Falcon BMS Helper

This script is designed to help you manage and optimize Falcon BMS on Linux.

Zenity menus are used for a GUI experience with a fallback to terminal-based menus where Zenity is unavailable.
Command line arguments are available for quickly launching functions from the terminal.

Configuration is saved in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bms-helper/

Options

Preflight Check

• Runs a series of system optimization checks and offers to fix any issues
  • Checks that vm.max_map_count is set to at least 16777216
    • This sets the maxmimum number of "memory map areas" a process can have. While most applications need less than a thousand maps, Falcon BMS requires access to more
  • Checks that the hard open file descriptors limit is set to at least 524288
    • This limits the maximum number of open files on your system. On some Linux distributions, the default is set too low for Falcon BMS

Install Falcon BMS

• Installs Falcon BMS and Falcon 4.0 (GoG installer)

Maintenance and Troubleshooting

• Target a different Falcon BMS installation

  • Select a different wine prefix for the Helper to target in its operations

• Open Wine prefix configuration

  • Runs winecfg in the game's Wine prefix

• Open Wine controller configuration

  • Opens Wine's game controller configuration in the Wine prefix

• Open Protontricks package manager

  • Opens the package manager GUI for the currently targeted Falcon BMS prefix

• Install PowerShell into Wine prefix

  • Uses protontricks for the install workflow

• Install OpenTrack for Windows

  • Downloads the latest *-win32-setup.exe from the OpenTrack GitHub releases page and runs it silently with /silent inside the currently targeted Wine prefix

• Display Helper and Falcon BMS directories

  • Show all the directories currently in use by both the Helper and Falcon BMS

• Reset Helper configs

  • Delete the configs saved by the helper in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bms-helper/

Installation

From Source:

1. Download it! https://github.com/benchmarksims/bms-helper/releases
2. Extract it!
3. Place Falcon BMS_4.38.1_Full_Setup.exe, Falcon BMS_4.38.1_Full_Setup.nsisbin and setup_falcon_4_2.0.0.1.exe (from GoG) in the bms-helper extracted folder
4. Run the bms-helper.sh!

Dependencies: bash, coreutils, curl, polkit, wine, protontricks Archive Dependencies: cabextract, unzip Optional Dependencies: zenity (GUI), winetricks (custom-prefix launcher font/runtime fixes), python3 + python-evdev (MFD helper), gamemode, mangohud

Notes

Forked and inspired from:

• https://github.com/starcitizen-lug/lug-helper

Recent changes (helper and launcher)

These notes summarize the current launcher behavior reflected in the latest script changes.

• The generated per-prefix launcher now applies launcher UI compatibility fixes by default for .NET/WPF-based launchers running under Proton.
• One-time launcher runtime fixes can install corefonts, tahoma, and gdiplus automatically through protontricks when an app ID is known, or through winetricks for custom prefixes.
• Launches can now be wrapped with gamemoderun and mangohud without modifying the generated script manually.
• PROTON_LOG is no longer forced on for every launch; it is now controlled through an environment toggle.
• Proton fsync and esync can be disabled explicitly for troubleshooting without editing the launcher.
• The launcher can auto-start the bundled tools/mfd-joystick.py helper when present and stop it again when Falcon BMS exits.
• The launcher can also auto-start opentrack.exe when it is installed inside the Falcon BMS prefix under drive_c/Program Files (x86), and it now does that only after Falcon's launcher or game process is already running.
• The MFD helper can also be overridden with BMS_MFD_JOYSTICK_SCRIPT if you keep the script in a different path.
• When the launcher is regenerated or repaired, the helper also refreshes an existing mfd-joystick.py copy already placed beside bms-launcher.sh.
• Proton management now includes a dedicated menu entry for Proton installs detected from Steam and common OS locations.
• Steam/OS-provided Proton installs can be selected for launch, but only helper-downloaded runners under the prefix are removable from the helper UI.

Launcher toggles

The generated launcher exports a set of environment variables you can override before starting Falcon BMS:

• BMS_LAUNCHER_UI_FIXES=1|0: enable or disable the default WPF/launcher registry fixes.
• BMS_LAUNCHER_INSTALL_FONTS=1|0: allow the one-time corefonts / tahoma / gdiplus install pass.
• BMS_LAUNCHER_FORCE_WINED3D=1|0: set PROTON_USE_WINED3D for the launcher path.
• BMS_USE_GAMEMODE=1|0: wrap the game/launcher process with gamemoderun when available.
• BMS_USE_MANGOHUD=1|0: wrap the game/launcher process with mangohud when available.
• BMS_PROTON_LOG=1|0: enable Proton logging only when you actually need it.
• BMS_USE_FSYNC=1|0: disable fsync by exporting PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 and WINEFSYNC=0 when set to 0.
• BMS_USE_ESYNC=1|0: disable esync by exporting PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 and WINEESYNC=0 when set to 0.
• BMS_AUTO_LAUNCH_OPENTRACK=1|0: auto-start OpenTrack from the Windows install inside the prefix when found under Program Files (x86).
• BMS_OPENTRACK_DELAY=<seconds>: wait this many seconds after Falcon's launcher or game process is detected before starting OpenTrack. Defaults to 3.
• BMS_MFD_JOYSTICK_SCRIPT=/path/to/mfd-joystick.py: point the launcher at a custom MFD helper script.
• BMS_MFD_GRAB_PHYSICAL=1|0: when the MFD helper runs, exclusively grab the physical MFD evdev devices so only the virtual replacements are visible to the game.
• BMS_PROTONTRICKS_APPID=<steam app id>: let the launcher use protontricks for one-time font/runtime setup on Steam-backed installs.

The launcher still supports --proton, --wine, and --auto to select the runner mode at launch time.

MFD helper

tools/mfd-joystick.py creates virtual joystick-style devices for supported Thrustmaster F-16 MFD panels so Falcon BMS can see a more compatible input layout.

• It is started automatically if the file exists either next to the launcher or in tools/.
• It requires python3 and the Python evdev package.
• It exposes an internal MFD_JOYSTICK_VERSION value and prints that version on startup for tracking deployed copies.
• Place the script in the falcon-bms master folder (the one created by wine / proton) along side bms-launcher.sh
• On most systems you will also need permissions for uinput and access to the source input devices.
• By default it exclusively grabs the physical MFD evdev nodes while it is running, which hides the source devices from Wine/Proton and leaves the virtual devices as the ones the game sees. Set BMS_MFD_GRAB_PHYSICAL=0 to disable that behavior.
• When mfd-joystick.py is present beside bms-launcher.sh, the launcher now asks that Python file to set the Wine Software\\Wine\\DirectInput\\Joysticks disable entries for the original MFDs through wine reg add before any Wine or Proton command is run.