*** Octane 2.3+ will require network connection for use ***

[radiance]

Hi all,

I'm writing this post to explain a few things about what we're currently doing while working on beta 2.3,
and some of it's new concepts/features, which are moved from beta3 to 2.3 and changed a bit due to recent/massive piracy of Octane Render.

We have decided to not invest any time nor money into anti-cracking technologies to combat piracy.

These things not only cost us time and money but also present a burden to people that pay for a license,
and in the end it will get cracked anyway, so we have come up with an alternative.

Although I cannot at this time talk in detail about our plans, as we would like exclusivity until we release them,
and our competition is watching us closely, i'll explain grosso-modo what we will do, and more importantly, what it requires.

Octane Render, as of beta 2.3, will require an internet connection to be used.

This gives a lot of new possibilities for great new features, workflow and cooperation community-wise,
allow for floating licenses (eg lock your license on one machine and unlock it on another),
and enjoy tightly integrated updates and sharing of content between users.

I understand having to use an internet connection to run octane (the GUI version, command line versions for renderfarms in the future

won't) can sound like a bad thing, but i think the benefits it gives, including the complete elimination of piracy,
will certainly be appreciated.

Especially once you've seen what we've been working on, Octane Render is looking very different now than 2.2 here, and you'll be able to see that soon yourself with the coming intermediate release.

It's very important for us to do this now, and there are no alternatives or 50/50 solutions, off-line mode possibilities, etc...

We've already put a lot of thought into this.

Simply put, if we don't stop piracy of octane with this solution, which is going to make the workflow and licensing easier for

legitimate/paying customers, and give a lot of unique new features and freedoms, we won't be able keep developing octane at a higher rate,

and we might even not be around anymore next year.

One thing to note is that we'll be having a multiple server (multi-datacenter) redundant backend, so you don't have to worry about not

being able to use octane due to a server failure. We have done awesome business during the last 6 months and have a lot of reserves, so you can count on the online service being available for a very long time still.

That's it, if anyone has any serious issues with our decision, please contact us via email and we will try to find a solution to your

problem.

We have explored all other alternatives and have taken this decision after much thought, so it's not up for discussion anymore,
so discussing and presenting alternative solutions in this topic won't be of much use at this time, but we do appreciate the time taken by people who write complementary suggestions to what i've just explained.

Yours,
Radiance, Marc and the whole Octane Render Team

[Nemo]

The possibilities of flaky internet connections aside, I support this if it means you guys can stay in business.

[Daniel79]

I don't no if i traslate good from english to italian so maybe my question is off topic? i hope no:

If at home i don't have internet connection but i have a license i can't use octane render? i undestand goood?
Can the speed of my connection slow down the of rendering ?

[radiance]

I don't no if i traslate good from english to italian so maybe my question is off topic? i hope no:

If at home i don't have internet connection but i have a license i can't use octane render? i undestand goood?
Can the speed of my connection slow down the of rendering ?

Hi, it won't impact render speed.
But you will need an internet connection to use octane render, and it does'nt have to be a fast one, it can be a cellphone or 3G connection even.

Radiance

[kubo]

I think is great, anything that helps you stay in bussiness and doesn't add annoying stuff in my end is good news. Also, the possibilities are endeless, nowdays an internet connection is almost universal, no matter how fast, and for licenses purpouses I guess you don't need a broadband one. Besides if you add the command line renderer with no liveconnection, you can "check" on-line while working on octane, and batch render later in cases of time dependent connections.
Our sons won't understand a life without an internet 24/7 live connections, we are almost there.

[rob72inmo]

will octane stop working in the middle of a render if the internet connection is lost every now and then my connection goes down during storms or just random loss no biggy but just curious

[andrian]

great idea.. expect some problems with that though...

[ALTO]

I actually think is not a really good idea for your businnes, especially if you want to enter to the real Viz market and not stay in the hobbyist/freelancers field... A lot of big Offices i know use internet connection only in dedicated pc, while workstations and render nodes are in private networks.

[Diogo Moita]

I hope it works against the illegal copies but it´ll make the software more delicated.

[sam75]

based on what you guys did until now I am pretty confident but we will see when 2.3 is out.