i will be very unpopular for this...

[ROUBAL]

@Proupin : They came to inspect the safety conditions only one time before the first work. At that time they told me to purchase a safe. But as said, they are so suspicious that I don't think that they have the urge of working again with me. So things will have to be discussed with next "confidential" client if achieve to find a client !

I could have told them nothing and do next possible work the same way as before with only Blender, but I had in mind to propose them much better images thanks to Octane and as security clauses have been an important part in getting last job and were written in the last sales conditions I sent them, I had legally to talk to them about any change. Maybe I did it too soon.

From a purely technical point of view it looks clear that I will have to instal a router/firewall for my workstation. Before that, as my disks are in drawers, I will see if I can make a perfect clone of the hard disk with my current very clean system. This would allow to restore everything in case of accident due to internet, but I don't know if all license keys will work after cloning.

It is important , because after several changing of computers and some crashes, I have only Zero or One remaining install allowed for several softwares I own, and I would have to purchase licenses again in case of crash.

[Proupin]

you already told them about "Octane Live"?

[ROUBAL]

I understand now that it was too early, but as sales conditions had been sent recently, I thought that it was important to correct things, and at the same time I had the urge for some time to show them the quality improvement they could get next time. Yes, bad idea... Well, no more to say I think. It gives me a headhache

[ed2010]

My concerns are:

1. If Refractive ever goes out of business, I'm stuck with software that won't run (or is at the least crippled). I still use some software from defunct companies - software that I placed a lot of time into learning, and I'm glad it still runs.

2. I purchased a graphics program four years ago that had to "phone home" via the Internet to start up. My broadband connection was reliable - their server on another continent was not. Of course it always failed when I had a deadline to meet. I was forced to give up using this intermittent package.

I hope neither of these comes true, but the customer concerns are valid and understandable.

[Proupin]

My concerns are:

1. If Refractive ever goes out of business, I'm stuck with software that won't run (or is at the least crippled). I still use some software from defunct companies - software that I placed a lot of time into learning, and I'm glad it still runs.

yes, this is my little concern too, I couldn't express it that well with my engrish... Still prefer Freehand over AI anytime

[ROUBAL]

1. If Refractive ever goes out of business, I'm stuck with software that won't run (or is at the least crippled). I still use some software from defunct companies - software that I placed a lot of time into learning, and I'm glad it still runs.

I totally agree with that. I also still use nice softwares made by companies or independent that are no more maintained. In the past I also purchased a very expensive CAO software (around 12000 Francs in that time) that stopped working after Microsoft simplified MSDOS features in a Windows update !

You may have noticed that I have been in the most enthusiastic users since I put my hands on the very first available demo of Octane. I put a lot of hope in it and I purchased it as soon as the sales were open. Even if I earn very few money, I didn't purchased it because of it's low price, but because of its already visible qualities, even in early stage, and because of it's high potential. I invested a lot of money (at least it is a lot for me) in hardware and OS update, to use it a the best possible.

I had purchased an indigo license last year, but beside the tedious task of setting materials and the slow rendering time, despite the money spent in indigo, I made the choice to switch to Octane because I thought that it would be the ONE matching my needs. I even told Radiance that I could pay as much as for indigo for a standalone version of Octane, and I think it.

I know that not every artist would agree with that proposal, and that the attractive price allows hobbyists to use Octane, but it is only to say that none must believe that what I want is a refund. It is all the opposite : All I want is a product matching perfectly my needs, and as Octane seems to be this product since the beginning , I am ready to make a extra effort.

So, you can and must believe me when I tell you that my only wishes for Octane are growth and success.

I know what is an error of marketing strategy : I did myself one big two days ago when I tried to make my only remaining client change his mind about his security rules, in order to benefit of better images : I most probably lost the client.

So, my worse fear is that in the goal of avoiding an hypothetical bankruptcy in 6 months, Refractive software begin to miss many sales since right now because the product doesn't match any more clients expectations !

Well, it is only my feeling and humble opinion...

[cpember]

try that trick at our shop and you'd have your ass handed to you as you were kicked out the front door. that simple. You'd probably end up in court as well.

Things a few of you may want to think about regarding all this grief that's going on about Octane atm:

1: the solution he's looking at is *perfectly fine* for either home based, or smaller viz/archi based firms. I have no problem with it at home at all, and I really look forward to it

2: the solution he's looking at will most likely never work at a large shop, regardless of the render nodes not needing a connection, because:
2a: in my case, our shop has random audits from the mpaa/riaa, and if we dont pass, we have to either fix the problem, or not get work (yes, sounds stupid, but I assure you, it's *very* serious
2b: we have triple redundant enterprise hardware firewalls here, and nothing, not a squeak gets out or in unless it's approved by IT. This only really includes things like, ftp for clients, etc. The rest of the shop gets http, and THAT is run through a whitelist of sites. There is no webmail based anything allowed, no filesharing sites, anything (by filesharing I mean things like logmein, windows live share, etc) and of the bigger shops, we're pretty lucky to even have http on the workstations.

3: Once we start a show, our software is locked at whatever current build is out (unless its a critical bugfix). If Octane is to update and add new functionality all the time, this would be bad (unless it's a preference), but again, I'll withhold any worries until the new build is out


You can never question/assume when people talk about the internet connection they have being flakey or anything in the modern day. A lot of the time it's stuff beyond their control, and honestly sure, I have an awesome 24/7 internet connection, but really, it DOES drop from time to time, and who knows, maybe I'll be fine, maybe not

and please, for the love of god, don't compare Octane's new system to WoW or any other online game, as when WoW's server go down for maintenance, nobody can play, and ubisoft, well, no comment there. Nobody can guarantee 100% uptime, ever.

as far as cloud computing ftw, I think you're actually wrong there. Maybe for documents and such, but I cant ever in a million years see video editing, 3d applications, etc ever becoming could based. Ever. Not even with an oc3 line....to your house.. heh.

anyways, here's to waiting for next beta

cheers

cp

ps: I think both sides of the argument have valid points overall, and I'm sure there's going to be lovers and haters regardless, it's the nature of the software biz (we go through it a lot too with ours

Roubal, phew that is some hardcore clients you have. At least I hope they pay you accordingly man... But as I said, when this is standard to more and more software, your clients should have to change their mind. My advise to you, if you really want to keep using Octane with the new features and stuff, buy yourself a firewall router, open the Octane port and just LIE about it. Or do they also come to your office to check if you're behaving?

[Proupin]

as far as cloud computing ftw, I think you're actually wrong there. Maybe for documents and such, but I cant ever in a million years see video editing, 3d applications, etc ever becoming could based. Ever. Not even with an oc3 line....to your house.. heh.

Just imagine a fast enough VPS; in the meanwhile: Autodesk butterfly

[r10k]

I'm happy to see the details of what this new connection system is, but any developer who thinks a permanent connection (or anything similar) is going to prevent piracy has rocks in their head. It won't, and I speak from experience. All it does is frustrate the people using the program legitimately. If it saves time for the devs in terms of handling registrations, that's great, but there's no need for anything more than an initial online connection.

If the new system is anywhere near a permanent connection I will stop using the program. I don't support that kind of lockdown. But, time will tell I guess.

[pckmark]

I think we can all agree that we are excited, and perhaps anxious to see what 2.3 has to offer!