Basic flight-and massive confusion-Which manual applies…
-
Part of the problem is not being able to see the enemy after I lose radar contact, and/or in dogfight mode. No track IR, so using mouse to look around, flying with left hand on joystick (logitech extreme 3D pro) which has throttle on base below stick (makes using the throttle problematic at times, trying to train my cat to help, but he just sits there with a dumb look). Best way for me to find the enemy is outside view, pan around, then jump back inside cockpit. I did a flight in instant action after my most recent post and doubled my kills/score to 52,000.
Lastly, as I feared, I’m not going to be able to do much if anything in campaign mode as my FPS is just too low. 8-12 fps on ground at airbase, sometimes worse. From 15 to 25 in the air, and sometimes lower.
I can do some of the tactical engagements and instant action, but that’s about it for now.
Sad as I looked up Falcon 4.0’s (original) system requirements:
Minimum CPU Type: Pentium
Minimum CPU Speed: 166 MHz
Minimum RAM Required: 32 MB
Minimum Hard Disk Space: 175 MB
Graphics Type: SVGA
Graphics Resolution: 800x600
Color Depth: High ColorNo happy medium here. Maybe some day soon I can afford to upgrade to a newer pc, but for now, not happening.
In fairness the original didnt have as epic a flight computer.
-
Do you have shaders enabled? Turning them off or just leaving the basic option enabled helped a lot for me.
-
Do you have shaders enabled? Turning them off or just leaving the basic option enabled helped a lot for me.
Shaders off, no weather, all the “special” graphics enhancements off. I have everything turned down or off. Running n Native resolution of 1366X780. Weird thing is not even using 1gig of ram when I tab out and check on task manager. So this must be very cpu dependent. (Intel celeron 3.06 cpu)
Running an nvidia 8400gs (I know it’s not a true gaming card) with 512. The graphics even at minimumish settings look good, the frame rate is bad though.
-
F4/BMS is pretty CPU intensive relative to GPU load compared to other games. What is your CPU? I have an i5 2500K which is getting older by now and it runs it very well.
As for looking around, have you experimented with the padlock view options? As for dogfighting, the goal is to never dogfight anyway. To get the job done you want to shoot at ~20nm and never merge. Instant action isn’t the best training tool because enemy spawn at ~15nm and are on top of you before you can sort them properly.
-
Don’t use your mouse for panning if you can help it. I had a sidewinder pro when I started up Falcon on my systems again a couple years ago, and used the hat switch for looking around. I’ve since upgraded to a fighterstick usb, more buttons to press and modify. Anyway, loose the old commands that the old manuals give you. The keys these guys give you are at the basic level - if you modify your key file ~and I highly recommend you do since once you understand what functions you need most and what they do it becomes a lot easier to understand - you may change at your own peril. Don’t map or try [alt]+[tab] or [alt]+[q] or [ctlr]+[q], or [ctrl]+[alt]+[del/delete/num .] , these combinations are bad to you.
Close range radar/quick lock - get into Dogfight override mode and press TMS down to lock up anything along your lift vector - that’s along your pull straight up area. Helpful when your close enough to lock the guy up but can’t put your nose on his jet, or you’re in a turn and want to lock your opponent up before your MFD shows his history or he crosses your hud. The best use of DF mode is TMS up - you’ll get a cross bigger than the gun cross and anything within 10 miles that gets behind it is locked up. This will only work if you can get the target in the HUD, can’t wait for a normal radar sweep to detect something, and know for certain that somebody is there.
The old lock target command is ok, but the TMS commands are more sneaky and don’t let your target know you’re there as strongly. Unless you really want them to. But you can’t multi-lock 2+ aircraft with the lock target on the nose command - a bit more advanced but certainly worth it. The biggest takeaway for AA missiles is to remember that your Sidewinder will launch on any press when selected, your AMRAAMs require you to hold down the fire button for a MINIMUM of 1 second, they won’t fire otherwise. If you really want to learn AA, try out the Dogfight module and start out with recruit or rookie opponents, you need to add them each but it will allow your skills to advance in that aspect somewhat quickly. Change the enemys skill to higher when you’re getting bored with killing them easily. And when you need to know more, check out your free document manuals that come along with BMS. Many long reads? Yes. Outdated? Some maybe. But you’ll get some of the background understanding you’ll need to wrap your head around some of the sim.
The biggest and best piece of advice for BMS, though, is to keep your realism settings as high as possible. Your realism score should be 100% when you don’t have invulnerability checked. Some odd things will happen in your flight career if you don’t follow that.
Other than that the pointy end goes forwards and not into the ground. It’s rather finicky about that part.
-Babite -
F4/BMS is pretty CPU intensive relative to GPU load compared to other games. What is your CPU? I have an i5 2500K which is getting older by now and it runs it very well.
As for looking around, have you experimented with the padlock view options? As for dogfighting, the goal is to never dogfight anyway. To get the job done you want to shoot at ~20nm and never merge. Instant action isn’t the best training tool because enemy spawn at ~15nm and are on top of you before you can sort them properly.
Pentium 4
Intel celeron 3.06 cpu
2 gb DDR 2 ram
1Gb (512 actual) nvidia 8400gsWay before the (i) stuff came out. I remember when a 486 was the bomb! I think a 486 was = to a P1
Now I don’t know what is what. Wish they had stuck with Pentium…so new computers now would be a what, Pentium 20? lol.Starting a new thread soon inquiring about a PC I found on sale.
-
The Celeron D 347 is approx 25% the performance of my i5 2500K in single-threaded applications and 2GB memory is rather low. It probably is time to upgrade to an i3/i5 and 8GB system memory. Processors ~$120-180 are plenty good so don’t feel you have to spend astronomical sums. RAM is cheap for standard speeds. I find I notice issues below 6GB so 8 is a safe bet. The 8400GS lags behind a little but there’s no harm in trying it around with better CPU/RAM to see if it’s sufficient.
-
Well I’m looking at this
HP 6005 PRO 3.0GHz 8GB 1.5TB Win 7 Small Form Factor Computer (Refurbished)and a
GTX 650 Here
Both for about $400 USD. That’s about at the limit of what I can afford, as soon as I can sell one of our cars. (A 1995 Infiniti, rebuilt transmission, good engine, etc etc) Rebuilt the transmission myself., and takers here? $1500 and it’s yours.
Nothing is moving/selling these days it seems.
-
Well I’m looking at this
HP 6005 PRO 3.0GHz 8GB 1.5TB Win 7 Small Form Factor Computer (Refurbished)and a
GTX 650 Here
Both for about $400 USD. That’s about at the limit of what I can afford, as soon as I can sell one of our cars. (A 1995 Infiniti, rebuilt transmission, good engine, etc etc) Rebuilt the transmission myself., and takers here? $1500 and it’s yours.
Nothing is moving/selling these days it seems.
That system should get you what you need. And your right, as it seems that no one has any money to spend these days. Myself included. Been on a tight budget for a few years now. Barely enough money for booze at the end of the week.
-
How do I jettison the extra fuel tanks? Only jettison option I see in set up is Jettison all. Is there a way to jettison only external wing tanks, use those up first, jettison those and keep belly tank for last, then jettison that when it’s empty?
-
How do I jettison the extra fuel tanks? Only jettison option I see in set up is Jettison all. Is there a way to jettison only external wing tanks, use those up first, jettison those and keep belly tank for last, then jettison that when it’s empty?
Use selective jettison thru the SMS page (on the MFD). Select the tanks to jettison. Be sure your weapons are armed…then hold the pickle button.
-
Maybe if you read through red dogs dash one in entirety, that would save the hassle of asking how you do X control?
You can do an emergency jettison by pressing and holding the emergency jettison button on the gear panel, which will drop fuel tanks and air to ground stores, or you can do a selective jettison through the S-J SMS MFDS subpage.
Either way, if you can, try to bring those fuel tanks back, they are five figure pieces of hardware. Drop em if they will interfere with bringing YOU back. Also, ditch the centerline first.
-
the dash one will also teach you one serious difference in the way SJ or EJ works.
as the above is incomplete -
@Red:
the dash one will also teach you one serious difference in the way SJ or EJ works.
as the above is incompleteIn Emergency Jettison, the stores are released in an unarmed/unguided condition?
Is that modeled in BMS? I gotta try this…
-
In Emergency Jettison, the stores are released in an unarmed/unguided condition?
Is that modeled in BMS? I gotta try this…
Not just in BMS, it was like that in the original F4 already. And RL too, BTW.
It would be a shame to blow up something just because you need to get rid of your stores
-
Not just in BMS, it was like that in the original F4 already. And RL too, BTW.
It would be a shame to blow up something just because you need to get rid of your stores
Not what I meant to imply. Red Dog said my description was incomplete, so I read through the -1 I have, and that was the only difference it mentioned between S-J and Emergency Jettison.
That being a difference, would tend to imply that S-J a Mk 82 would result in it blowing up when its fuzing is satisfied. I was saying I need to test whether S-J of munitions in BMS results in them being released in an armed condition.
-
the difference i meant was that you can’t selective jetisson if the master arm is in safe or sim it has to be in arm
emergency jettison works regardless of the master arm switch positionit’s one of the major difference between seljet and emergjet and documented page 84 of the BMS dash1
The pilot can preselect a selective jettison configuration while in S-J Master Mode, which will be remembered during Master Mode transitions. The stores are jettisoned using the pickle button when the Master Arm switch is in ARM. After the stores are released the highlighted stations are removed from the S-J page and the associated weapon quantity reads zero. The S-J mode also bypasses any other weapons settings.
-
I note that it also cautions that to jettison wing tanks you need to press and hold the WPN REL button for one second, which is not the case in BMS. Interesting.
-
Use selective jettison thru the SMS page (on the MFD). Select the tanks to jettison. Be sure your weapons are armed…then hold the pickle button.
Thank you. Finally had time to test it today and it worked.
-
Maybe if you read through red dogs dash one in entirety, that would save the hassle of asking how you do X control?
You can do an emergency jettison by pressing and holding the emergency jettison button on the gear panel, which will drop fuel tanks and air to ground stores, or you can do a selective jettison through the S-J SMS MFDS subpage.
Either way, if you can, try to bring those fuel tanks back, they are five figure pieces of hardware. Drop em if they will interfere with bringing YOU back. Also, ditch the centerline first.
Thanks, I think. You’re answer kind of goes along with the title of this thread, which manual applies…In this case, the Dash manual would apply. Is it wrong of me to ask questions on here? I do try to find the answers before I “flood” the forum with noob questions. In this instance, I scoured they key commands instead of hundreds of pages of guessing which manual would apply. After “no joy” in key commands, I came here to ask.
Of course I know in real life fuel tanks aren’t free, and only would be dropped if needed for less drag and more speed. Digital tanks on the other hand cost very little.