The evolution in the Falconverse

Skybird · 03-31-23, 07:09 AM

Oh boy, its 15 years or more since I flew Falcon 4.0 last time. In my gamer career, it was the climax of combat flight simming, not the later arriving DCS and not any of the rivaling titles of that era, Flanker 2.0 and Fulcrum and the likes. The first release of Falcon 4.0, under the MicroProse label, was bug-ridden, then they started the series of so-called Realism Patches or "RP's", of which there were five main releases, RP1 - RP5. For me, RP3 and RP4 marked the absolutely highest peak of my Falcon activity. Parallel to that there was a rivalling patching lineage by eRazor.

The career and war simulation module was legendary and still is, although it took eons to patch the many bugs out of it, apparently. Its creator once said it were so comlex that he strongly would advise to never try something like that again, and to me, the absence of any equivalent to that in the alternative DCS titles always was what let these - high fidelty - study sims down significiantly: the world of DCS is sterile, lifeless, I never was able to bring myself to being interested in it, while I fully recognise and appreciate the technical fidelity of the system aspects and cockpits.

Falcon times were good times!

I had a second spike in Falcon activity later on, with the release of Allied Force, and I dived into it again, and ran two full campaigns. If you know Falcon, you now what a task that is, running and completing a campaign in Falcon. We are not talking about just one weekend of playing time...

I bought some high res packages for cockpits and landscape.

Later then I lost track of it, and slowly sim flying fell off my radar screen. Falcon was replaced with my new love for tanks in Steal Beasts Pro (another of these glorious sim titles in my career), FS 2002 and FSX gave room for my growing interest in Assetto Corsa, later Raceroom. All these years, Sub Command and Dangerous Waters and Silent Hunter 3 lingered on, I played them with lower intensity, nevertheless for many, many years. But no more today. I wait, watch and hope for two new titles there, the naval title by Microprose and that modern subsim simulation. I always forget their titles, sorry.

Yesterday I stumbled over some videos of latest Falcon. I know that BMS - Benchmark Sims - was around since many years, I have posted on them many years ago. Years ago I planned to connect to this new strain of Falcon "modding", but somehow things got in the way and I simply forgot about it again.

But I did not know until yesterday how advanced they have become!

The following videos illustrate the latest developement stages, I think, up to 4.37. I was electrified to learn that they have now a fully VR-adapted version of it as well, 4.37, the second video shows that! I feel tempted to go back to Falcon again, and at the same time I am held back, since I would need to start from scratch again, and also would need to always switch the hardware under my desk back and forth from racing gear to HOTAS and pedals, so I probably will not do that, but simply enjoy the memories and enjoy the occasional watching of such videos.

If you are like me, you maybe enjoy these like I do.

And this just for comparison how the original Falcon 4.0 looked like in 1998 (thats just 9 years later than the first Falcon game release in 1989!), now a quarter of a century ago:

And this is what the Falcon saga started with in 1989, by Spectrum Holobyte, I played it on Amiga, and excessively so (back then the term "frame rate" was a threat

) :

Skybird · 03-31-23, 10:46 AM

Threadfin · 03-31-23, 11:37 AM

BMS is state of the art Falcon.

What BMS really did was give us a much better jet. There are fixes and new features across the board. But it's the jet that is what makes BMS what it is. Systems, avionics, weapons.

The campaigns aren't much different and in some ways AF had better ones.

I'm a big supporter of Allied Force and what it did for the Falcon community. But once you've experienced the BMS jet there is no going back.

Best combat flight sim bar none. In my opinion that is

Skybird · 03-31-23, 05:54 PM

Helpful encouragement, the video is two years old and the guy speaks of version BMS 4.24, so obviously no VR at that time, still: if you are interested in BMS, good information in here especially in the last third.

Skybird · 04-01-23, 04:43 PM

Thats easy. I will try it, if for no other reason than to sit in a viper pit in real VR and see how it looks like. Not sure that frames will be fine, but they say they are much better than DCS in VR, and the soim will run more stable.

Skybird · 04-02-23, 05:05 PM

I at least tested it. tested it means: got a taste of it.

I installed from the CD, then the BMS 4.37 installer online on top of it. It took some time, but went smooth as a breeze, very easy. The video I linked explained it right.

I searched for the key to recenter VR and mapped it in menu (I suspected I would need it, and I did...

), and went into instant action.

Well, the bad news first, my rig cannot run it in VR, the VR freezes after 2-3 minutes at the latest, then ctd's. My CPU and graphics card and the high resolution of my 2nd VR set do not match in this case, when so much more processing power is needed for stuff outside VR calculation, it seems. Thats very sad, because:

the VR impression in cockpit is FANTASTIC! The HUD alone is fascinating to stare at from different angles, plus the stereoscopic perception of the entire cockpit, the instruments, buttons and switches - its a new world of falconing. Just not for me, on this now aging rig.

But I can only recommend to everybody to try it out, if even a small interest is given. Installation is easy, and if you have no CD from the good old days, you can buy the Falcon 4.0 game at steam for 7 coins (in Germany).

Its tempting, but even me is not mad enough to buy a new system just for this one title. That would be insane.

The world graphics have be also changed for the better.

My problem is specific to my sytem, so I nevertheless give this VR option for F4/BMS a thumbs up. If one can run it, its night and day aparts to normal 2D play. And you cannot go back to 2D if you have seen 3D. Like in racing sims, you just cannot go back, no way.

03-31-23, 07:09 AM	#1
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,486 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	The evolution in the Falconverse Oh boy, its 15 years or more since I flew Falcon 4.0 last time. In my gamer career, it was the climax of combat flight simming, not the later arriving DCS and not any of the rivaling titles of that era, Flanker 2.0 and Fulcrum and the likes. The first release of Falcon 4.0, under the MicroProse label, was bug-ridden, then they started the series of so-called Realism Patches or "RP's", of which there were five main releases, RP1 - RP5. For me, RP3 and RP4 marked the absolutely highest peak of my Falcon activity. Parallel to that there was a rivalling patching lineage by eRazor. The career and war simulation module was legendary and still is, although it took eons to patch the many bugs out of it, apparently. Its creator once said it were so comlex that he strongly would advise to never try something like that again, and to me, the absence of any equivalent to that in the alternative DCS titles always was what let these - high fidelty - study sims down significiantly: the world of DCS is sterile, lifeless, I never was able to bring myself to being interested in it, while I fully recognise and appreciate the technical fidelity of the system aspects and cockpits. Falcon times were good times! I had a second spike in Falcon activity later on, with the release of Allied Force, and I dived into it again, and ran two full campaigns. If you know Falcon, you now what a task that is, running and completing a campaign in Falcon. We are not talking about just one weekend of playing time... I bought some high res packages for cockpits and landscape. Later then I lost track of it, and slowly sim flying fell off my radar screen. Falcon was replaced with my new love for tanks in Steal Beasts Pro (another of these glorious sim titles in my career), FS 2002 and FSX gave room for my growing interest in Assetto Corsa, later Raceroom. All these years, Sub Command and Dangerous Waters and Silent Hunter 3 lingered on, I played them with lower intensity, nevertheless for many, many years. But no more today. I wait, watch and hope for two new titles there, the naval title by Microprose and that modern subsim simulation. I always forget their titles, sorry. Yesterday I stumbled over some videos of latest Falcon. I know that BMS - Benchmark Sims - was around since many years, I have posted on them many years ago. Years ago I planned to connect to this new strain of Falcon "modding", but somehow things got in the way and I simply forgot about it again. But I did not know until yesterday how advanced they have become! The following videos illustrate the latest developement stages, I think, up to 4.37. I was electrified to learn that they have now a fully VR-adapted version of it as well, 4.37, the second video shows that! I feel tempted to go back to Falcon again, and at the same time I am held back, since I would need to start from scratch again, and also would need to always switch the hardware under my desk back and forth from racing gear to HOTAS and pedals, so I probably will not do that, but simply enjoy the memories and enjoy the occasional watching of such videos. If you are like me, you maybe enjoy these like I do. And this just for comparison how the original Falcon 4.0 looked like in 1998 (thats just 9 years later than the first Falcon game release in 1989!), now a quarter of a century ago: And this is what the Falcon saga started with in 1989, by Spectrum Holobyte, I played it on Amiga, and excessively so (back then the term "frame rate" was a threat ) : __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 03-31-23 at 07:18 AM.

03-31-23, 10:46 AM	#2
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,486 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	__________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

03-31-23, 11:37 AM	#3
Threadfin Ace of the Deep Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 1,071 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	BMS is state of the art Falcon. What BMS really did was give us a much better jet. There are fixes and new features across the board. But it's the jet that is what makes BMS what it is. Systems, avionics, weapons. The campaigns aren't much different and in some ways AF had better ones. I'm a big supporter of Allied Force and what it did for the Falcon community. But once you've experienced the BMS jet there is no going back. Best combat flight sim bar none. In my opinion that is __________________ What? Behind the rabbit?

03-31-23, 05:54 PM	#4
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,486 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	Helpful encouragement, the video is two years old and the guy speaks of version BMS 4.24, so obviously no VR at that time, still: if you are interested in BMS, good information in here especially in the last third. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

04-01-23, 04:43 PM	#5
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,486 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	Thats easy. I will try it, if for no other reason than to sit in a viper pit in real VR and see how it looks like. Not sure that frames will be fine, but they say they are much better than DCS in VR, and the soim will run more stable. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

04-02-23, 05:05 PM	#6
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,486 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	I at least tested it. tested it means: got a taste of it. I installed from the CD, then the BMS 4.37 installer online on top of it. It took some time, but went smooth as a breeze, very easy. The video I linked explained it right. I searched for the key to recenter VR and mapped it in menu (I suspected I would need it, and I did... ), and went into instant action. Well, the bad news first, my rig cannot run it in VR, the VR freezes after 2-3 minutes at the latest, then ctd's. My CPU and graphics card and the high resolution of my 2nd VR set do not match in this case, when so much more processing power is needed for stuff outside VR calculation, it seems. Thats very sad, because: the VR impression in cockpit is FANTASTIC! The HUD alone is fascinating to stare at from different angles, plus the stereoscopic perception of the entire cockpit, the instruments, buttons and switches - its a new world of falconing. Just not for me, on this now aging rig. But I can only recommend to everybody to try it out, if even a small interest is given. Installation is easy, and if you have no CD from the good old days, you can buy the Falcon 4.0 game at steam for 7 coins (in Germany). Its tempting, but even me is not mad enough to buy a new system just for this one title. That would be insane. The world graphics have be also changed for the better. My problem is specific to my sytem, so I nevertheless give this VR option for F4/BMS a thumbs up. If one can run it, its night and day aparts to normal 2D play. And you cannot go back to 2D if you have seen 3D. Like in racing sims, you just cannot go back, no way. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.