Falcon 4 BMS 4

[thro]

So, flight sim nerds.

Those of you who have been at it for a while may remember, back in the days of Pentium MMX machines and before affordable 3d cards - a game called Falcon 4. Came out in 1998.

Microprose went broke and released it a bit buggy, but fate intervened and some employee leaked the source code to the net.

Between 1998 and now a few different camps got hold of it, hacking the database for more accuracy with enemy planes, updating the landscape tiles, etc.

One group, BMS, did a realism patch, which was pretty cool in its day but got left behind by modern sims in terms of graphics and level of simulation detail. It was stuck with directX 5 support, then somewhat hacked to run with directX 7... but modern machines have caused all sorts of problems.

Well... no more.


Benchmark Sims


highlights
- massively updated flight model. its not a bunch of tables to make the plane behave a bit like a n F16 on rails, it simulates cause and effect - load the plane up with stores on one side and it will need trimming, etc
- massively updated graphics engine. directX 9, shader support, no more crashes on 64 bit machines with certain video cards/drivers, etc.
- updated fully clickable 3d cockpit.
- avionics updates
- stable multiplayer code


All you need is an original falcon 4 CD, a machine with decent directX 9 shader support, and you're good. Single file installer, asks for the CD, no need to have a previous install. Been playing for about a week now, its awesome.



TLDR: just watch:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg2Yc65pQK8

[Wedge]

Shit, now I need to find my Falcon 4 CD. I loved that game.. Probably the last flight sim I played with passion,

[thro]

If you bought it, i'm sure there's a torrent on TPB with the original falcon, free falcon, open falcon, etc.

it just needs access to the source files, no copy protection type checks...

[Frogger]

this is cool , but im not much of a combat sim person now more into formation flying so i stick with lomac and fsx. but hopefully this will evolve some more and the next line of sims to come out will have to compair to it to have a chance.

[mcmurray]

Thanks for the heads-up Thro. I'll be installing this tonight.

Is this a new BMS release? How does it compare with DCS A-10?

[thro]

Its a new BMS release yes. I haven't played DCS: A10, but i have played DCS backshark. The level of detail is similar, the flight model is amazingly accurate - check out the flight model developer notes on Benchmark Sims.


It (the flight model) has been in development for 5 years or so....