Upgrade Shock!!

#21

I’ve posted a spoil sport feature list in the other thread…
Ian

#22

I’ll wait for new features list first, than decide later…

since most of my job now are 2D vector drawing, EI only occupied roughly 20% of my job, actually I want to do more in 3D but most of my client don’t need that :frowning:

I might skip this version 7 if the new features are not “appealing” to me, anyway I’ll wait and see…

Loon

#23

Here’s what Ian posted elsewhere (it sounds pretty darn good to me!):

Here’s the feature list (as announced by EITG in their newsletter and some forum posts by various people). If you don’t want to know the scores, LOOK AWAY NOW!

Image based lighting with HDRI support, Super fast glossy reflections, Ray-trace global reflection and refraction maps (no more sky domes! , Hard body dynamics, Layered rendering output to 2 different formats-this includes some very cool extras like the ability to render masks of certain objects into a layered PSD file - there is almost no render penalty for this. XP gets an upgrade too and gains a new ‘Sub plug-in’. Lots of other tweaks, bug fixes.

(addition from earlier in his post)
The ray-tracer in general has been improved, lots of little tweaks here and there to make everything run more smoothly and behave more as you would expect.

#24

Yes, £225 is not that much these days, as you say.

Martin K

#25

Well, for us it’s £150 because we’re on 6.6 and we got the pre-order money off coupon yesterday. If you haven’t got yours yet, I’m sure you will soon!
Ian

#26

…and how far does £150 go these days? You need a lot of £150s to survive for any length of time. Even I as an individual household need a lot of £150s to survive even a month…

Martin K

#27

There are a few other things that Ian missed that should please a few people not to mention that the Igors probably have a few “undocumented” tricks up their sleeves.

#28

FYI, All of the AG Shaders are compatible with 7.0 and we’ve recently posted UB updates to the Artifex Volumes 1-5 plugins. We’re ALMOST done with the rest of the plugins.

Oh, and one more thing…for owners of the 6.5-compatible versions the updates are free.

#29

It appears that EITG are charging $100usd for a duo dongle, whether you have one or not.

For me, even discounting the dongle & coupon $$$ the price is a little daunting, I really hope that EITG will publish an official features & fixes list that will change my mind.

BB

#30

Hi Everyone,

I’ll try to clear this up a little.
The upgrade price for users at v6.6 is $349.00, less current coupon.
Everyone else v6.5 and/or earlier is $449.00, less current coupon.
What you see during the order is a $349.00 price and then a second amount of $100.00. The only people seeing this are those at v6.5 and earlier. The $100 seen is bringing your upgrade to the right price for the version you are currently at. It is not for a dongle.
I realize it is a little confusing but apparently this is the way it had to be set-up.
We are awaiting some additional content, then a complete feature list will be posted and online pages should be activated, if not late today, then Monday.
Very busy here and that’s a good thing.

Best Regards and have a great weekend everyone,
Phil Martin
EITG Sales

#31

I think that EI7 is very reasonably priced. Once the features list comes to light, I think that much of the fuss will die down. EITG puts a lot of time and effort into updates, they need to charge enough to keep the company solvent. It’s my opinion that past updates were too cheap, perhaps that set a bad precedent.

Elsewhere in the software industry, these update prices are yawned at. AE7 was a few hundred dollars, AECS3 was a few hundred dollars, not really many features to speak of either. I had to update several AE plugs when CS3 came out too, I dropped almost $1000 to go from AE 6.5 to AE CS3. It’s just the price of doing business.

I want EITG to keep developing EI, they can only do that if they make money. It seems to me that they have tried the ‘cheap updates=more updates’ paradigm, has it worked? For some, any price will be too much. For those of us who use EI professionally, this update is a tremendous value.

happily ordered the day it was offered,

Peter

#32

Except it seems I have to pay the same price from 6.5.2 as someone who hasn’t updated since 5.5 or possibly earlier because I didn’t get the UB update…don’t have a mactel so it was basically pointless. Seems I’m being punished. :cry:

Oh well, I’m not pissed like some might be … just a bit confused :eek:

#33

Why EIAS 6.5 user pay the same upgrade price as pre V 6.5 user? I think many G4-G5 users like to see a lower upgrade price for V6.5 as it make no sense to upgrade to V6.6 for non Intel Machines. Phil, Please look into it. Thank!!

I have a v 4 sitting somewhere, may be it is time to dig it out if I need to go other way. or else way( explore other option) :frowning:

#34

Just think of it as a flat upgrade fee, similar to Adobe. After Effects 5.5, 6.5 and 7 to AECS3 are all the same price. The upgrade price that was paid for EI 6.6 was just a pre-deposit for EI7. :wink:

Peter

#35

Hehehehe. Nice one Peter :wink:

I paid for 5.5 to 6.0 so that’s why I’d want a break, but I seem to remember now that 6.5 was free?? so that was cool.

Just seemed high, I’m sure this price is fair.

#36

Given that the base price of a new seat is so low the cost of upgrading appears very expensive.

#37

Yes… the official list should be coming out soon. Later today or if necessary monday.

Here’s the summary of features I can point out.

  1. Multi-layers control
  2. PSD / RPF format output
  3. Image Based HDRI Lighting
  4. Hard Surface Dynamics
  5. Xpressionist enhancements (sub plugin support)
  6. Global reflection/refraction map enhancements
  7. UB and dedicated PPC versions of v7 for complete backwards compatibility
  8. Extra bug fixes and a few “goodies” that I’m told exist.

Other things to point out with the release of v7

  1. All Northern Lights Artifex plugins ported.
  2. All Paralumino plugins ported including SimCloth.
  3. Triple D released aEdge and aFractal. Promises to port remaining products.

Are there more things to be announced? Yup. Can I say right now? Nope. I have to leave some things to the mothership to announce when they’re ready.

#38

A special offer for pre v6 owners exists. I listed it here:

Phil extended that offer at least once… and if you hurry and call him, you could probably strike a deal.

#39

Don’t forget…

The upgrade to v6.5 was free…thus the upgrade cost for v7 is reasonable… it just seems a bit shocking after the $99 UB port. But for those that upgraded to v6.6, you’ll be getting your $99 bucks back.

#40

About the offer for users of 6.0 and earlier. I paid for mine a month (approximately) ago, and have enjoyed the features in 6.6. While everybody else was loving the better OGL display, contextual menus, etc. I’ve been languishing in 5.5 land.

So updating to 6.6 and then being able to ride on over to version 7 seemed like a hell of a deal to me.

I’d advise anybody to give it a go.