Falcon BMS and Free Falcon on the same PC?

[Guy123]

Hey there

So I think this is my first forum post here, let me start by saying that Falcon BMS is freaking awesome and you guys have done a great job!

I’m a games designer/artist working in the simulations industry (I work on a product called VBS). I’ve always however been really interested in programming, self taught for years and have been given an opportunity at work to flex my C++ muscles and work both sides of the artist/programmer divide.

To aid me in developing these skills I decided to exploit my love of Falcon 4. I’ve downloaded the FreeFalcon source code but have hit a snag - this is where I was hoping to get some help.

Problem:
When I go to install free falcon (6?) it notifies me that an installation of Falcon 4.0 is already present and that the installation cannot continue without me removing it. Removing Falcon 4.0 is not an option as I use it almost every day (BMS of course) and I’m far to invested in my control layout/saves etc. to risk invalidating or corrupting them. I’d rather not use a VM but this is always a potential option.

Question:
Is there a way I can install both at once? I’m quite happy to write a .bat file that swaps out the registry keys if someone here knows where they are located (and if that would do the trick?). If this was to happen I’d of course share it here if anyone else has the same problem.

Thanks for reading, thanks again for making Falcon BMS what it is and if you need any help with 3D modelling/textures, or programming just hit me up

Regards,
Guy

[lazystone]

AFAIK swapping registry keys will do it.

It shouldn’t be hard to find those keys by searching your Falcon install path in the registry.

I’m not sure if the FF code you’ve mentioned is good for learning C++,
additionally it’s very outdated.

On the other hand the community needs always new 3D models and skins,
so …
https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?7220-Modelling-Organisation

Cheers,
LS

[Guy123]

Thanks LS, I ended up quickly knocking up a .bat file that backed up and removed/imported the registry keys (I’m just paranoid I missed one…). I also had some great help earlier from another forum member via PM who recommended an application, so I’ll take a look at that too.

Thankfully I’m a competent C++ programmer, I’m not starting from basics here so the quality of the code isn’t too important - I know not to copy bad programming when I see it! Really I need to get more experience in working with a larger codebase, as most of the C++ projects I’ve worked on have been quite small. I’ve also never worked on a real-time application with C++ so it will be interesting to start break-pointing the simulation etc.

If only I could get it to compile without screaming about not being able to access .lib files that are clearly there and linked correctly… (4 build errors, not always the same build errors either - lol). If anyone has experience building the FF project, please let me know, although via PM as I respect that this is a BMS forum.

Thanks again

Guy

[starrats]

hey guy

both ff6 and bms installed on my system also. when installing ff6 it asks if it can delete the other before installing. if you don’t want or know how to mess with regedit,
the easy way is to copy backup of original, let ff6 delete it, install ff6, reinstall original and replace it with you backup.

edit: this is not true for bms 4.33.u1. sorry, i was remembering from older versions