Usage of license

(copying the question from discord earlier today, in case this helps anyone)

I’m trying to convince my studio to get Ragdoll dynamics for us. They came back to me saying they thought the licensing system seemed a bit complex to them. We are a pretty small studio and I am the only animator there. So if we do get it, for now, it’ll be activated on my personal laptop(work from home). However, we do have work computers in the office and I do have to move between office and home once a month. And in the case of me moving out of this studio in the future and some other animator takes over-

  1. For ‘Unlimited-lifetime’ plan of the addon, what are the options that my studio can keep the license they purchase and use it on different machines?
  2. Does the same plan in question only include the feature currently released? If that is the case, Is it better for the studio to get the AUP even if they do not want to upgrade and also since it costs less?
  3. Are bug-fixes and personal support available to the above mentioned plan?
  4. (From the perspective of an inexperienced junior animator) For a single person usage in an indie studio, solely inteded for the purpose of exporting animation for game developement in unity/unreal, is it better to get the ‘complete for artists’ plan over ‘unlimited for studios’? If not, what can be an example scenario of limitations of not having Python API, Multi-Threading, JSON Import/Export available?

Hi @AshenQuill, thanks for bringing this over from Discord and welcome to the forums! :partying_face:

The node-locked option is designed for situations like this. It can be used on a single machine at a time, by being “activated” and then moved to another machine by “deactivating”.

  • To activate means to enter your licence on a given machine, which enables the use of Ragdoll on this machine.
  • To deactivate is the opposite, it’s freeing up that licence for use on a different machine.

You can do this any number of times. So a practical case would be.

  1. Activate on your laptop, where you start using it
  2. Once you want to more work from laptop to the office, deactivate your laptop and reactivate at work.

Both activation and deactivation is done via the same button, in the UI that popped up on first launching Ragdoll that can also be found at the bottom of the Ragdoll menu.

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Every lifetime option includes an Annual Upgrade Plan (AUP), namely 1 year of free updates.

Meaning the lifetime licence you purchase today, will enable you to keep downloading the latest version until 14th June 2023.

To continue downloading and using later versions past that year, you can purchase another year of AUP, at the discounted prices on the AUP pricing page.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much, start with Complete. In the future, if you should find yourself wanting…

  1. Export for importing a physics setup from one character to another
  2. Multi-Threading for an additional performance boost
  3. Locomotion for automatic walks and runs.

…then you are welcome to upgrade; the cost of Complete would simply be deducted from the Unlimited licence so it wouldn’t cost you more.

The Python API really only makes sense for a solo animator if you are comfortable with Python, in which case it’d help you automate things like assigning markers, recording things and manipulating attributes like shapes and limits.

Hope that helps shed some light on the pricing, and feel free to drop any other questions and I’ll fill in the blanks!

Thank you so much, Marcus, for the long and detailed answer.

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