It seems to me that since the new limited access to the forum, somehow the Vray community here is dying out. There are many many topics where there are absolutely no replies from the Vray team (something they said it would change once we had a more private forum) and then there are lots of members that I don’t see around anymore that used to contribute greatly. Is my impression correct? Has the traffic of the forum really slowed down as it seems? what are the number of authorize users now and what used to be before the restriction? If my impression is correct I just don’t see how this can benefit the development and growth of Vray in anyway. Could somebody explain me how I’m I better off after this restricted access to more people? I’d like to hear the honest and unbiased opinion of other users on this matter.
Many people left the forum long time ago, even before we closed it - they have their own business to take care of, and VRay is not the center of the universe…
Many users were glad to see this change, I suppose others were not, but one can’t have everything.
Before we restricted the forum, it was very difficult for us to look through the entire forum and answer even a small number of the questions.
i think it improved greatly…there are less posts, but also less junk. vlado is answering more questions than before and i’ve learned much in the last weeks.
I’d have to say that closing the forum was a good idea. We dont get posts like my vray rendering is flickering frame to frame (in bug forum). I think once vray 1.5 is out, Vlado and others from his team will respond even more to the posts. However we must consider that about 20% of the posts are not relevant and most likely been asked before so there is no point of answering them.
What I’d like from chaos team is better support and if I get a scene with which I struggle and seek their help I can get a reply within reasonable time, which doesnt happen very often.
if you want “diversity” go to cgtalk.com
nothing wrong with cgtalk, if you get past the 95% junk you mind find quite valueable information…it just takes some more time.
the vray forum is very useable. even the occasional trolls are brighter than some moderators on other boards.
i like being able to have time to check more then just the bug reports now
but hey, the ‘View posts since last visit’ link is wonderful.
the mass of posts before was a bit painful when the useful info comes from the same 30-50 users that we’ve been chatting with for the past few years anyway
I am very glad that it is closed. Vlado and his team seem less stressed and have more time to aswer questions. Also since the forum is closed I haven’t seen any ranting posts, which saves everyones energy.
It’s a pity there are less posts (especially in images section), but I gladly sacrifice that to get better support. It’s indeed easier to find usefull info now. Of course there were users that contributed well to this forum that are gone now, but their number is probably very low.
dbuchhofer is right, the usefull help came from the same users as it is now.
When vlado doesn’t answer, I usually start searching the forum a bit bitter, because usually the answer is already there.
Certainly I know we have got better support technically since the changes, as everybody can see. I totally understand the frustrations you guys had before. I also understand maybe this is the forum direction that CHAOS selected.
For me, diversity means, the forum may also open to those non-VRAY users, who are CG professionals, traditional artists, architects, designers, …etc; and those who’re using VRAY free or demo. Think of that, although they are not VRAY users, however our VRAY community can benefit from their knowledges of CG theory and/or aesthetic insights.
Thanks everybody for the answers. I guess there is a trade off between more volume of messages and more personalized support. There are still a few questions that I posted here that I never got a resolving answer. However sometimes just to be heard is a form of answer, I guess? ( or I try to hope so). Especially when there is no immediate solution to my problem but the issue involves aknowdlegment from the development team that there’s a problem.
The part that I don’t really like about restricted access is that very important people for the proper integration of Vray with Max and other plugins are now being left out. For example Dans (from Cebas) has given extremely helpful insight of what shortcoming of Vray needed to be worked out so Vray can fully take advantage of PSD manager (still an issue not fully resolved AFAIK). Now that type of feedback is not good for this forum all the sudden? People like him, other people that develop renderfarm software, particles plugins, or any other plugins have to be granted access to this forum because otherwise the only ones being punished are us (the real users) and on the long run the healthy development and improvement of this software. If Vray becomes a members-only club that won’t allow relevant parties to express their voice, I don’t want to be part of this club then. There’s got to be a way to make this work, and please don’t tell me is posting on the public forum because it defeats the whole purpose of this segregation.
yes i know im thick but could you elaborate why its not a good idea to have them post in the public forum.
Or perhaps a new section with all access with a more ‘techie / high level’ name would attract those people you talk about ?
i really really like the reasonble post count plus a higher deegre of usefull information within that count.
But i see no reason why a privat customer forum cant be maintaned alongside a public more general forum without loosing ‘important’ people from the CG i.
In the end customers demand some sort of support and i think chaosgroup delivers better like this.
