Sting S4 from FSReborn is released in the MSFS marketplace

[abrams_tank 7,426]

I think many of us know @simbol very well in the AVSIM forums.  Well, his Sting S4 has been released in the MSFS marketplace.  It's a high fidelity GA plane, and even wear and tear, and failures are simulated.  You can read more about it here at the FSElite article about it: https://fselite.net/content/fsreborn-announces-sting-s4-for-microsoft-flight-simulator-comes-with-full-brs/.

Congrats @simbol, welcome to MSFS! May your Sting S4 be immensely successful in MSFS!

Edited May 27, 2022 by abrams_tank

[JYW 2,984]

It includes Nav, Strobe and Landing Light bulbs that wear out!   ..... and simulated tyre pressure varies, according to ambient temperature.    Oh yes, this is one super-detailed little ultralight / LSA;  a long time dream of mine in any sim!

It's a shame my NPPL(A/M) licence won't let me take that electric prop out of Auto!

A huge congratulations @simbol on this release of this labour of love!

Now...... when is the Sirius TL-3000 and Piper M500 out please?  😄

Edited May 27, 2022 by JYW

[Malaromane 424]

I predict a spate of images in the Screenshot forum of the Sting S4 balanced on various world objects with a spent parachute hanging off it. This'll be fun.

Looking forward to picking up this aircraft once I get home from work.

[Flic1 977]

Hmmm, this looks cool!  Might have to get this for my sight-seeing flights. @simbol is a perfectionist and I loved his AI lights product in P3D.  As much as I hate MS Marketplace, I will make an exception for this one....😄

[abrams_tank 7,426]

1 minute ago, Flic1 said:

Hmmm, this looks cool!  Might have to get this for my sight-seeing flights. @simbol is a perfectionist and I loved his AI lights product in P3D.  As much as I hate MS Marketplace, I will make an exception for this one....😄

@simbol had a long post about why he used the MSFS marketplace.  In general, @simbol used the MSFS marketplace because it offers protections from piracy, as well as other benefits.  You can read his reasoning here:

 

Quote

For the guys that were asking why MP only, I explained one of the many reasons here: https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/619044-sting-s4-round-the-world-parachute-deployments/page/2/

DRM handling is massive, to this day I am still clearing licensing keys for AI Lights Reborn Professional (P3D) when people change computers, etc. and I am not even selling more than 3 copies per month.. every-time someone activates AILRP for the first time I get charged $2 usd for DRM handling.. not to mention the difficulties and time it takes to code DRM protection, installers, etc.

Now some people argue DRM development is pointless, well folks that might be the case when you can sell million of copies of a product.. so for UBISOFT, Activision and such large firms piracy is a problem but not an issue, however for small companies such as my family business + operating on a niche market such as Flight Simulation, piracy it is a big problem.. I know 3rd party devs on this business where their products pretty much stops selling as soon as it gets pirated, and this can occur as fast as 24 to 72 hours after release! at which point and I quote, "they sold 4 copies in the last 3 months, after having around 70 copies daily".

So yea, it is a big issue.. so in order for me to to sell via other platforms, these platforms should provide some type of DRM protection out of the box, unfortunately so far none of them offer any despite the heavy percentage in royalty fees they charge.

Now since none of these platforms offer any DRM solution, I would have to engineer one myself (which is quiet challenging for MSFS).. alongside with an installer, etc. at which point then I am better off selling via my own website right, what's the point selling thru other platforms if I am building myself everything to distribute? however if I sell via my own website, I cannot reach the Xbox market since this is only possible via Market Place, so this means, I still would have to submit to MP as I just did right now anyway, so what would I have achieved? re-invented the wheel?, waste lots of time and resources and setup myself to support multiple ways of updating a product plus all the headaches to support DRM, installers, etc?.

Since more products will come this and next year,  I am building a business model that is more cost effective so I can keep on building new content instead of being stuck at support. This is very important when you are a small company such as me (Me and my wife), Flight Simulation is a business with diminishing returns, this means as time pass by, you receive less income from current products since the add-on's start to sell less, so unless you have a new product to sell, cash flow stops.. the key to success in the flight simulation industry is to keep innovating, provide great support and keep creating new content. Without these 3 key elements, you will go nowhere.

Therefore to keep those 3 standards as high as possible for FSReborn, at this point in time the best course of action is to deliver products via MP only, the benefit is for everyone over the long run. 

• You buy the product once and it works on multiple PCs, Consoles, XCloud, anything where you install MSFS the product shows for you as "OWNED".. it is yours and you can install / uninstall as you please without having to contact me at any time.
   
• When I push an update, you all receive it automatically. I only need to push it once.. done!. and you get it via all your devices with MSFS. Market Place team has enabled tools for us to update products faster, so don't be concerned about this, things are moving in the right direction, this helped me to weight more towards market place.
   
• By having my products on MP it allows Asobo team to have access to them automatically, this means when I report an issue with the SDK, they can test it quicker on their HQ and even on Xbox consoles to provide help. (Not sure if you guys are aware, but we are unable to test on Xbox consoles our products our self's.. we depend on Microsoft market place team). Think about the big advantage of this, not just for ME.. but for You too.. if I say to Asobo guys the function to reset the electrical battery doesn't work, check the Sting S4 and you will see a sample.. they will be able to replicate it quicker, fix the SDK and I will be able to improve and create better products in the future.. well not only me, all 3rd party devs as well.
   
• If I am not wasting time dealing with DRM, licenses, installation issues, etc. what I am doing? Developing new things!
  
  Surely you want to see my upcoming M500 turbo soon right? I have also an Ultralight TL 3000 with floaters.. and also the TL 3000 with gears, planning both to be sold as a combo (2 x aircraft)  with more features than the S4 and I am aiming at the same price range.. and the only reason I can keep these low prices + high quality product is by reducing developing costs!.. no installer licenses, no DRM licenses (we devs have to pay for DRM licenses in many cases to use 3rd party solutions), no SSL certificates to handle the installers so they don't fail, no CDN (Content Delivery Network) costs, etc. If you are wondering what is CDN costs, well storing the files for products on the cloud cost money, think the gigabytes of data for all the updates, textures quality you guys love, etc. this increases the size of installers, updates, etc. and we get charged monthly to host things online, and the more we host? the more it cost, it scales very quickly.. unfortunately over time we sell less.. but we still have to pay the bills for DRM, CDN, SSL, etc. with costs that actually are not reduced.. they get increased with inflation...
  
  Microsoft doesn't charge us for the DRM handling, Installations, CDN, etc. they only charge their required royalty fees which are the same as the other platforms, but in my view I have much more added benefits with MS. 

So there you have it, as usual with my heart open and honesty.. this is why it will be MP only.

Now I understand some people might have some issues with MP, first time I read such comments to be honest, so what I suggest is that if you guys get lots of issues obtaining the S4 is to please make me aware of this so I can pass the feedback to the Market Place team in order to see what we can do to improve things. Without feedback of course we cannot improve stuff, so hopefully we can make things easier for everyone and keep my time focusing in building new exiting products for MSFS.

Once again thanks to everyone for the incredible support, on behalf of the FSReborn family thank you for all the kind words and feedback we have received after seeing the capabilities of what we can deliver, we will bring more! and more exiting things to all of you.. currently finishing something with Edson and Keven //42 which will delight many of you.. at the same time, M500 is coming along nicely and it has been rendered for the first time in MSFS 🙂

Love to everyone.
Raul

 

[Matchstick 1,887]

Is there any documentation for the Sting model for things like what the performance numbers are and how the Auto Prop Pitch system works.

Additionally is the IAS button on the AP panel really meant to be completely disabled while you can still press the VNAV one ?

[daowl24 5]

Hi, just purchased the Sting and just finished one flight. I very much like the wear and tear functionality, the tyre pressure and stuff brings a lot to immersion, very well done! However, the Sting is veeery sensitive in crosswind, especially while on the ground. I also have noticed that the

'virtual' stick seem to follow a non-linear curve, even though I have set the control curves to linear. What are the recommended settings here?

EDIT: I had the initial thought that it might be due to the lack of pressure on the stick in the simulation, that I might be 'oversteering'. But the virtual stick does not move analogue to my joystick inputs.

Edited May 27, 2022 by daowl24

[Car147 2,279]

Just had a look to see what all the fuss was about on Fabio's stream, and wow! what a complete cracking little aircraft, with so much detail and immersion, a definate buy from me.

[pemigris 31]

Hi all, 

I saw that pms gtn is supported. Will the tds gtn also be supported or is it already? 

 

[SAS443 1,727]

Will pick it up this weekend, for sure! 🙂

One of the things pilots unfamiliar with this segment of planes will notice,  is the crazy amount of drag created by the flaps. These planes have less inertia than say your average C172/PA28 and if you cut the power above the threshold with full flaps, you are in for a nasty surprise. Speed vanishes instantly (since you don't have much weight pushing you forward), and those short, high loaded wings will happily stop flying soon after. You will land like a brick - my own non-scientifical empirical findings. 😎. The BRM Aero I fly has 10/25 degrees flap selection, this Sting S4 uses 15/40(!) degrees.

Speaking of flaps, since they are so effective, deployment is unnecessary on downwind. It's fine to extend 1st stage of flaps on base-leg (and if the runway is long, more flaps is not needed). The SOP I use basically condemns full flaps unless the rwy is short (450m or so). And if you use full flaps, it's imperative to keep the power ON until just before touchdown.

These planes are not meant to be flown like a Cessna/Piper. They are way more agile, will lose altitude extremely easy. But at the same time, you have a technological marvel at your disposal in the Garmin G3X and the airliner-style autopilot. 

Say what you want, but these planes are the future of GA together with the electric offerings. Fuel consumption is half compared to a vintage PA28.

Great to see this release for MSFS, @simbol

 

[Torsen 495]

36 minutes ago, pemigris said:

Hi all, 

I saw that pms gtn is supported. Will the tds gtn also be supported or is it already? 

 

In the fsreborn discord you will find a mod channel with a TDS exchange package.

Cheers

T.

[Torsen 495]

1 hour ago, Matchstick said:

Is there any documentation for the Sting model for things like what the performance numbers are and how the Auto Prop Pitch system works.

Additionally is the IAS button on the AP panel really meant to be completely disabled while you can still press the VNAV one ?

You can check the manufacturers POH in deep. https://www.tl-ultralight.cz/file/edee/2018/10/sting_s4_poh_lsa.pdf

Cheers

T.

[simbol 5,821]

As Torsen has posted, the entire MSFS airplane is following the original airplane POH (https://www.tl-ultralight.cz/file/edee/2018/10/sting_s4_poh_lsa.pdf) pretty much to the letter, so by reading original aircraft manual you can flight it in MSFS. I implemented also full MSFS interactive checklist, this can help you to get familiar with the aircraft pretty quick.

The EFB also has a FAQ section where most of the common questions are answered.

we disabled IAS when we enabled CFD and new prop physics.. after SU10 we will implement it again, the reason is the new CFD modelling makes this operation a bit unstable and we need more SDK capabilities to make it better, this is due to the fact of how the 3 different flying models implemented in the S4 interact (custom ground physics, MSFS modern flight model + CFD + new prop physics and the Parachute flight model).

Best,
Raul

Edited May 27, 2022 by simbol

[Steve Dra 7,588]

First leisurely flight around Clearwater Beach in Tampa....

On the tarmac afterwards...Note the in-tact plexiglass and chute where it's supposed to be. LOL.  I resisted the urge! 🙂 

Great little flier @simbol!  Great job by you and your team.  Now my go to sightseeing plane! 🙂   Can't wait for the high speed long range cruiser you're working on! 😉 

 

And I just got Sandy's seal of approval!  I showed it to her....she likes it and thinks its "cute" 🙂 

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by Steve Dra

[Fielder 3,683]

4 hours ago, Malaromane said:

I predict a spate of images in the Screenshot forum of the Sting S4 balanced on various world objects with a spent parachute hanging off it. This'll be fun.

Looking forward to picking up this aircraft once I get home from work.

Yes, if wind currents and your home location are fortuitous, then there may be one waiting for you, right in your backyard.