Very nice! Congratulations!

 There shouldn't be any problems.

Quote - Briefly, Chipp you seem to be very defensive.

I was not aware there was anything wrong with my tone of voice and I am sorry if I have come across that way. I enjoy Vue and wish to continue with it but I am voicing my concerns in this thread as this is what this thread is for and I agree that there should be an upgrade path from Complete to Infinite. I guess everyone has an attitude problem if they are unhappy with the way e-on has done things. shrug

Yes, I suppose it does appear I am being overly defensive. Sorry about that. And just so we're on the same page: There is an upgrade path from Complete to Infinite.

Quote - It would have seemed to be much better to me to be able to upgrade to V7I for about the same price as I did last time and keep all of the features I have in V6I plus the new features to make the upgrade worthwhile. They should have then named their professional versions something else and charged any amount they wanted.

These are very good points. I agree.

I asked a simple question, which you did not answer. You stated,

Quote - We either chose a way to upgrade before the next version comes out or we are out of the loop forever.

I assume by your lack of response, you have no such knowledge, though you state as fact an apparent unknown. 

That said, it's clear from this thread, and Pninia's timely questioning of e-on's representatives, e-on is approachable regarding upgrades. Even though no upgrade price is posted, I suggest you take it up directly with an e-on sales rep, and perhaps, with the right tone of voice, e-on may accomodate your request.

Quote - E-on have got us. We either chose a way to upgrade before the next version comes out or we are out of the loop forever. I do not think this is good ethics for software in this price range.

I did not know this. Can you please point me to this fact as posted at e-on or in a newsletter? 

Quote - You're explaining why infinite is better than complete, and why it is worth more money. This isnt the point. The question is why is infinite worth more if you first purchased complete rather than going directly from v6inf to v7inf. You dont get more features/content by going through complete so you shouldnt pay that much more, only the 15% 'restocking' perhaps.

That is an opinion, not a statement of fact. Just as if one purchased a car, drove it off the lot, then wanted to trade it in 6 months later, one could also be of the opionion they shouldn't have to pay more than a 15% restocking fee, but the facts are much different.

The facts are there are now two distinct Vue product lines. One for Artists and one for Professionals. This is how e-on has decided to market their products.

They want to provide an affordable product line for artists, which is in line with their existing pricing models. And they now want to provide a professional suite of products which have a support subscription model including twice a year feature updates (hence 7.5). This is no surprise as it is in line with how the professional 3D market currently works. e-on understands while the margins for professional marketed products are larger, so is the expectation for service and robustness, thus the focus on support packages.

They are also of the opinion, if a professional needs the added features of Infinite or xStream, they will pay for them. Same is true for Adobe, Autodesk and many other high-end professional applications who have products priced in the over $1K range.

Your original posts were informative and did lead to the agreement from e-on to consider allowing Complete users to upgrade to Infinite for $495. That was helpful and clear. 

Izaro posted earlier:

Quote - In my opinion there should be a logical, hierarchical range of products (Complete & Infinite are too similar)

and Richard (craftycurate) also posted:

Quote - I hope e-on does offer an official Complete to Infinite path before too long.

to which I responded in the post you took so much offense to. My point was to point out both e-on's current product path lines as well as the fact they do have an upgrade policy. There was no need for your harsh rebuttal as I was only offering information and statement of facts.

 C'mon  Pnina,

You're beating a dead horse. You've explained your position here over and over. My point is THERE IS AN UPGRADE PATH. The fact you don't like it is fine. And obvious. 

As I said, the upgrade from Complete to Infinite contains not only other features, but also a plethora of solidgrowth plants, which in themselves are worth the difference. I am sorry the upgrade isn't cheap enough for you to find value in. It is of course a personal decision which everyone must make themself.

You certainly have a right to not be happy, but the facts are-- it is what it is. I doubt complaining about the same thing over and over will have any effect-- other than put you in company with regular discontents who are routinely ignored.

 I'm not sure what you mean about the 7.4 update, but all bug fixes for Vue 7 Infinite will propogate down to Complete in time.

I agree with you, Vue 7 Complete has 95% of what I need. I do program in Python though and need Infinite for that.

 Here are the facts as currently known. There is an upgrade path for Complete 7 to Infinite 7

If you own Complete, then it costs you $895 - $400 (they'll pay you for Complete) to upgrade to Infinite. That's $495. For $495 you get 90 more SolidGrowth plants (including new Hi Def plants), which if purchased alone would cost well over $495.

plus you get all the upgrades from Complete to Infinite as listed at:

http://tinyurl.com/bqb4sz

Now, before you all complain about the lost money upgrading from Vue 6 Infinite to Complete then on to Vue 7 Infinite, remember, e-on did give folks a 30-day money back grace period before the PLE came out. Besides, how can a company actually start providing 'upgrade, then another upgrade' price lists?

So, e-on is specific about their two product lines- Pro and Artist. And, they give you a way to move from Artist to Pro as well. If it's not to your liking, then don't participate. That's the beauty of the system, you can vote with your wallet and/or your feet.

 They can't be opened by the trial version of Pioneer. Also, they won't open if you used any textures from other 'locked' objects.

 Super tute, Mark! Very instructive. Thanks for posting :-)

 I believe the idea is that a min/max of 400/400 will never achieve 100% quality. So, he's just forcing 400 rays--period.

 Super job! Glad to hear of your good fortune. Congratulations :-)

 Yep, I'm sorry for not getting it done sooner. Hopefully very soon. But, Vue Pioneer/Esprit/Pro/Complete only this week received the appropriate features to create interior renders.

The area light trick mentioned above, may work but will take very long to render. It's better to try and use luminous materials to generate light if you can.