can you cross-grade?

[kalamazandy]

I've been thinking of jumping ship from AD to something else. Now that Blender is becoming an option I might begin learning it. But I wasn't going to even begin until I knew what the cost would be. Do you guys know if Chaosgroup lets your cross-grade (vs upgrade) to vray standalone?

Has anyone here done that? I'd love to hear experience. If I could manage to do that, I could get more people running, and with Vray. I could basically throw out the cost of the 3D package, and replace it with a good rendering package. I don't need most of the "features" that Autodesk has been bringing. The only thing that is keeping me with them is that I have that software now, and i know it.

[MoonDoggie]

The only thing that is keeping me with them is that I have that software now, and i know it.

You and everyone else too my friend. I'm thinking about doing more work in modo. Take a look, though no v-ray for it yet.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Yes you can jump to other softwares, I jumped from max to maya. Email support/sales have a chat.

[MoonDoggie]

Glad you switched to maya DADAL?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I'm sort off glad... It do open ur eyes quite a lot when you have 2 piece of software from Autodesk... u sort off realize that... they are sort off 50% each of 1 apple and should be merged... I kind off need both to work now Simply saying

I want simplicity of Max
Complexity of Maya
Modeling of Max
Rendering of Maya... and so on !

[kalamazandy]

Modo is fairly priced, but I'm not seeing blender being worse at anything in terms of poly modeling and animation. So for the price, it's pretty difficult to argue with. I'm not very far into it though. I've just begun to look at it. The difficulty you have with things like MODO is that there isn't much incentive to learn it. I have to learn it on my own time because it's just going to be a demo. So there's the difficulty of creating fake jobs for yourself to see how it would work. Then you've got to convince people at work to purchase new software, and have both for a certain period of time for legacy work. That is why Blender looks good. I can learn that, and actually do work projects on it right away if they fit. It costs me nothing. And if it fits in later, I can say..."hey, I don't need this other software anymore so I'm saving X amount of money each year now by not renewing subscriptions." Also because of that I can afford more licenses of Vray render nodes.

I like the looks of Modo a bit more, but I can't figure out a good way to transition to different software in a work place. Maybe that's why software companies often feature hunt. They'll find one feature no one else has yet, and add that, even though that's not a good use of their time. Then you can say, "oh, you want me to add physics to the hair on the crowd of people there? I need a different software for that."
To me, different software is like different shoes. You can measure them in a race, but that's not a measure of my every day shoe. I know one shoe is better for me than another, but I can't prove it to you, so you won't let me buy it. My current shoes are good shoes. I'll just be happier with those other ones.