Awesome work on U3…even sitting on the ramp looks pretty now.

Thank you BMS Dev team and all those that support them!! I think having periodic updates like this goes a long way. Personally, just knowing that there are plans for another release (or two, or three…) is enough to sustain me. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication!!

While I’m all for realism, the reality is that in real world, if I make a bad call on ATC (like calling departure “approach” or “tower”, the ATC personnel will respond and give me the instructions they were going to if I had called them correctly (they’ll also use their correct callsign and if I’m paying attention I would pick up on that and correct on my response).

So for me, having filters doesn’t take away the realism. Just because I “fat finger” a menu command doesn’t mean I would really do that in real life.

Thanks for the filters!

Wow, I do hope threads like this never get leaked out to a behavioral psychologist. Reading through this from the sidelines is eye-opening and a bit scary.

But thank you to everyone that kept focusing on the issue and tried to calmly restate the problem as best they could (and those that rationally tried to debug / replicate the issue as best they could).

Thank you @Falcas for wading through this and releasing updates as well.

@bms-for-msfs
I think every would love to see real world scenery at a global level in BMS - why wouldn’t you. However, and I must preface this by saying I have never seen the BMS code, I think the 4-ohase plan above is probably a little naive. Trying to put BMS into MSFS is not simply taking aircraft models and locations, there are complex system models, campaign dynamics, etc. Not to mention having to ensure some base level of common terrain so that everyone is at least seeing the same objects, making sure they are interactive (can they be destroyed or is it all just eye candy), etc.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting the approach, but I think bringing better scenery into BMS is “easier” than bringing BMS into a new scenery engine.

Nonetheless, I think the BMS Dev team knows best on how to proceed and if they feel this approach has merit, I’m sure someone will be in touch. There is no doubt in my mind that if a full globe of photorealistic scenery could happen, without compromising the fidelity of the BMS system and engine, everyone would love it.

There are a lot of variables when it comes to AAR so let me present a possible explanation. Any additional info you can provide might help to narrow it down.

First, I personally have never tried the scenario I think you are presenting; a 4-ship flight made up of human, AI, human and human in that order (so 1, 3 and 4 are human but 2 is AI). I don’t think that will make a difference to the tanker but again, I have never tried that.

One possible explanation could be in when the tanker was initially contacted. If, for example, #1 and his AI wingman were within the 10nm bubble of the tanker but 3 & 4 were outside the bubble then only 1 and 2 would have been entered into the queue. There would be no way for you to know or recognize this until #2 finished in which case the tanker would think it was done (this appears to be what happened). If #3 would have called for the tanker at that point (using Y1) the tanker should have put him (and #4?) in the queue and possible even 1 & 2 since they would all be inside the bubble.

The only thing strange we are seeing on a consistent basis is that if you need to refuel more than once, on any AAR after the first one you will likely need to press Y2 after being cleared to precontact in order to get cleared into contact position. First AAR works fine but second, third, fourth, etc. all require this extra step.

@lorikeolmin said in Tanker question:

@alfred y-2 used to be used by some people in 4.33. Not the same function anymore. People keep recommending it as a tradition.

What I have found is that in 4.35 if you need to refuel more than once in a flight - for example in ingress and then again on egress - you HAVE to use the Y2 command or you wont get back on the boom. So the sequence of events is…

1. fly to tanker -flight lead presses Y1
2. do your first AAR and then press Y3 (if other in flight they also take fuel and press Y3 when done)
3. go strike your target and then fly back to tanker
4. flight lead presses Y1…once in pre contact press Y2 (if you don’t you will never get cleared on to boom)
5. take fuel, press Y3 when done

Not sure if that’s a function by design or a bug but it never worked that way in the past and reading the manual would seem to indicate that a Y2 should never be required in normal operations.

Having just flown a mission that required five refuelings I can assure you that pressing Y2 was required on all but the first one.

Falcon 4.0 is completely different than BMS so no, your key files aren’t going to work. The error you show however has nothing to do with either sim and would seem to indicate your Cougar is not being detected at all by your system. It’s possible that something DLL or similar is missing from the CCP but again, that wouldn’t have anything to so with Falcon 4.0 or BMS.

First of, congrats and thank you to the entire BMS team; the work you do is incredible. As a developer by trade (many moons ago) and at heart I understand the satisfaction you get from completing a release and fixing bugs and deploying new features - I just wish there was a way to thank you even more!

Secondly, this thread was an excellent idea and really shows the maturity that the Dev team has and their true desire to continue to improve BMS. I’m equally impressed so far by the constructive feedback - let’s keep it up.

For me, I always treat every release as a gift - it’s like being a kid again on Christmas morning. So far my limited test flights have all been successful and am glad I can take the sticky note off my monitor that says “raise visor before taking pics!”

Regarding your comments / suggestions about people possibly waiting for the weekend to try it, not adapted to the new forum yet and lost interest, I’ve also noticed a just a general loss of activity, enthusiasm and participation in our VFW as well. I’m not sure if it “just a phase” the world is going through or slow attrition of dedicated fans to other things or what. We keep trying to mix things up and try new ways to engage people but it seems like a losing battle…at least at the moment. We have a core groups that is in it for the long haul and we are all very appreciative of the work you do. It allows us to spend countless hours sharing our hobby with friends from all over the globe. So please hang in there - if there is anything we can do to help promote or improve BMS we would be happy to do so!

Thanks again!

@snake122 said in Tanker question:

@zeus On first try, it does indeed seem to require a Y2 to reconnect on egress if tanked on ingress! Mea culpa! I did get a double “cleared to contact” in response from the tanker, not sure if you are experiencing that or that my Precontact position at that point was pretty close.

As mentioned above, I believe this is a bug that got introduced in 4.35 (possibly one of the last 4.34 releases). We do missions that require multiple refueling stop on a fairly regular basis and in the past this was never an issue. However, the Y2 command is now absolutely required when doing more than one AAR. The first AAR works as expected and no need for Y2.

This is easy to duplicate. Take the AAR training flight that is included with BMS, refuel normally then go burn off some gas (or dump fuel) and come back to the tanker a second time. You will get cleared to pre-contact (and likely get that message multiple times) but then no matter how well you hold precontact position, you wont get cleared to contact. When you press Y2 you will get another “cleared precontact” followed immediate by “cleared to contact position” message (usually twice).

Hi @Sharpe, looking good! Glad to see you are still active, best of luck with the recruiting. Maybe the 440thvfw and “The Ghosts” can get together for a joint mission some time.

@Atlas said in Comms switch confusion:

I’m mapping the VHF and UHF callbacks for the comms switch and just want to clarify:

Pushing the switch forward (towards the ground or away from the pilot or extending the finger), is that VHF?
Pulling the switch backward (towards the sky or towards the pilot or curling the finger back to the palm), is that UHF?

The way I remember it is “U” is for Up / UHF. so yes, you are correct.

@airtex2019

Well look at that…works like a charm. Thanks for the quick response and helpful insight. I figured it had to be something simple since others had it working - I should have included my vm specs in my first post…might have been an obvious red flag.

Thanks again!

@airtex2019 said in DX11 Wrapper for 4.36:

@Zeus crash log?

Yep, most of the time I get crash logs, but not always. If you want to look at a couple you can find them here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnEnWTesmJFcisA8yhGT0bb7-CcRuQ?e=H3uba8.

I’m sure its got to be something I’m missing in the setup, I just can’t figure it out. My process for building a dedicated server is:

• Spin up virtual host (tried Win11, Win10 21h2 and Win10 20h2 which is what my 4.35 runs on)
• Install Falcon4
• Install and run Virtual Cable to create sound device
• Install BMS 4.36
• Launch BMS and config with all/most graphics options turned down/off
• Run BMS ( -nomovie) once to initialize, create logbook, etc.
• Install VC++ runtime 2015
• Copy bmsdedi DLLs to \bin\x64 folder
• Run BMS (DXwrapper window appears), choose a TE (ground ops for example) and commit

BMS will get to the loading splash screen (nice new pic by the way, really like that one) and either hang completely (only way out is a reboot of the vm) or will hang for a minute or two then CTD.

@MnMailman
While this won’t be a huge help, I can tell you it’s not a Win 11 thing. I’m running Win11 and they play just fine for me. And this is on a pretty fresh PC so very little other than BMS installed on it.

@zeek
That’s what I thought I would do too but no joy.

So the full story is as follows:

• Create a new virtual host (I always like to start a new host with new major releases)
  • OS = Win11
  • Used Virtual Cable to create sound
  • Installed 4.36
  • Copied ddls to bin\x64 location
    Fired up BMS, got the nice popup showing DX11 wrapper (I use the bmsdedi one) and attempted to load a TE…BMS crashes.

So then I thought, hhmmm, okay, maybe its a thing with Win11, so i built a new vm based on Win10 21h2…same results.

So then I went back to my existing 4.35 vm where 4.35u3 continues to work perfectly. I installed 4.36 there, copied the dlls to 4.36 and tried again…same results.

So its not an OS issue, and whatever it is, its something that lets 4.35 run on the same machine but not 4.36. Stumped for now - need to step away from it to see if fresh eyes can resolve it later.

Oh, and I tried the one you use too but initially got a “missing dll” error. Once I resolved that I now can at least launch BMS but when it commits, it hangs with a “breakpoint exception reached” message.

I’ve tried setting up my virtual host just like 4.35 using the bmsdedi wrapper but BMS keeps crashing when trying to commit to 3D.

Anyone have success running 4.36 in a GPU-less virtual environment yet?

@Cypher1778
I think you mean ‘roll rate’, the speed at which you change from level flight to 30* bank. And again, I think you’ll find that the Viper is just fine with the rate at which the tanker rolls.

Wow, I do hope threads like this never get leaked out to a behavioral psychologist. Reading through this from the sidelines is eye-opening and a bit scary.

But thank you to everyone that kept focusing on the issue and tried to calmly restate the problem as best they could (and those that rationally tried to debug / replicate the issue as best they could).

Thank you @Falcas for wading through this and releasing updates as well.

I have seen this as well and as was said this was a 4.35 behavior. Haven’t done enough TEs in 4.36 yet to have seen it. For me, the route would occasionally show the last STPT as the original home plate but then as I flew it and changed from the penultimate STPT to the last one it would then suddenly jump to the correct landing point. I could never seem to recreate at will but it definitely happened on several occasions.

I’ll keep an eye out and see if I can repro it as well.