Seriously, can't we make Kontakt bigger?
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Hi Jeremy,
if the beta is stable and it allows going back to the latest non-beta version fairly easily (meaning without having to uninstall everything that is NI in my system drive), then definitely sign me up.
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I think it is unfair to say that "it's mostly been laziness not to tweak a few things here and there" and you make it sound like it's fairly trivial to make Kontakt HiDPI compatible. It absolutely IS NOT, for a myriad of reasons including 20 years of tech debt, using a homebrew UI framework which knows jack squat about HiDPI since it was made way before HiDPI was a thing and was never updated to support it. I've seen the codebase, so this is a fact, rather than something somebody on a forum thinks how the situation is. It's not easy, it's extremely complicated, and will have to be done in steps. And frankly it's really rude to assume everything is just a few tweaks here and there. You don't know how the situation is, really.
And yes, there are people working on it. It will take time. Sit tight.
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Sure, I don't know the code. But I know pretty much every other software company has been working on making their GUIs HiDPI compatible for many years, since around 2016 or 2017, and no matter how hard the code is, neither you nor anybody else is going to make me believe that the NI software engineers have been working on this since those years and still couldn't finish this gigantic task.
To me it seems more like a case of "We're one of the big players in this arena, and many other companies that are also big players use our engine, so we don't have to worry about this for now". And then one day, maybe a year ago, they said "Well, I guess we have to get off our butts now and start working on HiDPI or people are gonna stop buying our products."
Sorry, but I don't buy it. I'm not complaining about this in 2018, even 2019. I'm complaining about this in 2023.
And besides, if you have to make your line of products HiDPI, why start with Guitar Rig, a product that is not that hard to use in 4K monitors as of version 5, instead of starting with the two that need it the most, Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol, especially the latter? Why give K7 a half HiDPI half legacy GUI, but at least a usable combination, and not make it THE program to manage the NI keyboards, instead of something like KK that is tiny and blurry?
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Well, it's a beta, it's for testing purposes. Maybe it's better for you to wait for the update release.
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It’s obvious really why they started with Guitar Rig - because they had actually already started with their newer fx such as Raum which all had resizable hi res interfaces and a new graphics framework from the start. Since they wanted to include those in Guitar Rig it made sense to update the other graphics assets and framework too.
That was nothing like the challenge of updating Kontakt - they have started with the relatively ‘easy’ part, the browser, and changing the size of the windows and fonts is also reasonably doable but every library also needs graphics assets updating and even then they can’t do anything about the huge third party community apart from give them a new set of tools that are more hires savvy so they are having to do a lot more than they did with Guitar Rig and similar problem really with Reaktor. I do agree though that Komplete Kontrol could have been updated to be hires sooner - it doesn’t have a lot of graphical elements to change, it is basically just a container. My only guess as to why is they don't see the point without everything else being HD first, it would be like 'putting lipstick on a pig' as they say. So I hope it will come after they complete Kontakt (since Reaktor isn't going to be HD anytime soon).
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Kymeia has it exactly right.
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OK, so that makes sense, in theory they would have to update lots of graphical UI assets (which I offered them to do for free when it comes to those that just need a basic enlargement and can be ran in a batch, but got no response).
But so far I've said plenty about an easy way to make their GUIs more tolerable for HiDPI monitors, but before I finish with this, I want to show what I'm talking about, and maybe someone from NI or a user with some coding knowledge can say if this is possible or not.
I think I mentioned in Windows there's a simple method to make older programs scale up to a tolerable size, even if they look a bit fuzzy, but at least they're enough to read without causing headaches. (This is how I'm able to still use Adobe Encore, which last version was CS6 in 2012, so there's absolutely no HiDPI code in it, and it launches in real 5K, so you need binoculars to see the menus.)
This is an example of that. I recently had to buy a new UPS, and the control panel for it was created with some custom old code or something, but as it is, it looks tiny:
So you can go into the program properties in Windows, and set it this way:
And this is the result:
You can see the difference between both here:
So this is basically a simple enlargement of 50%, or if you prefer, 150% of the original size.
Obviously I asked myself if I did this to KK and Kontakt in Windows, if it would have the same result. Unfortunately, no. It seems to be backwards.
I'm just going to show KK, since it's basically the same thing. So, this is KK as installed, without any extra settings in Windows:
Now, if I do the same thing I did with the UPS program above, what I get is this:
So the thing that basically enlarges older apps to make them more visible, in this case makes KK even smaller.
Now, I don't have internal knowledge of the code they used for KK and K7, so there may be a logical reason for this.
But, the point of spending all the time I spent installing a very barebones installation of KK and K7 in my Windows machine, and then take all these screenshots and label them, is that hopefully someone at NI or a user with more knowledge of these programs under the hood, might be able to say "Oh, it's just a simple scaling, no redesign of the tons of graphical elements, interactive items like knobs, buttons, drop down lists, etc. Just a simple scaling up, that's doable."
And if that's the case, NI can easily do that, and I will be happily spared a lot of migraines because I want to use their awesome software at a size that I can see without making the rest of the OS huge if I set it to 1920x1080.
And trust me, if this is possible, there will be a lot of people really happy, and whoever makes Excedrin Migraine will lose a s**tload of money in sales.
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Yeah, but if they come out with 'Kontakt 4K' and charge you $500, that money could have gone towards a 60 inch TV. 😋
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Hahahah, well, I think at this point they owe us a HiDPI version for free, at least for those who bought Komplete or the individual products since 2018.
But I'm happy if they find a way to do what I suggested above until they finish the real HiDPI versions.
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I don't know about this term 'HiDPI'. But the release of a scalable vector based 'Player' - which is always free - would require less conversion than the full sampler version and be a possibility.
Imagine what they must think if they read these fantastical speculative ramblings though.
Oh well, my reputation precedes me. 😎
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Right now - the user base needs a Kontakt (Any flavour) that does not crash and actually works like v6 used to. Judging by the threads here, there and everywhere - Kontakt has much more pressing issues than a HiDPI update.
Would not hurt to actually give the user base a bit more value in the actual utility of K7 - I feel like I paid for a new browser (oh and the "refreshed" factory library and that's it.
VP
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I couldn't agree more. This GUI on my system is an Eye Chart and I'm already wearing glasses from too many years starring at monitors and the rediculously tiny font sizes. Making this a variable size so it's not this tiny would be a great start in satisfying everyone using this interface. Ease of use could very well be a deciding factor in any new customers view when nearly all other platforms provide a variable size capability already. Come on NI get with the program please!
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The problem is the people WILL sit tight. But in a chair of another company…
I think what is unfair is to continue defending some NI behaviors. As we said about other arguments, ALL companies must face the problems and challenges NI has to face…the only difference is they don’t take as an excuse old programming or Apple changing the OS. ALL companies had to adapt to Apple, ALL companies had to change their framework to adapt to new technologies, ALL companies had programs made before this or that was a thing…but they worked on it and delivered way before NI did (or…will do, since some things are not here yet…and who knows if they would ever be, since they don’t communicate).
If something “was never updated to support it”…who had to update it? Us? The users?
The “fact” is not seeing a codebase and stating it is old, but stating it is old because NOBODY updated it.
It’s not easy? It’s extremely complicated? Yes, it has been for ALL other companies…but they did it.
Sorry, nothing against you…but seeing these kind of blind defenses of NI is not useful to the company…nor it’s teaching anything to them about how to treat their customers…or take responsibilities for their operate.
I defend NI when it’s the case to defend them, but with my eyes wide open, no blind defenses here. When it’s time to tell them what they did wrong, I speak out loud…since they seem not to recognize their errors.
Otherwise, without any improvement on their behaviors, people will go and sit tight in some other company’s chair. And NI will fail and close. And we will lose our beloved products
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And a clear indication of their behaviors is just up there. People discussing about serious matters and someone from NI chiming in just to answer to someone asking about a beta. And completely ignoring ALL the other customers…
It just seems to me like this child’s behavior, when while facing something that scares them they just shut the eyes thinking the problem doesn’t exist, if they don’t see it…
Well…shutting the eyes you won’t even see the customers sailing away, dear NI…
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But…once again, we are here arguing between us, the users. And all of this will be ignored…
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