lightboy wrote:I just want to post a response to Otoy's announcing version 2.
What! I just bought version 1.5, 2 weeks ago which they just released a final version then the next day announce version 2.
Oh and here's the upgrade price.
"If you are buying the standalone with one of the first party OTOY plug-ins (Max, Maya, Blender) , you can safely assume the upgrade price will be less or equal to the price of buying it new."
So no free upgrade to version 2 if you just bought it (no grace period)and at the same time kill your current sales, cause who wants to pay for something twice, when you just bought it.
Who does business like that?
Sounds like the plugin developers are a bit surprised, expressly since the modo one is still in beta.
I feel kind of sorry for you Paul as it creates a bit of a quagmire for you with now 2 versions you will have to provide support for and charge for the upgrade to version 2.
I will properly not upgrade to version 2 as I feel the current version ( not the plugin as its still beta) is a 1.0 release not 1.5. Also version 2 should be a 1.5 release as the standalone app is in my opinion hardly usable for doing any layout in.
Export a complex scene from modo to the standalone app and it's a rats nest in there, very difficult to work with.
Sorry to rant but I don't (so far) like the way they run their business and I have bought every upgrade of Lightwave (since the amiga days) and modo since it came out, because they have always delt with me in an upfront and honest manner.
I just feel the announcement of version 2 one day after releasing a version 1.5 is nothing more than a cash grab.
I'm not mad, just miffed about it
Keith
I'm pissed too... I've had it just over a month and am looking at having to upgrade a plugin and standalone. I LOVE the work paul is doing, but I can't justify even a 50% bump in the cost of doing rendering (which would mean a 50% upgrade price for each!) that's just STUPID!...
no software company I know of has an upgrade price "equal to the purchase price". Less than, is just VAGUE and annoying.
I was loving Octane - now I'm just taking a breather and considering whether or not I'll continue to incorporate it into my pipeline.
THEY BLOODY WELL SHOULD HAVE FIGURED OUT PRICING BEFORE ANNOUNCING THE UPDATE/UPGRADE! the speculation is making me HATE otoy....
and while I really like Paul - plugin is secondary - and if the pricing is high on the standalone - there's a good chance I'll skip the plugin for the standalone (for now at least) as there are so many things I do by hand anyway, it's often less work to just set it up in standalone.
if the upgrade has a grace period and lets me in - I won't HATE OTOY. I will, in fact, be reasonably happy (save the annoyance of dreading an impending reaming)
If the upgrade has a reasonable price (e.g. 1/3 the purchase price or less) then I will not be happy for the lack of a grace period but I'll do it in a hearbeat.
If the upgrade is up to 50% of the purchase price, I'm seriously reconsidering my choice
More than 50% and I'm 90% sure I'm done with Otoy.
The user base is critical to continued growth. soaking the current user base is a great way to lose the best marketing you can buy.
--- and I'm REALLY sorry for ranting on your forum Paul but, I need you to know where I stand, but I'm assuming you (plugin devs) can bend the ear of otoy a bit more than WE can. And from what I've seen YOU paul care a lot more about us users than they do.
FWIW I emailed otoy to ask about the upgrade pricing and they said "sorry we haven't set pricing yet, so I have nothing to tell you"
Iike I said - poor decision to announce without having set the pricing first. unprofessional, and irresponsible.
Thanks for the ear, and thanks for your continued focus... I do like the list.
If I don't upgrade to 2.0 and the plugin... I would be disappointed in not having the following finished - I don't expect all, or even any of these to make it into the 1.5 version of the plugin, but... It will disappoint me... I am expecting to be at least a little disappointed come 2.0 release - hoping not, but expecting it.
I feel like these are all basic functionality that should exist in the 1.5 plugin (IF Otoy jacks us on the upgrade price)
- Have the background image resize to the render size
- Save camera animation track to ORBX and OCS exports
- Match the Octane camera to the Modo camera when Film Fit not set to Overscan
- Add support for some Modo procedural textures (Checks, etc)
- Save and Load options for kernel, camera and environment settings
- Import Standalone materials (OCM)
- Support Octane Gradient node
- Use the Modo environment IBL image transform for the Octane "texture environment" spherical projection transform.
- Autodetect PNG with alpha channel and setup nodes with an alpha image
- Viewport controls to zoom and "fit" the render to the Viewport <<<< SERIOSULY not till 2.0 ?!
- Add Viewport Navigation
- Add Octane Tab
- Support Selection Sets <<<<<<<<<<< CRITICAL TO TRANSPARENT FUNCTION
I WILL NOT REPURCHASE OCTANE (pay full re-purchase price for an upgrade) having owned it for about 1 month that would just be RIDICULOUS. I purchased an entire modeling program (modo) for about 2x the cost of octane - and it ALSO renders, and models, and etc etc etc. All octane does is render! again... sorry for the rant.