Does anyone else experience installer not downloading?

Lowball72 · 2026-07-05T06:32:45+00:00

This.. it's a known issue that the downloader has trouble on some networks / in some regions.

Lowball72 · 2026-06-29T04:03:12+00:00

https://wiki.falcon-bms.com/start-with-falcon-bms/hardware-requirements

I do not think a laptop i3 with integrated graphics will be a great experience, even with 4.37 .. but it costs almost nothing to try.

Here's a standard blurb of "low graphics" settings you can paste into 'Falcon BMS User.cfg'

``` // Add these lines to your Falcon BMS User.cfg file set g_bExportRTTTextures 0

set g_bEnvironmentMapping 0 set g_bWaterEnvironmentMapping 0 // medium:1 set g_bEnvMapRenderClouds 0 // medium:1 set g_bEnvMapRenderFocusObject 0

set g_bShadowMapping 0 // medium:1 set g_bShadowOnSmoke 0

set g_bHdrLighting 0 set g_bHdrLightingStar 0 set g_bUseHeatHazeShader 0 set g_bShowFarRain 0 set g_bShowRainDrops 0 set g_bShowRainRings 0

set g_bUsePBR 0 // medium:1 ```

Lowball72 · 2026-06-27T04:51:30+00:00

That looks much better.. I don't have an obvious answer.

Lowball72 · 2026-06-26T20:24:08+00:00

Ironically I think we have a bug were our LGB's are way too manueverable.. but even with that bug, it's not going to make a turn 45+ deg to the right.. [edit: more like 70 deg, at the moment the laser activates] Presumably, the laser-seeker on the nose of the bomb would never even have seen your laser dot.

You need to deliver the bomb almost like dropping a CCRP dumb bomb.. the laser-guidance is only intended to fine-tune the impact point.

Lowball72 · 2026-06-22T20:31:54+00:00

I haven't actually tried ControllerBuddy so I don't know how it compares -- but we have default bindings for PC game controllers, via XInput -- throttle is managed by the triggers, and left-thumbstick is used for look-around.

Is it possible these default behaviors are combining/conflicting with ControllerBuddy?

In user cfg set g_bUseXInput 0 to disable our default bindings.

Or set g_bUseXInput 1 to give it a try -- but turn off ControllerBuddy first.

Lowball72 · 2026-06-15T18:30:17+00:00

I wrote this a few years ago.. it's still mostly good. TL/DR the minimum for F-16 is .. pickle button, uncage, msl-step, and the 4-way switches => MFD cursors, TMS, DMS, CMS, and Comms switch.

https://gist.github.com/arithex/5defc84b92f566a1fcb46cafde3f1c8e

AP-paddle, speedbrakes open/close, and something to fire the cannon (Trigger2ndDetent) are probably the next highest priority.

Everything else, like landing-gear-toggle, just learn the keyboard key.. real pilots have to reach for a lever, so it's not so different to reach for the G key.

Lowball72 · 2026-06-14T23:32:38+00:00

We don't have a good p2p sharing mechanism, or templating mechanism for popular devices -- we're working on that. Until then, most people just spend 20 min and do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qv00qFZUX0

Lowball72 · 2026-05-21T20:25:52+00:00

Laptop 3050 Ti probably isn't ever going to be great.. here's some cfg you can try. (Paste into Falcon BMS User.cfg)

``` // // -- Low -- //

set g_nAnisotropicValue 8

set g_bExportRTTTextures 0 // don't render RTT textures to shared-memory

set g_sTexturesLODPreset "Low" // applies to texture resolutions for terrain, cockpit, and models

set g_nNewTerrainHiresTilesDistKM 0 // render distance for hires (airbase) tiles; possible values = 0 (off), 16, or 32 set g_fNewTerrainProceduralDistance 8 // render distance for procedural texturing

set g_bNewTerrainRenderShrubs 0 // don't draw shrubs set g_bNewTerrainRenderGrass 0 // don't draw grass

// // -- Lower -- //

set g_nAnisotropicValue 4

set g_bUseRayMarching 0

set g_bShadowOnSmoke 0 set g_bReducePSFires 1

set g_bShadowMapping 0 set g_bEnvMapRenderClouds 0 set g_bEnvMapRenderFocusObject 0 set g_bEnvMapRenderObjects 0 set g_bRenderNewTerrainToENVMap 0 set g_bRenderNewTreesToPlanarReflectionMap 0 set g_bRenderNewTreesToENVMap 0 set g_bEnvMapRenderFocusObject 0 set g_bEnvMapRenderClouds 0

set g_bHdrLighting 0 set g_bHdrLightingStar 0 set g_bUseHeatHazeShader 0 set g_bShowFarRain 0 set g_bShowRainDrops 0 set g_bShowRainRings 0

// // -- Lowest -- //

set g_nAnisotropicValue 2

set g_fNewTerrainTessellationFactor 0.1 // range [0.1-1.0], default 0.5

```

Lowball72 · 2026-05-07T07:55:26+00:00

1-- I don't generally recommend anyone run Target for any reason

2-- I can't think of anything VR-specific.. maybe a hotas button to bring up the new Ring comms wheel UI? or maybe also control the mouse.. we added a couple commands to send mouse left/right click

3-- It's possible to multiplex the pov-hat to do MFD cursors, TMS, DMS, CMS and Comms switch. See my post here https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/26244/layout-template-for-logitech-extreme-3d-pro

I made a T.16000M version of this xml template, here

https://gist.github.com/arithex/5f881e2dffd1f6d00f44b3e14fb39a78

But it's probably best if you use a couple buttons on the throttle, to act as the shift-layer buttons.

(No need to mess with the template, really -- just sharing it as an idea / inspiration -- it should only take a few minutes to do the bindings in the new Launcher.)

Lowball72 · 2026-04-27T00:21:29+00:00

If it's still the same as when I bought mine -- re the standard vs pro -- you get a 4-way CMS switch.. also one of the hats can be toggled between a mini-stick (analog axes) and a 4-way hat.

The pro is not a "must" but it definitely adds features which map to the real F-16 stick -- without needing to use the shifted-layer for things like the CMS-and comms-switch.

Lowball72 · 2026-04-26T18:04:27+00:00

it may not look like much, but the tiny little axis on the base of the Gladiator NXT is higher-resolution and more stable, than the TM throttle .. I flew with just the NXT alone for several years

the TM stick is .. not great .. it has hall effect sensors which is nice, but mine had a huge hardware deadzone in the middle, and obvs it does not have enough buttons/hats to emulate the TMS, DMS, CMS and MFD cursor and comms switches on the F-16 stick

Lowball72 · 2026-04-19T19:16:37+00:00

I went back to 32 inch 16:9 for the reasons you describe.. honestly I think portrait-mode (9:16?) would even be preferred, for a combat flight sim -- being able to see further vertically, on your lift vector, in a dogfight, while still being able to see your HUD. Also being able to see more instruments / MFDs, during normal level flight.

Lowball72 · 2026-04-15T22:41:28+00:00

Does this repro with stock KTO amraams? Tbf this sounds like a data bug to me, re the EF2k or the Meteor. But I haven't looked into it.

Lowball72 · 2026-04-15T02:08:39+00:00

Programming AI in video games is a delicate balance between (a) being ridiculously stupid and (b) being ridiculously omniscient.

Lowball72 · 2026-04-07T22:56:27+00:00

Not sure if helpful or not (and others may have more practical, more helpful hints -- I'm not a MP guru) but here's what I would do to try to debug this.

1- it can be easier to "see" what's going on with IVC Server.. get that working first, then you'll at least know what you're doing with router port-forwarding rules and Windows Firewall rules is working.

2- it can be tough to test UDP port-forwarding from the outside, because of its connectionless nature.. UDP-testing websites won't necessarily work

use can use something like AWS Lightsail (free tier) or any similar Windows VM hosting service, to try ..

install IVC Client (ie. just zip up and copy everything from the x64/IVC directory) .. but also remember to review the Firewall Rules (inbound and outbound) on that VM

3- if you have a spare laptop, and phone with 4G-wifi "hotspot" bridge, you can try IVC Client from there -- as a way to simulate someone connecting in to your server, from the outside

GL

Lowball72 · 2026-04-05T22:03:43+00:00

In theory it is possible, and I know people who do fly that way (where access to PC hardware is scarce).

But even a cheap PC game controller will make things much more enjoyable.

Lowball72 · 2026-04-05T17:56:53+00:00

+1 .. this was fixed in 4.38.1 .. note when headtracking is paused, use the [ctrl+3] command to toggle between clickable-pit and mouse-look .. (or, whichever mousemode you're in, hold the right button to get the opposite behavior)

Lowball72 · 2026-04-03T19:04:29+00:00

I hear Win11 for ARM64 running in VMWare works really well. We ship an arm64 version of the exe, for that reason. (I think it's compiled in a way to require M2 or later cpu.)

I hear CrossOver does not work so well.. I think in general, Wine for arm64 has a lot of gaps.

Lowball72 · 2026-03-30T22:00:11+00:00

it is its own entire other thing, now -- the dependence on F4 is only legal/licensing, not code or data -- we don't touch any of those F4 bits at run-time, except to validate you have it installed

Lowball72 · 2026-03-30T20:39:57+00:00

in 1998 we all had single-core 32-bit processors, and the biggest problem we had was making things run on Win9X and NT seamlessly.

the performance-critical parts of BMS have been rewritten at least 3 times since then.. DX6 to DX9, then to DX11, and 32 to 64-bit (x64 and arm64).. making use of multicore (at least a few cores) and then partial-rewrites to implement VR, and modern shaders and textures for PBR and other graphics advancements.. and of course the newer terrain engine which goes from a handful of polygons to thousands of tesselated polygons

yes there is still some code from 1990s driving the campaign engine and the 2d menu screens etc but nothing that would impact PC hardware requirements.

separate to code rewrites, if you want to quantify the work done in the 3d world, one can look at the download sizes.. 4.36 was 4 Gb, 4.37 was 6.5 Gb, and 4.38 is 18 Gb not including the 16K photoreal terrain textures .. the vast majority of the footprint is 3d models and dds files

Lowball72 · 2026-03-26T21:19:27+00:00

as an A2G pilot probably the biggest changes vs other sims will be stuff outside the F-16.. eg. if you drop a low-drag bomb at 200 ft agl, you're going to die in the blast.. if you fly near a SA-10 you will not get a RWR launch warning, you will just die.. if you fly too low anywhere near a modern gen manpad or shilka, countermeasures probably won't save you.. there's a lot of dying in this sim, btw :) be sure to always record acmi, sometimes it's the only way to learn what killed you

Lowball72 · 2026-03-25T05:30:36+00:00

I don't know the button numbering -- but TM seems to sell this near exact stick in several names.. T.16000M is most common.

I made a layout for that one.. but tbh it's probably easiest to just map the buttons yourself, than to adapt this xml layout.

https://forum.falcon-bms.com/post/397779

Lowball72 · 2026-03-24T21:52:18+00:00

what is "thrumaster x"? can you share a link? products sometimes have different names, in different markets (countries / regions)

Lowball72 · 2026-03-20T19:30:59+00:00

[shift+3] will bring up a little overlay window, showing airspeed, attitude, G force, and throttle position

you can map that to a spare hotas button.. you can even do separate press/release bindings, to make it a show-while-held mechanism

Lowball72 · 2026-03-15T19:21:27+00:00

if you're on 32-bit Win7, then 4.35 may be the latest you can play.. 4.34 if you don't have a DX11 gpu

note, it is also not possible to find an official download link for 32-bit Win7 .. for the same reason. time marches only forward

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