Install / Run Falcon 4 / BMS on Linux
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@ravenlost Man, Murphy really has it in for you, lol! Glad you can at least now play with better graphics and FPS.
Sucks that your joystick is now broken, but you can at least learn the cold start procedure. You’ll only need mouse and keyboard for that one. If you want I can share my written cold start procedure if that’s helpful.
Also, I was curious to see how much a X52 goes for and Amazon shows $199 with throttle. If that’s really the case and you’re planning on sending the stick back, I would suggest to take a look at the VKB Next Premium stick, which goes for $165 (plus shipping). It’s a great stick which a ton of buttons and the overall quality is amazing. I’m sure there are other great sticks out there but I am really amazed by this one. Make sure to buy the premium version as it has an additional mini stick (good for countermeasures) and some other buttons. https://www.vkbcontrollers.com/products/gladiator-nxt-evo-space-combat-edition-right-hand?variant=39887803613302
If you still need a throttle you can get used TWCS throttles for <$100 on ebay (new they’re around $130 on Amazon). https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=twcs+throttle&_sacat=0
The throttle has a ton of buttons and works quite well too. I know it costs overall a bit more but it might be worth it to spend a little more now if you afford it instead of buying a new stick in the future if X52 decides to break again.Anyhow, great to see you’re on the right track!
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@Munster said in Install / Run Falcon 4 / BMS on Linux:
If you want I can share my written cold start procedure if that’s helpful.
I would love to see your procedure, yes
Thanks for that, and thanks for your other stick recommendations! Store already has a replacement ready for my X52 (which I also plan to use to fly in X-Plane). It’s scheduled for replacement on Tuesday.I might end-up playing today (kid and wife going away… yay! lol!) with just KB and mouse as you suggest if you send url to guide :), even if it’s just with the cold start… I do have a lot to learn
p.s.: if the replacement stick turns out to be a problem a gain, I will definitely look at your other stick!
Cheers! You’re great!
Pat
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@ravenlost Here’s the cold start guide https://github.com/SquadFM/Falcon-4-BMS-Guide. Let me know if something is unclear. And enjoy the “day off” I also enjoy the peace and quiet every now and then, haha! Especially in the morning when I can just do my thing before everyone wakes up and have a cup of coffee.
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Soooo got my new Hotas flightstick !!! Yayyy! And it seems to work okay now! Wout wouttt!
Started more in-dept reading and started exploring your guide too @Munster for the cold start I also came across this which is quite interesting as learning material: https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/24667/bms-training-script-with-voice-instructions
Although I find the lather to have “glitches”, but it might be just me that doesn’t yet understand a few things.
Most importantly, I think I first need to go through “TO 1F-16CMAM-1 BMS.pdf”, which is the one nicknamed “Dash-1” I believe, and then the “BMS-Comms-Nav-Book.pdf” and so on, as I progress… Gotta bite the bullet
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Gotta say though, I look more like him right now ! LOL
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@ravenlost Awesome, great to hear that your HOTAS works and you’re all set to get going! There’s a ton of screenshots on suggested HOTAS binds in the BMS manual and on the BMS and DCS forums and I am sure there are binds for your exact HOTAS setup. If you want check out my current binds (work in progress) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1poYZH6B1lR_TJP1BRuVpIK1J2rGwsQr9/view?usp=share_link
What helped me understand the written manuals better was watching a video on a topic first and then reading through the chapter in the training manual. That way I knew from the video where a switch is and what it does. At least that works for me, knowing that everyone has their own learning style.
To get started I can recommend these two videos by X-CHECK:
- The first one explains the UI and campaign settings and how to create kneeboards, which is initially not needed if you focus right now on the cold start procedure. Definitely good to check out though to understand how BMS works.
- The second video focuses on cold start and flying a basic mission. Awesome explanations and I took a lot of notes from this video, so you should be able to follow along.
There’s also a Falcon BMS learning playlist on Youtube which has great videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjcJgAsk-Vune5I-vtZT-0YKDdyVm-YDP
Also, another tool that helped me is Recoll (which is in your distros repo or on www.recoll.org). It indexes a folder with documents and whenver I am looking up a term, e.g. CCIP, it searches across all documents and shows the results and from there you can open the respective PDF. Kind of like Google, but for your local files.
I set Recoll to index the BMS folder that contains all manuals. Pretty useful as you’ll often find information in the training manual and the more detailed explanations are in the -1 or -34 for example. I’d suggest to enable phrase search in Recoll > Preferences > Search parameters > Enable “Automatically add phrase to simple searches”. This is usefull for searches with more than one word.
If you want let’s connect and fly a training mission in the future together. I am still learning (and will be for a long time), but I am already pretty good at crashing the jet
Happy Flying!
- The first one explains the UI and campaign settings and how to create kneeboards, which is initially not needed if you focus right now on the cold start procedure. Definitely good to check out though to understand how BMS works.
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@Munster Again, so helpful I’ve PM’d you And thanks for those links !
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just chiming in since I just transitioned to fully Linux OS on everything including my Macbook pro lol
but off rip Falcon 4.0 ran with proton 7 on steam, followed instruction for installer using Wine and im flying.
Cheers my fellow friends and to those who put information out there to make this an easier transition hats off to you all as well!
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Can TrackIR using in CrossOver?
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@PO-HSIUNG Sorry for the late reply. I have not tried TrackIR on crossover.
Also another option on Mac is VMWare or other VM software with windows 11 and I am running with good frame rates there when you DON"T use the generic Microsoft Gfx Driver but the Intel driver by setting:
GFX:
Intel fast driver: mks.dx11.vendorID = “0x8086”and also make sure you are using really the num of CPU cores that you assign; in VMWare that is make sure:
cpuid.coresPerSocket = “<cores>” -
Hey guys give this a shot