Time to U1: 3 months
Time to U2: 1 month
Time to U3: 3 weeks (!?)
You guys are bangin.
Windows 10, 22H2
AMD Ryzen 5900X
32 Gb DDR4-3600
Nvidia RTX 4070
4k @60hz, v-sync
VKB Gladiator NXT and mouselook ftw
Time to U1: 3 months
Time to U2: 1 month
Time to U3: 3 weeks (!?)
You guys are bangin.
@Seifer omg this changelog tho … it’s almost like a major release!
https://www.falcon-bms.com/changelogs/falcon-bms-4-36-update-1/
new training missions? new cockpit textures? new/improved AI and JTAC interactions?
improved ACMI recording? improved models? and docs? the list just goes on…
I was only expecting a few CTD fixes and maybe the AIM-120 thing.
this is amazing work, BMS team, in just a few short months! can’t wait to try it out…
@chihirobelmo forget the code, I think many of us are excited to see that you’re a member of the dev team now!
I have no vote for or against Steam integration but I want to take a moment to acknowledge the huge changes BMS has already undertaken, in the past 12 months, to reduce the barrier(s) to entry and increase visibility.
easy downloader and updater – no more bittorrent! no more needing to maintain a setup/staging folder for updates!
much easier to sign on to the new forum… better search features, and also google indexing of threads!
integration of Alt Launcher (which has caused added confusion in the near term, for some old timers, but still must admit it is a huge net win for newb-friendliness)
the recent, huge overhaul of virtually all the main docs
dozens of new youtube videos, incl from the devs and doc authors
lots of under-the-hood improvements to make the code work better, by default, out of the box, for a wider variety of modern desktop systems… sometimes little things, like making borderless-mode the default, go a long way to removing technical barriers and reducing confusion
release cadence brought down from ~3 years to ~3 months to ~3 weeks!
Yes, true it’s still not anything like a one-click Steam download or a retail, shrink-wrapped software experience… but it has moved so far in that direction, over the past year… certainly more than I ever thought it would.
“Falcon BMS - As Legit as it Gets”
Congrats, BMS team!
tip 1- long-press Uncage in AG mode, to switch to STRF.
tip 2- small controlled bursts… think of it as a shotgun, not a machine-gun.
tip 3- I never knew this until I saw it on someone’s youtube video… the TGP will go into a “CCIP” mode focusing on the area of projected impact.
The MFD will refuse to become SOI so it helps to get your preferred zoom factor dialed in, before switching to STRF. (I think I like 2x wide fov … but ymmv)
The TGP is a game-changer!
bonus tip 4- have a good, long-lasting flare program… like 1/sec for 12 sec (or longer). angry people are going to be shooting manpads at you.
the bullets in BMS appear to “time out” after ~2.5nm range… so it seems not possible to spray downward from 20k ft, staying out of manpad and shilka range
Recently several people have asked for guidance on Logitech X3D Pro bindings… it’s a struggle to describe in words, how to use the new gamepad callbacks to allow the single hat to be used as cursor, TMS, DMS, CMS and Comms.
So I made an Alt Launcher template… may or may not add it to the stock AL templates, depending on feedback.
I know it will seem like heresy to some, to use the physical trigger as the dx-pinky-shift… but it’s really the only button you can easily press and hold, while still accessing all other buttons with your thumb or left hand.
Get the XML template, and instructions, here =>
https://gist.github.com/arithex/2bbd32a053a88e3b0ea87d25b13df188
It’s range is 57nmi
If a Tu-160 blackjack bomber is screaming straight toward you at mach 2.3 and does not maneuver at all… and you are screaming straight toward it at mach 1.2… and both of you are at 35k ft or higher… and you fire the missile at optimal loft trajectory when the blackjack is 56.51 mi away… and you work for Raytheon and your job title is Marketing Manager… then you might reasonably say the AIM-120C range is 57 mi.
@digle said in Small EOY update...:
Is there a reason about this short period of time between releases since 4.35 ?
Remember 4.33 took several years to be debugged
New debugging tools ? Change of the software architecture ?
I’m not a BMS dev so folks can correct me if I’m wrong. Just looking from the outside, I saw a few new tools, and things happen since 2020… beyond the inside-baseball stuff Seifer outlined.
the move to x64 only, and end of life for Win7 (and soon Win8) reduces the test-matrix by a lot
I think in mid 2021 (sometime early/mid 4.35 era), the dev team started using AppVerifier [1] to catch mem leaks, double-free bugs, and heap buffer-overruns … uncaught SEH exceptions, etc. and other related tricks eg. /GZ or /RTC compiler flag, for debug-builds, to catch stack buffer-overruns.
One can imagine there was probably a huge logjam of noise in those initial reports… imagine 20 years of accumulated bugs (and starting out with a lot, lol)! But through heroic efforts of Seifer and other devs, once the random noise of dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of nondeterministic CTD bugs is squashed… at some point you begin to cross an inflection point, enjoying increased velocity in all other aspects of development and testing.
[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/application-verifier
Definitely the hardest part of C/C++ development is enforcing clear lifecycle-ownership of memory and other resources (network connections, file handles, COM objects, etc)… C++ smart-pointers, combined with RAII [2] mindset, is the best “tool” I know of to tackle that.
[2] https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/raii
Those things were there before 4.35, but it seems like a clear change in strategy to embrace them, as loosely coupled dependencies. (eg. the default ACMI format no longer compat with the builtin playback feature.)
@Pike6709 some devices with more than 32 buttons feature an option to divide themselves into multiple 32-button segments
BMS supports up to 128 buttons per device now.
@Vinícius-Amaral I see Windows 10 (10.0.19045)
but is there anything interesting or unusual about your Windows install… eg. is it one of the “N” editions, or an intl sku? or Tiny10 or similar?
My thinking: no one else has reported this particular crash or behavior… and it seems somehow related to TTS components not being present. (not sure)
@Vinícius-Amaral more weird stuff in the crash log:
Module List:
C:\Windows\System32\PSAPI.DLL, loaded at 0x0000000000600000
This is (or should be) a standard Win32 library – I don’t understand why it’s showing up in your list of loaded DLLs.
also
<ZES_ENABLE_SYSMAN=1>
I googled this but I don’t know what it’s all about … do you have some sort of dev tool installed that is injecting itself into processes?
Apparently there’s a third way this device identifies itself…? I hadn’t seen this one before. Sorry.
INSTRUCTIONS -
- save 3 copies of this file in your '\Falcon BMS 4.37\Launcher\Stock' folder, named
Setup.v100.Logitech Extreme 3D {Stock}.xml
Setup.v100.Logitech Extreme 3D Pro USB {Stock}.xml
Setup.v100.Logitech Extreme 3D pro {Stock}.xml
- if you have any preexisting XML files for this device, in your '\Falcon BMS 4.37\User\Config' folder, backup and delete (or move/rename) them.
- start the Alt Launcher with the device plugged in - it should apply the default axis and button mappings from this template.
Not familiar with that stack trace…
__COMPAT_LAYER=DisableDXMaximizedWindowedMode RunAsAdmin HighDpiAware Installer
This is all highly unusual. I’d recommend clearing all those app-compat flags and try running normally.
@k3yb04rd thanks … interesting … we’re not any closer to finding the root cause, but that eliminates some false possibilities
is this Win10 or Win11 btw?
@MarcAurel I realize those instructions are a bit technical and awkward… sorry.
Maybe easier:
1- open your \Falcon BMS 4.37\User\Config
directory, and find the Setup.v100.Logitech Extreme 3D {some long identifier}.xml
file
2- open that file with Notepad, and replace all the contents with the data here =>
https://gist.githubusercontent.com/arithex/2bbd32a053a88e3b0ea87d25b13df188/raw/e9f01d7778b4377497b8c979bb30311e9cc4abe0/Setup.v100.Logitech%2520Extreme%25203D%2520%257BStock%257D.xml
INSTRUCTIONS -
- save 2 copies of this file in your '\Falcon BMS 4.37\Launcher\Stock' folder, named
Setup.v100.Logitech Extreme 3D {Stock}.xml
Setup.v100.Logitech Extreme 3D Pro USB {Stock}.xml
- if you have any preexisting XML files for this device, in your '\Falcon BMS 4.37\User\Config' folder, backup and delete (or move/rename) them.
- start the Alt Launcher with the device plugged in - it should apply the default axis and button mappings from this template.
@k3yb04rd this is a very weird bug … I’d love to understand what’s causing it.
Is there any movement visible for that axis in Alt Launcher? (while FV is running)
@Killroy if you change USB port or hub, DirectInput will get confused and think it’s a different device … applying a different (maybe inappropriate) calibration curve
you can find and delete the DirectInput calibration params under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\DirectInput
(find the subkey with appropriate ProductId and VendorId – then delete it, and re-run Joy.cpl calibration process)
the Alt Launcher will also get confused… you’ll need to re-assign all the axes and buttons for that device.