ENVSHADE announced

[gregda 21]

The TOGA website has a news announcement today this has been released.  Don't see it on any vendor sites yet.  Guess it is a PTA sort of shaders mod program but it all does the modifications behind the scene and seems dynamic based on environmental conditions (weather, time of day, etc.).  Really interested to see how this pans out and others thoughts on it.

[scottb613 1,187]

Hi Folks,

Well I like their ENVTEX product - be interested in seeing some reviews - I'm intrigued...

Regards,

Scott

[B777ER 2,484]

Really really curious how this is compared to PTA. I know with PTA I could set it up so the haze, especially during the summer months was very realistic. As well, I could have the nights dark like they are supposed to be unlike how the default looks. I have Envtex and will be waiting to see some reviews on this....

[twojastara 85]

From what I understand, they did modify the shaders by themselves. So it is not a preset for PTA. It is just doing the work of PTA and some more other stuff.

I really like Envtex and their previous preset (PTA absolute), so I am watching this closely.

[Flic1 972]

I got the email about this but I don't think it has been released yet.  It appears it was just an announcement of the product to be released sometime this month.  Looks interesting but what I have found with all of the shader 'presets' is that it is hard to find one where everything suits your liking.  If daytime looks great, nighttime usually doesn't look good, etc, etc.  It does not appear these can be tweaked or adjusted but for the minimal price I will likely give them a try when released.  I really like their Envtex product.

[scottb613 1,187]

Hi Folks,

Where is it released ?

The couple screenshots on the TOGA forum look really dark and dreary...

Regards,

Scott

[gregda 21]

Sorry I misunderstood 'announced' from 'released'.  The news article just announced it formally I guess.  Maybe the thread title could be changed to 'ENVSHADE announced'.  I got carried away seeing all this might be able to do...whether it does it to everyone's satisfaction is a good point and yet to be seen.

[FalconAF 213]

If the new shader product will truly be dynamic, it will be a game changer.  The thing I don't like now about all the various shader addons (freeware or payware) is you can't get both a day and night shader preset configuration to work without having to restart the sim for separate presets.  Makes flying flights that overlap those time frames a pain in the *ss now.

 

[WebMaximus 372]

I'm really looking forward to this one too!

Maybe I misunderstood but I was under the impression that the product is already completed and now we're just waiting for SimMarket to pull their finger out.

[Sethos 4,299]

Eh, reading their Facebook and digging around, it sounds like another "PTA-like" preset they rolled into a proprietary software and their "exclusive" features are just their custom tweaks they also used in their PTA preset, which they want to protect now. Smells like an easy money grab as anything involving the word "shaders" seem to get people hot under the collar these days. 

[B777ER 2,484]

11 minutes ago, Sethos1988 said:

Eh, reading their Facebook and digging around, it sounds like another "PTA-like" preset they rolled into a proprietary software and their "exclusive" features are just their custom tweaks they also used in their PTA preset, which they want to protect now. Smells like an easy money grab as anything evolving the word "shaders" seem to get people hot under the collar these days. 

If true, won't be buying. Rubbish.

[Sethos 4,299]

15 minutes ago, B777ER said:

If true, won't be buying. Rubbish.

Only speculating here. It's just the vibe I'm getting from the description and the vagueness of the developers. Here's a response to a guy suggesting a similar thing;

Quote

In essence our new product tweaks the shaders, absolutely, which you can do with PTA. 
But not all Envshade tweaks are feasible using PTA, moreover PTA is not free and Envshade results are unachievable using PTA. 
Also, some of our custom tweaks we created from scratch in our free PTA presets were used by other developers, including PTA itself without any credits. 
Envshade will help protecting our work as well as allowing users to get something easier to use without the need to work on anything.
You can of course edit your shaders manually for free, but this is not something most of the simmers want to do. 

Why would another developer be more rightful than TOGA projects to create a product and sell his work? We have always been totally respecful with our customers regarding supports and price philosophy and your usual comments sounds pretty unfair.

Not really seeing any focus on 'dynamic' shaders, as people here are suggesting. What I am seeing, is a vague "But not all Envshade tweaks are feasible using PTA" that explains very little and then a long passage of basically protecting their custom PTA preset tweaks. Everything I've seen so far just smells like them selling a PTA preset with some custom lines they want to lock down so nobody can see them.

[gregda 21]

The Envshade page states "highly realistic shaders reacting to many environment variables...", so I`m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt about it being 'dynamic` until proven otherwise.  But yeah if it is just some static embedded PTA equivalent to hide thier settings then it is a no go for me also.  But I'm sure they understand savy customers will have a close eye on this so are pushing for dynamic operation that PTA can`t do.

[vgbaron 3,496]

LOL! Is the ANY product announcement that we can NOT have wild speculation about. I can almost guarantee that regardless of how they do it, *IF* the product is good enough AND unique enough - we will buy it, period.

 

Vic

[cannonplug 126]

I'm very happy with the job TOGA did with Envtex (and with the support they provided when I had an issue). I'm willing to spend the 5 euros to check this thing out. Doesn't seem like much of a money grab to me.