Why does it always show up "cann't connect to server"?????

[kkkkkk]

OCT 2.4 is great,
but there is a big problem that it always shows up "cann't connect to server".
and then the animation rendering will be pause.
It makes me crazy if I have to render an animation through the night,
next day I come to the office and find out OCT paused after it rendered only several frames.

Can anyone give me an answer,why does OCT have this kind of problem????
Thanks a lot

[kkkkkk]

Not only one machine has this kind of problem.
I have 2 licences on two machines.
Both of them have this problem.
and one of my friend also has this kind of situation.....

[Faizol]

Probably it's about time for Octane to come out with alternative licensing schemes.

[rfox]

i will vote for dongle system

[anomi]

that is true!!!!, it left me stranded yesterday and some days back, this is a totally inefficient and unreliable way of working, and
as a free lancer that cld totally wreck your business, i cant even think of octane newer releases as a quick solution when a there is a dead line to meet. so i fall back to mental ray.
if the whole purpose of accelerated rendering is to beat steep deadlines then why bug it down with online licensing issues, i know this issues has been raised before in the forums, and i understand refractive's piracy POV,but this is a serious matter that wld inhibit octane as a solution to larger client, dont forget octane render cannot thrive only on hobbyist 4ever.

[Andy]

Is this a new issue with RC 2.4x? Rendered over night a week ago with RC 2.3v5 without an internet connection (connected only to start Octane) without any problems at all. Come to think of it, i rendered a turntable animation so the program didn't restart during the operation... Guess that's the problem - you can't export a whole animation to Octane, the 3d applications have to export every frame seperately to Octane.

[kivig]

i will vote for dongle system

+1.
If it'd be of any help against fakes, maybe a dongle could get activated once a week through internet so there's guaranteed time of work. Sure - it requires a custom designed dongle, but usb adapters and microcontrollers are cheap these days. It shouldn't take too much time for skilled electronic engineer to design and program one, and costs should be comparable to maintaining servers reliability.

[Faizol]

Octane being in beta would not stop this renderer from being used by the users in a production environment, most probably to complement the already available pipeline. Plus the downtime like what happened last week can affect Refractive very negatively to the potential customers out there (especially medium size studios).

I read it somewhere that certain companies even bought a few hundred of Octane licenses, just imagine what would happen to their pipeline if server downtime to repeat again.

If net licensing scheme is *the only* viable protection scheme to prevent piracy, then companies like Autodesk and MS would definitely have chosen that route.

I would suggest something like a centralized license server for users with volume licenses (ala Renderman server). The server can have intermittent requests to the Refractive server to resync their licenses. This also can minimize traffic to Refractive server. And another option, probably a dongle, for any user who would use Octane without net connection.

2ndly, downtime has to be expected to happen again in the future, so any licensing scheme chosen for the next version should prepare for that. Maybe a two weeks grace period for the users if Refractive server is again down? This way the users can still use their license while waiting for Refractive license server to be back online.

[face]

Which software aren´t cracked with a dongle?
I would prefer a standalone renderer without any connection, without an UI and without any chance to change materials.
Maybe in a version, which only renders a keyed ocs-file which is generated from the main app.
With that we can render our scenes without a connection.
If we want to change materials, we use the standard version with an internet connection...

face

[matej]

face, that's a good idea!

You would need connection to prepare your scene, but not to render it.