Falcon BMS 4.38 trailer

Buggy Loop

Member
Biggest update I've seen that team pull off.

Reminder that this is a community of hardcore flight sim modders who have been working on the foundation of FALCON 4.0 from 1998 to update it continuously.

One of the GOAT of military flight sims. Even today there's peoples debating that the 1998 version and thus, even with modern mods, that it has the most sophisticated dynamic campaign out of all the flight sims, including the much more supported DCS. The devs in 1998 were something else. Beasts.

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How it started



How its going



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That's why PC gaming is the best. Insane community of modders making this out of their free time.
 
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I used to do IT for a very large company with an aerospace program. Some engineers had this installed on their pcs. They actually use this for their job, it's crazy. I still got my disk somewhere too. Might give this a shot.
 
No link yet :(

Remember when games used to come with instruction manuals...

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Yea, as they posted the trailer they are finalizing the package and download



Falcon 4.0 manual is legendary.

Even for DCS when I buy a module I print the manual. Its expensive as fuck to print 700+ pages manuals but oh so worth it for study sims.
 
I love BMS. Is there a good comparison video between 4.37 and 4.38 already?
The new Comms Ring Menu is so awesome.
I'm gonna take out my Meta Quest 3 for sure and play this wonderful sim.
 
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Just dug out my flight stick to play some Flight Sim after not playing for awhile. Think I will switch over to BMS for awhile and try out this new patch.
 
It's unbelievable what they managed to squeeze out of Falcon 4.0. Squeeze out is the wrong term, they've remade the whole game. It's remarkable. And it's a full on sim with great flight model (as far as i can tell)
 
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It's had VR support since 2023's 4.37 too. This version gets a fresh implementation with optimisations like transitions from full stereo to mono rendering for objects above a certain distance. I hope they can release it really soon without issues, the video saying download now is such a damn tease.
The devs in 1998 were something else. Beasts.
Mind BMS exists because Falcon 4.0 is so damn broken out of the box that it's just an extra for Falcon 3.0 (itself part of the Falcon, Falcon A.T. and Falcon Gold collection) on gog, despite being a wholly different game. Though MicroProse released it stand alone/overpriced on Steam to leech BMS.
 
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Basically its the only flight sim on the market with dynamic campaign, DCS still doesn't have it after years of development (they earn more with just releasing unfinished plane modules).
And its 27 years old.
 
This is the reason we can't take devs seriously when they tell us is too hard to do so and so...
People managing to do better than them, in their free time.
 
Basically its the only flight sim on the market with dynamic campaign, DCS still doesn't have it after years of development (they earn more with just releasing unfinished plane modules).
And its 27 years old.
Hey now, IL-2 Sturmovik has a dynamic campaign too and it's only 24 years old (though the most popular edition is from 2006's update/add on/compilation IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946)!

It doesn't need a BMS fan overhaul to actually work either (of course that means it's also not so modernised but it's still really really really really awesome with some nice mods) ;)
 
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Looks great. I wish they could get ahold of Flight Simulators Weather and cloud rendering tech though, that would be glorious.
 
Looks great. I wish they could get ahold of Flight Simulators Weather and cloud rendering tech though, that would be glorious.
As far as i know Volumetric clouds are planned for future updates. Imagine this new terrain and atmospheric engine combined with Volumetric clouds. It will look glorious.
 
As far as i know Volumetric clouds are planned for future updates. Imagine this new terrain and atmospheric engine combined with Volumetric clouds. It will look glorious.

It's pretty funny to watch all those up-to-date terrain and lighting features and then see those PS2-era explosions.

I'm sure they'll get to those eventually too. Amazing work they've done all these years.

Edit: Ugh, I checked out their reddit for a moment... what a bunch of joyless sad-sacks they have in their community :LOL:
 
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It's pretty funny to watch all those up-to-date terrain and lighting features and then see those PS2-era explosions.

I'm sure they'll get to those eventually too. Amazing work they've done all these years.

Edit: Ugh, I checked out their reddit for a moment... what a bunch of joyless sad-sacks they have in their community :LOL:
Lol, why what did they say?
 
hah just the usual "Old Man Sim Enthusiast" stuff: "Back in my day we didn't need them fancy graphics; we had a single green polygon under a single blue polygon and that's how we liked it!" 👴
Really? People complaining about better graphics? Wow.
Edit: Is there already a Download Link for 4.38? I don't think there is, right?
This is what they say on their site:
Be patient as download will not be available right away (a couple more days will be needed)…
Oh i can't wait.
 
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It's pretty funny to watch all those up-to-date terrain and lighting features and then see those PS2-era explosions.

I'm sure they'll get to those eventually too. Amazing work they've done all these years.

Edit: Ugh, I checked out their reddit for a moment... what a bunch of joyless sad-sacks they have in their community :LOL:

I recall being in the Discord server for a game called Truck Driver. It was surreal. It seems like some of these hardcore sim games attract these crowds.

The devs did indeed interact regularly with the community, but it was so cheesy and always sounded like a satirical marketing team.

Then 90% of the community guzzled whatever the dev said, regardless of what the dev said. Even innocuous and ordinary comments were met with exaltation.

The other 10% were the "Yes but it has been 73 updates and you still have not patched the audio and video sync of the left turn signal that is 0.0000093 nanoseconds off between the sound of the turn signal and the visual indicator. Worst devs evar!" crowd. They whined incessantly over the most trivial of things and acted like their very souls were damned because of Truck Driver.
 
I know that Falcon BMS is a niche product but it's nice to see it on Neogaf. I just wish more people would give it a try.
 
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Oh God this looks amazing!

I had already spent a lot on DCS when I knew about Falcom BMS, I even got it on Steam, but then I switched to Linux and havent tried to install it there. But with this? I might sacrifice a weekend to make it work properly on my system (stuff tend to go south on my PC lol)
 
I love PC gaming so much. Things like Falcon BMS and DCS are a reason alone to game on PC. Longtime motivation especially with other people
 
Got a bit scared when the installer seemed to direct you to 4070 and above hardware with extra settings for lower end stuff like downsampling textures from 8K to 4K for hardware with less than 12GB VRam but it seems to run perfectly fine (and look pretty great) after all, at least in instant action.
 
Got a bit scared when the installer seemed to direct you to 4070 and above hardware with extra settings for lower end stuff like downsampling textures from 8K to 4K for hardware with less than 12GB VRam but it seems to run perfectly fine (and look pretty great) after all, at least in instant action.
I'm sure you use VR with Falcon BMS, right?
I wanna install the 16k textures afterwards but i don't know how to do that. I also have a 4070 12gb.
 
I'm sure you use VR with Falcon BMS, right?
I wanna install the 16k textures afterwards but i don't know how to do that. I also have a 4070 12gb.
Tried it flat for now, probably won't fare well in VR on my ancient PC. I don't have 4070, I went with the downsampling to 4K deal, lol. I have a GTX1080. It seemed pretty flawless though my fps counter didn't work in it, with the default foliage distance and density stuff at full 1440p though. So far!

Need to tinker with my controls next, that's gonna take ages for sure.
 
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Tried it flat for now, probably won't fare well in VR on my ancient PC. I don't have 4070, I went with the downsampling to 4K deal, lol. I have a GTX1080. It seemed pretty flawless though my fps counter didn't work in it, with the default foliage distance and density stuff at full 1440p though. So far!

Need to tinker with my controls next, that's gonna take ages for sure.
Really, you are an VR aficionado and only have a 1080?
 
Really, you are an VR aficionado and only have a 1080?
Feel free to buy me something newer :)

Throw a mobo, CPU, ram and stuff there too since that's even older though, GPU upgrade won't do much.
 
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I remember loving to take part in the dynamic campaign back in the days. And I still have the original manual.. But anyway since this is mostly a visual update, here's a comparison:

 
Er, that dude's knocking a fan mod of a 1998 unfinished mess of a game for not looking like a completely different game, not from the base game it mods but its own last version and on par with freaking MSFS, lol? Didn't even show any updated cockpits or the ground level grass and other stuff.

Not sure if he's even using the 16K tilemaps you have to download and enable as extra, probably not since that does look similar to his 4.37 footage there. Edit: yep he had to correct himself making a bunch more videos to show the new textures and cockpits, while still being an overly negative ass douchebag, refusing to acknowledge it's a mod to a 1998 game, not a paid expansion to MSFS to match his photorealistic satellite megatextures and terrain demands he'll complain over & talk tech he knows nothing of or how they could work harder/longer/better to do cos nothing else suffices...
 
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My dad and I were blown away when we fired up Falcon 4.0 way back when, and here I am again still amazed at what this game, and the dedication and skill of modders can do, in 2025 decades later.

Also this thread gives me hope in humanity 😂
 
Er, that dude's knocking a fan mod of a 1998 unfinished mess of a game for not looking like a completely different game from not the base game it mods but its own last version and on par with freaking MSFS, lol? Didn't even show any updated cockpits or the ground level grass and other stuff.

Not sure if he's even using the 16K tilemaps you have to download and enable as extra, probably not since that does look similar to his 4.37 footage there.
Idk the man, but he's obviously a huge Falcon BMS enthusiast and showed off the cockpit in another video where he called it "absolutely stunning" and "better than DCS's". He was showing off the 16K textures in yet another video. In his VR video he was gushing over how the update looks in general. It wasn't a knock, I guess he's just a facts-driven guy who isn't afraid to call a spade a spade.
 
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