When we started with Avastar in 2011, we promised to give free infinite support. But this turned out to become a huge burden, because the increasing number of customers also increases our support activities.
We can no longer keep up with this free forever model. But we also do not want to break our word, so we decided for a compromise: Since November-2014 we split up our product into 2 distributions with different licensing models.
Avastar-1 (Infinite support)
If you purchased Avastar before 14-nov-2014 then you have an Avastar-1 distribution. You’ve been with us for a long time. We always promised that you never have to pay anything for bug fixes and adjustments necessary because of changes in Blender.
Avastar-2 (Annual renewal)
If you purchased Avastar on or after 14-nov-2014 then you have an Avastar-2 distribution. You will receive all product updates and bug fixes until one year after purchase. You can renew your license on a yearly base.
Since Avastar-1.7 this Tool is no longer developped, but it is still maintained. So no new features will be added. From now on we only do bug fix releases and we take care to keep Avastar-1 running on future Blender versions as long as this is feasible.
Avastar-2 has been started as a copy of Avastar-1. But since Avastar-1 has gone to maintenance mode, now Avastar-2 is developed separately and it has already started to diverge from the Avastar-1 distribution.
Although Avastar-1 will not get new features, you will always keep a working and up to date Addon without need to pay a single penny extra for future maintenance and bug fixes.
Avastar-2 is in active delopment and it gets all new developed features. But this comes with the price of annual license renewal. We believe this is a fair way to help us keeping up with future development.
Product comparison
Product
Avastar-1
Avastar-2
Maintain compatibility with future blender releases.
Bug fix releases whenever we are able to fix a known issue.
New functionality (*)
Feature improvements (*)
Free Updates
Forever
One Year
(*): In some cases we continue to add feature improvements also to the Avastar-1 distribution.
Upgrade from Avastar-1 to Avastar-2
You might want to honor our continuous efforts to keep Avastar up to date and improving over time. We offer to upgrade from your Avastar-1 distribution to the Avastar-2 Distribution. This ensures that you get all new features as they become available:
Upgrade in Second Life
- Visit the JASS Shop and click on the Product Vendor for this product.
- Purchase a one year license update (50% discount).
- You can purchase from the Normal Product Vendor.
Upgrade with Paypal
- Buy the Update by pressing the Paypal Button below.
- Purchase a one year license update (50% discount).
- The additional support time is automatically appended to your product
Hi there,
for me the migration (as described above) did not work.
I have Avastar since 2013, and the page here says “Purchase a one year license update (50% discount).
You can purchase from the Normal Product Vendor.”
So I purchased for 6500 L$ and somehow hoped there would be 50% discount, but nothing.
Maybe it’s missing some description here or I did something wrong.
The product vendor calls our distribution server and asks if your avatar has made a product purchase at any time in the past.
If the distribution server can find an entry of a purchase, then it tells the vendor the new price (which is 3500 L$ for Avastar not exactly 50% though)
If the distribution server does not find an entry for you, then one of 4 cases have happened:
1.) You have purchased with another Avatar
2.) You have purchased from Paypal
3.) You have not purchased the product
4.) We have an error in our database
Here is a document that describes what to do:
https://www.avalab.org/register-download-page/
cheers,
Gaia
Hi Gaia,
regarding #1 & #3 this is all correct. Regarding #2, I’m 99,9% sure that it was an in-world purchase.
However, the only proof I have is that the octopus always gave me download-link, so maybe the purchase is somewhere in the database.
Anyway, thank you for the explanation.
Regards
when the octopus always gave you a download link, then the vendor should give you a discount. if it does not then there is a bug. Please open a ticket for this and add the requested information. We will fix it then.
of course we refund you after we have solved your case.
Thank you for solving the issue issue that fast 🙂
“When we release Avastar-1.6 we will start with Avastar-2 (which will start of as a copy of Avastar-1.6) All users who have an active license that was bought after 13-november-2014 will automatically be migrated to Avastar-2”
Actually that’s the reverse of what you should do. You should be taking care of your original customers by at lease giving them a free one year sub to the latest version. I understand as a business owner (out of SL) you need to make a profit, but the minute you neglect your long-term (original) Customers. Things change real fast when modeling and rigging is a hobby not an income in SL. Even with free lifetime support as an offer, you cannot forget many long term users delt with the growing pains and script glitches to get to 2.0.
Something else to keep in mind too with a yearly sub fee you suddenly fall into the 3ds/Maya category. I also wanted to note many students can get those free for a year or as long as they are in classes with the proper collage documentation.
I didn’t see this until now, after seeing the LL announcement for new bones, but … good for you guys! Honestly, I’m surprised you’ve kept the free-forever model this long, and good on you for sticking to it for so long. This might be bad news for hobbyists, but for those of us who also make money in SL, it is an understandable move.
I have already purchased my update and am looking forward to new features as they come. 🙂 Thanks for making a product which, so far, has been more useful than I had hoped.