Unbelievable and hilarious
The Sting is hands down the best UL for MSFS at the moment. I currently use it as a substitute fir the Breezer 600 I am flying IRL. The Sting is a tad faster though, but behaviour and layout is very similar
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Hello all,
We used a combination of sounds for Sting S4, the base basic engine Rotax Engine sound is coming from the VL3 sound base package since it was recorded live IRL by Microsoft for this engine. We then modulate it and change it to adapt it as how it sounds from inside the Sting S4 canopy which is heavily insulated.
The sound engineer I used for S4, worked with 3 real world pilots of the S4 to nail the sounds of the engine as they are perceive it from inside the cabin with no headphones. The wind, rattles, specific buttons, and other elements and sounds were then recorded from the real plane with the help of owners of this aircraft and added on top. The parachute rocket engine sound had to be made at a much later stage when TL-Ultralight told me that without having a parachute fully operation they would not like the airplane to go for sale for MSFS, at that time I had ran out of resources (money to pay for more sounds edition) and I had no other option than made this sound myself using several techniques, if you rally curious I recorded my own spray aerosol deodorant, my bathroom shower door by making it rattle, some carbon boxes tossed in the air, some Legos from my daughter being moved around and then I used sound edition software to mix it all resulting in what you hear when the parachute is launched, results that I am very proud to achieve since it really sounds like a real rocket. This is what is called Foley sounds techniques, and many sounds you hear in many video games are made exactly this way, not everything can be recorded exactly as it sounds real life, imagine having to deploy the S4 parachute IRL just to record the sound⊠Sound creations techniques exists for exactly this purpose.
The S4 Rotax engines sounds are certified to be as close as IRL by many pilots of the Sting S4. We developers have to come with solutions to provide you guys with very close to IRL sounds but we also have limitations, given the type of project the Sting S4 was, it meant I could not throw at it an unlimited budget, who will pay for example for an ultralight over 30-35 usd per copy for such a small airplane?
For my next project (M500) things are different, not only I have now more resources at my disposal, but the plane price tag can be expected different in the market as well. This time I had the capability to hire a real M500 for many hours so everything could be recorded live for it (it costs a fortune if you interested to know too, you basically have to charter the airplane to yourself for as long as you need it to record things).
Picture below from the day we performed the live recordings for M500:
I hope this clarifies things, WWISE for MSFS allows to share sounds from multiple sources, including other pre-recorded packages, but you can choose what sound to play from each package. Just because you find a file with the name of another project it doesnât mean everything has been copied 100% equally.
I am extremely proud of the results achieved with Sting S4, specially after the comments from many IRL pilots who uses this airplane in real life.
I always strive to provide the best quality possible for my products and support, the Sting S4 will continue to be improved after M500 is released, mostly implementing features people ask me via different channels. There is an additional ultralight using a Rotax engine 912s on my pipeline (TL3000), this time we managed to outsource a real airplane close to where the M500 sound engineer lives (a different person, is not the same sound guy that worked for S4), and we have scheduled for this year to record things directly for the TL-3000 instead of using pilots sending sounds, etc. When we release the TL-3000 if you guys consider you like the engine sounds result much more than the S4 implementation just pass the feedback and I am happy to invest the resources to re-fit these then for S4, however Rotax engines have a particular way and sound and I suspect it will be pretty close of what we currently already have, we shall see.
Thanks for everyone for the support and concerns. As stated above, Sting S4 improvements will continue, I have released many updates for it based on people feedback and request, including updated flight models to cater for live weather changes with SU9 to SU10, if we have to update the sounds later, then so be it. But for now I need to focus in creating new products since this way I can continue not only updating the entire product line but also supporting and feeding my family.
With Love,
Raul
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Thank you Raul for your passion and dedication.
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A reminder to please keep this conversation about the Orbx product. Thanks!
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I agree with the stroboscopic effect in VR. It is quite pronounced and distracting, with flickering white artifacts (particularly over trees), which detracts from the amazing visibility the aircraft otherwise offers. It is present in TAA and DLSS for me in both 2D and VR (G2 reverb). It would be amazing if they can address this in a future patch.
Other than that, I have found the plane an absolute joy to fly and just try to look around constantly so to not get to offput by the prop animations. New Zealand is perfect for that. The canopy tinting also seems to help with some of the oversaturation of ground textures in MSFS at times, but can make the sky quite dark when clouds are present. Since I have never been in a real Blackwing I have know idea about how realistic that is though.
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Thanks everybody for your feedback on Blackwing. Weâre working on addressing the main issues raised and rolling them into an update soon.
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Very excited to see what comes next. Thanks to the team for their hardwork and being receptive to feedback!
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For those who have mentioned the reflection issues in the canopy, this occurs when the âwindshield effectsâ in the graphics settings are set to âultraâ; when set to high these donât appear at all. Weâll see if we can reduce the reflectivity when we look at reducing the tint.
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Good video here for a different model showing there is almost no tint on the canopy at all and that the buttons are only illuminated when âonâ
Also I love that the gear lever is illuminated when the gear is down 
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Can this plane be bought at the Market? because I donât see him. I see the Caribou, the Optica, the Fokker 7 and the P750âŠ
Weâre preparing it for release on the Marketplace at present. Weâll also be releasing a small update soon to address some of the issues raised here and in other channels. A more transparent prop is coming!
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Good to hear. I actually think this is very good, just needs a few minor tweaks. Hopefully the canopy tint is one of those on the list?
Sure is! Weâve reduced it, though donât want to remove it entirely.
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How does this compare in cruising/max speed to Sting S4 and the VL-3 (915 Rotax mod)?
The canopy view of these 3 is great, just wondering how they compare on speed and other differentiated factors before deciding if Iâll take the plunge on the Sting or Blackwing, if they are different enough from the VL-3.
Itâs a bit like STOL, Iâm chock full of great STOL planes so Iâve passed on a lot of the recent ones.
I made a decision recently to really get to know my existing planes better, rather than keep accumulating, and itâs paying off in finesse & technique. (bit like guitars, actually!)
I gather the Sting has nice tablet/wear modelling (nice chute too), but is a bit of dog in the speed dept which is a big minus for me. I like to cruise both slow and fast, options are nice. Still, maybe I could get some fun out of the canopy rides, being a jumper, though itâs just an uncontrollable roundy.
Edit: Sadly, just saw this about possibility to overspeed the parachutes on these planes. Dan has some good advice. N424SW. He Had a Chute. So He Went. - YouTube (no graphics, just good insight)
So, whatâs the big USP of Blackwing (and its speeds)?
Why would I use it over/alongside the modded VL-3?
Sheâs pretty quick: Vne of 173kts (though itâll go a lot faster); itâs a world record holder in its class and can climb at 2000ft/min. The carbon fibre with clearcoat looks pretty sexy, too, when the light hits it.
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BTW, full disclosure (in case you hadnât seen from previous threads): I work for Orbx and worked on Blackwing.
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Both these changes sound amazing! Very much looking forward to the patch when it is released.
Thanks.
You should also check your manual when updating, as the Vne figures seem to be for previous versions.
ENGINE:
Rotax 915 iS (141 hp)
VNE TAS SL:
173kts (320km/h)
VNE TAS FL95:
200kts (370km/h)
CRUISE SPEED 65%:
185kts (343 km/h, 141 hp)
https://www.blackwing.aero/blackwing-fast-ultralight-rotax-915-bw-635rg-rectractable.aspx
vs
Orbx Manual says Vne 157 kts
Thanks! @FlyGuyDownUnder