www.si-community.com

https://www.solidangle.com/news/press-r ... 4dtoa-1.0/

Arnold Floating

A permanent Arnold license key which must be hosted using an RLM license server and can be distributed to multiple clients.
€1095

Arnold Node-locked

A permanent Arnold license key which will work on one machine. Limited to 2 licenses per company/freelancer.
€730

12 months maintenance & support fee included

Doesn't say anything about render nodes. I wonder if you can use it with Team Render. This new pricing is also probably available for Maya and Softimage since the plugins are free and you buy the render.

C4DtoA is the only render plug-in that supports both animation and single-frame distributed rendering in Team Render, allowing the use of all computers in a local network to speed-up Arnold rendering.

Our ex-XSI Stephen Blair answered my question:

You need an Arnold license for each machine that renders.

Now ... just as comparison. On V-Ray for C4D you get free render nodes. On V-Ray for 3ds Max you get 1 workstation and 5 render nodes for 1500 Euro. With Arnold, you would spend 4500 Euro. I think Renderman (once it comes out for C4D later this year) will be cheaper as well.

Intro/Overview from Pingo about Arnold.

It's amusing that they always showcase arnold in simple exterior scenes with directly lit objects which are piece of cake for any raytracer. But than you try it in real scene with a lot of indirect lighting, 8 bounces and glossy everywhere and BAM, arnold just dies...

And for Cinema 4D users, it doesn't make much sense. Yeah, it's a good renderer, but a very expensive one.

V-Ray for C4D has unlimited free render nodes for 799 euro, the price of the computer license.

Nox wrote:It's amusing that they always showcase arnold in simple exterior scenes with directly lit objects which are piece of cake for any raytracer. But than you try it in real scene with a lot of indirect lighting, 8 bounces and glossy everywhere and BAM, arnold just dies...

I have the opposite experience, the more complexity, the more arnold shines.
What kind of scene did you want to render?

Yeah, it's a good renderer, but a very expensive one.

I probably agree this is maybe not the best option for C4D users, also they have an awesome integration of octane (1 license x 4gpus).

They seem to be blinded by the new toy syndrome, I am sure reality will kick in soon.

Maybe this move has nothing to do with pleasing the existing user base but rather is designed to attract a wider VFX user base.

designed to attract a wider VFX user base

Don't think Solid Angle care if more people start using C4D or not. Remember this has been developed by Solid Angle, not Maxon.
What's true is that if you already have some Arnold licenses than you can be as flexible as you like:

- Houdini, Maya, Soft, C4D etc.

I think we underestimate how many people use C4D. Solid Angle already own the VFX market, now they can sell licenses to the thousands of design boutiques studios around the world.
They are even allowing to only buy 1 or 2 licenses so this makes sense in this case.

SamHowell wrote:Maybe this move has nothing to do with pleasing the existing user base but rather is designed to attract a wider VFX user base.

There were connections before, built in or third party, like Mental Ray plugin or built in Renderman translator. But, hard to find a sign of real usage, especially for second. My bet, mainstream for c4d renderers in future, will stay where it is today. V-Ray, Octane, Maxwell here and there.

cgcris wrote:They are even allowing to only buy 1 or 2 licenses so this makes sense in this case.

They should have lifted the 5 license minimum requirement a long time ago. Doing this now strikes me as somewhat odd.

They should have lifted the 5 license minimum requirement a long time ago

It had to do with having enough support to open the flood gates, I think they were sensible...

That indeed always has been the more or less official story. ;)