THEY HAD BETTER PRAY TO WHATEVER GOD THEY WORSHIP THAT FROM THEIR NEW CONTACT SITE. VUE 11 AND UP ONLY AVAILABLE. IF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FIND THAT AFTER SPENDING THOUSANDS ON THEIR SOFTWARE. AND THEIR NO SUPPORT FROM 5 TO 10. ALL OUT PIRATE WAR WILL BE DECLARED ON E-ON. YOU JUST IMAGINE LOT PEOPLE CANT USE LATEST VERSIONS. WHO IS GOING TO BUY A NEW SOFTWARE IF THEY PULL THE HACK TRICK AGAIN. PEOPLE ARE ALREADY SAYING HAS E-ON PULLED THE GREATEST ACT OF THEFT OF ANY SOFTWARE HOUSE.

Jugoth. Thank you for posting.

Firstly, can I ask you please not to shout? You obviously feel very strongly about this and I do understand your frustration.

OK, so have you tried the previous contact line? If I get what you're saying, E-On have killed support for versions previous to #10? Big companies often pull support for previous version of their software. MicroSoft do it all the time - in part to force people to upgrade - bad - secondly to cut their running costs - understandable.

From their website I find that the following versions are still being supported: VUE 2016 / VUE 2015 / VUE 2014 / VUE 11

https://info.e-onsoftware.com/support

I hope this is helpful.

Maybe not as loud as Jugoth in my response, but they do have a point to a certain extent.

I'm not particularly bothered about "support". However, when I come to needing a new PC, I will want to install Vue 9 or 10 on that machine as I still use them for various reasons. I also have to use Vue 8 on the rare occasion that I want to import a .PZ3 from the version of Poser that I have.

I always wondered what would happen to their online activation procedure should something like this ever happen.

There is a difference between what is for sale, and "support," yes? So, only a few current versions are for sale, and now support is limited to versions only going back to Version 11. I'm with TheBryster in that this doesn't strike me as "the greatest act of theft of any software house". Almost all software vendors have to cease support for really old versions of the software, in no little part because operating systems (such as for Apple and for Windows) evolve, and hardware becomes obsolete. It becomes impossible for a software house to "support" early versions which work only on now-unsupported versions of Windows for example. Or which can't function on the only currently available nVidia graphics drivers and hardware, for another example. I think we have to be realistic about this.

As another example, as a vendor of Vue "stuff," I'm having trouble trying to make some products available for Vue version 7. I know a good person on a very limited pension who has only Vue 7, and has been pleading with me to make some of my stuff work on that old Version of Vue. I'd love, love, love to be able to do this, but I can't even buy the hardware pieces to make a computer, let alone the old version of Microsoft Windows need to make this possible. (And I build my own computers, so if anyone could do this, it ought to be me!) But it is frankly impossible for me to build a rig that will run Vue 7, even though I've kept the software (since I go back to "Vue 1.00). I don't even want to think about the kind of nightmare it would be to try to port some of my products back to that old version.

So, I agree that this constant modernization process is painful and hurts a lot. Really a Lot! But, dang, some things are just not possible nor reasonable!

... and ...If I could get just a little bit technical, for a moment, ... when Microsoft decides to cease support of certain very basic programming libraries that underlie Windows, which they have in the move to Windows 10, a lot of other software developers are just SOL! (for speakers of languages other than English, a profane way of saying "out of luck!") I'm maintaining a dedicated machine for Vue and Maya that runs Windows 7 professional because that operating system supports some utility programs that are absolutely critical to my Vue work. But which went the way of all flesh awhile ago, and since the companies that made them no longer exist, the software aren't going to run on Windows 10, either. This is going to be a very chill, cold next year for me as a Vue model developer. But, this kind of thing happens, and it is not the fault of E-On Software.

So, the moral of the story is to bitch to Microsoft and to Apple. Not really to E-On Software, since they are completely dependent on programming libraries Microsoft chooses to support or to retire.

To make it clear, in the last six months I have activated hundreds of age old Vue installations. Just yesterday again I activated a Vue 5. The only thing that is not possible anymore are the downloads for these old version installers.

And now back to work, to activate a Vue 8 that is requested.

Great!

wabe posted at 2:55PM Sun, 29 July 2018 - #4333870

To make it clear, in the last six months I have activated hundreds of age old Vue installations. Just yesterday again I activated a Vue 5. The only thing that is not possible anymore are the downloads for these old version installers.

And now back to work, to activate a Vue 8 that is requested.

That's good to know - that was my main concern. Thank you.

Let me add that I had a major computer crash several months ago and needed to replace my laptop ... I contacted Vue's new owners ... and they got my old account linked and I was able to download all my old purchases and get my Vue 9 activated. They were patient too, my new PC has a weird time-out problem and kept dropping the download links ... it took forever to get everything.

There is also the issue of operating systems updating almost daily. Development of such old titles ceased in real terms as it is just not practical or cost effective to bring all old titles up to date. There has to be a cut off somewhere. We often get support tickets saying that VUE 2016 will not work on customer's systems only to find out when asked that they are still on XP or even Windows 98. There is no con, no act of theft, in sort I believe it's called "progress". Jugoth please email us via the tech support section of the website if you would like to discuss this further. :)

forester posted at 4:48PM Wed, 22 August 2018 - #4333862

As another example, as a vendor of Vue "stuff," I'm having trouble trying to make some products available for Vue version 7. I know a good person on a very limited pension who has only Vue 7, and has been pleading with me to make some of my stuff work on that old Version of Vue. I'd love, love, love to be able to do this, but I can't even buy the hardware pieces to make a computer, let alone the old version of Microsoft Windows need to make this possible. (And I build my own computers, so if anyone could do this, it ought to be me!) But it is frankly impossible for me to build a rig that will run Vue 7, even though I've kept the software (since I go back to "Vue 1.00). I don't even want to think about the kind of nightmare it would be to try to port some of my products back to that old version.

Not sure if I've misunderstood, but why would you need an old version of Windows to run Vue 7? I'm currently running Vue 7 Inf and Vue 11 Complete, under Windows 10 Pro. Vue 7 runs perfectly. Unfortunately, the terrain editor in Vue 11 Complete crashes unless I run it in OpenGL Software mode.

Actually, just realised something - is there a difference in how plugins work between 32-bit Vue and 64-bit Vue, hence the need for 32-bit Windows?

That's very interesting. I've not been able to get Vue 7 to work in my main modelling box, that is running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I'll have to look into this. Maybe some missing *.dlls or something. But I'd like to be able to support the older versions of Vue, so I'll explore this on my machine. Thank you very much, Dim_Reaper for posting this note!!!!!!!!!

You're welcome, Forester. I'm pretty sure that I've used some of your products in the past, so support for previous versions is always appreciated when it is possible.

Just in case it helps, I am running 64-but Vue 7 Inf, on windows 10 Pro 64-bit, and was previously running the same on my Windows 7 machine. I haven't tried 32-bit Vue 7 on either Windows 7 or 10.

I was really disturbed when the site disappeared and access to older versions were unavailable. But after having to reinstall Vue 2015 and 2016 2xs on different pcs(which is too long a story to tell here) I found their assistance, timely, persistent in getting it right, polite, and helpful in every sense of the word. There was an e mail sent out about the major hack to there server systems. I am sure they were just as disappointed as their customers. Kind of like when you have a computer crash hard and can't recover anything off it, frustrating to say the least. But they are trying to recover,and doing a good job of it so far.

Dim_Reaper posted at 6:03PM Wed, 31 October 2018 - #4335266

You're welcome, Forester. I'm pretty sure that I've used some of your products in the past, so support for previous versions is always appreciated when it is possible.

Just in case it helps, I am running 64-but Vue 7 Inf, on windows 10 Pro 64-bit, and was previously running the same on my Windows 7 machine. I haven't tried 32-bit Vue 7 on either Windows 7 or 10.

I've been having the hardest time trying to install VUEInf 9 on my Window's10 Home machine...it just won't go. It's build 900058. Is there anything I can do ??

Thanks. Mike

Ha !!! My mistake...I was trying to install a Beta version. Through the years I've ended up with hundreds of CD and DVD backups...I finally found what I needed, installed + updated, and all is fine. I contacted E-ON about my problem, and not being able to authorize Vue, and their response was immediate, supplying all the info I needed, all within a half hour. Don't worry, Vue is in good hands.... Mike C.

@fingers - Sorry, this is the first time I've been back here for a few months and only just saw your post. Very glad to hear that you got it installed.