Vray Render prices!

[Roodogg]

Hello Everyone.

 

For the last few years I have been learning 3D with my brother and have started producing images. He is now moving away and and is obviously taking his Vray dongle with him.

 

In the UK, Vray 2.0 seems to be the only product available and is being sold at around £820 per license. I cannot nearly afford this (and obviously cannot produce CGIs to pay for it). I have looked into buying another copy of Vray 1.5 but found that is is impossible.

 

Why do software companies not allow you to buy older versions such as 1.5 at a cheaper rate!? This makes sense for skilled individuals who wish to make a dent in the market. As it stands, pricing seems to favour big studios with big bucks but I suppose that's the game!

 

If anybody has any information on resellers that deal with old versions of Vray, please let me know as I'll snap it up. Otherwise, a brief explanation of why older versions are unavailable would suffice.

 

Many thanks.

[Devin Johnston]

It's the same reason that car companies won't sell you a car from past years, they've moved on from that particular product and are focused on producing the next best thing. They will continue to support older software with updates for a time but at some point it doesen't make since to continue it.

[John Dollus]

i would also add that if you are looking to make a dent in the industry producing images for clients and you choose to rely on vray, then adding that expense to your already significant investment of 3d studio Max, photoshop etc along with your workstation is really not very much at all and should be viewed as the cost of entry.

You can ceratinly produce great work using mental ray for no additional cost and just save up for vray.

another option would be to offer to purchase your brothers dongle from him.

[erickdt]

I agree with John. Although I strongly prefer using VRay it's not too hard to produce good results with Mental Ray especially from MAX 2010 onward (when they introduced the more intuitive slider controls for quality settings). While not ideal, it's a good stop-gap between now and some point where you can affford VRay.

 

E

[Roodogg]

Thanks everyone for your input. you make sense with the car analogy!

[Sketchrender]

Just as point of interest, I think that before 1.5 you could buy them second hand.

Chaosgroup are a very understanding company by the way unlike some resellers.

But to be honest you will make back the money spent on vray in 2 jobs if the job is big enough.

[Jeff Mottle]

Just as point of interest, I think that before 1.5 you could buy them second hand.

Chaosgroup are a very understanding company by the way unlike some resellers.

But to be honest you will make back the money spent on vray in 2 jobs if the job is big enough.

 

You can't resell Chaos products either unless it's part of a company purchase. i.e. Company A purchases Company B and in the process acquires all of their licenses. As a V-Ray reseller I deal with this all the time and I can tell you that if you were to illegally purchase a copy from someone else, you would never be able to get support with Chaos Group or upgrade it. They verify user data before every upgrade. If even the company name or contact info is even slightly different we've often been asked to provide proof of ownership and purchase from the customer.

[Sketchrender]

Absolutely agree Jeff, but I do think about 4 years ago it was possible.

 

As I said they are a great company to deal with in my dealings with them.

Money well spent.