On our way to a new beta?

andybot · 28 Mar 2012, 19:38

"The official suggested end user price for an upgrade to V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino is 230 Euro/ 320 USD/ 200 GBP."

Great. Looks we'll have to shell out to get fixes -given it's not likely there'll be a point release before they start working on the new VfSU.

Sigh.

Nuts! I was wondering what will be the case for vfsu. Not a good sign.

Stinkie · 28 Mar 2012, 19:53

It gets better:

"The V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino upgrade will be available until June 30, 2012; after this time, only the full version will be available."

And:

"Note: Prices do not include dongle/VAT/shipping."

Obviously, its isn't clear at this point what the scenario will be in VfSU's case, but if it's anything like this, I of course cease to be a customer of Chaos Group's. There's only so much customer unfriendliness I am willing to take.

valerostudio · 29 Mar 2012, 14:11

I am not shocked about the dongle. I am a little upset about the upgrade price, especially since we have waited so long for an upgrade and fixes.

andybot · 2 Apr 2012, 13:24

confirmed about the dongle:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?67929-License-Issues&p=546976#post546976

Looking at the rhino upgrade precedent, I agree with you valerostudio that there will be a cost with the new vfsu release.

BTW, I have the dongle for my vray standalone, and it's more convenient in any case than having to have the license validated for each computer change through CG. I'm sure it's less overhead for them too... plus they get to pass the cost onto the customer...

valerostudio · 2 Apr 2012, 13:57

I heard a rumor that there is a 1.40.04 beta floating around. Can anyone confirm this?

dkendig · 2 Apr 2012, 14:29

There is definitely not a beta version floating around, I can squash that rumor right now. As far as the dongle, they fix some problems, and create very few. The ability to just take your license with you so you can work from home without a complicated VPN setup, or to transfer your license to a freshly reformatted computer without having to contact our friendly neighborhood Keith Thompson for an activation reset. The downside, there is a cost for this piece of hardware, and you have to wait for it to be shipped to you. On the flip side, how much time has our existing licensing system cost you? For some, you may not have experienced a single problem, but for anyone with a complicated setup at work, or anyone that has upgraded or modified their computers, you know how much dongles could help.

I have no part in deciding pricing or anything of that sort, but I would say that the features that were added to VfR in this last development cycle, should prove to be quite useful. I hope everyone is happy with the way the product turned out. We are pretty pleased with it ourselves, and we look forward to bringing these fixes and improvements to VfS.

Stinkie · 2 Apr 2012, 14:34

Aaand ... I'm out.

rspierenburg · 3 Apr 2012, 15:09

I hope Chaos doesn't go the same route with VFSU or they are going to alienate a LOT of users. I mean, how can they boast all these new features for ver 1.5 when current features of 1.4 don't work. And then to potentially charge current customers extra money to fix a product that should have been tested properly before being sold in the first place is very bad business indeed.

Rob

andybot · 3 Apr 2012, 15:46

It certainly seems like they are trying to fix flaws in the current software model at the existing users' expense. If it gets to a better product, well, time will tell.

Stinkie · 3 Apr 2012, 16:39

@andybot said:

It certainly seems like they are trying to fix flaws in the current software model at the existing users' expense.

That's exactly what they're doing. But hey, they're pleased with themselves, so all is good.

Devin -if you're reading this -sorry mate, but the above sarcasm is well bl**dy deserved, and you know it.

The current situation is probably interesting for CG. They can point to ASGVIS for the lackluster development of VfSU, and those who used to be part of ASGVIS can go 'nothing to do with that' when customers moan about the pricing scheme.

The customers, meanwhile, are simply being f*cked over. It is such a shame CG's offices aren't around here somewhere.

dkendig · 3 Apr 2012, 19:52

I'm not the best representative of the entire company, I really only get to see a small window of what's going on. I get to see a list of bugs from customers, and a list of requirements from those above me. I just program and try to keep as best of a pulse on what's going on as I can.

ASGvis, when it existed, was able to resell it's own product, which allowed us to play around with numbers some, but the underlying pricing scheme was always based upon the way Chaos Group did things. When 2.0 came out and RT came out, they charged for an upgrade. Now we are at the point where RT is working in our plugin core (with VfR at least). It's all still in the air though. I haven't heard any talk of definite pricing, licensing, etc. We are still at the point where we are trying to figure out what we need to tackle, when, how, and how long it will take. I wasn't told the final price of the VfR upgrade until the day of release, so I'm really not the best person to talk to about that kind of stuff.

Tom - I understand the frustration, we will do our best to make our next release worthwhile, regardless of the pricing or feature set. We have made tons of fixes and optimizations already, it should be exciting to see what else we can improve.

If it were up to me, I'm not sure if I'd opt to spend the time ripping features out of the current implementation of our product so that we could put out a bugfix patch, or if I'd spend that time to get the current features in VfS. Both options would probably take a similar amount of time, and each have their pros and cons, so it's a tough call.