Good answer, Greg. I should know better than to question your motives. Ignore nit-pickers like me and keep those great products coming!
 
Question for you: almost nobody offers both player-compatible and full-Kontakt versions at a lower price. Why is that? Assuming your NDA permits an answer, does NI penalize or prohibit you from doing that?

bitflipperQuestion for you: almost nobody offers both player-compatible and full-Kontakt versions at a lower price. Why is that? Assuming your NDA permits an answer, does NI penalize or prohibit you from doing that?

As far as I know, we aren't prohibited from offering separate Player and non-Player versions. I think the reason more developers don't do that is just due to the logistics of maintaining two editions of the same library.
 
Some of this pertains to NKS integration, if developers want to include factory snapshots, database graphics for the Komplete browser, etc., since those require that the library is encoded for the Kontakt Player. Developers would also need to keep both development copies separate, yet any updates/changes mirrored between both editions.
 
The other issue is with how to handle special cases. What if somebody buys the Kontakt Player instrument, and then wants to downgrade to the non Player version? Once the serial number is assigned to their Native Instruments user account, their serial number can't just return to the pool of available serials.
 
The other issue with upgrading/downgrading between editions and how that relates to someone's existing projects. I don't think you can just swap out the non-Player library with the Player version (or vice versa) because usually DAWs store the NKI itself in the project file in order to preserve all your settings--or at least that's how Sonar works. So if you swapped them out, you would have to recreate all your settings in the interface, re-automate controls, etc.
 
So ultimately having a single edition of the library just simplifies things for both the developers and the users.

Soundiron have quoted me $10 to upgrade my Olympus Elements library to the Player version. I will upgrade to take advantage of the upcoming NKS update, I would not have bothered if I did not have the S61 Keyboard.

I completely understand the hassles of maintaining multiple versions. I have to do that with my own software, and although there is a common code base it's riddled with compile conditionals and requires separate testing for each version.
 
Given the level of sophistication in Greg's scripting, and lack of support for conditionals in Kontakt's interpreter, I can see where maintaining multiple versions could be a PIA. 
 
 
It comes as a surprise, however, that snapshots are deprecated in the full version of Kontakt. That's underhanded, even for NI.

bitflipper
It comes as a surprise, however, that snapshots are deprecated in the full version of Kontakt. That's underhanded, even for NI.

While you can use snapshots in non Kontakt Player libraries, it's just having the factory snapshots presets that requires it to be a Kontakt Player library. A developer could still include the snapshots with instructions to copy them to your "Documents / Native Instruments / User Content / Kontakt" folder, but that's an extra installation step. I much prefer having the library self-contained within its own single folder.

I was a little surprised when I realized that only Kontakt Player instruments can include a factory snapshots folder, but I guess that's just an extra perk to licensing the Player (like allowing it to be added to the libraries tab):
 

gregjazz

Vastman
My biggest desire is to have user presets come up in the list as I've labeled them...and, more importantly, in the GUI where the kew switching is labeled... currently it just says: "user preset".  If you have several of your own presets assigned, they all just say, "user preset".  I have talked to greg about this and he says this ability does not exist yet and he agrees...and hopes this ability will be added in the next iteration of Kontakt.

With the previous iteration of the Evolution engine, we used Kontakt's NKA files store all the preset data--these are just basic arrays stored in text format. Kontakt can import and export these data files, which is what allowed us to have the external preset file feature. However, Kontakt's scripting doesn't return the name of the NKA file loaded, which is why the library would only say "External Preset" if you loaded one.
 
Native Instruments then added the snapshot feature to Kontakt 5, which is designed specifically to address the issue of providing factory presets within a single instrument patch as well as being able to have custom preset files as well. The nice part about these snapshot files is that you can even load them directly and Kontakt will automatically load the library they belong to. Your user presets also show up right next to the factory snapshots, which is very convenient--they're all accessible from a dropdown menu rather than opening a file loading window each time. Finally, if you own a Komplete Kontrol keyboard or Maschine, you can browse through the presets using the buttons on the hardware directly.
 
Evolution Modern Nylon, Strawberry, and Steel Strings all use snapshots now, so the issue of not seeing your user preset name has been solved in those libraries. We'll be releasing updates for Evolution Banshee and Evolution Stratosphere to bring this functionality to those libraries as well.

Actually, Greg... I was referring to the "strum" presets... They do not come up labeled as I've saved them... unless I'm doing something totally wrong...If I make 3 new nylon presets (as there is no custom "gregg nylon" presets... they all come up "User Preset" and it becomes a guessing game...which is which...in strums 1-6
 
I emailed you recently suggesting you might want to come up with a raft of great new strums particularly appropriate to the steel and nylon guitars...in an update as at least then they'd have unique names.
 
Naturally, I hope I'm doing something wrong but when I save a strum and load it the gui still says "user preset" in the strum box for whichever of the 1 thru 6 slots I assigned it to... 
 
If I'm doing it wrong, how do I do it correctly?

gregjazz

While you can use snapshots in non Kontakt Player libraries, it's just having the factory snapshots presets that requires it to be a Kontakt Player library. A developer could still include the snapshots with instructions to copy them to your "Documents / Native Instruments / User Content / Kontakt" folder, but that's an extra installation step. I much prefer having the library self-contained within its own single folder.

I just produced a couple of Komplete Kontrol presets for Bigcatt's free pianos and I can see how messy it can get.
 
There are no snapshots, just a modified NKI and a NKSN file (Komplet Kontrol Preset file) Seems the user has to copy the *.NKSN file in its folder into the User Content / Kontakt. Then when you try to load it in Komplet Kontrol you have to run throught the Kontakt missing files dialogue twice, resave the NKI, then resave the preset. I can see this would cause all manner of problems for a commercial developer. I can see the comments on the forums now!
 
I like the way my presets for OTS Cherry have turned out. Just the one NKI but I have *.nksn presets in KK for eack of the articulations and velocity switched presets for mutes/sustain/slides for both the picked and fingered articulation.
 
I also once I hade set up the host automation for Evolution Rick, it wasn't too onerous to save a new NKSN for each of it's factory presets.
 

Vastman
Actually, Greg... I was referring to the "strum" presets... They do not come up labeled as I've saved them... unless I'm doing something totally wrong...If I make 3 new nylon presets (as there is no custom "gregg nylon" presets... they all come up "User Preset" and it becomes a guessing game...which is which...in strums 1-6
[...]
Naturally, I hope I'm doing something wrong but when I save a strum and load it the gui still says "user preset" in the strum box for whichever of the 1 thru 6 slots I assigned it to...

Ohh, I see what you mean. Yeah, there's currently no way to retrieve the file name from KSP, which is why it just displays "user preset" for external strumming presets (and custom chord presets as well).