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Igor, should I give you the troll badge for teaching people how to ignore me? Using my profile as the example 😉

Good to see how Blender handles this. This kind of per-point attribute system is pretty much at the core of Houdini, and as a result it is pervasive across the app. Houdini also extends this to faces, where per-face attributes can be used in interesting ways.

Houdini does have a vastly expanded toolset compared to C4D, especially in the sim department, but the thing that drew me away from C4D and into Houdini was precisely replicating what I was doing in C4D. Specifically, I was tasked with creating a procedural pattern generator for the fascia of a building (video below). I was getting decent results out of Cinema 4D, but started running into some hard walls when I attempted to scale up. Processing times started ballooning, and I started needing to frequently break the chain to get a flattened version of the geometry, that resulted in bloated scene file sizes and slow saving. I was actually ok just continuing the way I was, but I had some downtime, and curiosity caused me to see if there were better ways to do what I was doing. I can't remember how I landed on Houdini specifically, but hoo boy, am I glad I did! Despite knowing nothing about Houdini, I was able to replicate that setup in about a week, and it performed an order of magnitude better than C4D. I was able to see changes to parameters almost instantly, even with absurdly scaled up scenes, I'm talking levels I would not have even attempted a tenth of which in C4D. I was able to keep things entirely procedural from start to finish with no compromises, and the scene file size never exceeded 3-4 MB, even when I was generating over 2 million polygons. That was the turning point that convinced me to invest more time and effort into Houdini, and I won't lie - there was pain. But it always paid off with a better way to work. The good news is that there will be far less pain for new users today because Houdini has become significantly easier to use, and there is also massively more beginner learning content available today compared to when I started. TL;DR I think reproducing C4D techniques in Houdini is totally worth it because it performs better and offers more flexibility.

Personally I feel going towards a Patreon, Exclusive content model to be more appealing. I would also like to see some Transparent accounting of actual expenses incurred. I have seen this before in opensource projects where. a spreadsheet is shared publicly showing income and expenses .I have been a member here since 2005 but only have 250 posts. I visit maybe once a month, maybe less. I want this community to grow and continue. But i think a yearly subscription will turn many away and it will reduce it. I think that there are other ways to raise income.

Am I the only one that finds this comment in extremely poor taste? Disclaimer: Yes, I considered not posting this comment at all because what’s the point? You can say that it is only a joke, and I shouldn’t take it so seriously, which is probably true. Disclaimer: Yes, I’m sad that I wasted my time writing this comment. Disclaimer: Yes, I may not have all the facts as they are written below, so feel free to correct me. Situation #1: One person establishes a forum because he wants to create a community around a software that he enjoys working with, and he supports it for several years; however, after realizing that the software he created the forum for is going nowhere fast, he sells the forum and transitions to a new software. The new owners want to continue supporting the community, but they do need to make it financially worth their while because in the world as it is, time is money (another sad topic for another day, which is why I should have spent my time doing something more productive), and they are on the hook for the costs - they are not part of an umbrella corporation to help finance their endeavors. Since it isn’t currently financially viable, the owners thoroughly explain why a membership fee is necessary, discuss how they tried to make the fee as minimal as possible, and explain that they hope everyone will be okay with it. Situation #2: A successful software company isn’t satisfied with their high amount of revenue, so they bring in new management to further increase that revenue. The solution is to remove a subscription service (MSA) that users have no issue with, because it allows users to keep the previous version of the software if they don’t upgrade. The company then implements a subscription service that costs more than the previous subscription (MSA) and discontinues the ability to keep previous versions if you are on the new subscription service if you don’t pay. The company also removes benefits to perpetual licenses holders in an effort to force them into the subscription service. The company doesn’t provide a good explanation as to why this new service and cost are necessary (aside from the “it’s better for users because of updates” talking point). There is a small, but unsuccessful, backlash to this decision, mainly made up of freelancers and small creators. Their dissatisfaction is voiced on the forum discussed in Situation #1. Due to this backlash, the company’s representative thinks that such a comment is absolutely not in poor taste to make because the two situations are so similar, so if you have a problem with Maxon doing everything they can to force you into a subscription with less benefits than you had before just to increase revenue, then don’t be a hypocrite. You should have the same amount of backlash to this forum asking for 10 euros a year. Am I the only one that thinks this comment is completely out of touch? Whether you like subscriptions or not, these are not the same scenarios, and I feel like it is a slap in the face of Igor after he posted such a transparent and honest post, and the decision to charge a fee doesn’t seem like it was an easy one to make. I have a feeling Maxon’s decision was very easy to make. I just feel like it shows a total lack of respect for this forum and the support they try to provide users. EDIT: I didn't write this from an angry perspective, to try to start yet another subscription discussion, or to incite an anti-Maxon response. I'm just tired of society as it currently is. Igor and the team are trying to provide value to this very small corner of the world, I assume because they really enjoy it, and they are doing their best to support it. The negatively, joking or not, as they try to do their best to support their efforts is so disheartening.