worries about keeping a pecking order and breaking the cycle.



Thanks for the review and am looking forward to the part2.

Really nice follow up information there AV8R. You hit on a lot of the points that I did not have the time or opportunity to test. Thanks for taking the time to post your impressions..



BeachAV8R

No worries BeachAV8R (nice callsign BTW)

If there were one feature enhancement Id like to see in the series that would make it a jewel crown in its already classic status; that would be if they would add the ability to share the 2-seater F16B/D model Viper in multiplayer. A shared cockpit as do a lot of other sims (LB2, Battlefield, etc.). Think not only of the ability to share the bombing workload, but the training value alone. Then of course the fun and pucker factor. It would also open up possibilities for the Naval AV8Rs crowd who love the F14 Tomcat. Im sure it could be done with today's bandwidth and computers.

Great write up as usual. Any possibility to share in pdf format?

Keep up the great work.

What a great review especially the video - Now i've got to try to get this old brain around F4 once more- after a few years break!

Great review Beach and dito video. But the top of the bill is your article in PCPilot.
After reading that, I run upstairs and check for my microprose falcon f4 cd, and there it was
Thanks.

Am I the only one interested in the carrier ops feature? Can anyone gives a detailed review about it? Beach only mentioned in a single paragraph that it's passable. How exactly? I mean, things like whether the carrier is moving, does the meatball work?, does it simulate traps properly or does it simply catch any airplane that lands with tailhook down?, etc.
Thanks.

Chris-
What a great review. It's been a long time since I have read one of your post and as usual, it was fantastic. Glad to know us ole Falcon drivers still take to the sky.
`swamp

This review has piqued my interest... I still have the original manual. Will it still be relevant or does this come with its own? or have new training missions? I need to re-learn all the systems again if I decide to put my interest and time back into this.

It has some new training missions, and it has a slew of legacy and new manuals. The BMS manual is nice for the new stuff like the sniper pod and HARM modes. I think you'd be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks Swampy - nice comment..good to see you!

Thanks for the clarification... I DL'd it and dug up my old Falcon4 disc. Now I just need to find the time to wrap my head around it again.

What 3d engine does this game use?
I cant find out what its called or what its similar too
Im trying to make an sli compatibility bits flag so we this game will take advantage of sli setups.

Its based on the original Falcon 4.0 engine from 1998 - that was probably derived from Falcon 3 etc.

The BMS team modified the Falcon 4.0 engine for this mod to use DX9

try Benchmark sims forums for more info......

PS - its a Simulator.

Yeah i asked at BMS forum and got no reply.