Export scripts for demos or not ?

[radiance]

Hi all,

Since the launch of 2.2 we have now several exporter plugins for various 3d apps.
One problem is that they are documented in the manual that comes with the commercial version,
and i expect a lot of demo users asking the same questions many times over.

What do you think we could do ?

The simplest option would be to only provide the plugins with commercial versions.
Customers have access to the full support forum and can ask what they want...

Another option is tutorials or some other documentation.
It's quite difficult for me to coordinate this as the scripts keep changing every day with new versions,
the ones we packaged last night are already invalid as the blender script was broken etc...

I'm curious what the simplest solution would be.
I'm sure people will want to evaluate octane with a plugin first to see how the integration works,
so the first 'simplest' option won't be the best one I think.

Maybe we can ask each developer of a script to make a tutorial video ?

Radiance

[Amplitude]

Like you said people browsing the demo forum have no access to support and are not beta testers, they want to (quickly) evaluate the product. They may not have a sense for finding workarounds, dealing with stability issues or lack of features...
Thus giving them plugins which by nature are unfinished and ever evolving, even if documented is a bit of a double edge sword.

[YoonKyung]

I think, making demo video must be delayed, since current export plugIns are not completed and complex to use yet.
And I think, the reason is came from lack of command line options. For example, there are not daylight and path_tarce optiond in command line option set yet.
So, plugIns are not supporting them directly, they are using some walk around to support them.

I think expending command line options or supporting config file should be the first.

[kubo]

dunno if this would be more work or not, I'm sure people would like to see how easy is to integrate their workflow with their 3d soft, I think a great target of Octane is people who don't need (or have) a deep knowledge of 3d, and want instant "gratification", so maybe an stripped down plugin version with all the UI but only a straight octane path demo exe camera postion and sun, no file save option nor animation, may be, or just the raw export to obj button and the rest in gray with a note saying the rest of the options are available in the commercial version. Keep it simple yet showing what is there if you buy it type of thing (with no code, of course).

[radiance]

I think, making demo video must be delayed, since current export plugIns are not completed and complex to use yet.
And I think, the reason is came from lack of command line options. For example, there are not daylight and path_tarce optiond in command line option set yet.
So, plugIns are not supporting them directly, they are using some walk around to support them.

I think expending command line options or supporting config file should be the first.

you don't need to set those options, the workflow is such that you configure your project in octane, save the OCS and then relink or render an animation with you're whole project set up in octane,
so you can enable pathtracing and everything basically in octane.

the point is to keep as much as possible in octane, not to develop full plugins that emulate octane's UI.

Radiance

[YoonKyung]

I think, making demo video must be delayed, since current export plugIns are not completed and complex to use yet.
And I think, the reason is came from lack of command line options. For example, there are not daylight and path_tarce optiond in command line option set yet.
So, plugIns are not supporting them directly, they are using some walk around to support them.

I think expending command line options or supporting config file should be the first.

you don't need to set those options, the workflow is such that you configure your project in octane, save the OCS and then relink or render an animation with you're whole project set up in octane,
so you can enable pathtracing and everything basically in octane.

the point is to keep as much as possible in octane, not to develop full plugins that emulate octane's UI.

Radiance

I noticed, it's a nice approach.

[radiance]

anyways,

back on topic, i'd like to hear from people what they think about how we should tackle it.
i guess either:

option A: exporters only with commercial version
option B: exporter developers must provide documentation about the specifics of the scripts (how to install etc...), and we need to make a separate manual on how to use them as these are covered in our commercial PDF manual.

Radiance

[Halford]

Personally it would be great to be able to test the full power of octane with the Demo, but I think you still building up the application and are doing already late nights to achieve your goals....If someone is seriously interested in Octane, he will invest and pay the extra 99€....

I believe you should put the plugins out with the demo version only when Octane V1 will be out....not while the beta is under testing and development.

my 2c

Hal.

[radiance]

ok,

thanks for your input guys,

i've temporarily put up a message stating we will make them available with the final verison.
I think this is best otherwise we'll be bombarded with questions in the demo user forums, who lack documentation.

Radiance

[studiocampus]

could be useful post in the download section some demo obj, to evaluate even with limitations the program.
Export files to use with octane can be frustrating without access to all the needed information, and the "demo community" can consider the program much more instable than the real thing. With some tested downloadable objs everybody can take a good first view of the software and maybe you can achieve more beta subscribers.

e.