A one-page-cheat-sheet for pilots absolutely new to Falcon BMS
The BMS-Minimum.key file contains almost 500 keyboard command bindings -- that's way too much to digest, to get started working through the training missions.
Do you really need to memorize hundreds of keyboard commands, to fly the F-16? No. Taxi, takeoff, basic flight and navigation, comms, landing, even employing basic AA and AG weapons -- it's a lot to learn, but most of what you need can be accessed by clicking buttons and switches in the virtual cockpit, when needed.
Learning what those systems are, and how they work, is hard enough in itself -- you shouldn't have to memorize hundreds of arbitrary keyboard bindings that real pilots don't!
The good news is, the list of things for which you really need to know the keyboard shortcut (or know the button on your stick or throttle) is pretty short -- it's just about 20 things. Even that can be broken down further, to just begin with basic flying skills (no weapons or countermeasures) or, alternatively, jump into instant-action dogfighting (no takeoff/landing/taxiing).
- Bucket 1: basic flight, taxi/takeoff/navigate/land
- Bucket 2: acquire targets, shoot weapons, defend yourself
- Bucket 3: helpful to know / quality of life features
Again, these are just the things that either (a) don't have an accessible button or knob in the cockpit, or (b) need to be activated quickly, without taking eyes off the bad guy (or the runway). Obviously, this is not the sum total of things you need to know and learn, to fly, fight and survive in the Viper. But it's sufficient to jump into the training missions and begin the long process of learnings the F-16 cockpit and avionics.
Final note: the list below is for standard "qwerty" US keyboard layout. Other keyboard layouts may vary -- eg. for DE keyboards, the [/] key is the [-] to the left of the righthand [shift] key. If you have a fancy ergonomic keyboard, or use a Dvorak layout, you're on your own.
- basic cockpit 3D view => press
[3]to return from any external view or padlock view, etc - look around => press
[ctrl+3]to toggle between mouselook-mode and clickable-cockpit cursor - zoom in/out => rotate mousewheel (click wheelbutton to return to default FOV)
- cockpit buttons => left-click to push buttons, rotate knobs clockwise, flip switches upward
- switches and knobs => right-click to rotate knobs counterclockwise, flip switches downward
- hide the pilot body =>
[alt+C][P]to access some of the switches more easily - see your framerate =>
[alt+C][F]to see your CPU and GPU performance metrics
- wheelbrakes => press/hold
[K] - speedbrakes => press
[B]to toggle - rudder => press/hold
[comma]and[period]if you don't have z-axis/twist on joystick - nose-wheel steering => press
[shift+/]to toggle - landing gear => press
[G]to toggle
- radar cursor movement => press/hold
[shift+Arrows] - target mgmt (TMS) switch =>
[shift+Home/End/Del/PgDn] - display mgmt (DMS) switch =>
[alt+Home/End] - cursor-zero => press
[PgUp] - missile-step => press
[shift+/](hold 1s to cycle AA weapons) - uncage => press
[U] - countermeasures (slap-switch) =>
[S] - jammer => press
[J]to toggle - guns => press/hold
[alt+/]or joystick button1 (trigger) - weapon release => press/hold
[spacebar]or joystick button2 (pickle)
- sun-visor => press
[alt+V]to toggle - spotlight => press
[shift+S]to toggle - nightvision => press
[N]to toggle - hud color => press
[alt+H]to cycle (artificial/convenience - doesn't exist in real jet) - cursor-enable => press
[Insert]to cycle AG weapon submodes - manual-range knob => press/hold
[alt+F3/F4]to zoom TGP in/out - trim => press/hold
[ctrl+Home/End/Del/PgDn] - trim-reset => press
[alt+F1](artificial/convenience - doesn't exist in real jet) - radio comms menu => press one of [QWERTY] to cycle through top-level comms menus
- multiplayer comms => press
[Home]to talk on UHF;[End]for VHF
Hey there, thank you for the effort, it's really helpful to new BMS players. But I found the names in the forum not matching the BMS launcher names & so I am still investing quite some time in to it just to find the right buttons for the names that you have used. It would be more practical if the forum & in game names were identical. I got it sorted out though thank you.