Plugin and Forum Confusion?!

[Can]

Hi there,

something is annoying me...

I own Octane 2 Standalone and the Plugins for Cinema 4D and for Maya(buyed no so long ago).

In the Standalone section I can download the lates stable 2.24.1 .
In the Maya Section I can only download the latest stable 2.11.1 and development 2.23.2 - 7.4 version.
In the Cinema section I can download the latest stable 2.24.0 - R1 .

Which version of standalone and wich plugins do I need to run?!
Do i have to install standalone 2.11.1 to be able to use Maya and Cinema plugins?

And if I decide to use 2.23.2 because of Maya and try to download the development version 2.23.2 - 7.4 version, I am directed to the forum thread, with the obsolete 2.23.2 - 7.4!?

In the Octane FAQ it says,,, always use the same versions of plugins and standalone.

It is really confusing.

Please,,, can some one clearify?

And another anoying thing...
Please developers,,, make all your threads unified, so people don't get confused everytime looking through the threads of plugins.
And also don't only write [OBSOLETE] to the threads, if you bring out a new developer version.
It is really extremely confusing if you buy a plugin and want to download it,,, and are redirected to a thread with a [OBSOLETE] version.
Also another anoying thing is,,, in case of maya,,, when you want to download the last developer version of maya from your account, you are directed to the [OBSOLETE] version and also there are many newer versions,,, allready [OBSOLETE] too,,, but no stable since 2.11.1,,, really?1
Does this means there have been no stable version of maya plugin since 2.11.1,,, til the latest development version 2.23.2 - 7.4?!

Please bring in a better structure not confusing the customers.

I have already thought about buying the Max plugin too,,, but seeing these chaotic structures, I am frightened to got lost in this chaos.

Can some one give some info or have a solve?

Cheers,
Can

[aoktar]

Here is a explanation for C4D plugin. Best place is forum to get fresh versions. Download sections are out of my control and sometimes synchronisation can be broke. Also i don't send every versions to downloads section without being sure about stability. First numbers are always matching the required standalone version. 2.24.0 means you need Standalone 2.24.0. But it's not too critical if you don't use network rendering. Secondary numbers are sub versioning numbers for each plugin.

[Can]

Thanks aoktar for jumping in.

Cinema 4d thread and account download section is the most structured, organized here.

I understand, what you mean,,, but if I want to use Maya plugin too, I am forced to install standalone 2.1 .
But in the forum you can find the latest version of 2.24.2 as test,,, and all other are obsolete and development without any stable between 2.11.1 and 2.24.2.

How can I use 2.24 standalone with Cinema 4D, if I am forced to stay in Maya with the "latest" stable 2.11.1 ?
All other versions are only development or obsolete.

If some one only works with stable versions is completely lost in that chaos.

[aoktar]

I can't talk for Maya plugin and versions. But you should know that it's a big challenge to write a renderer bridge. Programmers are under pressure of two SDK's hardness/limitations and changes. If we talk for C4D, we have a Octane SDK and Cinema 4D SDK. And plugin works in between two. Any problems, revisions or limits can directly hits the structure of plugin. And can cause to make big revisions. This results as loosing the stable state. So i'm just trying to explain that every plugin has own challenge and stories. Things are not so simple as you wish. I'm sure everybody wants to make synchronous releases, but in fact and theory this is impossible i think. I hope that you can see the hardnesses.

Btw if we talk about standalone versioning, i can't see why this is a big problem for you. It should be a problem when you make network renders. Actually i have many standalone and i use anyone when i need.

[JimStar]

1. User download section is out of my control.
2. Maya plugin 2.24.2 - 7.13 is more stable than 2.11 - 5.6 (that is marked as 2.11.1 in main download section for some weird reason). There is only one minor OpenSubDiv UI issue reported in the current testing thread at the time (all others are either misuse cases or feature requests).
3. As aoktar said you don't need the same standalone version on the same machine. You only need the same version on other machines if you use network rendering.
4. Don't expect all the different plugins will be "in sync". All the plugins have a huge difference in complexity and different levels of integration into host application. And new versions of Octane engine plus new versions of host applications sometimes have too small time gap between their releases and the developer working on a couple of different plugins is physically not capable of reworking all the plugins in sync with Octane engine releases (that has a couple of dedicated developers working on it) crossing with host applications releases (that have a lot of dedicated developers too). So, either you get really quick development cycle when each new plugin version is released immediately when it's ready, or you get a "nice" synchronisation and something like "six months release cycle of all the plugins at once" (if not even more, as different host applications have different release timings). You will wait forever for some simple bug become fixed...

[Can]

Hi Jimstar,

I know that all plugins can't be in sync and it's ok.

But at the moment all maya plugins since 2.11.1 for me looks like beta, test or obsolete and are just for fiddling around, but not for commercial use.
Can't you just add to the obsolete in addition stable, test or beta?
That makes it clear for customers with multiple plugins, like me, to find the standalone version that fits to the plugins and easy for new customers without any knowledge to dive in.
If I know, that my both plugins (maya and C4D) are stable at 2.32.x, than I am able to decide to install standalone 2.32 to be sure, tha I can use them at my daily work and 2.4 just for testing to help finding bugs.
But at the moment I am more confused and unsure which version I should use for my work and I am frightened to buy Max plugin, bacause I have to find a working version for all three plugins and getting more confused at the end.

But one thing I have to say,,, Maya and C4D plugin, both are awesome and rocks,,, keep up the good work.
Any chance to have also object transformations be actualized in Maya plugin, like in C4D?

Cheers,
Can

PS:
Isn't it possible to make the forum sections for the plugins like aoktar did?
A section for Releases, bugs, a.s.o.?
At the moment I have to scroll through two or three pages full of threads to find the plugin versions.