V-Ray 3.0 for 3ds Max Beta Open!

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Damn I did not see that 1 coming :c

[vlado]

The render license is not tied to your workstation; you can use it to render anywhere, on your workstation, or on a render node, but it is just one license (i.e. it is not possible to render both on your workstation and on another machine). With that said, upgrades for multiple render nodes are available.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Nicinus]

Having been in marketing for many, many years I must say your ability to communicate new pricing models and product combinations to customers somewhat leaves something to be desired. When Chris said:

" If you are an existing V-Ray 2.0 user / for upgrades:
1) Upgrade V-Ray 3.0 User license (1GUI + 1 RN) : 300EUR
2) Upgrade V-Ray 3.0 User license + 5 Render nodes (1GUI + 6RN total) : 500EUR
3) Upgrade V-Ray 3.0 User license + 10 Render nodes (1GUI + 11RN total) : 700EUR

You can see that we already have the option 1 User + 5RN you suggest for both new license (#2) and upgrade (#2). We did our homework
Why don't you consider these options ?

Last edited by Chris_ChaosGroup; 09-07-2013 at 11:22 AM. "

I think most people assumed that a "GUI" would be able to render on it's own, i.e. your workstation is not a node.

[vlado]

Having been in marketing for many, many years I must say your ability to communicate new pricing models and product combinations to customers somewhat leaves something to be desired.

You are correct unfortunately. I agree wholeheartedly that the whole thing could have been handled soooo much better.

Best regards,
Vlado

[AJ Jefferies]

I haven't had too much difficulty understanding the new licensing model(s), but then again there have been points raised in this thread that I hadn't considered. I think some clear cut visual representations of the difference between the two licenses and the pricing structure would be a big help for both sides.

[fraggle]

There is 2 points that have not been mentioned in this thread:
1- CG fees are dropping more and more while client are looking for superproduction that require more time. 10 Years Ago still image price (western Europe) was done for at least twice the price as today.
2- Drastic change in license policy may boost the pirated version.

There could be a correlation between this 2 points!

Fraggle

[joconnell]

It's a large problem alright and it's being well documented in the vfx world at the minute. There're very few other industries though where we quote on a job based on some vague ideas, execute it three times over but get paid for it once. We've got business model issues first and foremost, if we solved those then we wouldn't be worrying about redundancies or 50 dollar vray rendering licenses :/

[AJ Jefferies]

1- CG fees are dropping more and more while client are looking for superproduction that require more time. 10 Years Ago still image price (western Europe) was done for at least twice the price as today.

Firstly, this depends what industry you're working in. Secondly, hardware costs have dropped massively since I first started doing CG professionally 13 years ago. £1'500 can get you an incredibly capable machine today, which when adjusted for inflation is truly amazing. Thirdly, the steps in producing CG today are not the same as they were 10 years ago - in our pipeline (if two people have a 'pipeline') V-Ray plays no small part in that. I look back at old projects and the hoops we had to jump through compared to today and the advances are incredible.

I admit as a very small outfit upgrading isn't going to cost us a great deal compared to most but even with the price increase I consider the return in value for V-Ray's continued development and fantastic support a drop in the ocean.

[paolo242]

what about 1b) V-Ray 3.0 User license (1GUI + 2 RN) : 350EUR ?
one for the new workstation and one for the old workstation...

[Christophe.Cot]

Hi Everyone,

Let me try to demystify our licensing and explain from where we started until where we are now.

Prior V-Ray 3.0, V-Ray has always been using the same terminology - this can be checked via the V-Ray License Server -> interface and (different) render licenses.

Interface license is what we also refer more accurately as GUI (Graphical User Interface). This GUI license is used whenever you need to access the user interface of V-Ray to setup some parameters, typical example is when you open the Render Settings to define the GI solutions, set the color correction, distributed rendering,... All what is specific to V-Ray.

What happen when you do not have available GUI license ?
if you open the V-Ray render settings, you will see an error message “Could not obtain a license (-xxx)”.

(*) We can also give the example of PhoenixFD - the Phoenix interface license (or GUI) is used when opening the Phoenix user interface to setup a simulation.
Phoenix is not a rendering engine, it does not render and so does not have any render license - it uses V-Ray to render.


Render licenses were until now split is different sub-categories : local render, DR render, Network/Batch render, RT render. Lots of them so quite complicated to follow.
With the new licensing, we simply regroup them in 1 single type called "Render node" (RN) license.
Therefore it becomes very easy to understand – whenever a machine needs to access the V-Ray rendering core library, you need 1 render node license.

What happen when you do not have available Render node license ?
if you launch a V-Ray rendering, you will see an error message in the V-Ray log window stating "Could not obtain a license (-xxx)".

There is no value added to provide a GUI without at least one render node, otherwise you could not even do a local render or even setup a V-Ray shader in the material editor – that’s why the first offer in for new license or upgrade includes at least 1 render node. From a user point of view, the minimum you want to purchase is 1x GUI + 1x RN, what I refer as “User license” in my explanation.

As mentioned Vlado, the RN license is not tied to your hardware nor limited to local render. So this should be seen as part of the render license pool you have available for rendering.

From there, everyone has different needs and requirements - that's why we provide different options.
If anything is still unclear about the new pricing structure or if anyone would like to check a concrete example, feel free to ask either on the forum or to our sales email where our team will reply you quickly.

[Christophe.Cot]

what about 1b) V-Ray 3.0 User license (1GUI + 2 RN) : 350EUR ?
one for the new workstation and one for the old workstation...

Hi Paolo,
Excellent example, will be useful for everyone (seeing the price you mention, I believe you talk about upgrade).

For each V-Ray 2.0 for 3dsMax license, you are of course eligible to upgrade your user license (1GUI +1RN), and also eligible to upgrade up to 10 render nodes.
You have the choice to upgrade your user license (1GUI + 1RN) and remaining 10 render nodes separately.

So let's say today you want to upgrade your user license, in 3 months upgrade 3 render nodes, then in 6 months upgrade the remaining 7 render nodes, it's totally possible.

What you can do in your example :
-> upgrade your user license : 300EUR
-> upgrade 1 render node : 95EUR
Total : 395EUR

I think you would agree that's quite in line with your expectations (only 45EUR difference).

The best of all : at any time, you have the possibility to upgrade your remaining 9 render node licenses.

My personal advise : the bundle upgrade are far more attractive.
For instance the bundle upgrade of 1 User license + 5 Render Nodes is only 105EUR more (500EUR), financially and to prevent future expansion/needs it makes more sense to consider this option.
Times are hard for everyone so if limiting the budget is the priority number one (i.e. 395EUR vs 500EUR is a big deal, does not matter you get 2 versus 6 render nodes), then you can always decide to upgrade a single render node.

[paolo242]

thanks for your answer...
I thought that if 5 render nodes = 200eur then*1 render nodes = 40 eur
so 300eur + 40/50 eur = 350eur for 1 gui + 2 rn...

[TRGraphics]

"There is no value added to provide a GUI without at least one render node, otherwise you could not even do a local render or even setup a V-Ray shader in the material editor – that’s why the first offer in for new license or upgrade includes at least 1 render node. From a user point of view, the minimum you want to purchase is 1x GUI + 1x RN, what I refer as “User license” in my explanation."

This is confusing. Are you saying that we can not even do a render without buying the license upgrade and 1 render node? So people that do not use extra computers, render nodes, they can not do a render with only a license upgrade?

[Christophe.Cot]

thanks for your answer...
I thought that if 5 render nodes = 200eur then*1 render nodes = 40 eur
so 300eur + 40/50 eur = 350eur for 1 gui + 2 rn...

Sales people use different (and sometimes weird) mathematical rules
Bundle packs, such as the User+5RN upgrade or User+10RN upgrade, are always more attractive - these are not simply different products added together price wise, there is always a good incentive to look at them over individual products.

[Christophe.Cot]

This is confusing. Are you saying that we can not even do a render without buying the license upgrade and 1 render node? So people that do not use extra computers, render nodes, they can not do a render with only a license upgrade?

No, it's not what I meant so let me rephrase if I was unclear about that.

If you buy either a full new license or an upgrade, by default at minimum we include 1 GUI + 1 render node.
We do not sell only GUI separately because as I explain a render node license is required to either to work on a V-Ray shader in the material editor, launch a production rendering or RT rendering.
I doubt that anyone would use a GUI just to change parameters on a shader or on a render setting without wanting to do a quick test render.

So conclusion is that people who do not use extra computers to speed up rendering but simply use their local workstation to render can simply purchase either a new V-Ray 3.0 license at 750EUR (versus 970EUR today for the 2.0) or a simple upgrade at 300EUR (versus 400EUR for the 2.0).
This is where you will surely understand that the new licensing move makes V-Ray more affordable for such cases as savings from 15% to above 20% are possible while having just what you need.