activation license pre23 and Internet? Tweet

[kivig]

I'm a freelancer. I have quite a good, stable internet connection. A week ago internet suddenly disappeared for about 20h. Nothing like this happened for a couple of years but if I'd be working Octane based at that moment I'd loose a client. Besides direct loss for project it'd be also a huge long term loss because rare client would try to do business with me again (at least locally).
Difference between zero and one in a billion chance of failure is infinitely large.

I don't mean the system should be changed since most users will be happy with it as is and most don't have so strict time frames anyway, but there might be an option for those who have too.
I haven't done a research on this subject but is dongle really that easy to hack?
My 2 cents.

[radiance]

Hi,

There has been a lot of discussion already and it's simple, if we cut the requirement for an internet connection, the software will get hacked.
If ti gets hacked we can't finish it as we won't sell anymore licenses...

It's up to you to decide if you want to use it for time critical work or not, but i can assure you that even over a 200 m wifi which drops frequently (to my home), it works flawlessly.

Radiance

[ROUBAL]

So far, I haven't been able to render a long animation, mainly due to the fact that the exporter closes and re-open Octane for each frame. I usually render animations at night and it is the time when my web provider has its most frequent failures (often on friday night, probably for maintenance). So, each time the exporter closes octane and an internet failurre occurs, Octane stops rendering.

I have reported this in the Blender exporter thread several times with no response. As I haven't had to render an animation in the past 2 weeks, I don't know if a recent update of the exporter has solved this problem, but closing Octane after each rendered frame is a nonsense and a nightmare : When looking to the computer in the morning, the rendering job is rarely done !

[face]

but closing Octane after each rendered frame is a nonsense and a nightmare

There are two solutions possible.

First a client server connection.
Pro:
With that we can direct send our obj to Octane, without saving. We would cut the export time more as the half.
We can send every data we need to Octane.
We can use a renderslave far away. Your slave must have a internet connection, your workstation not, if you only want to render.
Contra:
I think, the most plugindevs can´t handle it. The procedure is not realy easy. That would mean, in my eyes, 2 or max 4 export plugins for Octane...
Solution:
None...

The second one is easier. After a image is saved, Octane delete the xxx_anim.obj
Pro:
Any plugindev can check if the obj is existent. If no one exists, we can export a new one. Octane can see it and load it to render.
Contra:
We can only send object data. Some data, camera position etc., would be not rereaded, because, we send it with the commandline.
Solution:
We need a scenefile format, that we can use to submit some data we need.

Maybe the rib format is a other solution, but i don´t know if it can handle all data we need.

But at all, all this solutions are not a 5min work.
A hint, Octane is beta, that means, if you use it in production, you must live with some issues...

face

[kivig]

Hi,

There has been a lot of discussion already and it's simple, if we cut the requirement for an internet connection, the software will get hacked.
If ti gets hacked we can't finish it as we won't sell anymore licenses...

It's up to you to decide if you want to use it for time critical work or not, but i can assure you that even over a 200 m wifi which drops frequently (to my home), it works flawlessly.

Radiance

As I said I don't suggest to change the system - I do understand the reasons.
And Octane is too "sweet" to not use it. I'll rather consider double internet connection.

[Wayfa]

Duhh..

Today I ve just downloaded eagerly this new version; I ve been disconnected for a while..
I just can't have connection 100% all of the time.
Yeah, I know you need to protect your soft, but this just kicks me out.
Guess I'll have to keep oldndirty MentalRay at hand.



edit: I ve read a mobile block system is under development.. thats good to hear!

[ifilgood]

Hi everyone I'm a new licensed user =P Octane is a very good render engine, but I use a mobil phone to connect to internet and here, in Italy, Wifi is NOT free... so I've good some trouble with connection.
I think that for user in my same situation is better use an HARDWARE KEY like an USB Key to insert for use program...a lot of licensed program use this solution =P
ciaooooo

[pzdm]

The failure of the Internet=NOT WORK! (it happens that the internet does not work).
It's a big problem then. Bad for legal users.
I think the warez version will not need internet.Warez user satisfaction.

Unfortunately.It is the perfect software for me, but this is a mistake.

I understand the reasons, but it can be solved in another way...

Anyway, long live the OctaneRender!

Hello, you're right, that's pretty simple....

nothing against you and your software (I like it) and I understand you a lot (I work for Maxon distributor and Maxon itself), but you can not restrict your legal users. It goes against you. Warez will be still here and it's not a solution.

LiveDB is a bonus (for me) and it's up to me if I want to use or not. But app itself must be usable anywhere.

Have a nice day, P

PS: I'm on 5GHz

[viralata]

I just bought Octane, and for me it is clear that I would have not if I knew about this octanelive thing. And it is not clear enough on the "buy" page. Or maybe my brain could not believe this is true and just skipped the sentence
I go for classes (I teach Blender) with my laptop, and NO, I will not pay for a 3G connection for Octane. Not the money problem, just that I don't want to be connected all the time.
An I agree for the other reasons people above give. My internet at home breaks quite often. What will I do ?
For me it is a non sense, I need a renderer, and internet is something else that is not linked to. I would not accept this type of licensing from anybody.
I hope you will change your mind.
Octane is too promising to be spoiled by absurd licensing.

[kiwimage]

I don't like complaining and such but I have to say a word here too. I believe that the more users express themself about this issue, the more you'll think about it, and hopefuly change your mind about this license stuff, or at least improve it so it's not much of an inconvenience, as it is today.

For still images, it's not a problem, since it's a verification on the launching of Octane... but for animation, it just turns Octane useless. It's a shame.
Until now, every single animation that i've tried to render during the night has been a failure.
Look, for a 500 frames animation, octane opens itself 500 times and makes 500 licence verifications, isn't it absurd ? It should be obvious for you, as computer engineers, that sooner or later, the internet request won't succeed, even with a good internet connection. (i have a pretty decent one, in center town, adsl2+ wich works well).

For now, the only way to avoid that is to sit and watch the screen, just to check that the program is still running !!! seriously !!!!? As a freelancer i have not even enough of 24 hours per day, in this industry you always have tight deadlines. For a professsional use, it's just an unacceptable situation. In terms of productivity loss and reliability.

The good ideas exposed above by Face should definitely be taken into account and i hope that you'll even make it a high level priority.

Since i'm not a program designer, i don't know if it's a relevant idea, (it might be simplistic ) but maybe the verification could have an expiration date ? like cookies for internet pages.
Say Octane does a first launch and a regular online license check, if it's ok, it writes a variable somewhere wich records that the next licence check has to be done in, for example, +3 hours from there. So in an 8 hours render, Octane would do 3 or 4 verifications on the Internet instead of, like, 400. This compromise, if it's possible, could be a way to decimate the probablilty to have a verification/internet failure.

I am very enthousiast about Octane and I was saying all over the place how awesome this software is, but this single issue is so frustrating that now i'm a lot more temperate about that.
Your satisfied customers are your best commercial agents.. In my opinion, a young software like Octane can't offer to disapoint if it wants to make his place... I'm just saying.

So please, think about it, again.