The message sent on Aug 18 2015 is still in the outbox on Sept 08 2015. The questions are still not answered.
Spectralis wrote:This thread will fizzle out just like all the others and things will carry on as before unfortunately.
I tried to show patience for more than one and a half year so the developers can figure this out and solve this by HELPING EACH OTHER.
There have other users been trying to get the attention of the executives in the past. (compare that twitter post)
So far I did not write an official and legally bending letter because I thought that it would be in everyones best interest if this is solved in house.
Spectralis wrote: Great though many of the Octane features are I think it's only fair that we warn others over at DAZ of the circumstances if they're contemplating buying this plugin.
Maybe some of those magazines writing OctaneRender 3 reviews will have a very close look at what Otoy has been doing in the past years.
A lot of the issues we experience with OcDS are also happening on a more general level when you consider the delays and concept changes with Brigade and the Cloud Edition.
@ Monetary damage
In its current state:
- it is not possible to accept client work with BETA software
this means each month work that could have been accepted has to be declined
- it is not possible to create 3D assets with OctaneRender materials .duf presets for individual surfaces
this means people can not earn money be licensing 3D assets for OctaneRender
There is no point in tossing around numbers. But the monetary damage is real and felt each month.
People invested time and money for OctaneRender.
- time to learn the software
- money for the equipment like workstations and multiple GPU
- money for licensed 3D assets
Some users spend 300-600+ dollars on licensed 3D assets each month.
My idea was that I can use the assets to create at least 2-3 images each week.
I spent thousands of dollars on 3D assets that I never got to use.
Otoy and the plugin developer made a lot of empty promises that mislead people into investing into this technology with the hope of a better future.
@ Reputation Damage:
- Clients do not care why the work cannot be done
Clients expect a YES it is possible and are not looking for partners that say:
I can do it MAYBE in a few months IF finally that plugin is production ready.
- Business partners start to loose faith
Business partners are looking for working solutions and not empty promises.
I personally recommended OctaneRender to a lot of people because of all the promises made about CloudRendering and ORBX file interchange between multiple software applications.
Now the situation is:
- Renting GPU for CloudRendering is still in BETA
- announced plugins for photoshop, AfterEffects, Zbrush are not published
- OcDS has not been finally made production ready ONE YEAR after all those promises made in September 2014.
I have to apologize to a lot of people for recommending OctaneRender.
I stopped creating images with OctaneRender because it is simply MISSLEADING to show art if the software is NOT READY.
- - -
Instead of hiring twice the amount of developers who can do the work in half the time OTOY has neglected their responsibility.
Otoy seems to be forgetting that many people have actually worked with CPU solutions that have already figured out all those features that are still missing in OctaneRender.
What customers expected was to get a working solution quickly and not all those threads saying:
"Yes we would like to add that feature but we currently do not have the time."
"This feature will not make it into the current release cycle but may be added at a later time.
Then
HIRE STAFF TEMPORARILY until all the projects are back on a reasonable time schedule.
IF one GPU takes two weeks to finish an animation project
TWO GPU will take only one week to finish the project.
therefore
If one developer takes two years to finish a plugin project
TWO developers should be able to finish the project in ONE year.
- - -
On the one hand talking negative about OctaneRender may have exactly the opposite effect of what we want:
This render engine to succeed.
But then maybe companies like Otoy need to learn the lesson that it is NOT acceptable to play around with the future of small studios and freelancers.