Demo.

[kavorka]

I agree that making the exporters available would help people evaluate the demo more. Maybe it was easier to swallow the smaller price tag of the beta to evaluate (For me, I saw tutorials and user created artwork online and it was enough to invest in a GTX 470 and Octane without even using the demo).

With the greater exposure now with the 1.0 release, it might make sense to make them available to make sure they don't miss out on their initially customer base.

I believe the idea was to try to cut back on piracy. If that is indeed a problem, then maybe just make intro videos detailing each program and its exporter like thry have for the plugins.

[matej]

For me, I saw tutorials and user created artwork online and it was enough to invest in a GTX 470 and Octane without even using the demo

I did the same thing, gambled on buying a nvidia card and the license, without being 100% sure it will work and especially how it will work. But that's nothing we should be proud of

I understand that people would like to be able to fully evaluate the workflow before they buy. But it seems the way how exporters are available is not gonna change.

[kavorka]

For me, I saw tutorials and user created artwork online and it was enough to invest in a GTX 470 and Octane without even using the demo

I did the same thing, gambled on buying a nvidia card and the license, without being 100% sure it will work and especially how it will work. But that's nothing we should be proud of

I understand that people would like to be able to fully evaluate the workflow before they buy. But it seems the way how exporters are available is not gonna change.

Well, I am a Blender user, and I saw that there were Blender users using it and liked it. I got the GTX 470 which was recommended on the site as the most bang for your buck. I didn't really see it as a gamble.
I think they did open up the Blender exporter for the demo, or at least they were talking about doing it.

[matej]

We are out of beta now and the software costs 2x as much, so maybe they should re-think about this policy of non-availability of the exporters for the demo. It's clearly stated that exporters are "free" (so I guess they should be free for the demo too) and community maintained. If licensed users can use non-official exporters without any problems or complications for Otoy, then the demo users could also.

If I was a clueless Blender user right now, looking at the first page, I would hardly notice that Blender is supposedly supported (through an unofficial plugin). On the old page it was immediately noticeable which exporters are available for Octane.