Is this thread invisible in the Zbrush “Community” section? I had to find it with search.
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If I’m logged in it’s showing as the top non-stickied thread for me, just above the Free Application Discussion thread. If I’m not logged in though it doesn’t even show me community to see this.
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@Kerwin, Check on the bottom of the thread if it is set on Tracking or whatever but not Muted.
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Thanks guys! Somehow, I muted myself. 
My senility must be kicking in. 
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and i tried 3D Coat, and it feel terrible coming from Zbrush as well, no Sub Divisions, it all feels incredibly unintuitive, hell id rather downgrade to Zbrush Core than go to 3DCoat
3DCoat has subdivisions. It’s the ProxySlider in Surface Sculpting mode. I’m new to it, so I’m not sure what the effect is in Voxel mode, but in Surface mode you generate reduced or decimated levels.
But also, 3DCoat doesn’t particularly need them because it uses your GPU too, so Voxel mode (sort of the equivalent of dynamesh) can freeze areas and you can add local detail. And because the retopology tools are so much better than everything else, there’s no need to move to an external program to fix your topology.
You just have to learn it, like you had to learn ZBrush.
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Seriously ? Sorry to hear. I loved his tutorials.
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Well, im currently buying 3DCoat, cause i figure its just one more tool in my belt. even if i don’t use it for anything but Retopology, but i don’t see it being better, or even nearly as good as Zbrush, sorry but just my opinion. id rather keep my 2022 license till something MASSIVLY better comes along, than downgrade to sculpting with 3DCoat for no reason. i mean, i got everything i need in 2022 anyway.
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Have fun learning Blender
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Zbrush just crushed on me for no reason deleting a low poly subtool. Hello Maxon
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What I’m wondering about is, if down the road, I have to reinstall and/or reactivate, will I still be able to do that? Right now, we are using the Pixologic license activation server, but what happens if and when it switches to a Maxon license server. Do they still, legally have to allow me to use the software or can Maxon say “That was Pixologic policy but now it belongs to Maxon and we don’t legally have to and you have to buy it again”. Does anybody, definitively, know the legality of a situation like this?
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Not cool dude… don’t wish that on anyone ;_; lol j/k, i use Blender for a few different things. just NOT Sculpting. that’s uh… that’s a bridge too far.
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@zber2 Autodesk bought Softimage from Avid, and changed the licensing to their own, which meant that after 3 years they would “retire” older versions of the software, and not allow them to be reactivated. Below is an email response when I asked to re-activate it after a drive failed in 2012.
" Automatic reply: Need to re-activate XSI Foundation 6.02
Software Retirement Notice
In order to maintain a high level of support for our Autodesk® Softimage® software customers moving forward, please be advised that historical versions of Softimage products (versions prior to Autodesk Softimage 7.5) will be retired effective August 1, 2011. If you intend to move a historical version of Softimage from one workstation to another, please do so prior to the retirement date to make sure that you will be able to re-activate your license."
Hardware failures, upgrades of machines etc. and your license is gone, and they wouldn’t reactivate it.
Is this legal? Presumably it is, sadly. Is it right, moral or fair? I don’t believe so, no.
And this is my concern of what will happen if people don’t keep up with potentially expensive upgrades or subscriptions.
I hope this isn’t what happens, but I’ve been bitten by it in the past, so I’m certainly apprehensive now too.
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I agree, 3DCoat for sculpting is totally not at the standard of ZBrush - but I’m also wondering if there’s a bit of modification of workflow to get it to work the same way. Like we’ve had this way of working with ZBrush for years, and that’s why we’re so fast, but the fun question is how to we analyse our own workflow and start to create equivalencies in other tools. I’ve started with some of that, as time allows, and with some help, but this weekend has been a question of how do we want to proceed if we can see the future of ZBrush marked by Maxon’s very first action: without any information or knowledge about future plans or updates, they immediately change the licensing terms and start rolling out upgrade costs that reflect what they think we’ll pay for it rather than what they’re adding that justifies that.
3DCoat is certainly not slow, at least not on my hardware, and it’s not wanting for brushes - and I hadn’t paid much attention to it because I use Houdini and it has vellum for cloth, and that’s a real simulation. But apparently cloth dynamics have been in 3DCoat for about five years. They are, in fact, far more stable and accurate compared to Zbrush dynamics I guess simply because like Houdini it can use the GPU for far more accurate floating point calculations. And it can certainly beat ZBrush in terms of polycount - there’s no memory or cache based limits.
Thing is, in our team here we have no reason to upgrade ZBrush but every reason to start exploring alternatives - Maxon’s recent history with Forger (Forger Classic abandoned, the exact same program released as Forger Subscription) concerns me.
If we plan to use 3DCoat for retopo and UV instead of Houdini anyway, then we already made it part of the pipeline, so starting out sculpts there and passing them to ZBrush to take advantage of the detailing brushes we know before we retopo in 3DC isn’t a huge pain. We’re not jumping away from ZBrush just yet, but with the range of specialist tools available to us outside ZBrush we don’t see why we should be trying to make ZBrush that one program that we use. It’s really good at sculpting, but average at a lot of the other things Pixologic have tried to make it do. If it were still Pixologic or the update costs were more reasonable, or if it had taken them longer to make these licensing changes, I might feel differently about it - but as of now, if we’re not getting feature updates and the features they currently have are better done in Houdini, 3DCoat, Substance or Mari, which we have to have anyway, then ZBrush can just be the sculpting solution we originally got it for.
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I’m sorry it took some time for me to get an answer here, but I can now address what people have seen for perpetual licenses on some reseller sites.
The price list that they drew from was in error and there should NOT have been an “Upgrade to ZBrush 2022” product.
- All registered ZBrush users are eligible for a free upgrade to ZBrush 2022.
- All purchases within the last year (but before 29 Dec 2021) are eligible for free upgrades beyond version 2022.0.x until their anniversary date is reached. The guarantee of free upgrades for one year from date of purchase remains.
- All purchases from 29 Dec 2021 forward are only eligible for critical bug fixes.
There is no information at this time regarding how often feature upgrades will be available for perpetual licenses or what the cost will be. That information will most likely not be decided until the first upgrade rolls around.
Thanks!
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Awesome, i was seriously hoping $660 wasn’t the upgrade price for ONE update. that would be insane. i mean, C4D only costs $3500 and the Updates cost $900 if im correct, so if they charged $660 for a Zbrush update, it would only be $235 away from the price of a Perpetual License (Without it being on Sale)
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Well sadly … 3DCoat, Blender and the Affinity box of photo apps keep turning into alternatives for free updates . I don’t do subscription. I believe in economics and would totally pay for an upgrade… subscriptions are for magazines.
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Well, Devils Advocate here, but a constantly updated program is very likely to be turned into a “Subscription” based model, due to needing to be updated constantly to remain relevant. but im with you on how you rather pay for updates over Subbing to it month to month. but if Zbrush ever DOES go Sub only, ill still pay for it, cause it’s the best option currently available, so long as it isn’t any INSANE Amount like C4D’s Monthly sub price is. that’s just too far. C4D doesn’t do anything (for ME) that i can’t do with Blender, so it’d be silly for me to pay that kinda money for something i don’t need. ZBRUSH however, that’s a far different story.
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Has anything been annouced about the subject of tonight (based on my local time) livestream? “Join Us” suggests something might be said/announced, at least about the Maxon takeover and the future, even if there’s no news about updates or pricing. Or is that just me reading too much into nothing?
edit…
ZBrush Core from the Wacom 3D bundle has dissappeared from the My Licenses page for me now. I’ve sent a ticket to support, and I’m sure it will be resolved shortly, but it’s still a little bit concerning for now. Hopefully we might learn more whats going on in a few hours.
edit #2…
and it’s back. no reply as yet from support, but I guess things are being migrated behind the scenes over to Maxon. Maybe. Just my guess though, so don’t hold me to it.
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trying not to think of Maxon - Maxoff jokes
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I just thought I’d jot a few thoughts here to share.
Any day that I use ZBrush is a good day! I started using ZBrush in 2010, when it came onto the MAC platform and I continually have had my mind boggled by all its working features. For me, it’s all about the MESH (often Heavy Mesh)!
I just want to mention one feature (among probably scores) that continually delivers for me. When I go to hit Dynamic Subdivision, and get the error message that I need to “fix the mesh,” I simple hit the “Fix Mesh” button and all, in a matter of seconds, is fixed. Remarkable! This software just works! And twelve years later I am still in awe.
Pixologic on YouTube has more experts providing more hours of helpful and inspiring content each month than there are hours in the month, and I do watch a lot of it. Always appreciative. I am perpetually learning all that I can and loving the abilities I have been using inside ZBrush, which I find is – probably the most, innovative and rewarding product I have ever had the opportunity to learn and use.
As an independent freelancer, for me, I have never had a problem paying for software that I use on a regular basis, like Adobe CC: Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects. Not cheap, but not crazy either.
C4D – although I used to work with it when I was working full-time and was provided with it at my desk, was my go-to for 3D work. But the pricing outside of that job, for me as a freelancer, has been price prohibitive – as much as I admire it.
I only pray that I will be able to afford to remain a part of the ZBrush community. Here’s hoping!
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