Poser License Manager

[KageRyu]

@Richard60 this was the plan Renderosity had.
Other persons sol are those who do not have an OS new enough to run 11+. My workstation is still XP, as a lot of my other software wont run under Windows 7+. I couldn't afford to upgrade it at this time even if my life depended on it.

 

[Ken1171]

Is Rendo giving free upgrades from PP2014GD to PP11? Would be nice if I no longer had to support P10, and save me some testing time. For some reason, animatable origins created in P11 don't work in P10, so compatibility leaves something to be desired.

 

[Hornet3d]

The big winners here from my point of view are those updating to Poser 11.2 from Game Dev in that they suddenly have access to Superfly at no extra cost. Since upgrading to Poser 11 I have found this to be a really big step up.

 

[eclark1894]

The big winners here from my point of view are those updating to Poser 11.2 from Game Dev in that they suddenly have access to Superfly at no extra cost. Since upgrading to Poser 11 I have found this to be a really big step up.

I agree. Of course, I didn't upgrade to Game Dev, so maybe it does something that is not available in PP11.

 

[Hornet3d]

I agree. Of course, I didn't upgrade to Game Dev, so maybe it does something that is not available in PP11.

To be honest I am not quite sure for two reasons, I don't develop games but thought the features might still be useful but never used them but I also stopped using Game Dev when I found out about the deactivation feature and reverted to Poser 2014. I will have too look in Poser 11 to see if the Game Dev features are there.

 

[seachnasaigh]

...Game Dev, so maybe it does something that is not available in PP11.

The added features of PPro2014 Game Dev (those features beyond PPro2014) were carried over into P11Pro. I.e., P11Pro has all of the capabilities of PPro2014 Game Dev.

The upgrade store link shows "Game Dev" as requiring a $99 upgrade to get P11Pro 11.2
So, I'm still waiting to find out what I need to do. I certainly will upgrade/update my four workstations, but it would be nice to be able to retain PPro2014 Game Dev in order to be able to run P10 compatibility testing.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Is Rendo giving free upgrades from PP2014GD to PP11? Would be nice if I no longer had to support P10, and save me some testing time. For some reason, animatable origins created in P11 don't work in P10, so compatibility leaves something to be desired.

Yes, all copies of PP2014GD will be upgraded to PP11.2

As cassion said, Merry Christmas!

 

[Hornet3d]

The added features of PPro2014 Game Dev (those features beyond PPro2014) were carried over into P11Pro. I.e., P11Pro has all of the capabilities of PPro2014 Game Dev.

The upgrade store link shows "Game Dev" as requiring a $99 upgrade to get P11Pro 11.2
So, I'm still waiting to find out what I need to do. I certainly will upgrade/update my four workstations, but it would be nice to be able to retain PPro2014 Game Dev in order to be able to run P10 compatibility testing.

Thank you for the information,I thought all the Game Dev stuff had been carried over but I did not want to say so unless I was absolutely sure.

 

[KageRyu]

Is Rendo giving free upgrades from PP2014GD to PP11? Would be nice if I no longer had to support P10, and save me some testing time. For some reason, animatable origins created in P11 don't work in P10, so compatibility leaves something to be desired.

This was my understanding of information I had received.

The upgrade store link shows "Game Dev" as requiring a $99 upgrade to get P11Pro 11.2
So, I'm still waiting to find out what I need to do. I certainly will upgrade/update my four workstations, but it would be nice to be able to retain PPro2014 Game Dev in order to be able to run P10 compatibility testing.

Is that the same as the link in the recent news announcement for PP2014 Game Dev owners?

 

[Miss B]

Is Rendo giving free upgrades from PP2014GD to PP11? Would be nice if I no longer had to support P10, and save me some testing time. For some reason, animatable origins created in P11 don't work in P10, so compatibility leaves something to be desired.

We'll have to see what happens when PP12 comes out, because that could be a good time for "the bosses" to change the compatibility rules to PP11 and higher. I'm not saying they will, but it could happen then. Of course, we may not see PP12 until sometime next year.

 

[Ken1171]

The big winners here from my point of view are those updating to Poser 11.2 from Game Dev in that they suddenly have access to Superfly at no extra cost. Since upgrading to Poser 11 I have found this to be a really big step up.

I hope that is true. I had the impression Seachnasaigh said the upgrade would cost $99 at the Rendo site, but I would understand Rendo doesn't want to support 2 versions at the same time, since not even SMS was doing that. Giving a free upgrade would save them the trouble, just like Microsoft has offered Win10 for free to anyone wanting to upgrade for a whole year.

We'll have to see what happens when PP12 comes out, because that could be a good time for "the bosses" to change the compatibility rules to PP11 and higher. I'm not saying they will, but it could happen then. Of course, we may not see PP12 until sometime next year.

I already have a list of things that simply won't work in P10 if created in P11. The were supposed to work, but they don't. P10 cannot be used for content creation because P11 had some parts fixed that will never be fixed in P10 - it's broken forever. That creates a dilemma for content creators, because P10 is no longer backwards compatible with P11. Making P11 [some] contents to work in P10 requires hacking files and stuff, like it was with my "Body Type-9", where animatable origins from P11 don't work in P10. I don't think this is sustainable.

I certainly will upgrade/update my four workstations, but it would be nice to be able to retain PPro2014 Game Dev in order to be able to run P10 compatibility testing.

Exactly my point. I need PP2014GD to test store products. How do we update the licensing?

 

[seachnasaigh]

I hope that is true. I had the impression Seachnasaigh said the upgrade would cost $99 at the Rendo site...

Others who know more than I say that PPro2014 Game Dev upgrades free. My concern was due to the PoserSoftware.com/store page:

Exactly my point. I need PP2014GD to test store products. How do we update the licensing?

Well, If nobody has PPro2014GD anymore, then I don't need to test compatibility for it. Perhaps we could be granted a free downgrade to PPro2014?

 

[Hornet3d]

Others who know more than I say that PPro2014 Game Dev upgrades free. My concern was due to the PoserSoftware.com/store page:
View attachment 51401


Well, If nobody has PPro2014GD anymore, then I don't need to test compatibility for it. Perhaps we could be granted a free downgrade to PPro2014?

That is confusing, I was under the impression that it was free for any version that would stop working when SM shut down their servers, that would cover Game Dev, Poser 11 and Poser 11Pro. Any other version would be an upgrade as they will continue to work as the validation was not implemented until Game Dev.

In the official statement on the release of the 11.2 update it states.

The main reason for the update is the depreciation of Smith Micro's licensing system and implementation of Bondware's licensing management for some versions above Poser 10 (Poser 2014 Game Dev, Poser 11, and Poser Pro 11). If you have Poser 2014 Game Dev, Poser 11, and Poser Pro 11, this update will convert your Poser to Poser Pro 11.2 at no additional cost.

 

[Ken1171]

If you have Poser 2014 Game Dev, Poser 11, and Poser Pro 11, this update will convert your Poser to Poser Pro 11.2 at no additional cost.

I suppose this means that Rendo is retiring PP2014GD, meaning it will simply stop working (cannot phone home), and the license will be extended to PP11 for free. SMS was already not supporting Poser 9 or 10 (all versions, including Game Dev) anymore.

I already have a Poser Pro 2014 license, so all I have to do is downgrade GD back to it. However, I remember some people have tried this in the past, and some claimed it didn't allow entering serial numbers that would downgrade Poser. I will try and find out.

 

[Hornet3d]

I suppose this means that Rendo is retiring PP2014GD, meaning it will simply stop working (cannot phone home), and the license will be extended to PP11 for free. SMS was already not supporting Poser 9 or 10 (all versions, including Game Dev) anymore.

I already have a Poser Pro 2014 license, so all I have to do is downgrade GD back to it. However, I remember some people have tried this in the past, and some claimed it didn't allow entering serial numbers that would downgrade Poser. I will try and find out.

I went back to Poser Pro 2014 when I found out how sneaky SM had been. I am fairly sure I just deactivated the Game Dev and re activated Poser 2014 using the Poser 2014 serial number, but that was clearly when the SM servers were up. Poser11.2 has all the features of Game Dev so it is not an issue for many users but I guess that neither company looked at the situation where vendors would want to keep Game Dev running along side Poser 11.2. Then again The number of versions of Game Dev will drop dramatically as people either upgrade to Poser 11.2 or Game Dev just simply stops working if they don't.

 

[Ken1171]

I went to Poser Pro 2014 Game Dev Help -> Personalize menu, and replaced the Game Dev serial with my previous Pro 2014 one, and restarted the program. The splash screen now shows "Poser Pro 2014" instead of "Game Dev". I suppose this makes my Poser 10 license permanent, and immune to SMS license server validations. Of course, this only matters to content creators who need to use older versions for product testing purposes. Everybody else should upgrade to Poser Pro 11 for free.

 

[seachnasaigh]

To clarify, I now believe that I was wrong in thinking that it would cost $99 to upgrade PPro2014GD. My guess is that the page I screenshot was put together before Rendo realized that GD would die w/o constant server validation and they decided to mercifully add it to the free upgrade status.

I don't have a PPro2014 license with which to downgrade; I have five PPro2014GD licenses.

 

[Ken1171]

I don't have a PPro2014 license with which to downgrade; I have five PPro2014GD licenses.

I just wish Rendo would take this opportunity to level up the Poser versions and give free P11 upgrades to everyone who has a valid Poser license, not just for the Game Dev versions. Even Microsoft did it with WIn10 to alleviate the stress of having to support so many out there who are still using older versions. Contents created with Poser 11 are not fully compatible with previous versions, and the content creation tools in Poser 10 are broken and will never be fixed. Things would be much simpler if everybody would just use the current version.

 

[Willowisp]

I just wish Rendo would take this opportunity to level up the Poser versions and give free P11 upgrades to everyone who has a valid Poser license, not just for the Game Dev versions. Even Microsoft did it with WIn10 to alleviate the stress of having to support so many out there who are still using older versions. Contents created with Poser 11 are not fully compatible with previous versions, and the content creation tools in Poser 10 are broken and will never be fixed. Things would be much simpler if everybody would just use the current version.

The problem with this is that some content created prior to P11 won't work right in P11, they changed something in Firefly that causes certain shaders to render black. I'm glad I still have my PP2014 version so I can still use the old firefly engine when I need it. Maybe you can rebuild these shaders and still make them look right, but if you have large ongoing projects depending on older content, that could be a giant pain in the bum.

 

[Ken1171]

@Willowisp Are you referring to shaders turning black in SF? We still have FF in Poser 11.