ENVSHADE released.

[jimcarrel 688]

Administration tool

[Lenny777 299]

3 hours ago, kmax59 said:

Hi Lenny, 

There is no more issue on Envshade activation (which by the way was actually not caused by us but anyways, it doesn't matter). If you still can't get Envshade activated it's much much probably because of an incomplete authorization code. I still don't understand why many users don't paste their full code in the simmarket installer (the first 21 capital letters) but it happen to many people so I don't blame you, there's something that may be unclear.
We will add the possibility to change your license by yourself in the future updates, waiting for this feature please take a look at our FAQ explaining how to solve this, or simply send us  by mail your license file and your order ID, we will correct it for you and you will be good to go.

About the discount, I agree it's not a lot, but we couldn't make a 50% discount on such a low priced product. We didn't decided it was too complicated, simmarket said it was and asked if we would agree to apply the discount to everyone because it's complicated for them, and I can understand so we agreed.

Sorry if this launch bring you some frustration, as also being a flight simmer and not only a developer, I know how frustrating it is not being able to use the product you just bought, but you probably all know that issues often appears during an initial launch. We're doing our best to remove all the bugs before the release with our beta team but 10 users are nothing comparable to hundreds or thousands of users. Issues are almost inevitable during a release, believe me we're doing our best to solve all of the issues.

We also discovered a random issue with registry keys for windows 7 and windows 8 users that may cause an app crash during the splash screen, this will be solved in a few hours.

About the fact that Envtex is not integrated, well, we initially wanted to release both of the product for Envdir the same day. But after thinking about it we realized it was not a good idea at all, why? Because as I said above, bugs are inevitable during a release, releasing both products the same day would have multiplied the chances of issues by twice. The support request would also have been multiplied by twice and it would have been even harder for us to isolate the issues. 
As I'm providing support alone now and as we're only 2 developers in the team, it wouldn't have been serious to release both of them the same day and it would have possibly created even more frustration. However I admit we made a mistake not to be clear enough about the fact Envtex was not supposed to be integrated yet, as well as the user manual may not be clear enough.
No problem I totally understand and we will do what's needed to correct our errors. Hopefully I've been able to provide a pretty good support during these last 24 hours, but I really felt the need to have someone else in this task as Envshade seemed to be a very awaited product.

I hope you understand our point as we understand yours, but please be sure we are currently working very hard to solve everything as soon as possible. Once all of the important issues (i.e those preventing you to use the product) will be solved, we will create the Envtex 1.1.1 package and send it to simmarket so you'll be able to enjoy both of them from Envdir during the week-end.

Considering the amount of work I have to complete until this week-end I'm not able to answer everyone here, but please feel free to come on our forum and give us your opinion on what we failed to do correctly, on what you'd like to see improved or anything else. Any constructive feedback is always welcome, we're still a very yound development team and we still have a lot to learn.

Thank you all :)

Well that's funny because I pasted the entire code in the installer not once but twice. Accordingly it installed.  Your product is not the first to use the 5 activation max pasting code nonsense and apparently you state it is somehow our fault. It isn't. And I did directly post to you on your forum. Look it. Get this product unified and I'll come back and start all over again from scratch including reinstalling Envtex. Right now, frankly it is something I'm disappointed in where PTA was a clean install with no further nonsense. Thank you however for the time to respond. 

[kmax59 213]

No I didn't say it was your fault.

As per the 5 max activation this is a simmarket pre-requisite, this is not something we actually decided, but we decided to work with them and we also have to apply some of their rules, as they also have to adapt to work with us. About the code and the simmarket installer, well, it accepts the code even if the first 21 capital letters followed by a "-" are not included (this is actually your serial), this works when it comes to sceneries, but when an avanced interface like ours is checking the license, then it doesn't work if the license is not complete.

Please send me your license file, I will take a look at it, it won't cost you anything and may solve you issue. I'd like to tell you this is an issue and we're going to solve it but I can assure we don't receive any support request about that other than wrong licenses, I'm not saying this to say I'm right and you're wrong, absolutely not, it's just that this is the most probable reason.

I understand and recognize some points of this release wasn't clear enough, we also faced a few issues and unfortunately some of you are less lucky than others, again we cannot expect all the possible bugs with only 10 computers, but we couldn't have 100 beta testers.

Looking forward to your license to help you :)

[Lenny777 299]

3 hours ago, kmax59 said:

No I didn't say it was your fault.

As per the 5 max activation this is a simmarket pre-requisite, this is not something we actually decided, but we decided to work with them and we also have to apply some of their rules, as they also have to adapt to work with us. About the code and the simmarket installer, well, it accepts the code even if the first 21 capital letters followed by a "-" are not included (this is actually your serial), this works when it comes to sceneries, but when an avanced interface like ours is checking the license, then it doesn't work if the license is not complete.

Please send me your license file, I will take a look at it, it won't cost you anything and may solve you issue. I'd like to tell you this is an issue and we're going to solve it but I can assure we don't receive any support request about that other than wrong licenses, I'm not saying this to say I'm right and you're wrong, absolutely not, it's just that this is the most probable reason.

I understand and recognize some points of this release wasn't clear enough, we also faced a few issues and unfortunately some of you are less lucky than others, again we cannot expect all the possible bugs with only 10 computers, but we couldn't have 100 beta testers.

Looking forward to your license to help you :)

I've sent an email to you guys with my order number and original key.

[dukeav 46]

I have a question. I have Rex Textures + Soft Clouds + ASCA. So Envshade will still work fine? I don’t want to add in Envtex. Is there anything special to be done in settings?

@kmax59

Edited November 3, 2017 by dukeav

[OmniAtlas 93]

So, I'm planning to purchase one or the other - PTA, or Enshade. Heard enshade only works well with the entex? 

Whats the verdict? Which shader program works best?

 

 

[mikeymike 357]

18 hours ago, WebMaximus said:

Maybe you're right about the clouds. I'm using ENVTEX clouds and find them really good.

Did you try URP?

If not I suggest you give it a try since it's free and again IMO gives the most realistic result of all different shader presets and methods I've tried and I think I've tried them all by now.

I also use the sky textures that are included with URP and another thing I like is how nothing is overwritten when using URP meaning there's no need for any backups.

Urp shaders

envtex sky random

sun moon water snow etc

intergrated with Asca clouds 

looks amazing

 

[anden145 2,284]

2 hours ago, OmniAtlas said:

So, I'm planning to purchase one or the other - PTA, or Enshade. Heard enshade only works well with the entex? 

Whats the verdict? Which shader program works best?

 

 

It depends on what you want out of your product.

If you like the set-and-forget experience, where there's minimal settings and you just let the program do the 'hard' work, get ENVSHADE - although ENVTEX and ASCA/AS16 is recommended as well in that constellation - but I guess it should/could work as a standalone.

If you like to tinker and experiment with settings and shaders, trying different presets and have a multitude of options to play with - well, then get PTA.

[C525B 86]

3 hours ago, OmniAtlas said:

So, I'm planning to purchase one or the other - PTA, or Enshade. Heard enshade only works well with the entex? 

Whats the verdict? Which shader program works best?

I don't think you'll find a consensus in this thread without starting more arguments... try the URP shaders first (free) before you buy anything.

I've tried all three and these are my thoughts...

• PTA - probably tried 20 presets, didn't find anything that provided the balance I want.  I think if everybody took the time to learn the tool and spent the hours & hours & countless sim restarts it takes to make a personalized preset they would eventually make something that suited their taste, but that's a huge commitment.
• EnvShade (without EnvTex).  EnvShade seemed to be a good improvement over stock and better than most of the PTA presets I tested, but I haven't tried it in all conditions yet.
• URP - heavy on the contrast and all the presets have a heavy sepia tone, but I love the aggressive shadows, sunset/sunrise colors, and the look of haze.  I edited some of the shaders manually to dial back the sepia and I haven't found anything better since.  Still has some artifacts/glitches...some you will find with all shader mods (inherent to P3D, cloud-induced shadows disappear/reduce at certain camera headings) and some seem to be unique to the particular settings URP uses (miniature cloud shadows that chase the camera...occasionally)

URP is free, PTA is cheaper than buying an aircraft add-on, EnvShade costs less than lunch.

[OmniAtlas 93]

Thanks mate, I'll give URP a go first since its free. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Anders Bermann said:

It depends on what you want out of your product.

If you like the set-and-forget experience, where there's minimal settings and you just let the program do the 'hard' work, get ENVSHADE - although ENVTEX and ASCA/AS16 is recommended as well in that constellation - but I guess it should/could work as a standalone.

If you like to tinker and experiment with settings and shaders, trying different presets and have a multitude of options to play with - well, then get PTA.

Of course you can also use PTA as a set-and-forget experience: you do not HAVE to tinker and experiment. I didn't. I use PTA, tried various preset and finally used the one I liked. Didn't tweak anything at all. So I used 'minimal settings' and I let the program do the 'hard' work and all that with PTA.  

If you don't want to tweak etc. and you don't own any of these products yet it seems the obvious choice to get ENVSHADE but as I said before: you only get one preset with it... if you don't like it, bad luck. With PTA you get as many presets as there are on the internet. Big advantage. So even for those who don't like to tinker and experiment PTA might be a better choice. (And as a bonus: you don't have to install ENVDIR which has no use at all if you don't own ENVTEX: PTA doesn't need to be installed at all and runs from wherever you unzip it.) 

Hm, this turned out as a promotion for PTA: it wasn't meant that way. I am just trying to educate those who are interested in buying one of these addons. 

[WebMaximus 372]

And to add once more what both I and someone else already suggested, give URP a go before you buy any other products since URP is free and thus won't cost you a dime.

I already bought PTA and have tried more presets I can remember and even tried modifying some of them but in the end I like URP best so that's what I'm using now. One more nice thing with URP is you get free sky textures as well which might be nice if you don't already own some other sky textures you like such as ENVTEX. You also get a sun mod with URP but that one I'm not using since I'm already happy with the sun that comes with ENVTEX.

Haven't tried ENVSHADE yet but maybe I will considering the low price and the fact I like ENVTEX so much and think the developer seems to be a really nice dude. On the other hand I'm not sure considering how happy I already am with URP.

Speaking about ENVSHADE, one question I didn't see answered yet is if ENVSHADE uses some new technology that will allow it to dynamically change things the other shader add-ons can't? Before ENVSHADE was released this was a rather hot topic so now that it has been released, did anyone of those who already tried it out notice any such new features?

[simbol 5,818]

Hello @kmax59

I have a question that might help new users / customers for Envshade, assuming you don't have PTA, you don't have Envdir and you don't have Envext:

1) Can you use EnvShade?

2) What advantages EnvShade will give to the user under this circumstances?

3) Does it integrates with Re-Shade? if it does how is this done and what advantages would it give to the end user.

Best Regards,

Simbol

[roland_lfor 245]

2 minutes ago, simbol said:

Hello @kmax59

I have a question that might help new users / customers for Envshade, assuming you don't have PTA, you don't have Envdir and you don't have Envext:

1) Can you use EnvShade?

2) What advantages EnvShade will give to the user under this circumstances?

3) Does it integrates with Re-Shade? if it does how is this done and what advantages would it give to the end user.

Best Regards,

Simbol

ENVDIR is required (but free) to use ENVSHADE.

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, WebMaximus said:

And to add once more what both I and someone else already suggested, give URP a go before you buy any other products since URP is free and thus won't cost you a dime.

 

Well, the thing is... I'd rather fly than try things out.  And I also like to keep things simple for whenever I want or need to reinstall everything. It was already a big step for me to get PTA LOL and after fooling around with it for a while I once again thought: yes, I like things simple and I settled with Matt's preset, mainly because I actually liked it but also because I can be sure that with every update of PTA that preset will be updated too. And the way I use it is it SIMPLE too. Now ENVSHADE might also be simple but it requires an additional program to run which has to be installed etc. PTA only has to be unzipped and it works. I looked at URP and it needs PTA, it needs Re-shade, you need to copy files all over the place... that alone is enough to stop me from giving it a try, specially since I am happy with what I've got right now. Things look great on my PC so why bother to make it look great again...?

This yearning for simpleness (is that proper English?) also is the reason I don't use REX or ENVTEX or ASCA anymore. I have ONE file I use for clouds: it looks great and it's simple to use (copy, paste) and doesn't need to be installed. REX and ENVTEX and ASCA come with way too many options which only cost SSD space and of which I'd probably only use a few all the time. (I never understand why REX keeps adding stuff to their program: it offers enough already, who needs yet another 10 GB of textures?!?).

But well, this is getting OT.  

3 hours ago, C525B said:

URP - heavy on the contrast and all the presets have a heavy sepia tone, but I love the aggressive shadows, sunset/sunrise colors, and the look of haze.  I edited some of the shaders manually to dial back the sepia and I haven't found anything better since.  Still has some artifacts/glitches...some you will find with all shader mods (inherent to P3D, cloud-induced shadows disappear/reduce at certain camera headings) and some seem to be unique to the particular settings URP uses (miniature cloud shadows that chase the camera...occasionally)

This doesn't help either to convince me to give URP a try.