Coming soon...BMS 4.34

It's already out. You can grab the torrent at usual place.

https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?35505-Falcon-BMS-4-34-Full-Installer

There are 3 new campaigns inlcuded:

Awsome! Great Easter Egg!

Not in the update list but JHMCS now displays pseudo waypoint in A-G mode.

Anyone have the torrent available for us not welcomed to BMS forums?

nevermind, got hold of one via reddit


Edit2: Holy Moses, having the best ATC in any flightsim I've tried still they have now improved it - amazing, and I love the BMS radio talk to begin with. (reading BMS-comms-nav book as I type, almost)

I quicky looked at IFF, and my nose started to bled....
Is it necessary to use it or if I dont want to it'll be like before?

Haha Genbrien, I see your point
With zero authority I'd say IFF is very optional and not needed.
Most people will miss the mark with IFF anyhow and interpret it as what to shoot at when it actually only is able to show what NOT to shoot at.

I think IFF falls into the category of careful what you wish for (more workload), but you really don't have to use it if you don't want to. That being said, from what I've seen so far, the enemy AI is much more aggressive and you need to rethink MAR (Minimum Abort Range) as opposed to what you are used to in previous versions. In this case IFF could be helpful.

With all the news in this one I had a go at the training-TE's (and man, first one in an orange block 15 you roar off into the sky like nothing - guess I'm not used to taking off without 800 brazillion bombs under the wings) but at the TFR one, number 8, I'm having an issue with the FLIR boresight on the HUD.
I think I am doing it correctly but would like to ask if someone else have tried and not managed to "align horizon" in the HUD view (hoping it could be bugged )
Managed to fly through storm/clouds and night without the boresight process so I guess it isn't all that important.
When I think of it, I don't think I have ever used the TFR feature in Falcon before.

Edit:
And another thing, I noticed ICP 4 doesn't show steerpoint altitude any more but what seems to be ground over sea level rather - I need to remember flight plan altitudes now or is that available somewhere else?

Did I read it right, IFF is now implemented? Hurrahh PRAISE THE LORD - It's about time!!

Really excited to try this - 4.34 looks like a massive step up from 4.33U5! Is there any way to download the new version without torrenting? I don't have a client installed on my system and would prefer not to have to install one to download BMS.

Installed it yesterday and of course tried it.
So far WOW, it looks great! The IFF which I'm so happy about is awesome! For those who are worried about the complexity of operating IFF, I have the following advice:
- Use IFF Mode 4. It's easy to use since its code(s) are pre-loaded on the aircraft (like the real thing) and all you need it to interrogate (TMS left) and the radar contacts that are friendly will have a green circle with a '4' in it spawning right beside them. The contacts that don't have the green circle spawning right beside (after interrogation) have a good chance of being Hostile and although this isn't 100% guaranteed but at least you'll know who are in fact the friendlies and as such you won't need to declare (AWACS) or use NCTR on contacts which replied positively to IFF interrogation.
Besides the IFF codes (even including Mode 1, 2 and 3) seem to be automatically loaded into the DTC for each mission. Can't get easier then this.
I'm very, very happy with this. Basically the only negative point that I had regarding BMS (the lack of IFF) is finally solved

Moreover, I really enjoy the new ATC features. They are indeed much more realistic and to prove this, all I can say is that all the hours that I spent on FSX and P3D have finally paid off

Yeah IFF seems pretty straight forward but it won't hurt to know the details.
Thing is, I always had TMS left for radar azimuth and now I need to move that little bugger to another HOTAS, what are you guys using - HOTAS button or just click in MFD or a keystroke?
I need more buttons on my Warthog

A very well done (IMO) instructional video on how to use some of the new added features like ATC, IFF, etc. Very concise and not too long. Hope you enjoy!

Yes indeed.
However I must say that I already knew the details of how IFF worked, namely how modes 1, 2, 3 and 4 works so looking at the IFF current modeled in BMS 4.34 is quite straightforward to me. Personally the only novelty was to learn that some IFF codes change at each hour but then again the DTC seems to manage this automatically.
I was always puzzled about why it took so long to implement IFF, namely the IFF that really matters for a Combat Flight Sim like Falcon BMS which is Mode 4.
Mode 4 is not only and by far the most useful IFF mode but at the same time it's also by far the easiest to comprehend.
Mode 1 and 2 are unencrypted modes and I would say somehow outdated modes (and as such not so useful, IMO) whose functionality is (IMO again) easily replaced by IDM/Data-link. Mode 3 is basically useful for the ATC only.

But yes, it's very interesting (and IMO very rewarding) to learn about these (and other) systems.



Well, in the real F-16 the IFF interrogation is actually initiated by pressing TMS left which means that before BMS 4.34 (in 4.33 for example) this command didn't have any functionally because IFF was not implemented.

Personally regarding to radar, I usually scan in azimuth using full area. When I need to focus on a narrow area I usually keep TMS up pressed and I slew the TDC towards the area that I want to do a "focus" scan. But otherwise when I need to change the radar azimuth I click on the proper MFD button even because this is something that I usually don't change/mess with.

I guess MFD button will do, I only go narrow on distant targets so no stress in such situation warranting a hotas button.

Just recreated my FlightSchool TE and flew as #4 to enjoy AI lead and he actually guided us in for a overhead break, in attached pics you can se lead just pulled hard right with #2 about to follow along with all 4 in taxi and shutting down (and the faboulous result).

I got so excited I managed to pull off my worst approach in history but made it all the way around to see the other 3 planes land in trail and all 4 of us was actually on the runway as I heard lead contact ground for taxi

This is so cool.

Never really needed IFF before, but this is a nice surprise.

Well, I did.
If there's no AWACS available how are you supposed to ID an enemy aircraft at BVR specially when it's already know that there are also friendlies in the vicinity?
For example like in the following situation/example that happened to me:
- I remember a situation during a campaign mission on Korea where there wasn't any AWACS support at the time and I was being intercepted by an enemy Mig-29. I knew it was a Mig-29 because the warning that I got on my RWR and then I scanned the area with my radar but there were a considerable number of contacts on the radar screen where most of them were friendlies, so before I could sort out which of the contacts was the incoming/hostile Mig-29, the enemy aircraft shot me down with a missile! If I had IFF I wouldn't have been shot down in this situation because I would have been able to sort out the friendlies (which were the vast majority of the contacts) very quickly and as such I would certainly be able to find the Mig-29 and shot it down first with an AMRAAM (before it could shot me down as it happened).

Easy. In Falcon most of the time, all you need to do is target lock someone(hard radar lock them) and if it is a friendly, they'll yell "buddy spike!" or something similar.


Regarding the Mig-29, did you try notching the RWR contact to force him to lose track of you, thus allowing you to change altitude to something outside his azimuth, giving you time to sort the targets in the area?

4.34 has given me a pretty good fps boost which is always nice...

Looks like they worked on optimization amongst other things.