Auto-Rig Pro is terrible, so is Blender Market

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

So I purchased the Auto-Rig Pro addon for $40, according to a recommendations.

Then I tried the Smart feature, it crashes my computer more often than not.

I contacted the dev about it, they gave up and said there’s no way to fix this problem, and asked if I would like a refund. Didn’t even ask me for a screenshot, or a more precise description of the problem.

So just for education, I looked at why it hung and found that it was a memory leak. I isolated the problem down to some specific rendering method and fixed it. Anyway, the technical details doesn’t matter. Point being, the bug was quite easily identified and fixed.

While looking through the code, I saw that it of substandard quality. So I issued a refund request to Blender Market, saying that since the code is bad, and whenever I encounter a problem in the future the developer wouldn’t be willing to help me, I don’t wanna risk using this tool in my pipeline.

Blender Market was like “I saw that you already talked to the developer and they assisted you in solving the problem”. I said they were lying since I fixed the bug myself. They said “No one is lying”, and repeated what they said, in the fashion of ChatGPT. The gist of it is that I can’t get a refund because there was no fault in the product (even though there would be, if I hadn’t fixed it myself).

So I asked the dev whether they could get a refund, since I no longer wanna use their addon. I got back a schmuck response saying how my solution was a “hack” and that they would have no proof of me not using the product again so they can’t give me the refund.

I told them , just keep my money if you want it so much.

Anyway, I just wanna spread the word about this. Don’t pay these people, folks!

Edit: I have also posted a more detailed version of this story on my website here: https://lackhoa.github.io/2023/11/04/auto-rig-pro.html

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Ok, you need to stop making tiny edits and then reversing them to move this to the top of latest posts. The fact that you’ve done this four times indicates that you know exactly what you’re doing. I’ve locked your initial post and you can no longer edit it

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No I wasn’t doing this to “move this to the top of latest posts”. Can’t you fix your website instead of blaming me?
Edit: I was doing it to fix typos and add more helpful information. Is that not allowed?
Edit 2: I wasn’t even aware of the “move to top of latest posts” feature you have. That feature sounds absolutely stupid to me. Like who would ever need that?

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You know I can see your edit history, right? You weren’t fixing typos or adding information, you’ve added and removed one small clause three times at spaced-out intervals. Anyway, carry on, I was just giving you a heads up as to why you can’t edit your post

2 Likes
5

What are you talking about? I added this:

Edit: I have also posted a more detailed version on my website here: https://lackhoa.github.io/2023/11/04/auto-rig-pro.html

Okay fine, there were fixing of wording to make the text reads better, is that also not allowed?

Tell me which particular edit you had issue with? I saw that the 2->3 diff didn’t have any change whatsoever, it’s weird that counted as an edit. Is that the basis for your accusation? Have you thought about the possibility of me making a change, then delete it, leaving the text the same as before?

And what if the edits were made at spaced out interval? I do that all the time (like I am doing now). I was switching between discord and this site. I read back what I wrote and make small adjustments. Writing is hard, you know? Editing is essential if you wanna make something good. There are tens of things I wanna say, sometimes I miss things.

I also made a lot of edits on my website, can you tell me what “newest list” I was trying to get to the top of?

I’m fine with not editing a lot and sorry for the inconvenience, but please stop accusing me of random things I don’t care about!

1 Like
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Blender gets a lot of updates each year and eventually even the best addon will break at some point if not continuously tested and corrected.

The real question is if this addon is not under development and there are no further plans to be supported. Now 3.6 is LTS and is almost safe for old addons, while 4.0 is the latest version and leans towards graceful break of compatibility (I say that you get compatibility but do not cross your fingers and hope that everything will be great – always expect some breaking to happen).

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According the memory leak you detected.. i thought you are giving some more info on GitHub.. maybe showing the explicite location in the code.. but there you only write something about a reply to the devs:

as if fixing your janky Python addon is worth boasting about

Well.. the problem with your distributed publications is..nobody can see your “fixing”-patch.. ( if you have not yet edited something ) but an answer of the devs on GitHub says:

There is no true reason to change ‘TRI_FAN’ to ‘TRI_STRIP’ as drawing method.

So it seems the implementation of TRI_FAN by Apple leads to that problem.. ?!? ( AFAIK: They also dropped OpenGL to their own Graphics Library.. what initially is used by blender.. ) ..well indeed both versions have their usecase (at least in OpenGL):

So your complaint seems to be wrongly adressed.. ??

Finally.. if your (non-published) patch works for your actual environment.. then.. it works.. so why a refund ??

I may understand your anger.. but you also said nothing about the initial..

And you properly do not want to hear this.. but the 36800+ sales and the update log of AutoRigPro does speak somekind of different language.. :person_shrugging:

Just my 1½ cent..

I’m not affilialted to any current or former developer of Auto-Rig with or without Pro, BlenderMarket or whatsoever or stateing any official position of BlenderArtists here.
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I’m not complaining about the add-on breaking per-se, and I don’t know if it is being actively developed. What I do know is that the dev clearly stated that they don’t wanna fix their product for my particular environment.

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According the memory leak you detected… i thought you are giving some more info on GitHub… maybe showing the explicite location in the code… but there you only write something about a reply to the devs:

I don’t know if showing the code is even legal? Furthermore, I don’t know if that fix is proper or not.

So it seems the implementation of TRI_FAN by Apple leads to that problem… ?!? ( AFAIK: They also dropped OpenGL to their own Graphics Library… what initially is used by blender… ) …well indeed both versions have their usecase (at least in OpenGL)… So your complaint seems to be wrongly adressed… ??

I didn’t complain about the addon breaking on my machine (it’s an old Macbook). I complained that the dev didn’t even try to look into the issue when I first reported it.

Finally… if your (non-published) patch works for your actual environment… then… it works… so why a refund ??

I already wrote about my reasons.

And you properly do not want to hear this… but the 36800+ sales and the update log of AutoRigPro does speak somekind of different language… :person_shrugging:

Sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying here. Microsoft Windows has a lot of sales too, doesn’t mean it’s not terrible.

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You seems to not know very much about this addon which you purchased… because on the changelog there is something about blender 4.0 and on blendermarket about versions from from 2.79 up to 3.6… so it seems they know what they do… it would not be there anymore if not…

If it works for others… then why do include your “patch” into the product… they would have to double check if this would get worse for others… and would get problems with satisfied customers.

And again: if this “patch” works for you… fine… the problems seem to be a somehow bad implementation of the drawing procedure by Apple… and as you wrote:

…and everone knows… if an apple product is too old… then the apple service is… null, nothing, nada…

So this may be wrongly adressed… it might be not the dev’s of this addon fault that this doesn’t work on you older machine… as far as i remember you also did not showed the system/blender specs…

And to be honest… you appearance/behaviour facing the developers… well seems to be… hmm… not very diplomatic in the first place… so… i don’t really wonder why this escalated quickly :person_shrugging:

You… seems to be the only one… with problems with their product… and they do have a lot of experience with this addon…

…

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You seems to not know very much about this addon which you purchased…

That’s right. I didn’t read their change logs. I’d assume the product is actively developed if someone recommended it to me. Is that related to any of my complaints?

If it works for others… then why do include your “patch” into the product… they would have to double check if this would get worse for others… and would get problems with satisfied customers.

I didn’t say they have to include the patch in their product. In fact if I were the maintainer I wouldn’t include this patch without further investigations into why it works.

So this may be wrongly adressed… it might be not the dev’s of this addon fault that this doesn’t work on you older machine… as far as i remember you also did not showed the system/blender specs…

I never said that this is the dev’s fault.

And to be honest… you appearance/behaviour facing the developers… well seems to be… hmm… not very diplomatic in the first place… so… i don’t really wonder why this escalated quickly :person_shrugging:

They called me “arrogant” first, is that diplomatic to you? I was completely polite up to that point. After that, however, I did say something rude (which was the REDACTED part), and I did apologize for it. I do lose my temper when people insult me out of nowhere.

You… seems to be the only one… with problems with their product…

Maybe, so? Thus, I might also be the only one who wants a refund (emphasis on “might”). Again, I never claimed the opposite. I don’t claim that the satisfied customers are somehow lying about their experience.

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It should actually work as described here,
had already successfully cancelled it once(another addon!).

Perhaps a little more diplomatically.

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As i wrote: there may be a “problem with your distributed publications”… and so it may also be a bit cumbersome to follow… also your edit’s ( for example five in the last posts ?) don’t make this easier…

…nonetheless i don’t really get what you really want with all this… if you look at this unbiased… then it simply looks a like one disgruntled customer how might “assumed” too much of any recommendation ?? (IDK…)

And also it’s a bit weird if you first isolated the problem but the details does not matter, found a “patch” and then don’t really know if it this would work also would not include this yourself … but insist on fixing this for your environment but then also don’t say it’s the devs fault… then again “complains” when they “dev didn’t even try to look into the issue” but also publishes and answer of the dev according TRI…
…and then other info about the messages in the timeline of this course of events appears… ( and also getting very… “personally”…) …and now also “believes” that the “satisfied customers” does not lie…

You may use this energy to talk to your buisness partners…

This is all to complicated for my simple brain… and exhausting to follow…

14

One day i was wanted a refund for one addon.
Looks like the good “no question asked” practice are doesnt exist in blendermarket and at first they ask me did i contact with addon author and try to ask him to fix it?
And its even worst than the lack of “no question asked” policy, Its actually hilarous, because if addon doesnt work - i actually should immidiately get my money back without any question and advice to contact anyone.
What should be next? They make an advice to learn python and fix it for myself?
This is actually a bullshit. If you buy i broken microwave the seller should never ask you - did you contact your local repair service.

I drop any approaches to get money back simply because its was like 2 or 3$, but the situations clearly show how blendermarket treat the customers.

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What did I do that wasn’t diplomatic? Serious question.
I was polite up until they flat-out denied my refund request and insulted me.

Sure, I could have kept being “diplomatic” after that to try and get my money back. But my dignity isn’t worth the money.

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Yeah ideally for customer a “no question asked” policy would be best. But it could be abused though. Open source software isn’t the same as hardware, you can’t exactly “return” it since the code is shipped with the zip file.

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But it’s doesn’t mean what “we cant be sure you would uninstall out addon and never use it” should become an excuse for refusing of refund.

There’s a tons of paid addons in the internet freely for downloading. And downloading more than 90% of them are legal due to GPL license.
Meanwhile people still buy addons simply because they wish to support developer/blender.

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But you know…
…nobody really returns the product here… everyone who just says (s)he has a problem and get their money back would still have everything and just could use it for free after that… their is no online license check or anything which coudl prevent this in blender like for any other software nowadays…

Sometime people just copy addons to any location someone said in any video… and they just do not use the “Install…” option… because they had problems seeing it… because it ws not for their version… because also developer have to learn newer API’s so they could adapt to it…

So…
…is it so weird to speak with the people where you bought something from…

Meanwhile:

…now you made my head swirl…
:interrobang:

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As i wrote: there may be a “problem with your distributed publications”… and so it may also be a bit cumbersome to follow… also your edit’s ( for example five in the last posts ?) don’t make this easier…

Then reply to one specific point I make at a point in time. No one is gonna fine you over replying to some old text I wrote. If the point is still valid, then I’d have no reason not to contend with it. If it’s some old point I wanted to correct, then I’ll tell you about it. This is not a court case, you don’t have to quote me exactly.

… then it simply looks a like one disgruntled customer how might “assumed” too much of any recommendation ?? (IDK…)

What assumption was “too much”?

And also it’s a bit weird if you first isolated the problem but the details does not matter, found a “patch” and then don’t really know if it this would work also would not include this yourself … but insist on fixing this for your environment but then also don’t say it’s the devs fault…

I never “insist on fixing this for my environment”, please re-read what I wrote. When I talk about “patch” or “fix” that I found, I don’t mean that was the correct solution to the problem, it’s just something that happens to work.

then again “complains” when they “dev didn’t even try to look into the issue” but also publishes and answer of the dev according TRI…

The “TRI…” was after me looking into the issue. The dev did absolutely nothing to debug this. Again, I’m not blaming them since they don’t have the hardware, I’m just saying it like it is.

…and then other info about the messages in the timeline of this course of events appears… ( and also getting very… “personally”…)

If you want me to clarify the course of event, just ask. What issue do you have with me getting “personal”? Just ignore it and focus on the part you care about then.

…and now also “believes” that the “satisfied customers” does not lie…

Did I ever claim anything contrary to that?

You may use this energy to talk to your buisness partners…

I have.

This is all to complicated for my simple brain… and exhausting to follow…

Again, ask questions if you want clarification. Did I ever not answer your questions? Were there any inconsistencies in what I said?

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What’s next ??

Why i do have to pay for the bus or train… it’s running anyway ??