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Better Trails - Unity3D Trail Replacement (Trails, smoke plumes, skid marks, etc!)

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Pigeon Coop, Mar 19, 2014.

  1. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    Just purchased, subscribed to watch further development.
     
  2. bdream

    bdream

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    Apr 25, 2014
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    13
    Hi,

    I just got this asset today. Quick question, how can I change the color of the trail at runtime (I mean by script). I try to change the material or the color of the material, it does not do anything.

    Thanks for your help.
     
  3. bdream

    bdream

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    Apr 25, 2014
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    My bad ... the issue was in my code.
     
  4. McMayhem

    McMayhem

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    Aug 24, 2011
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    Alright, so apparently @Pigeon Coop is either busy with other projects or has abandoned "Better Trails" for other endeavors. It's too bad really because it is a great product and I'm sure with a few tweaks it can be made to work well with the recent versions of Unity. There's currently a review on the Asset Store (no, not me) where someone gave a bad review because of the complete lack of support.

    If this were a free asset, that's one thing, but since these are paying customers there really isn't the option to just up and leave with your asset still available for purchase.

    Not trying to be a jerk here, but is a pretty simple concept. Now that there are people posting here for advice on whether or not to buy this asset, I think someone needs to say it.


    THIS ASSET MAY NO LONGER BE SUPPORTED
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2016
    Gametyme, JakeTBear and hopeful like this.
  5. TwiiK

    TwiiK

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    1,729
    @McMayhem Who are you warning and why? I honestly don't understand what some Asset Store customers expect when they buy something from the Asset Store, especially when it's an asset for $15. If you buy this you get a fully working asset which is superior to the built-in alternative, it comes with full source code and is easily extendable and still you feel that isn't worth the asking price unless you have the sellers devoted attention as well?

    And who's having problems with this asset in recent versions of Unity? Are you? Do you even own the asset? I can't see anyone in this thread having problems. Personally I've been using this asset for a long time and it's been working perfectly. At the moment I'm using Unity 5.3.2 (the very latest version) and the asset is still working without fault, so why should people not buy the Asset? Because the creator isn't around to answer your questions if you have any? He obviously isn't obliged to do that, and it annoys me how some people feel otherwise, and I'm not just talking about you here, I'm talking about almost every person who buys a game or digital product these days. Free support is expensive and time consuming, it's something you as a seller can choose to offer for your product, not something the customer is entitled to.

    For example on Steam these days I get the feeling people buy games as an investment. The developer has to provide free updates, and not just bug fixes, but content updates, for the game for years to come or else they'll get flooded with negative reviews, and I feel like it's the same one these forums with the Asset Store. I even give away completely free projects on my websites and I still get daily e-mails from people who demand I help them fix problems they're having, even when the problems are clearly caused by them.

    Anyway, from what I can tell the latest review for the asset is a positive one and the only negative review is from a doofus who can't get things to work at his end, and because nobody helps him solve his problem he feels that is reason enough to rate the asset as useless. Ridiculous and child-like behavior in my opinion.

    But don't get me wrong, I don't condone the asset creators behavior, I also think it's ridiculous to remain active on these forums and yet not spend 5 minutes to stop by this thread to give an update when it's clearly bothering some of you a great deal, but I mean that entirely from a business point of view. Just bump your thread once in a while, let people know you're alive or whatever. His tactic of ignoring the thread completely is clearly hurting his sales and reputation as a seller.

    Lastly, in my opinion this is a perfectly good asset which offers a lot of features for its asking price. It works perfectly fine with the latest versions of Unity and there's no reason not to buy it. I obviously won't stop you from having your opinion, but spreading lies and telling people not to buy the asset doesn't help anyone. We're perfectly capable of providing support for each other and the more of us who owns the asset the more of us there are who can share our knowledge about it, and improve it on our own.
     
    overthere and hopeful like this.
  6. hopeful

    hopeful

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    I think it's fair to inform people that the dev has been unresponsive for several months now.

    However, it's probably not fair to turn that into a directive to not buy the product, at least if it is still working.
     
  7. JakeTBear

    JakeTBear

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2014
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    @TwiiK
    https://unity3d.com/legal/as_provider

    You are right that the creator is not obligated to give support, but the consequences are noted in point 4.7.2

    What McMayhem is doing is just what is noted there, still, I went ahead and bought this asset, it has been a great source for learning, it has some nasty garbage collection issues but I was able to simply implement my own system based on the ideas from this asset, this was possible because I am a coder, some people dont want to deal with code, some people shouldnt have to deal with code and that could be a reason they are angry.

    I still hope @Pigeon Coop will come back, this asset has so much potential (based on the screenshots and gifs from himself from last year)
     
  8. McMayhem

    McMayhem

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    Alright, I'm going to go through your rambling and try to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, since I can obviously see some confusion on your end.

    It is the sellers job to provide information regarding support and discontinuations. What do asset store customers expect? They expect the product they paid for to work. Simple as that. It has been several months since @Pigeon Coop has responded to either this thread or messages sent to his "support" email. If people are having issues and they are then they deserve at least the common decency of a post or an announcement that the project is either no longer supported or is currently on hold. New customers should also be made aware of this.

    Oh! Well if *you* personally aren't having problems, then no one must be!

    Seriously though, you only need to go back one page to see three people with issues and no replies. Did you even try to look into that, or were you just too upset that I had the gall to warn people against an asset that appears to be no longer supported?

    Haha, I can see what you're trying to do there, but no, it wasn't me who posted that review. I've actually fixed any issues I've had with the asset using my own modifications. Plain and simple, the guy bought the asset, he couldn't get it to work using the documentation and code available. He reached out to the asset creator and didn't hear back for more than a month.

    Spreading lies? A little bit of the pot calling the kettle black on that one. Can you point to just ONE lie? I realize you love this asset, and it is a great asset, but that's not what I'm talking about. The issue here is that people are purchasing the asset and not getting what they paid for.

    If @Pigeon Coop would like to chime in and explain things, I'd be happy to apologize and edit my post. Until then though, it stays.
     
  9. McMayhem

    McMayhem

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    You know what? You're absolutely right about that. Telling people not to purchase was bad phrasing and perhaps a step too far so I apologize for that and have adjusted my post to reflect a more contextual approach.
     
    hopeful and JakeTBear like this.
  10. TwiiK

    TwiiK

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    I honestly don't understand your view on this. If I go on the asset page for this asset I see an asset named "Better trails" which says it can "Replace Unity's trails with Better Trails." and it lists a bunch of features. Are these features not working? Do you not feel it's better than Unity's trails? What have you paid for that you're not getting? The free support that isn't mentioned anywhere on the asset page?

    And no, I don't see three people who have issues on the previous page. In my opinion you're confusing people asking for tips and features with people who have issues. I don't see how it's the sellers duty to provide any of that for you.

    Right, and again, there's nothing wrong with this asset, it's just seemingly not supported anymore. Some people are mentioning garbage collection as an issue and that's probably correct as it was one of the things the asset creator was working on improving for the next version, but it's not a bug with the current version, lot's of stuff generate garbage in Unity and nowhere in this asset does it mention garbage collection or how it generates none of it. If he came back today and said that he would package all the new features into "Even Better Trails" and sell that as a new asset that would be perfectly acceptable business behaviour.

    PS: I know you weren't the one who wrote that review, I read your previous reply, but the guy who wrote it is still a doofus. The review after his even tells him how to solve his problem.
     
  11. McMayhem

    McMayhem

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    I don't think this is going anywhere, and I don't see anymore point in discussing this further. You seem to be confusing my point that a seller should announce when a product is no longer supported.

    I'm not saying the product is bad. I tried to make that point several points in my post above, so I'm not sure why you feel the need to continue touting this asset's features. At this point it almost feels like you feel slighted in some way by the mere suggestion of wrong-doing here.

    Honestly, it feels like you're frustrated with a group of people who's attitude you don't like. You saw something potentially negative from me and saw this as a perfect opportunity to vent your discontent. The problem is you've lumped me in with a group I'm not a part of.

    I'm not saying it's the seller's 'duty' to provide continued support or to help out with tips. I think a seller should (not from a legal standpoint, just basic human decency) announce when a product is no longer being supported and will no longer be updated.

    It should be pointed out that by support I don't mean answering questions, I mean continuing to patch the asset whenever something breaks due to a Unity patch. Otherwise you have the potential of people purchasing an asset that doesn't work. Doesn't matter if it's better than Unity's trail renderer if it's flat-out broken.

    I will admit that one of the posts I saw wasn't actually what I though it was. I thought for some reason this asset was broken in 5.3 (I am using the asset in 5.2.4) and I was under the impression that the developer wasn't going to take any steps to either let people know that or fix it to make it work with the latest Unity version.

    TLDR: (Since I'm pretty sure you're doing some skippinig ;) ) I don't dislike this product. I actually really like this product. I've already changed my post to reflect a better way of handling this. It is poor behavior that the developer doesn't explain to his customers that the product isn't supported, people should know that before buying.
     
  12. BlankMauser

    BlankMauser

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    Does anyone know if I can make the trail update in Late Update so it can follow the animation better?
     
  13. starstriker1

    starstriker1

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    Jul 15, 2012
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    Anyone heard any updates? This asset is promising, but isn't suitable for my project performance wise; I was really hoping to be able to try the optimized version the developer was talking about earlier in the thread.
     
  14. hopeful

    hopeful

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    Best to PM the dev, or send an email to support. I'm not sure he checks the thread anymore.
     
  15. ZJP

    ZJP

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    So, it's really dead?!!!.
    Hopefully the trails of v5.5 will be a better solution. :rolleyes:
     
    Gametyme likes this.
  16. BlankMauser

    BlankMauser

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    Its a shame this asset seems to be dead. The upcoming changes looked really interesting!
     
    BrightBit likes this.
  17. sfjohansson

    sfjohansson

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    Mar 12, 2013
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    hmm... sad to hear that this might be dead.. =O

    Well well.. I'm looking at garbage generated by the trails..has anybody poked with the code to see if they can improve it?