new demo version?

[mike.edel]

Hi,

as we are still testing vray over here it is quite unpleasant for us that the demo version has expired on oct 15th.
(started testing around the oct 1st so thats not enugh time at all)
I read in the forums that normally there would be new demo versions out as soon as the old ones expire.
Can anyone confirm that it usually works that way?
Cause right now were stuck here.
(it was difficult enugh to do test renders when half of the parameters and settings are not really explained in the help file - which seems to be ages older than the actual release
the new manual is for registered customers only - why?)

another thing: how is one actually supposed to evaluate distributed rendering if it is disabled in the demo?
You guys at chaossoftware can't be that afraid of the demo being used for commercial stuff - with all the watermarks in the output thats hardly possible.

hope to get a new demo soon,

Mike

[flipside]

Sometimes it takes a few days longer before the new demo is out. But it will probabely be there in a few days maximum I think.

I think your complaining a bit too much about the demo, not many other companies offer you such up to date version to test with (some have no demo at all).

If you're that serious and in depth testing vray, you are probabely using some other renderpackage already, so you have good knowledge about lots of stuff that you can easily translate to vray without the use of a manual imo. The old manual will help you with some other less self explaining stuff. Indeed it has many gaps, but again, be happy you get something at least.

[Syclone1]

Yea Flipside is rite, have a look at how many plugin publishers actually deploy demos of their software. Not many at all and Chaosgroup is the only one Ive seen that has kept "extending" the time for the demos for all who want to try it out. As Flipside said it only takes a couple days for a new demo to be released, and keep checking the site for a new download cause it may not be announced here rite away.

-dave

[mike.edel]

@flipside:

Sorry if it seems like I'm complaining, but I think nobody can expect a company to buy a product that can't be tested.
That is a reason why finalrender currently is absolutely no option for us - we dont want to buy it in order to see if we can really use it.
Saying that, of course we are happy that vray offers such a nice way of getting to check it out.
It only would be even better (and much faster) if we had access to some more specific and accurate documentation of the features/settings and its effects. Thats the reason we need more time - we just have to fiddle around a lot until things look right.
Part of the problem is that we need very specific things to work - for example it is critical that we can fully use the fisheye camera. I have already found some things not to work with it (DOF not at all, Alpha channels sort of) but have gotten no feedback from the forum.
We are currently using the standard max scanline renderer with a special 4 camera rig. Its output gets stitched into a fisheye image - with big performance and quality issues.
Getting the fisheye camera to work with vray requires the scenes to be setup in a very specific way (the distance between the camera and the closest object mustn't be lower than one system unit for example)
Figuring that out takes some more time than "just" rendering existing scenes with vray.

btw: still no new demo

@syclone:
You are right to some extent but:
normally you dont purchase much more than one or two licenses of a single plugin - so it doesnt hurt you that bad if it doesnt work as expected (bad enugh as it is)
Besides the average max plugin is cheaper (of course i might add...)
If you plan to switch an entire studio to another renderer costs are different... even with free network rendering (why isnt that mentioned on the sales page btw? clearly speaks for vray after all )

[flipside]

Yeah I'm also wondering when the new demo will arrive. But unlike you, I already decided to go for Vray, other factors are delaying my purchase however...

[vlado]

An extended demo version is coming later today.

Best regards,
Vlado