Time to U1: 3 months
Time to U2: 1 month
Time to U3: 3 weeks (!?)
You guys are bangin.
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
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.
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
@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.)
hopefully we’ll never replace Lt Cmdr Stephen Hawking as LSO
@S3NTRY I don’t know how big their H100 cluster is or how busy it is, but I see some reviewers already complaining it takes about 20 seconds to respond to simple back and forth interactions.
Running the LLM locally on your 4090 while flying a 3d flight sim? idk if it’s even possible but if so, I expect it’s going to impact your fps, and for more than 20 sec!
@Atlas My tips …
approach at an offset … eg. 500 ft off the left wing. so you can get a sense of the tanker moving “backward” in your fov as you approach
set g_fSmartScalingThreshold 3.0 //nautical miles
the idea here is to have things scale smoothly, within gun range (~3.0 nm) and also for flying formations, overhead-break and carrier landing patterns etc
Another tool from AirTex that literally nobody asked for!
https://github.com/arithex/ThrottleOverlay/#readme
Simple WPF app to easily visualize your joystick/throttle position
Use this tool to keep an eye on your throttle axis – this is especially useful, if you have a joystick with a dodgy/crappy throttle slider like mine (or a nicer throttle that slides around your desk and isn’t fixed relative to your seat).
Changes from green to yellow as you pass through the afterburner detent…!
Get it here…
https://github.com/arithex/ThrottleOverlay/releases/tag/v1.0.2021.1005
@Sandman yeah I just watched the ACMI. noticed Mig callsign was “Neo11” if that helps explain things…
“You telling me I can dodge slammers?”
“No, Neo… I’m telling you, when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”
@Rouge1512 FAQ … should probably change the description of that callback to say “up to 5°”
try this, in cfg:
set g_nKnobAccelerationDelta 250 //milliseconds between subsequent keypresses, to rotate knobs 5° instead of 1°
I think the default is ~50ms which is hard to ever do, by hand
@Coral36 sounds like you’re asking, what are their decision-making tenets in regards to hardware requirements … I can’t answer that – but historically, it seems to be something along the lines of “run ok with graphics options dialed down, on high-end hw from 10 years ago – run great on current-gen high-end hw”
from another thread similar to what Snake linked to, it sounds like the inflection point for “high-end” current hw is a GPU with 8GB or more of VRAM.
there are only a few GPU skus with more than 8Gb (4070+, 3080+ and some 3060), so unless you plan on buying one of those already … I would wait for 4.38 to release, before upgrading anything now.
@Nanachi what is your monitor resolution? that will probably be the most determining factor, for integrated gpu performance
Tips: in setup/graphics screen, set resolution to 1920x1080 or similar… then set window mode to “Fullscreen”
at any time you can hit [alt+Enter] to toggle back to “borderless window” mode if you need to … but be advised, it will snap to use your Windows desktop resolution (typically your monitor resolution) … it will also put CPU load on DWM.exe and a little more GPU load … so, tl/dr try to stay in fullscreen-exclusive mode. it’s pretty stable in 4.37 (but buggy in earlier versions)
also while on that screen … minimize antialiasing (set to 1x) … turn off canopy reflections, pilot model and mirrors… minimize grass and trees
then, I recommend following config (put these lines in your ‘falcon bms user.cfg’ file)
set g_bEnvironmentMapping 0
set g_bWaterEnvironmentMapping 0
set g_bEnvMapRenderClouds 0
set g_bEnvMapRenderFocusObject 0
set g_bShadowMapping 0
set g_bShadowOnSmoke 0
set g_bReducePSFires 1
set g_bHdrLighting 0
set g_bHdrLightingStar 0
set g_bUseHeatHazeShader 0
set g_bShowFarRain 0
set g_bShowRainDrops 0
set g_bShowRainRings 0
The knowledge that a new terrain engine is coming … and new 3d formats and capabilities … has surely dampened work on any new theaters.
Probably there will be a phase of re-work on existing theaters, necessary.