Refractive Software® and OctaneRender® now part of something bigger...
We are very pleased to announce that Refractive Software® had been acquired by OTOY® Inc.
OTOY® has been a strong partner of Refractive Software® since 2010, we finally agreed this progression was the next logical step for us to take.
All of us want to see OctaneRender® get to the next level, from both a business and technology perspective. When we found the right partner to make this happen, the opportunity was clear and the timing was right.
We are now 40 people strong, and that is a big change from the size we were at before.
What does this means for Octane Render?
First, there will be more corporate resources, engineers and staff which is currently being hired to work on the product - making OctaneRender® the best possible product it can be. I (Radiance) will become the Chief Graphics Architect at OTOY®, and remain the lead developer and architect of OctaneRender®.
There are some very talented people at OTOY® - including Paul Debevec, the inventor of the HDRI map as we all use today, whose LightStage® technology has been successfully commercialized by OTOY® since 2008. Last year, Autodesk® invested in OTOY's cloud rendering technology.
All that OTOY® is involved with is now potentially part of Octane's roadmap as we move forward as one company.
Jules Urbach, the CEO of OTOY®, started out as an OctaneRender® customer, just like everyone else on the licensed customer forums. His passion for OctaneRender® and his faith in this product is a big part of why this has happened.
Rest assured, the development team is more focused than ever, and OctaneRender® is not being changed or tampered with; we are not dropping plug-in support for any 3rd party products, and we are not altering the price-point of the final 1.0 product (199e), nor changing any promises we have made regarding beta licenses etc...
During the course of the next few months, we plan to focus 100% on getting OctaneRender® out of beta and into final release. This means final release of our major plug-ins for many 3D animation and modeling packages, some have been announced and some not yet, as well as instancing and other core rendering features that go alongside that.
Once this milestone is behind us, we will complete the transition to a brand new website, improved community forums and payment system to a new back-end being worked on at OTOY® LA.
Developing OctaneRender® has been an incredible experience, and we couldn't have made it here with you all of you. With the team backing OctaneRender® today, the future of the product we all care so much about is looking better than ever.
Yours,
Radiance (aka Terrence Vergauwen), Jules Urbach and the OctaneRender® Team.