Before I address my points, I would like to extend my gratitude and admiration for IK being around and delivering great content at an affordable price.
Here is a bit of information regarding my experience with installation and interaction with the content.
Installation:
After buying a copy to "Total Studio Max 2" I realized how tedious installation is, I cringe at having to do it again after a reformatting my system. I'm aware that there are many alternatives to streamlining the process to bring the content back into my system.
This brings me to the main point I want to address, which is the installers. Installers were a good way to deliver content in the past, although, now it seems a bit dated. With the libraries being so large, we end up with a long and daunting task of running an installer; over and over again. I'm can't remember if they get registered in the Windows "Programs and Features/Uninstall or change a program" list, if they do, it makes for some major congestion.
I've wizened up since the last time I've installed IK content and skip over the installers. I use a program called "Level Zap", that works as a windows context menu to move files out of a folder and deleted the folder that once contained them.
I have bumped into a few "overwrite" issues, as some files seem to be contained in other content folders. I'm not sure if I lost some content in this event.
In contrast to many of the other vendors, most of them have gone with a download manager. The download manager(s) read the sever and download the content, unzip them and install the content the a specified directory. For programs, it downloads the installer zip, unzips it and, runs the installer.
Not sure why IK is still splitting content into multiple zip files, other vendors are just releasing one extra large archive(s). More files take longer than one big file, in my experience.
If bandwidth transfer is a consideration, zips aren't the only archive type. A download manager can be equipped other compression tools and types. I've seen files compressed then compressed again to greatly reduce files sizes. I imagine an download manager can handle all the unzipping in the background.
In the same line of thought, I'm aware compression technology may be proprietary but most patents have expired by now.
Again there is a trade off of what is most efficient, double compression may take longer on the user end.
Authorization:
I find myself wondering if I've properly authorized all my licenses. The "Authorization Manager" works well, although, I can't see what has been properly loaded. As "authorizations" are limited, I'm hoping I'm not wasting two for one authorization.
Some touch points seems dated:
Some of the touch points are not HD/Wide Screen compatible. To name a couple that I've seen are:
this forum
the "Custom Shop" app portal
The header on this forum needs a bit of an update to standard text and/or SVG. I'm aware that most forums and websites don't support wide screen natively.
The "Custom Shop" app portal seems like it's "stuck in time". At a glance all the graphics look SVG or high res, although because it's and app, it seems to ignore Windows scaling settings; so all the text is rendered at 100% and making text tiny. It too, doesn't have any wide screen adaptation.
I do find it useful for seeing what gear I have available to me.
In closing, I thank anyone in advance for consideration. I will also stress that these are not demands and just some of my thoughts. I'm chaotic neutral by nature, so, for me it's "if it's fixed, break it, and fix it again".
My installation went smoothly, so far. Although, now my M.2 SSD is full to the point of efficiency (70%). Looks like Miroslav Philharmonik 2 is going to have to be installed on my SSD.
Pureinfotech:Why solid-state drive (SSD) performance slows down as it becomes full
Best regards,
Justin
