3D rad Rip Off

This is only my opinion, and not the opinion of Blitz Research.
After buying this software, I find out that it will no longer be supported, but they will still take your money.
This is a very bad way of treating your customers, the company takes your money for an old product, and they have no intension to update, instead they try to get you to buy their new product 3Impact, I would not give these people another cent.
I for one, am getting upset for this type of tactic being used by these fly by night software crooks.

Thank goodness Blitz have better business ethics, Thank you Blitz.

hey... watch that kinda talk there boyyyya...

3D RAD is the engine i cut my 3D teeth on...

... or was it DarkBASIC, it's been sooo long ago i really can't remember.

anyways... i have a found spot for that dumb ole 3d engine...


seriously though... they're not abandoning the software... and you can still get support... and it is well known and stated that 5.2 was the last version of the software... it is considered done deal...

this is explicitly been told to anyone who has asked or read the forums...

hey A... where did you hear this bit of gobblygoook from anyways???


--Mike

Well they are not going to update anymore, Most rad users were looking forward to V6, but it aint gonna happen, shame, but I hate when software companies do this sort of thing.
Info came from their Forum.

yeah... the version 6 issue...

i posted a big NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO message on the boards... and i'm one of the friggin mods over there... can ya beat that :}

but this has been pretty much common knowledge for a while now... not that it makes it any more right, but they've stated for almost a year now that version 5.2 was a feature complete and final release...

in all reality... the thing is based on DX6 IM graphics... now while it still has life to it in it's current form... it's not gonna be the basis for the next HalfLife killer...

like the current Blitz, most of the users (developers, excuse me) over there haven't fully exploited the potential of it...

but i agree... a version 6 would've been a big plus, and it was shortsighted of em not to do it...

--Mike

Dito, Mike

Heh....I knew that was gonna happen 2 years ago when they finally released the 5.2 update.....which was only 3 years after the previous update :P
I'm surprise people are actually still buying it without doing any research.

Such a shame....I always did believe that if 3DRAD actually continued to progress, it would of been the best engine out there.

well least I dont see "Free upgrades" in the Faq anymore..as there wont be any..lol

Network problems aside, I admit I had alot of Fun with it.
never really finished anything in it, But we did get it to do things it was never meant to.


Zmatrix

They fell victim to their own generosity. Giving everyone who owned a previous version a free upgrade to the next version every time was very generous but it was also financial suicide. As the version numbers went up, they were doing more and more work for less and less money, because more and more people already have an old version and would get the new one for free.

If people hadn't kicked up such a stink at the prospect of paying for V6, perhaps it would have happened. As usual though, a vocal bunch of teenagers complained that it was daylight robbery and that put paid to that.

Sybixsus: how right you are, I for one would have gladly paid for upgrades to keep production going, well that’s that.
Thanks for all the replies, interesting stuff.

i told em that a looooong time ago... free upgrades within version numbers, yes... but free upgrades for life... financial suicide...

but anyways... what's done is done...

besides... i think that the old version still has a lil life left in it... as a matter of fact, i'm seriously considering scaling back what i've got done with the sub sim in RAD, wrapping it up, and putting that out...

i was playing around with it yesterday, adding a few models from various places, and after all this running around i've been doing, looking for the 'perfect' engine, the results from the one that i started with didn't really look that bad...




(Kilo submarine model courtesy TLAM Strike and spookymufu over on the Virtual Sailor forums) -- click image for larger view

so... in short, the last version is still capable of putting out passable loooking stuff that some people might want to play...

--Mike

I played around with 3d Rad some years back I think it was an excellent product with a nice object concept. Ultimately I found it very limiting in what you could actually achieve so moved to Dark Basic - through which I discovered Blitz3d !

Maybe free upgrades for life could work for a product but only if the userbase kept expanding and the initial price for new users rose with each version.

When I buy software I usually buy it for what it can do now - not what it may do in the future. Thas't why I haven't bought BlitzMax yet - it doesn't do what I want. The day it does do ALL that I want is when I'll buy it - and be content.

@red - stop teasing us with screenshots and launch that sub immediately !

You know - I think you really should smash out the 3drad version Mike. I can't see top-notch graphics adding all that much appeal to your game over solid and immersive simulation from the gameplay side...and from what you've said it's all there in 3DRad already!

yeah... it's the dog gone networking in RAD... it's using a peer2peer setup... which is not bad, but it is problematic...

i just got done testing with 3 other people over the net, and only one could connect to the host machine... the other 2 machines just sat there after entering the ip...

they could ping the ip, it just never came up in the DirectPlay box to join...

right now that's my only hangup...

--Mike