Try Before You Buy (how)

[Aero Files]

Hi Everyone. :)


Can anyone tell me how to make a TRY BEFORE YOU BUY product?
I want the customer to be able to try the product before they buy it.
I was thinking of a 60 minutes trial or so.

I want it for my Airport Scenery for FS 2004 and FSX.

Is there a easy way to do this, or is there only a hard way? :banghead:

What programs do I need to get started with the TRY BEFORE YOU BUY product? It does not matter to me if I have to pay for getting the tools which is required. I only want to make a TRY BEFORE YOU BUY product.

Any help would be appriciated. Thank you very much. ;)

[scruffyduck]

I am not familiar with how you might do it for addon scenery - only for add on applications or utilities. It the case of applications it generally involves setting and checking an encrypted registry entry, or in the case of time limited ( say run for 30 minutes) a timer in the program itself which will run or not depending on whether the program is registered.

In some cases (for F'S programs) they can be location limited - a check is made on the current co-ordinates of the aircraft or whatever and the program stop working if the user moves out of the allowed box.

In these cases you can buy code to do this or write it yourself in whatever language you use.

Sorry but that does not help much for scenery

[Marginal]

One approach is to write an installer program that either installs the full scenery or else a crippled version, depending on whether the user supplies a valid key. IIRC SimFlyers (http://www.simflyers.net/) use this technique.

It's not time-limited 'though - you have to re-install with a valid key to get the full product.

[arno]

I think for scenery the approach often used is indeed to add some annoying features in the scenery while you are in trial mode. So an annoying block on the runway or stuff like that. If you then have a key the correct BGL files will be installed.

[toprob]

From memory, Cloud 9's Washington is limited to 7 minutes. This is controlled by a module, which probably just sets a variable which the models use as a conditional display.

[Alinx]

Hi,

if you use Visual Studio 2005 (C# or Basic) please have a look to this site:

MSDN (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718342.aspx)

There is a Starter Kit.


Bye,

Alex

[scruffyduck]

Hi,

if you use Visual Studio 2005 (C# or Basic) please have a look to this site:

MSDN (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718342.aspx)

There is a Starter Kit.


Bye,

Alex


True but that is for shareware applications and I am not sure how one would apply it to addon scenery