headus 3D tools

[fadedroots]

Sorry, I'm a poor student who could/would never pay 100 bucks for a plug in. I just want to know the justification of charging 100 bucks for a student version of a plug in when I can get the student version of the entire Autodesk Suite for free.

Seems pretty greedy to me to try to price gauge students for so much money. I'd pay up to 20 bucks for a plugin in for professional use and I'd pay ZERO for a student version of a plugin.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I saw the price. Of course if I worked for a big gaming studio it'd make no difference...

[headus]

Thank you for your frank viewpoints on our pricing.

We aren't Autodesk, and cant afford to give software away for free. I spend many hours a week developing new features, fixing bugs and supporting existing customers, so want to get some dollars back for that effort. But you know how Autodesk now owns Maya, way way back (mid 90's) that was once a product called Alias Power Animator and we paid over $10,000 for a single license back then. Over time, as volumes increase, software prices tend to drop.

I think I see where your main complaint is though ... UVLayout is just a plugin, so how can it be more expensive than a full package? What you need to focus on is the time it will save you. From a professional point of view, it can pay for itself within a few days. Even as a student, surely time is just as important to you?

But yes, I completely understand that not everyone can afford to spend $100 on software, especially just a plugin like UVLayout. Fortunately there are plenty of alternate UV editors around, and some of them are free!

Phil

[fadedroots]

Well, as a student I require teaching in MANY graphic software; photoshop, 3ds, maya, autocad, Inventor and to a lesser degree stuff like illustrator.

So where I am coming from is that as a student, I'm not a pro on one software like many of the professionals are. If I was using exclusive 3ds Max then plug ins would be super important (btw I just got the plugin Greeble and since it was free, I thought all plug ins would follow suite). You obviously put more time into this then Greeble and I respect that, but this still isn't a software package. It's a piece of the puzzle that solves time in one aspect, but doesn't provide much else besides UV layout.

3ds max as a UVW Layout editor that too me looks identical to yours. So again I said that if the plug in enhances it then great, but why would I need an entirely new UV layout compared to the one that comes standard in max?

I completely understand licenses for commercial reasons, if people are going to make money off your software you deserve your fair share. Thing is, student versions are not for profit and comes with a 12 month time span. Why not 100 for life?

See, Autodesk does something I don't like, and it's called releasing a new product every year to squeeze the nickels and dimes out of you. Too add another cost on top of that just doesn't seem like any student can afford any of these softwares.

[headus]

"as a student I require teaching in MANY graphic software"

And for that very reason we provide excellent discounts to institutions buying Professional licenses for teaching purposes. They should be the ones acquiring the software, not yourself.

"It's a piece of the puzzle that solves time in one aspect, but doesn't provide much else besides UV layout."

Yes, that's true, but if you get into the 3D pipeline a bit more you'll find that doing UVs is the least pleasant aspect of the whole process. In fact many people really hate having to do UVs; I was one of them, and I wrote UVLayout originally just to make my life easier.

"but why would I need an entirely new UV layout compared to the one that comes standard in max?"

If you only do UVs occasionally, then you probably don't need a separate UV editor. Use the standard tools for a while though and soon you'll be looking around for something better.

Phil

[SLI_Fallen]

Tell me, what will you do after your 1 year 3dsmax student licence expires?