Buying Softimage from these sites - opinion?

[Draise]

I've been working with a very small indie studio with some partners of mine the past few years. We have been working on pilots and a web series for a long time now (mainly done with XSI Alias versions and XSI 7), and were planning to expand the studio with the latest Softimage's capabilities. We got the bad news, and well.. were wondering how we could legally expand (buy seats, resold steas, legal seats) later on in the future without having the retrain and re-do our production pipelines in another software. I found a couple of online "sellers" and they look great. I don't know if they are legit though, and wanted to ask your opinion.

$340 USD deal : HERE

A review on if it's a scam: HERE

This one is registered in the DBL Spamhaus site though..... HERE

I found one negative review of the site.

--

Another Softimage deal for $65 USD: HERE

This one has a 72% authenticity rating instead, though to me it looks less legit: HERE

This also is NOT registered in the DBL Spamhaus HERE - I guess that is a good sign.



Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing, or know how to acquire re-sold Softimage seats (without having to buy into Maya or buy before April 2016?) Would this still be considered "legal" before legal entities if producing here in such a country as Colombia with these purchased seats?

Do you know of any trusted Softimage resellers that can sell seats online - legally?

[luceric]

It's not possible to buy Softimage for less than 3000$ or whatever the price is in your region. These guys are just selling cracked copies and it's it's all download-only with the serial numbers in a text file.

Resellers are just intermediaries to Autodesk; they sell something Autodesk sells and get a cut. If a reseller sold Sofitmage for 65$ it would mean Autodesk is selling it for example for 50$, which they are not. There is no fire sale of Softimage boxes, they only have a 2$ USB key in them. The license that Autodesk emits after you install the software is what's costing 3000$ Not only doesn't Autodesk allow re-selling used software, there is absolutely no indication on any of these sites that this is what these licenses are, even if it did. If it were used Software, it would be sold through some kind of auction site, with the name of the studios, etc.

[Draise]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, seemed a bit dodgy. Where are these "Auction" sites?

Seriously, when Autodesk closes the doors to selling Softimage in April 2016, there is no way to buy it legally?

[luceric]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, seemed a bit dodgy. Where are these "Auction" sites?

Seriously, when Autodesk closes the doors to selling Softimage in April 2016, there is no way to buy it legally?

Right. It's really End-of-life, no joke. Should bigger places needs a few seats of anything, something can often be worked out as a special case. But not for mere mortals, I'm afraid.

[Draise]

........

I guess Autodesk likes endorsing the only alternative: their way (software and pipeline) or the highway, *ahem... piracy*?

[Hirazi Blue]

There will "always" be the Softimage Mod Tool 7.5, that can still be downloaded from at least one site. ;)

[Draise]

I have tried it, but couldn't get it working with Windows 8.1. It does theoretically work with Mach Studio Pro 2, a cool nifty GPU enabled renderer like Furyball that was also EOL'd but left for free.... but with no hair or particles that I know of (though it should?).

Shame the 7.5 Mod tool has no ICE!

[Rez007]

I thought Softimage comes Free right now with a purchase of Max or Maya? If so, you might want to stock up on some seats before then. However, the Ultimate Suite (when I last checked) still includes Softimage too. Unless I am mistaken, then someone please correct me.

Edit: I missed the last part where the OP mentioned this. My mistake.

[luceric]

Softimage doesn't come free with maya, for that you have to buy a specific product called "Maya with Softimage" or "Max with Softimage" and that's only available for purchase for the next 9 months. That product is the same price as Maya though, just another SKU.

[Rez007]

Hi Luceric, thank you for clarifying that as that is kind of what I was getting to, and I did not realize that it was a separate SKU for that. Curiosity, wouldn't most people who are looking to buy a new seat of Max or Maya just go with the "Max/Maya with Softimage" as they cost the same, and there is virtually no difference except for the different SKU plus you get a copy of Softimage?...that is what I would do if that is the case.

[talent103]

You don't need to go to those sites to get a crack. However always check those sites on

http://www.scamadviser.com/check-website

I see that your first link is not safe. I don't advocate cracks (cough) but these days I can Understand.

[Draise]

Curious how they make it difficult to be legal with what you want to use (after an EOL..)...

[Hirazi Blue]

Please stop discussing cracks and other illegal means immediately,
otherwise I will have to close this thread as per the forum rules...

[Draise]

XSI Mod Tool is great. Just.. don't allow anything to "Auto Update".. cause then I got it crashing on object select.

It does have ICE in it, which.. is great really! No Lagoa or crowds or all of that, but.. now that there is ICE I'm sure.. things could be done inside it, even if it's 32bit.

What render engines work with it? Will it always have a watermark?

Found out the also left for free defunct Mach Studio Pro 2 works with XSI Mod Tool - a nifty little GPU renderer with SSS, GI and AO in realtime.

[Hirazi Blue]

What render engines work with it?

IIRC "Yafaray for XSI" worked with the Mod Tool.
You must pull it from the local backup at rray.de
as the other links seem to have died...