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#3409442 - 10/13/11 04:52 PM Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0  
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citizen guod Offline
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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


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#3409495 - 10/13/11 06:10 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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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.


Long system spec sig follows:






PowerSpec G436
Lian Li ATX 205
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32 GB RAM DDR4 1600
Nvidia RTX3070

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#3409498 - 10/13/11 06:12 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Great review, Beach! The visuals are simply great! I'm looking forward to your MP review!


Shoot to Kill.
Play to Have Fun.
#3409536 - 10/13/11 06:58 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: Recluse]  
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Originally Posted By: Recluse
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.


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.


-Home Fries

"Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty."
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The average naval aviator, despite the sometimes swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy, and caring. These feelings just don't involve anyone else.

#3409601 - 10/13/11 07:53 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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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! biggrin


When you're feeling sad, just remember that somewhere in the world, there's someone pushing a door that says "pull".
#3409645 - 10/13/11 08:24 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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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.


NOW: Water-cooled Ryzen 5800X + 32GB DDR 4 3200 RAM + EVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra 24 GB + 2 x 1TB Corsair M.2 4900/4200 drive + 4K 40" monitor + TM HOTAS Warthog + TM TPR Pendular Rudder + TrackIR 5

BEFORE (now back-up): Water-cooled i7 6700K @ 4.5GHz + 32GB DDR4 3200MHz + GTX 1080 8GB + 1TB M.2 1k drive & 250GB SSD drive 500MBps
#3409656 - 10/13/11 08:44 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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They finally added clickable 3D cockpits??? Dammit, another sim I have to master biggrin.


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Mulder: *throws her a file* Ever heard of the knife alien?
#3409660 - 10/13/11 08:49 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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The video is a fantastic piece of work!
Ciao,
nibbio

#3409670 - 10/13/11 08:57 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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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



#3409673 - 10/13/11 09:02 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: WileECoyote]  
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Originally Posted By: WileECoyote
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! biggrin


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



#3409704 - 10/13/11 09:38 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Hell yeah. Great write up, and a great update to a legend.


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Tricubic Studios Ltd. (dev blog)
#3409755 - 10/13/11 10:58 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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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.

#3409849 - 10/14/11 01:11 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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Recluse Offline
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Originally Posted By: BeachAV8R
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




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 smile

Last edited by Recluse; 10/14/11 01:11 AM.

Long system spec sig follows:






PowerSpec G436
Lian Li ATX 205
MSI Z490 Plus Motherboard
Intel Core i7 10700K 3.8 GHz
32 GB RAM DDR4 1600
Nvidia RTX3070

Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit

Flight Gear:

Cougar Hotas S/N 26453
Thrustmaster RCS Rudder Pedals

#3409851 - 10/14/11 01:14 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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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! biggrin

Very nice. Very, very nice!

#3409868 - 10/14/11 01:48 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Nice review Beach, covered most of the things that made me say wow when I installed it.

#3409890 - 10/14/11 02:32 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Mr_Blastman Online content
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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.

#3410004 - 10/14/11 07:51 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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Retro Offline
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meh


Mr. Zorg: If ya want something done...do it yourself!!
#3410045 - 10/14/11 10:32 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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Nice to see BMS getting SimHQ's treatement. Nice first part of the review, too. wink

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).

#3410062 - 10/14/11 11:59 AM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: citizen guod]  
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BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
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KCLT
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



#3410063 - 10/14/11 12:00 PM Re: Review: Benchmark Sims 4.32 for Falcon 4.0 [Re: Retro]  
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Originally Posted By: Retro
meh

You're welcome!



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