L*mion now split up in "Basic" and "Ultimate" flavors

solo · 9 Jun 2011, 19:54

I too would like to see that, I'd even be interested in doing it, but alas at those prices I'll wait for some rich bastard to do it for me.

jason_maranto · 9 Jun 2011, 20:12

I think there is no question TwinMotion would beat Lumion pretty easily for most things... for the previous price difference that seemed reasonable -- less so now.

Best,
Jason.

EarthMover · 9 Jun 2011, 20:20

At least for Sketchup users, Lumion just did E-on a big favor as anyone on the fence will certainly go LumenRT over Lumion at this point.

I guess I'll just consider the $1300 already shelled out as a downpayment and figure on paying for the rest of the needed content in installments. I suppose I'll just by plugins on an as needed basis and only if I can sell a project that requires it. There's no other option really.

In spite of the bitching, I'm still pretty psyched about the potential of the program and can't wait to re-render some projects with waterfalls and fire effects. Hopefully the road ahead stabilizes and we don't end up with 50 or more plugins for all aspects of future development. At this point I'm also wondering what Lumion 2 will bring in terms of upgrade fees, plugins, etc.

Plex · 9 Jun 2011, 20:35

@earthmover said:

At least for Sketchup users, Lumion just did E-on a big favor as anyone on the fence will certainly go LumenRT over Lumion at this point.

Well LumenRT is totally different beast. Very promising for what it is meant for but hardly in competition with Lumion.

Gaieus · 9 Jun 2011, 22:59

@earthmover said:

...I suppose I'll just by plugins on an as needed basis and only if I can sell a project that requires it. There's no other option really...

It seems that it is not even a bad idea and you need not decide nowto (pre)purchase the ultimate edition with all futureplugins included but as you go and purchase, your purchases will be deducted from the final price of ultimate meaning once you reach the 5th plugin, you are practically an ultimate license holder and will not have to pay for the rest. See Morten's explanation about the whole future licensing and plugin package policy here:
http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?topic=1219.msg7365#msg7365

EarthMover · 10 Jun 2011, 14:01

@plex said:

Well LumenRT is totally different beast. Very promising for what it is meant for but hardly in competition with Lumion.

No? As far as professional sketchup users go, it's all about what options there are to best present and sell your projects and keep your clients as happy as possible. Clients don't know what softwares cost and what kind of light calculations a program performs...they want to sell their products, regardless. In that respect, when it comes to animations easily produced out of sketchup, all options are indeed competition. Committing a piece software to your workflow is based on bang for the buck and what will keep the clients most happy. If I can get a comparable finished product out of LumenRT and Lumion, but there is a difference in cost, business model and customer service, I would have to weigh out both against the big picture. With the revelation that one of the softwares has doubled it's price midway through their first release, if I were on the fence, I would be very weary about entering a working relationship with that company. In that respect, they are making the less expensive options (LumenRT, Lightup, etc. ) seem more appealing in the long run.

I also remember Miguel doing a recent client animation that was half done in Lumion and half done in LightUP. I'm sure the client had no idea that there were two different programs used, as the results looked very similar.

Ecuadorian · 10 Jun 2011, 21:17

How's the download speed today? I'm waiting for the dust to settle and for them to fix the unavoidable kinks that come with a new update.

solo · 10 Jun 2011, 21:18

Took me 1h 20sec.

Gaieus · 10 Jun 2011, 21:33

-30 minutes...

Plex · 10 Jun 2011, 21:53

@earthmover said:

@plex said:

Well LumenRT is totally different beast. Very promising for what it is meant for but hardly in competition with Lumion.

No? As far as professional sketchup users go, it's all about what options there are to best present and sell your projects and keep your clients as happy as possible.

Yep!
When you put it like this, I couldn´t agree more.

Ecuadorian · 12 Jun 2011, 02:52

Is there any "must have" content in the new plugins?

So far, what I know is:
New plants: Mainly for Europe
People: Seriously... Silhouettes?
Movie effects: Look fun to use once or twice.
New water: Now this is something worth having, but oddly, the new water is split between the FX pack and the Environment pack.

EarthMover · 12 Jun 2011, 04:41

@ecuadorian said:

New water: Now this is something worth having, but oddly, the new water is split between the FX pack and the Environment pack.

Per the wording on the site -

"Special effects plug-in

With this package you can add special effects such as water, fire, smoke and fog to your scenes.
Environments and weather plug-in

Currently this package contains an awesome ocean feature for weather mode. This plug-in is essential if you need to create scenes featuring the ocean or shorelines."

Because of this wording I opted for the Special Effects pack, only to then find out that the waterfall shader is not included, but it's in the Environment and Weather pack. Sheeesh.

Ecuadorian · 13 Jun 2011, 20:47

The gap between L*mion and Twinmotion 2 has closed a lot, don't you think? Back in December, we had:

Twinmotion 2: $3,000 + $800 for 12 months of updates = $3,800 total cost in first year of usage
L*mion: $1,100, still no info on the price of upgrades, still no word about the current plugin system

Now we have:

Twinmotion 2: $3,000 + $800 for 12 months of updates = Still $3,800 total cost in first year of usage
L*mion Ultimate: $2,200 + $733 upgrade price when V.2 comes out: Now $2,933 total cost in less than one year of usage

(Prices slightly rounded)

Anyone here using Twinmotion?

EarthMover · 13 Jun 2011, 22:47

I think there is a difference between cost and value. I'm not sure of all TwinMotions features to make a healthy comparison. For that price, I hope it at least has lights.

Miguel, let me ask you....when a software increases it's cost and the pending upgrade cost will be hitting at the end of the year, do you try to recover that money by passing along an increase in cost to the customer? I know as a small business owner, each year I set aside projected budgets along with my overhead and allocate a certain amount of spending toward software each year, along with a small amount for training, hardware upgrades, possible replacement parts, a fund toward a new rig split over two years, along with all my office costs, marketing, etc. A huge part of my pricing structure revolves around recovering my overhead sum based on my projected billable hours and desired salary. I have a pretty regimented system with my bases covered, but something like this increase in cost throws a wrench into that, as it was totally unexpected. As I've set pricing structures with my existing clients, so the burden of cost to pay an extra $900 for features I need to stay competitive, poses quite the challenge. Ultimately this is a cost that I either end up taking out of my personal profits, or passing along to the customer through a slight increase in hourly rate. This is my real dilemma with the new pricing structure and why I was a bit irate about it. It's something I don't think the developers consider.

That being said, I understand the amount of work that went into the SP2 release and I'm okay with the decisions the developers made to restructure. I know it's nothing personal, still something that needs to be sorted out from a business owners standpoint. Personally I support a family of 6, by designing solely (I've gotten out of installation) and in that respect I guess I'm a little bit more sensitive about money than others.

All in all, I stand behind the Lumion team and appreciate the capabilities of their software in my market. I'm done ranting about the update for now and will refrain from passing further judgment. I can't assume to know what goes on behind the scenes and what cost have been incurred on their behalf. After all, they could've been more like Twin Motion from the beginning and raised the cost ceiling to accommodate enough room to add and grow without an increase, but that would've put it out of my reach and I would've never gotten to know this great program.

Ecuadorian · 13 Jun 2011, 23:08

I see you're quite organized, Adam. I wish I was like that. I'm single so I don't have to worry too much about money. And Lumion is, by far, the most expensive piece of software I "own". I mostly use Open Source or Freeware stuff.

But still, I'm waiting for the Lumion guys to get together again (one of them is on vacation) and figure this whole thing out before upgrading or switching to another software. All I want is a clear, unambiguous roadmap with a clear pricing structure for future upgrades.

pilou · 13 Jun 2011, 23:14

These 2 products seems are clearly first for Professional uses so price are in adequation

Bob James · 13 Jun 2011, 23:25

@unknownuser said:

These 2 products seems are clearly first for Professional uses so price are in adequation

It does not necessarily follow that if I am a "professional user" that I am "rich" so I have to pay "big money" for software that seems to be priced based on the philosophy of "professional" = "soak him big money".