VR GUIDE

Ver.: BMS 4.37.5

Date: 19 Nov 2024
BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

Table of Content
1. VR - System Requirements ............................................................................................................................. 3

2. Launch BMS with VR ....................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Config File - Options ........................................................................................................................................ 4

4. Mixed reality ................................................................................................................................................... 6

4.1 Enable Mixed Reality........................................................................................................................................................ 6
4.2 Default Cover Masks ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
4.3 Create your own mask ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

5. Tested devices ............................................................................................................................................... 10

6. 3D Kneeboards.............................................................................................................................................. 10

7. Warnings ....................................................................................................................................................... 11

1. All changes in this document coming with 4.37.0 are marked with a black line.

2. All changes in this document coming with 4.37.1 are marked with a blue line.

3. All changes in this document coming with 4.37.2 are marked with a red line.
4. All changes in this document coming with 4.37.3 are marked with a green line.

5. All changes in this document coming with 4.37.4 are marked with a orange line.

6. All changes in this document coming with 4.37.5 are marked with a magenta line.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENTS

Falcon BMS is a community mod developed and published by Benchmark Sims for use with licensed copies of Falcon 4.0.
Unauthorized rental, sales, arcade use, charging for use, or any commercial use of this mod or part thereof is prohibited.
This mod is for non-commercial use only.
This mod was created by Benchmark Sims with the permission of Microprose Software Pty Ltd.
This mod and all included content are in no way affiliated with Microprose Software Pty Ltd.
© 2003-2024 Benchmark Sims. All rights reserved.

Falcon is a registered trademark of Tommo Inc.

Falcon Collection and Falcon 4.0 are published by Microprose Software Pty Ltd.
Microprose and the Microprose logo are trademarks or registered trademarks.
© 2024 Microprose Software Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.

The manufacturers and intellectual property right owners of the vehicles, weapons, sensors and other systems represented in Falcon
BMS in no way endorse, sponsor or are otherwise involved in the development of Falcon BMS.

The BMS VR-Guide is published by the BMS Docs team.

Unauthorized rental, sales, charging for use, or any commercial use of this manual or part thereof is prohibited.
This manual is for non-commercial use only.
No reproduction of this manual or part of this manual (except printing for your own personal use) is allowed
without the written permission of the BMS Docs team.

© 2003-2024 Benchmark Sims. All rights reserved.

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BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

1. VR - System Requirements

To be able to run BMS with VR (possible since 4.37), you have to download and install Steam VR or Open XR.

You need a VR headset (Pixax, Reverb G2, HTC Vive, Oculus, etc.) and a VR capable GPU graphics card (Nvidia, etc).

4.37 U4 brings the option to use MR (Mixed Reality) mask in BMS which can work together with Virtual Desktop or
other applications with a camera passthrough option. For more information, please refer to chapter 4 in this document.

2. Launch BMS with VR

1. If your VR headset requires to set an runtime option in the headset software, make sure it is linked to Stream VR
(example below : Pimax XR software).

2. Launch Steam VR.

3. Launch BMS and make sure to activate the VR option depending if you use OpenXR or SteamVR (see below).

Note: If there is no Steam VR or Open XR installed or not recognized by BMS, the VR option in the BMS launcher is not
visible.

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3. Config File - Options

The following lines are in the config file by default and can be modified if needed:

set g_nVRHMD 0 // Enables the OpenVR (default 0/false).

set g_fVRZOOMFOV 60 // Field of view in degrees for VR ZOOM (default 60.0).
set g_nVRHMCSEYE 0 // HMCS renders, 0 Right eye, 1 Left eye (default 0/false).
set g_fVRResolution 1.0 // VR resolution multiplier. 1.0 by default.
set g_bVRParallelRenderThread 1 // Enable Multi-Thread optimization for VR
set g_bVRNoPresent 0 // This will not display the companion window in VR (only HMD will show image
in 3d).
set g_bHdrLighting 1 // Enables the HDR lighting (default 0/true).

HDR has now been enabled by default. If VR users experience jittering issues while having the VR headset on, disable
HDR.

set g_bMixedRealityCockpitCoverEnabled 0 // Setting this will default the Mixed Reality Cockpit Cover on (1) or off
(0). Can still be toggled in game.

More information in chapter 4 about Mixed Reality.

The following lines are NOT in the config file by default and must be added in the “Falcon BMS User.cfg”:

set g_bEnvironmentMapping 0 // Performance boost

set g_bWaterEnvironmentMapping 0 // Performance boost
set g_bShadowMapping 0 // Performance boost

Asymmetrical Frustum Support

Prior to 4.37.5, BMS was always rendering everything with symmetrical frustum. This means that looking to a point, the
angle of vision to the left was the same as the angle of vision to the right. Same for top and bottom.

Most of VR headsets don’t have symmetrical frustum, only Pico4 has it (if you are curious, all angles for each headset
can be verified here => https://risa2000.github.io/hmdgdb/ ).
The solution for this until now in VR (non-VR flying was not affected) was:
1. Rendering at a higher resolution (about 10-15% depending on the headset)
2. Cropping the “asymmetrical part” of the rendered image
3. Copying this image to the render texture of the headset

This was ok, but it led to some “minor” problems, mainly less performance and less clarity (because some distortion
was added when stretching the cropped image to the headset). After some refactoring of the rendering code, instead of
rendering always symmetrical vision, BMS can render directly each headset frustum natively. So instead of rendering at
a higher resolution and then cropping the resulted image each frame, BMS is now rendering natively the headset
resolution. Leading to no distortion, a clearer image, and a little bit of performance improvement.

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Fixed Foveated Rendering (FFR)

In a nutshell, FFR renders the central part of the image to highest resolution and peripheral areas of the image to lower
resolution. This leads to higher performance in GPU-limited systems. If you are CPU-limited this won’t have much
effect.

BMS has added FFR natively to support every headset.

FFR will work ONLY with NVIDIA cards. You can activate it if you have AMD, but it will not do anything (and there may
be some minimal decrease in performance).

To activate FFR, the following setting must be enabled in “Falcon BMS User.cfg”.

set g_bVREnableFFR 1
NOTE:
The defaults (if nothing set) are:
Asymmetrical frustum & FFR apply to SteamVR and
OpenXR. They share the same rendering code.
set g_fVRInnermostRadiiFFR 0.70
set g_fVRMiddleRadiiFFR 0.75 OpenXR Toolkit is no longer supported in BMS as it
set g_fVRPeripheralRadiiFFR 1.0 is no longer maintained by the creator. The latest
version of OpenXR is not compatible with the
For a Quest 3 user, this may work better: toolkit. Using OpenXR Toolkit will result in BMS
crashing.
set g_fVRInnermostRadiiFFR 0.73
set g_fVRMiddleRadiiFFR 0.75
set g_fVRPeripheralRadiiFFR 1.10

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BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

4. Mixed reality
Since 4.37 U4, MR (Mixed Reality) mask can be used in BMS. All VR headsets with a camera together with Virtual Desktop
or other applications with a camera passthrough option are capable providing MR in BMS.

BMS uses a pure magenta (Red 255, Green 0, Blue 255) filter mask to enable the passthrough function. VR frameworks
like “Virtual Desktop” can enable a passthrough filter option. Simply set RGB color filter in the Virtual Desktop application.

4.1 Enable Mixed Reality

The following flag in the config file Falcon BMS.cfg is in effect and already implemented. Please note that it can be set to
0 or 1. Toggle is still working in 3d.

set g_bMixedRealityCockpitCoverEnabled 0 // Setting this will default the Mixed Reality Cockpit Cover on (1) or off
(0). Can still be toggled in game.

To toggle the cover mask on/off, the following line is added/must be added to your keyfile and mapped as desired:

SimMixedRealityCoverToggle -1 0 0XFFFFFFFF 0 0 0 1 "SIM: Toggle Mixed Reality Cockpit Cover Model"

4.2 Default Cover Masks

BMS comes by default with four masks which you can choose from. 3840 is the default model for all F-16 planes. This is
setup in the 3dCkpit.dat file for each specific plane in the \Data\Art\CkptArt\ folders. The entry for changing the mask
is: cockpitmixedrealitycovermodel 3840;

Models 3840, 3841, 3842 and 3843 are reserved for these masks, so you can have different masks for different planes.

Cockpit Cover (3840)

- 100% of the 3d cockpit is filtered (this preset is especially for pitbuilders)

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BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

Cockpit Cover_Pilot (3841)

Cockpit Cover_Desktop-Pit (3842)

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BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

Cockpit Cover_Desktop-Pit_No-MFD (3843)

4.3 Create your own mask

You will need the BML Exporter plugin for blender to create your own mask. Download the plugin HERE.

In addition, we created a substance painter plugin. Download the plug in HERE.

As a starting point, you find our default models (both blender and 3dsmax files) using the following path: \Docs\01
Input Devices\04 VR Guide\BMS-Mixed Reality-Model files

Create your model and add a material. Make sure the normals are correct.

Here we named the material MR-Cockpit-Cover as an example.

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BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

Export the model to bml. Add one LOD and a viewing distance of 600000.

Check the Parent.dat file. It should look like this:

Dimensions = 0.718953013 0 0 0 0 0 0
TextureSets =1
Switches =0
Dofs =0
AddLOD = Model_0.bml 600000

Modify the Materials.mtl file like this where the Name is the name you gave your material in the 3d program. PINK is a
predefined material in BMS which will make the model magenta with no lights or shadows.

{
"Materials": [
{
"Name": "MR-Cockpit-Cover",
"Template": {
"File": "PBR",
"Material": "PINK"
}
}
]
}

Now you can replace one of the default models by overriding the files in \Data\TerrData\Objects\Models\3840 to 3843.

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BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

5. Tested devices
HTC Vive
HP Reverb G2
Oculus Rift S
Oculus Quest 2
Pimax 5k
Pimax 8k
Pico 4

6. 3D Kneeboards
Besides the option to edit the in-game kneeboards with WDP (Weapon Delivery Planner), this third party tool works
quite well for VR in BMS: https://github.com/OpenKneeboard/OpenKneeboard

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 BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

7. Warnings
WARNING: Before Using VR Headset:

Read and follow setup instructions in User Manual, before using VR headset.

Do not use the headset when you are:

- Suffering from lack of sufficient sleep;

- Under influence of alcohol or drugs
- Suffering emotional stress or anxiety

If you are pregnant, elderly, have vision abnormalities or psychiatric disorders, or suffer from a heart condition or other
serious medical condition, we strongly recommend seeing a doctor before using the VR headset.

WARNING: Children – Recommended and Discouraged Use:

- Children under age of 13 should NOT use the VR headset.

- Children age 13 and older should be constantly monitored by an adult to ensure:
- Health and Safety Warnings are followed
- VR headset is used as recommended
- Active use is limited in time and regular breaks is taken, where headset is removed
- Prolonged use is avoided
- Child is monitored for adverse symptoms during and after use.

WARNING: Risk of Seizures

- User should be aware that seizures, eye muscle twitching, severe dizziness or other conditions causing blackouts or
loss of consciousness may be triggered by light patterns or flashes. These patterns can occur while using the VR
headset.
- If you experience any of these symptoms you should immediately discontinue use of the VR headset and see a
doctor.
- If you have a history of, or have been diagnosed with symptoms related to epileptic conditions, you should consult
with a doctor before using the VR headset

WARNING: Vision Hazard

- NEVER aim the headset towards direct sunlight or other high intensity light source, such as lasers or car headlights
as this may cause severe or permanent eye or skin tissue damage or severe burn injuries.

WARNING: Fire Hazard

- NEVER leave the headset in sunlight as this may cause fire or other property damage from sunlight focused into a
high temperature area by the lenses in the VR headset.

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 BMS 4.37 – VR Guide

WARNING: Heed Precautions

- Use VR headset while seated at all times, unless the VR game or VR application experience requires standing.

At all times, use VR headset while safely away from:

- Other people or animals
- Sharp objects, such as knives & furniture edges
- Tripping hazards
- Stairs and Stairwells
- Open doors, windows and patio doors
- Balconies and patios
- Furniture, plants and other household items
- Slippery or wet surface
- Light fixtures and moving objects, such as ceiling fans
- Other electrical equipment or electrical outlets
- Choking hazards
- Other items you may bump into or trip over during or immediately after use of the VR headset
- We recommend that you gradually increase daily use of VR headset, starting with a few minutes for each use, even
if you don’t feel any discomfort or side effects.
- We recommend taking prolonged and regular brakes while using the VR headset. An example would be removing
headset for 10-15 minutes every 30 minutes.
- Use of VR headset can cause motion sickness similar to car, sea or air sickness and may not present until hours after
using the VR headset.
- Do not use while driving or riding in a moving vehicle or operating machinery of any kind as this could lead to death,
personal injury, or damage to property.
- If you experience motion sickness related symptoms, stop use and do not use VR headset until several hours after
symptoms are gone before continuing use of the VR headset.

WARNING: Repetitive Stress Injury

- If you feel symptoms such as tingling, numbness, burning or stiffness in muscles, tendons or joints, stop using VR
headset and rest for several hours before using it again.
- If above symptoms or other discomfort continue during or after use, stop using VR headset and see a doctor.

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