Arion LIVE about to be released

[pluMmet]

http://randomcontrol.com/blog/

As we have mentioned on Twitter or Facebook during the past weeks/months, we’re working relentlessly on the LIVE plugins (MAX and XSI) and the next Arion.

We expect to have a big release ready during this summer, and as a matter of fact, we’re already working on some final tasks such as documentation, new setups, testing, etc… In the upcoming days, the website will be experiencing some changes, and it is likely that some areas will stop working.

It is hard to forecast how long it will take for us to release (as many unpredictable factors play a role) but we’re pretty sure that it will still take us at least a couple of weeks if not more.

During the upcoming days/weeks we will post some information on the blog about the big leaps forward that our technology has been taking lately, and about the release in general.

Stay tuned!

This sounds like good news but if you have been with Random Control for a while you can see that this lock down of the forum has happened before... right before they released news that they knew would anger lots of their customers. Last time that had promised some long awaited render viewer which never materialized... now with so many expecting their next free upgrade with 1 free LIVE plugin I'm guessing that they are going to ask people to open their check books in order to get things that had been promised to people that had already paid for things that are now going to be available.

I suspect that XSI folks will be the most outraged as they haven't had the ability to use what was paid for and now they will need to pay more to get it... I guess the marketing will be "but there is more then we had originally promised" and they will fain a minor discount out of the goodness of their hearts.

So get ready, save some cash if you want to be able to use Arion with Softimage

[ace63]

I was wondering why they shut down the software-specific forums.

Well I think there are not so many people with an Arion license already. Without a real plugin this simply is no option for most people.
Now with the LIVE plugin that might change - lets wait and see.

[gustavoeb]

MAX 2013 and XSI 2013
Posted on May 4, 2012 by chema
Our upcoming MAX and XSI LIVE plugins are compatible with MAX and XSI 2013 already.

It’s taken days of pain to support MAX 2013. It’s taken minutes to support XSI 2013.

Good to hear something like that, as most of the times the rendering SDK in Softimage suffers from criticism...

[Hirazi Blue]

Interesting. Here's hoping hell will freeze over soon and they do get around to actually releasing the plugin. The phrase " it will still take us at least a couple of weeks if not more" (my highlight) doesn't necessarily give me too much confidence that this will happen soon, though...

[scaron]

MAX 2013 and XSI 2013
Posted on May 4, 2012 by chema
Our upcoming MAX and XSI LIVE plugins are compatible with MAX and XSI 2013 already.

It’s taken days of pain to support MAX 2013. It’s taken minutes to support XSI 2013.

Good to hear something like that, as most of the times the rendering SDK in Softimage suffers from criticism...

bet they just meant the recompile not the time to develop the plugin from scratch... max is notorious for breaking plugins between releases so i bet they are just noting the differences. softimage's API is pretty good in this regard... tools often continue to work without recompilation needed.

[pluMmet]

bet they just meant the recompile not the time to develop the plugin from scratch... max is notorious for breaking plugins between releases so i bet they are just noting the differences. softimage's API is pretty good in this regard... tools often continue to work without recompilation needed.

I saw that it had to do with Max switching to Unicode so they had to switch all their stuff too and si was easy to get their stuff linked to thru Unicode.

Max was a bear to link up with...

Not that I know a lot about how that needs to be done ;)

[nuverian]

Nice, though I would still prefer if Octane was integrated. I think I will wait for it a bit longer.

[pluMmet]

Well the revelation that the next Arion will be 2.0 is in the Random Control blog now.

So obviously the promise to give free 1.x updates is circumvented.

No discussion allowed by anyone on the RT forum as it has been shut down.

So next I guess the money needed will be listed.

They are doing the little by little method so it seems like less of a shock.

[pluMmet]

"In the upcoming days, the website will be experiencing some changes, and it is likely that some areas will stop working."

It's amazing how the only part of the website that stopped working is the forum

They have even taken the forum linking away from the entire website like it never existed.

I can't imagine at this point, given their past that they aren't going to ask a multiple of the price of Octane for this update.

As I've been looking at things Octane looks considerably faster too.

I'm definitely hold out for the Octane si integration. (Octane's) Brigade also looks to blow a hole in the speed process.

Will Arion 2.0 even have a demo...? If so I'll load it just to see

[wireframex]

Arion 2.0 LIVE is available for 3DSMax only at this time, LIVE Render for Softimage 2011 - 2013 will be available at the last quarter of 2012.

http://www.randomcontrol.com/pricing

wireX

[gustavoeb]

good stuff wireframex, good job on the release...
price looks reasonable, if it does all its promissed

ps: intersting to see the added price for integration into the animation packages. not a common practice, but makes a lot of sense really

[pluMmet]

I've checked several times since I saw this post yesterday...

RC site has been down whole time.

What prices were listed?

[gustavoeb]

it was 199 the standalone and 599 the max plugin
if my memorie does not fail me

[Hirazi Blue]

Probably equally important to some:
The upgrade price from Arion 1.x or fryrender 1.x is apparently
195€ to get the Max Live and 95€ to get the new standalone.
You can check this at this Google Cache page, for as long as it doesn't get updated, obviously. And all numbers mentioned might just as well be completely different when the pages appears again...

[pluMmet]

Thanks guys... Hmmmm...

We were told that current users would get free Arion Live of our choice... So seeing the upgrade pricing verifies my evaluation of why they have shut down any user comments by closing their forums...

I had hoped to be wrong.

[ace63]

This is interesting:

"We have decided to discontinue support for all platforms other than MAX and XSI. We have no plans to develop any new versions of our legacy plug-ins, neither in LIVE fashion nor as mere exporters. Users of the stand-alone can rely on the .obj I/O capabilities of the stand-alone. "