OTOY Forums

Hey Tom
I don't think you quite follow what I am getting at here. People seem to latch onto the Dongle argument and skip over the rest. We're not trying to split up plugin/standalone over two machines.

The main issue is that because Octane slave needs to authenticate ALL the time, constantly, even between renders, if the internet goes down, we can't render. This is a huge problem as our internet here goes down a lot - it's a problem with infrastructure in the whole country. So what we want to see is authentication requirements changed to once a day or every 3 days or once a week would be better. Redshift for example, is just once.

Back to the dongle. We tried the dongle, but it has a flaw they don't tell you about. What we wanted to do was plug in some dongles (we started with one but planned to get more) into slaves, to be able to render on our small farm without interruption, solving the internet problem. As well as that, we have other licenses for standalone/plugin. Now, the problem is that if we want to open C4D (plugin) on one of these machines that has a dongle in it, the dongle license (standalone for slave) is ignored and a web-based (floating) standalone/plugin combo is used. It's not logical. Standalone is a license purchase, plugin is a license purchase. They are not paired, you can have more standalones than plugins. All you need is both on the one machine to run C4D, so standalone SHOULD be able to be in the dongle and plugin should be able to be non-dongle - still a pair, right? But that's not actually how it works. So it takes web licenses - then the dongle license is sitting there, unused, but trapped in a physical dongle, leaving us short a license elsewhere. This is the problem I am trying to describe.

Dongle arguments aside (we returned it), what we need is a solid license system for our small farm that doesn't stop rendering when the internet goes down. That's it in a nutshell. The solution is not dongles as functionality is flawed as described. Therefor solution needs to be just let the authenticated session last at least 24 hours to account for dropouts in internet. I don't think that's too much to ask.

Thank you for detailed explanation. Let me talk with some guys at OTOY about this.

Thanks so much for your support Tom
I think the authentication really could be easily adapted to once-every-24-hrs or even longer duration. On our last project it got to the point where we couldn't trust that renders would complete overnight, as often a queue item would see failed slaves when the internet went down for "maintenance". Our government-mandated internet is having a lot of issues but basically all residents are forced onto it now. This is Australia BTW, google "NBN" and pages of problems and issues will come up. If authentication restrictions can be loosened, it's win-win - I don't see that Otoy is any worse off with a 24hr authentication or less, but we get some render security for both slaves and local machines.
Cheers
S

Hi all,

I think sbstnc has a valid point.

Even with permanent good online connectivity the current activation system is a hassle.

When I render scenes in a second instance of C4D on the same machine (background rendering) and keep working in the first instance, I often get activation issues, where I have to authenticate again even though I never restarted C4D. This is very annoying and it not very user friendly. I think a license check every 24/48 hours is a good compromise between security and usability. Even Adobe has a quite usable offline period.

It would also solve another problem I've been facing recently:
Going to a client and showing them an Octane scene and you can not rely on an internet connection for activation. This can be quite a problem especially in rural areas, where even tethering is not an option. Buying a dongle to use octane 2-3 hours without internet a year is absolutely user unfriendly and could easily be adressed with a better activation system.

I just want to add how much trouble this has caused our whole studio. Everyone is wasting hours everyday waiting for licenses. As a studio, that can make or break us financially.

Please go back to a more sane licensing arrangement OTOY

Hi everyone!

I also the need for an offline licensing mode back.
That dongle method is very 90s.

Also, Octane wasn't pirated before Version 3.08,
when offline mode was still available.

i just had an extremely bad day due to octane not being able to connect.
license in use error.
i have the enterprise license but am totally confused about the licensing.

i´m pretty worried about the possibilities of octane not being able to start due to internet being down.
its a scenario i cannnot allow to happen.

first time i have read about the offline mode. anyone care to tell me how do i work offline with the license i have?

crackfox wrote:i just had an extremely bad day due to octane not being able to connect.
license in use error.
i have the enterprise license but am totally confused about the licensing.

i´m pretty worried about the possibilities of octane not being able to start due to internet being down.
its a scenario i cannnot allow to happen.

first time i have read about the offline mode. anyone care to tell me how do i work offline with the license i have?

But a usb dongle and the usb becomes license sever, so no internet connection is needed.

thanks goldorak, appreciate it.

this is welcome news, was not aware.

i also have gotten a support email mentioning this.
one more question, is it in that case either/or?

can i be working with enterprise online and if something is to happen with the license, use the dongle as a backup solution?

Goldorak wrote:

crackfox wrote:i just had an extremely bad day due to octane not being able to connect.
license in use error.
i have the enterprise license but am totally confused about the licensing.

i´m pretty worried about the possibilities of octane not being able to start due to internet being down.
its a scenario i cannnot allow to happen.

first time i have read about the offline mode. anyone care to tell me how do i work offline with the license i have?

But a usb dongle and the usb becomes license sever, so no internet connection is needed.

Where can I get information on using the USB Dongle?

I did not find instructions for installing special software.

I asked support several times why switching to a USB dongle license deprives me of the benefits of Ent lic (network rendering, access to LiveDB)?

I have an octane usb dongle, but activating it is a dumb idea with existing limitations.

Because I can’t return the 'online' license back.

Make at least the ability to untie to associate a license an offline license through a USB dongle endless