OTOY Forums

pixelrush wrote:Well pretty poor response so far. I guess when it comes to the crunch only a few people actually want an exporter and it doesnt seem like anyone wants to code it. Along with the license difficulties its not worth worrying about....

I already wrote HERE that perhaps I will do it later, if no one will be found. I just have to finish the current work...
I have a big stimul to that (more than just a money) - my wife is 3D-professional, and she works in Blender, and she loves Octane.
So, don't worry - it will be developed anyway, by some another developer or by me, just a little time later...

Well, its reassuring... Thanks ! So, we'll have to be patient.

OK but how will you get around the license issues?

pixelrush wrote:OK but how will you get around the license issues?

I am not a lawyer . . . I don't play one on TV, and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night . . . but here is my understanding of the licensing conundrum:

The problem is not that it is illegal to use or sell a commercial (pay for) plugin for Blender, but that if it operates within the Blender binary (sharing code with Blender for execution), the plugin itself must fall under the license of the GPL. That is because it Blender and the plugin are considered to be operating as 'one' program. In this case the sources (of the plugin) must be made freely available to the purchaser under the GPL and thus the purchaser is free to distribute the source of the plugin as they wish, again, under the terms of the GPL

and plugins cannot be linked to proprietary software such as Octane's libraries, preventing tight integration.

OK so its a dead idea then. The whole point of a plugin is to get the benefits of tight integration.
It wouldnt matter so much about GPL for the plugin because Refractive could change their phone-home stuff to see if the user was authorised to feed stuff via the plugin ie had registered as being a BlenderOctane user, a condition of which might be paying a 'donation' to the coder or the BF and a 'registration fee' to Refractive. In other words we license the user rather than the software.
Have to think creatively here

yoyoz wrote:and plugins cannot be linked to proprietary software such as Octane's libraries, preventing tight integration.

Say that to SigmaTel chip SDK providers... Linux is under GPL, Sigma drivers are linked through SDK to open sourced Linux code in mediaplayers, but nobody got the sources from Sigma, although millions of media players on Linux and Sigma chips are around the world... That is the precedent.
So, I think there are some ways to do this work without opening Octane sources and without GPL violating... Just some thinking is needed, and some talking with lawers...
IMHO.

Any news regarding tight blender integration?
I want to buy it/ use it as soon as possible..

Hey I know this JimStar avatar... from the blenderartists python section I guess? hmmm

As I remember, GPL doesnot forbide saling.

Otherwise, raising funds should be started, as I guess...