Hi girls & guys,
I've already mentioned my opinion on this topic a few weeks ago - almost all of us have paid the full price for C4D, and now Maxon is slapping into our faces with their new pricing policy.
Result: I won't upgrade this year. No way. The reason is simple: I've thought about the purpose of the app for me, and all I need is modeling (I'm using only few modeling features in C4D because I'm using Rhino for most of my models), the texturing and rendering. That's it. Animations? Huh, only a few times a year. Radiosity? Almost never because of the slow processors on the market. So all I need is already included in version 7. Period.
And believe me: next year Maxon will offer another 'large step upgrade' from v7 to v9 as they did for v5 to v7 - this will save me the 'rental' costs for one year. Or maybe I'll select another product next year to render my scenes, who knows - the market delivers many new apps every month, and some of them are fantastic - with a 'full version' price tag that's lower than the C4D updgrade price.
I don't like the policies of the companies to poop out a new version every year, charging upgrade prices for only minor improvements. Do I purchase a new car every year? No, because this 15 year old monster still gets me from point a to point b. See what I mean?
I didn't even have the time to experience and experiment with all features of v7, so why should I run through the upgrade procedure now?
I'm using Ashlar DrawingBoard for 8 years now - they didn't offer an upgrade. This is a perfect CAD application for 2D, small on the HD with only 6MB, 20 times as fast as AutoCAD.
I'm still using Corel 7 PhotoPaint (the current version is 10) - an absolutely outdated version, but believe it or not, I can still do the same stuff with it as years ago. But because I know that thingie inside out, I can work very fast with it.
My recommendation: don't panic, don't throw away your money on a useless upgrade unless you have a paying customer for it so that the 'new features' will make sense and pay off the expenses. Show Maxon that they have made the wrong decision and let them 'deal with lemons' as we say. If only 50% of the current users of v7 will deny the upgrade we will be able to pull Maxon back onto the carpet to re-invent a fair and realistic pricing.
And last but not least: chances are high that the next release will be offered with 60% off because of lower prices in the 3D app industry due to a harsh competion in the market.
If worst comes to worst there will always be the excellent and FREE POVRay rendering app. OK, I have to admit that POVRay does have a cryptic command line, but now there are numerous graphical front ends on the market to manage POVRay with point and click. BTW, did you know that C4D v5 could export to POVRay as well? Guess why...
jens
jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de
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If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
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