7
« on: 2017-08-27, 13:28:23 »
I'm with Lasse on this. I think this is a good move for me as a user for several reasons:
First I think Vlado deserves a lot more credit than he's being given here (or at least the benefit of the doubt). Think about it: how many companies of the size of Chaos do we see that are still owned by the guy who developed the product in the first place? This is why all comparisons with ADesk, a listed company that works for investors, spends vastly more on marketing than it does on R&D, has only contempt for its users, and has locked itself in a business model that is driving both the company and its customers into the wall, are absurd. You should judge a company on its track record, and Chaos' track record on everything from innovation to customer care is completely pristine. To me, that makes a huge difference.
Second, I'm a both a V-Ray and a Corona user because both have significant advantages over the other and offer things that are not available in the other. And, like Peter Guthrie, I'm very excited about the cross-pollination that may come out of this deal, in terms of each team getting access to the discoveries of the other, and the things that we love in both packages finding their way into the other. Corona is a great product, but it's not perfect (displacement, RAM consumption, no GPU, tricky animation all come to mind) and if the deal can speed up improvements in those area, what's not to like about it. Hell, even if both products were to merge one day, would that even be such a bad thing? Maybe not, if it means combining the upside of both products into one and having to maintain one license instead of two. It might end up being cheaper and making my life easier.
And even if the products are to stay separate, which seems to be what was contractually agreed, what's wrong about Ondra's team getting access to more financial firepower and a treasure trove of tech to be mined as he wishes? I can't thing of any circumstance in which it would be bad news. In fact, this has already started happening and I can't remember anyone being unhappy with all the good things that have already come out of this cooperation for Corona, even though we didn't know there was some Vray tech behind it. Same goes for Vray: I'm a big fan of the direction it has taken in the recent past.
Last, I'm surprised by the amount of criticism that's being thrown at the Corona team for taking the money such a deal implies. Why? These guys have worked hard for years, built a fantastic product, amassed a large audience. It seems only fair that they should be rewarded for it. This is especially the case when you look at the care they appear to have taken to ensure that their product lives on and their users get a better deal out of it. I say bravo and congrats!
To me, this is only good news on so many different levels. And I wish the skeptics, whose misgivings I understand, would at the very least give the new team some time to prove itself.
Show Posts
