Vray 2.0: 2 paid updates per year?

[egz]

So then who leaked the information before the "official information"?

Nobody leaked anything, resellers received the information from Chaos Group yesterday. However, in the rush to format the information for different uses and update multiple sites and pages in a short time misunderstandings and mistakes might happen. The "2 commerical updates" info was a mistake, and has now been removed from both vray.info and cgarchitect.com. Sorry about the confusion!

[jujubee]

Well it's a shame that early adopters (=beta testers?) of VrayRT get no discount, I wasn't using it that much, I would have skipped it if i knew.

I pretty much have the same sentiments as this. I just saw this thread after posting something similar in the announcements section. I just didn't use it because of the incompatibility with my LWF method which may still persist to this day (I haven't tried it recently - no point.) I would have skipped too...

Must say its difficult for me to understand how recently purchased V-Ray RT users are taken into consideration, but those who supported the product early looses out.

Yep. New people get a discount. Early adopters are shit out of luck according to the pricing structure. At first I thought that this upgrade would be for free to early VrayRT adopters.

Also, I don't use PDPlayer - had no intention on purchasing that simply because I didn't see how that would fit my pipeline. It's almost as if the "summer package" gives away PDPlayer free to those who "buy now."

Don't get me wrong - I don't mind supporting you guys (hence my decision early on to purchase VrayRT before it was released), but in my opinion, this pricing structure needs to be seriously revised to take into consideration those early VrayRT adopters.

[pdimov]

It's almost as if the "summer package" gives away PDPlayer free to those who "buy now."

You say this as if it's a bad thing.

[jujubee]

• The upgrade price of every V-Ray 1.5 for 3ds Max license, bought by the 1st of August 2010, is:
400 Euro/ 510 USD/330 GBP
• The upgrade price of every V-Ray for 3ds Max commercial license or V-Ray RT, bought between 1st August and 1st of November, is: 150 Euro/ 190 USD/ 125 GBP
• The upgrade price of every Summer Bundle, purchased by 1st of November, is FREE
• Pricing does not include dongle/VAT/Shipping (if applicable). Discounted upgrade pricing will be available by 31 January 2011.
• Upgrade pricing is per V-Ray 1.5 for 3ds Max license and NOT V-Ray RT license.
• There is no upgrade volume discount available.

So, if you buy Vray or Vray RT now, you can get the upgrade for more than half the price of those of us who bought it before... Which to me seems backwards. Essentially, new users will be paying less. I see what they are attempting to do - give people a reason to buy it now instead of waiting until Decemeber to make their purchase. But I don't think that's fair to the loyal pre-existing customer base. At the minimum, the price should stay the same between those that came before (older users) and those that come between August to November (newer users.) If anything, make new users pay more when it gets released for an incentive if they don't buy it now (between Aug. and Nov.)

What I would like to see if anything (and I don't know if this will be possible), is to give people who pre-ordered Vray RT originally a discount since some of us have had major issues with it and have been waiting for a solid upgrade this entire time.

On the other hand, you buy all three this summer (Summer Bundle) and the upgrade 2.0 is completely free which is even a bigger discount for new users. If you paid full price individually for the three items before August (or the Summer Bundle), your stuck SOL with the full upgrade price.

The last scenario, which doesn't get mentioned is that let's say you only bought plain Vray - you should have to pay more to obtain Vray RT/GPU since now it's also going to be included (as well as PDPlayer.) I think that's the point of the 2.0 package upgrade.

I don't see how the people who already bought it are getting double punished essentially - for something they already bought (VrayRT) a year ago. As others mentioned, I would have just saved my money if we knew this was going to happen.

Or they could just do something reasonable and say - to those who previously purchased VrayRT - you will be getting a free upgrade to 2.0. To those who didn't, guess what - you'll need to pay the full upgrade price now.


Who knows, maybe I'm screwed up and understanding this all wrong...

[Nicinus]

We did consider this, but it was decided that will be unfair to people who have recently purchased V-Ray RT.

Best regards,
Vlado

Am I understanding this correctly; the upgrade price to Vray 2.0 (which now includes Vray RT, right?) is the same for people with RT as those without?

[jujubee]

Am I understanding this correctly; the upgrade price to Vray 2.0 (which now includes Vray RT, right?) is the same for people with RT as those without?

From what I read/understand, yes - unless you bought it recently since Aug. 1st, 2010.

• The upgrade price of every V-Ray 1.5 for 3ds Max license, bought by the 1st of August 2010, is:
400 Euro/ 510 USD/330 GBP
• The upgrade price of every V-Ray for 3ds Max commercial license or V-Ray RT, bought between 1st August and 1st of November, is: 150 Euro/ 190 USD/ 125 GBP
• The upgrade price of every Summer Bundle, purchased by 1st of November, is FREE
• Pricing does not include dongle/VAT/Shipping (if applicable). Discounted upgrade pricing will be available by 31 January 2011.
• Upgrade pricing is per V-Ray 1.5 for 3ds Max license and NOT V-Ray RT license.
• There is no upgrade volume discount available.

So, if you buy Vray or Vray RT now, you can get the upgrade for more than half the price of those of us who bought it before... Which to me seems backwards. Essentially, new users will be paying less. I see what they are attempting to do - give people a reason to buy it now (a sale) instead of waiting until Decemeber to make their purchase. But I don't think that's fair to the loyal pre-existing customer base. At the minimum, the price should stay the same between those that came before (older users) and those that come between August to November (newer users.) If anything, make new users pay more when it gets released for an incentive if they don't buy it now (between Aug. and Nov.)

What I would like to see if anything (and I don't know if this will be possible), is to give people who pre-ordered Vray RT originally a discount since some of us have had major issues with it and have been waiting for a solid upgrade this entire time.

On the other hand, you buy all three this summer (Summer Bundle) and the upgrade 2.0 is completely free which is even a bigger discount for new users. If you paid full price individually for the three items before August (or the Summer Bundle), your stuck SOL with the full upgrade price.

I don't see how the people who already bought VrayRT are getting double punished/double paying essentially (I know the argument from a programming standpoint is that Vray GPU is a completely different beast) - for something they already bought only a year ago. As others mentioned, I would have just saved my money for the upgrade if I knew this was going to happen since it appears you already have plans to discontinue VrayRT and transition over to GPU (they probably use similar code and deprecate gently.) Everyone else that's new to VrayRT or 2.0 gets off the double pay/upgrade hook.

Who knows, maybe I'm screwed up and understanding this all wrong... something just seems back asswards here.

[plastic_]

Yeah the update for me, owning vray 1.5 and vray RT, isn't all that attractive, because I can't use VrayGPU right now (ATI card).

I've lost some interest in RT/GPU stuff, because with its limitations, it isn't that important for me, as it turned out.

So what I've seen by now it's the lens effect, distance tex etc...I think I'll wait and see before I'm updating.

[mdi]

Question - If I buy a new licence to RT now (for £210) would I be able to upgrade it to a full licence of Vray 2.0 for 150 EUR?

[vlado]

Question - If I buy a new licence to RT now (for £210) would I be able to upgrade it to a full licence of Vray 2.0 for 150 EUR?

Yes, you will be able to do that.

Best regards,
Vlado

[AJ Jefferies]

Perhaps a very stupid question but is it actually possible to buy more license of RT than you have of V-ray...? My reason being it would make perfect sense for us to buy a couple of extra RT licenses just to take advantage of the discounted upgrade to the full V-ray 2.0 - but it certainly seems too good to be true if that is the case!

[Neilg]

Essentially, new users will be paying less. I see what they are attempting to do - give people a reason to buy it now instead of waiting until Decemeber to make their purchase. But I don't think that's fair to the loyal pre-existing customer base.

Doesnt every other high end software package work like this though? I know audio software has exactly the same deal between announcement/release, it's just the way it's done.

[wxyz]

My experience with high end audio software is that early adopters are rewarded.

[arobbert]

We did consider this, but it was decided that will be unfair to people who have recently purchased V-Ray RT.

Best regards,
Vlado

We paid for RT and everyone gets it for free in December. As a reward we get to help Chaos iron out the RT GPU bugs between now and December so the people getting it for free won't have to...Wow.

[kein_plan]

Perhaps a very stupid question but is it actually possible to buy more license of RT than you have of V-ray...? My reason being it would make perfect sense for us to buy a couple of extra RT licenses just to take advantage of the discounted upgrade to the full V-ray 2.0 - but it certainly seems too good to be true if that is the case!

i think that´s it. you need a license of vray to get one of rt...

[rajdarge]

I for one am very disappointed with the current upgrade path and pricing. Vray-RT is a rarely used and very buggy piece of software. I felt a little betrayed when I bought it and now I feel even worse as I paid so much for something that will be given away free to new users.

In the Vray RT forum there is a call for beta testers. Why I would beta test software that has caused me so much grief and from a company that has abandoned its loyal userbase to chase the new user is beyond me.

It doesnt make a lot of business sense to me either as the people most likely to part with money are the customers who have already parted with money and purchased your product. Every dollar you spend keeping your current customer base happy needs 10x as much to attract the new customer.

also for those of us outside the US, chaosgroup is now adopting restrictive trade practices and stopping parallel importing.
That kind of practice is prohibited here, but does not affect overseas companies. Doesn't make it right though.

Anyway thats my 2c.
Raj