Licensing ?

[bicket]

Hi Karba,

I tested FStrom this week end and I'm impressed. Your plugin is awesome.
It's still require some features but I really would like to swap my actual render engine with FStorm.

Unfortunately my 4 x Maxwell titans don't work fast with FStorm.
As far as my actual renderer doesn't support Pascal, upgrading to Pascal will be a one way process. No possible return.

You pretend PayPal is a robbery but I think that the FStorm licensing is an hostage taking.
As you are the owner and the developper, what will happen if for some reason FStorm stops ?

What will I say to my clients ?
- Karba has broken his leg in a rollerblade ride ...
- Karba is rich enough and the renderer is off ...


Please, consider a durable FStorm version.
Please, consider a paypal payment, I don't want to show my credit card number every month.

Cheers and keep the excellent work.

[Karba]

Well, you know, the modern world is not a world of guarantees, it is a world of risks.

Most renders require online connection with a license server and even if you have a box version, it would not work if the license server is down (because of fire, earthquake, flood or aliens attack)

[Miguel1900]

I think it's a really good (and funny written) question. If on 2018 you are doing a very big project and you are forced to change to another renderer because FStorm has been discontinued... When you buy a durable version, as bicker suggested, usually you activate it once, only at the beginning, when installing it. After that, if the company doesn't exists anymore, it's true that you won't be able to re-install it, but you could have done a backup of your PC with the program installed, so you will be able to "reinstall" it as many times as you want. So a durable version won't stop working on the worse moment. A periodical version, will do it. If it going to be periodical, would be glad to lot of people to know that, if happening what bicket said (Discontinuation of FStorm), it would receive a last update disabling the server check and doing it free. (Some developers prefer to close the party and "kill" all the rest of people).


About PayPal, I will quote myself in order to suggest it to you, Karba, as I think it will benefit you, almost sure:

If there is no discount, nobody (who has thought a little about it) won't buy more than one month at a time. "He" will buy one month with Automatic payment/renovation, and if a month he is on holidays or without work, he won't buy during that month. If the discount is, for example, 2$ for every extra month bought, probably should happen the same. You will get 24$ discount dollars for 12 months, but if you are not working during one month on the year (which I think it's very usual), which costs 20$, it's the same that if you buy it month after month. I think the minimum discount would be at least 3$ for each extra month bought at the same time, so 36$ for 12 months, but the best would be 4$ I think, as it will be 48$ a year, so it worths the money even if you usually are not working (rendering) during 2 months on the year.

Best regards

[RobSteady]

I think Johannes Lindqvist sums it up pretty well:
http://cgpress.org/archives/fstormre....html#comments

[antonyebl]

As with everything one can suggests and argue what he believes to the best for the product (as better adoption should implicitly benefit all users in the long run, hence I genuinely understand e.g. Rob's contribution regarding marketing/new website...)

The same goes for licensing, features etc etc...

...yet ultimately the product/development direction is in the hands of the developer...
who (I believe) has the very 'same' goal of a good product that attracts as many (paying) users as possible...
...but his vision/idea of achieving that may be different.
respect

Ad online connection I don't believe it's necessarily the case.
Of course there is the online option but exactly for that reason there is also the 'local' license server option. Not all computers are connected to the internet, and usually for a good reason.

Regarding unpredictability and production/risk management it's a fair point.

But hey, you always have the free version to revert to (or other alternative renderers...)

[Sylk]

I think that on the day when, for some reasons, the licensing can no longer be assured by the developer, he will simply have to make the software free.

[bicket]

Well, you know, the modern world is not a world of guarantees, it is a world of risks.

Most renders require online connection with a license server and even if you have a box version, it would not work if the license server is down (because of fire, earthquake, flood or aliens attack)

Most renders belongs to companies with shareolders and switchable developpers.
Even if the quality is not always here, the product durability is safer.

Lets try FStorm for some oneshot projects.
Recurrent work will stay on Octane for the moment.

[Karba]

Most renders belongs to companies with shareolders and switchable developpers.
Even if the quality is not always here, the product durability is safer.

Lets try FStorm for some oneshot projects.
Recurrent work will stay on Octane for the moment.

Do not believe in switchable developers.
There are no such unless they are completely useless.

In most cases losing a single key developer is enough to kill the whole product.
This is what happened with Octane, especially for 3ds max. The whole company was not able to catch up the development.

VRay and Corona have key developers as well - Vlado and Ondra.

[bicket]

I agree with you.
What I want to say is that the product stays available even if the quality is off.