The purpose is to run BMS as server hosting multiplayer sessions. Since we are using a wine version where drawing primitives is specifically disabled this is not intended for client use. Here is the obligatory screenshot:
A basic understanding of using a UNIX shell is required. Please don't just copy & paste the commands listed in this README.
- x86_64 architecture
- 4GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores.
- No dedicated GPU or GPU passthrough required using Mesa's llvmpipe driver
It's recommended to run this in a separate VM dedicated just to Falcon BMS. Tested using KVM with PVE as hypervisor.
- Debian GNU/Linux 9.8
- contrib and backports sources enabled
- Steam account that owns Falcon 4.0
- dedicated UNIX user for running the scripts and BMS.
You need a legally obtained copy of Falcon 4.0. If you didn't buy it on Steam you will have to skip the automatic installation of Falcon 4.0 and install it manually yourself. It is required to start the Falcon BMS installer and run Falcon BMS itself.
These scripts have been written and tested with Debian stretch. Though usally
only the bootstrap.sh should be distribution specific.
Using these scripts is divided into three stages. First we'll bootstrap the
system to be able to run X, VNC and wine using bootstrap.sh. After that we'll
install Falcon 4.0 and Falcon BMS using SteamCmd and wine. The last stage is
running BMS and optionally IVC.
SSH into your server/VM and clone this git repository.
git clone https://github.com/lukrop/bms-server-scripts bms-server
cd bms-serverThe bootsrap script needs to be run as root or alternativley with sudo. It
adds the i386 architecture to dpkg and installs some packages with apt. It
loads the snd-dummy kernel module to provide a dummy sound device and makes
sure to load it at each boot. It adds the $BMS_USER to the audio and
video groups. Also it will configure and start a VNC server. vncserver
will prompt you do enter a password for connecting to it.
BMS_USER=bmsuser to run Falcon BMS.MANAGE_PACKAGES=1set to 0 if you don't want the script to install packages.VNC_SERVER_ARGS="-localhost yes"arguments passed tovncserver
As root ./bootstrap.sh or as normal user with sudo privileges sudo ./bootstrap.sh.
Every script has some configuration variables which you can adjust to your liking.
Override default configuration:
BMS_USER=myuser MANAGE_PACKAGES=0 ./bootstrap.shThis script will download a patched version of wine, Falcon BMS 4.33 U1 Setup and incremental installers from U2 to U5 via torrent. It will per default use SteamCmd to install Falcon 4.0. A Steam account which owns the game is required. If you own Falcon 4.0 differently (e.g. GoG, CD-ROM) you'll have to manually install it in the WINEPREFIX using wine.
The script will download a tar archive with wine-4.3-nodraw precompiled. If you don't trust my binaries you can clone the repository and build it yourself. Remember to build win32 and win64, winehq recommends doing that in separate x86 and x86_64 build systems, e.g. docker or LXC.
DOWNLOAD_BMS=1Set to 0 if you don't want the script to download BMS via torrent. In that case you'll have to place the installer files into thesources/directory yourself.DOWNLOAD_WINE=1Set to 0 to disable downloading the precompiled wine binaries. In that case you'll have to place the wine binaries intowine/wine-4.3-nodrawyourself.INSTALL_FALCON_4=1Whether Falcon 4.0 is going to be installed using SteamCmd.INSTLAL_BMS=1If we actually want to install BMS.TWEAK_CONFIG=1Adjust options in Falcon BMS.cfg for optimal performance.RESIZE_TEXTURES=1Set to 0 to disable resizing the textures to 1x1.SEED_TIME=15Time to seed the torrent in minutes. Set to 0 to stop seeding after the download is finished.
After bootstrapping you should have a VNC server running with jwm as window manager. Per default the VNC server will only accept connections from localhost so you'll want to use a SSH tunnel to connect with your VNC client of choice. Substitute user and host with your server information:
ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 user@hostAfter that you can connect with your VNC client to localhost:5901 and should
be rewarded with a jwm session. Left click anywhere and choose Terminal from
the menu. Using the shell navigate to the directory of these scripts and run
./install.sh.
With the default configuration the script will now download the patched wine
binaries and place them into wine/wine-4.3-nodraw. After that it will
download SteamCmd and prompt for Steam account credentials. If you have
SteamGuard active you'll have to also input the code sent to you by Mail. The
script doesn't store your credentials it simply passes them on to SteamCmd.
SteamCmd will download and install Falcon 4.0.
In the next step the script will download and extract the BMS installer files
to sources/. If the files are successfully extracted the Falcon BMS Setup
will launch. Just click your way through it. Do not change the installtion
path. When the U1 Setup is finished the setup wizards for the incremental
updates 2 to 5 will automatically start. As with the main Setup just mash that
"Next" button.
Now the script will adjust options in User/Config/Falcon BMS.cfg to optimize
performance, disabling eye-candy as much as possible. In the last step the
script will use mogrify to resize most of the .DDS and .GIF textures to a
size of 1x1. This reduces disk usage, speeds up loading times and memory
footprint.
This script launches Falcon BMS and optionally the IVC Server using the patched wine version.
BMS_LOGFILE=logs/bms.loglogfile locationBMS_THEATER="Korea KTO"Theater with which BMS will start upBMS_ARGS="-window"arguments passed to BMSSTART_IVC=1whether to start the IVC serverPROMETHEUS_METRICS=0scrape the FPS values from the BMS log and export them with prometheus-node-exporterPROMETHEUS_FILE="/var/lib/prometheus/node-exporter/bms-fps.prom"prom file location. This file needs to be writable for$BMS_USER.
If you don't need to change any default options it's as easy as doing
./start.sh.
In case you want to run a different theater and export FPS metrics to prometheus:
BMS_THEATER="Lorik's Korea 1.11" PROMETHEUS_METRICS=1 ./start.shDon't forget to configure the graphics settings in-game after you started BMS for the first time. I recommend the following settings:
Notice the grass slider still beeing at the recommended default position. I experienced issues with the AI not beeing able to taxi properly at Kunsan when the slider was all the way to the left.
Make sure the server is the first in 3D. Frag the server flight to takeoff a minute before any human flight. This gives the server enough time to load in. I experienced different IVC and AI-comms issues which didn't occur when the server was first in.
When the server is in 3D you might want to switch to the satellite view with the tilde key (left of 1) but minimizing the BMS window brings the biggest FPS gain.
Everytime some MP event happens (player joins, commits to 3D, etc.) the COMMS button starts flashing. This flashing causes the server FPS to dip under 20. By simply clicking on the COMMS button you'll remove the highlight and the FPS go up again. Since this only occurs in 2D it shouldn't affect gameplay too much. But until everyone has joined the server I recommend leaving the COMMS window open. Having higher FPS while players are downloading the weather maps and object information is a good thing. Also you'll see who is here and who commited already.
If the server admin tells everybody to "Commit taxi" he'll see who commited and can tell who isn't commited yet before commiting the server flight. No more "Somebody is not commited guys..." anymore. ;)
You can check the output of the terminal window running the start.sh script
or alternativley check the log file.
tail -f logs/bms.logCurrently there is a small helper script located in prometheus which reads
the contents of the server log where the current FPS are written to and creates
the output for a .prom file, exposing bms_fps as gauge value.
If the output of the script is redirected into a .prom file it can be made
available for scraping by node-exporter.
As root you could create such a file in /var/lib/prometheus/node-exporter and
make it writeable for the group of your bms user:
touch /var/lib/prometheus/node-exporter/bms-fps.prom
chown root:$BMS_USER /var/lib/prometheus/node-exporter/bms-fps.prom
chmod g+w /var/lib/prometheus/node-exporter/bms-fps.promThanks to sthalik for his initial patches to wine back in 2016. Thanks to my dear friend lotherk for quickly providing me wiht a test infrastructure with a decent bandwidth.
Licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE file.