Thank you @wavk for taking the time to answer and clarify the matter.
I second what @Herbert123 said, and I would add that had I been in your place, I probably would’ve put the same restriction on as well.
One thing though: you say
Where is this agreement? I looked over your website and couldn’t find anything about that. Did I miss it? Is it on a checkout page (which I haven’t seen because I haven’t bought The Grove)?
I never had any intention of selling tree assets made with and competing with The Grove. And even if I’m not required to refrain from selling assets, I like the work you are doing and will obey your wishes anyway.
On a different note, is there a way to get a hold of you to ask a couple questions (don’t worry, not GPL related)? I’m still interested in buying The Grove.
wavk: I am in a plan to buy Grove in future too, this could be a really true SpeedTree alternative what is easy to use and ultra stable(i hope). Do you have plans to add game type of optimizations like baking AO and other things that optimize especially for game engines? Quixel textures and Grove could be the best combo for Unreal & other realtime engines.
Is there a way to have more influence over the canopy? I can’t see much options to control twigs.
This is an example from a Disney movie, you can see the leaves are concentrated toward the top and there’s barely anything below. Fades with a nice gradient.
I love the “react” options but they could be more precise, and twigs don’t have much options to get the effect I want.
I’m sure this tool could become pretty useful for animation studios as well with additional controls.
Would be great if you didn’t limit parameters to give realistic result. Like if I want to increase the scale of twigs/leaves and if I want to have a mass of foliage in a specific area.
React can give nice control over shaper overall, but if I want to have a very long trunk and short branches, it’s not possible.
“Creating libraries” of 3d objects is a specific mass use license, while using it “one at a time” is another one, let’s call it “the normal one”. Usually mass use licenses are sold at a (much) higher price than normal ones, for obvious reasons. You can find examples of them on Envato, or Daz3D.
Not all services, 3d model sites, allow for that. Your behaviour is normal, in this regard.
Be wary than “using into a video game” is considered mass use license. In a game you can have million of models, there’s no limit. So you may want to reconsider what you said. Anyway nothing prevents you to get into specific agreement with someone, at your will. The rights are yours.
All this has nothing to do with GPL. By creating a Blender addon, you agree your addon has to be GPL. The product is your addon, is a software tool, and is a GPL software. It has to be published by adhering to GPL rules. But this is related to the addon ONLY. Any byproduct of it is “usage license” of the addon. Your obligation with the GPL are fulfilled the moment you publish it somewhere in the open under GPL clauses.
Nothing prevents you to set a license restricting usage under certain rules. It’s the reason usage license are made…
I love this addon… I know you guys are delving into the legal technicalities but I think you need to just let Wybren focus on development as he’s a one man operation. He obviously has no mind for these legal technicalities and just wants us all to operate in good faith and make a living doing what he loves…
Just bought the grove! Amazing addon and hopefully many great future twigs to come.
Great work!
One question, as my image shows, in eevee i get this blac and blu line around the leaf. Like theres no alpha. In cycles its perfectly fine.
Anyone know why?
I tried but I haven’t found an answer, is it possible to grow different presets at the same time? So that I could grow for example 20 trees which are split into 3 different presets with different growing age but all are affecting eachother?
Because the other method is to grow 10 trees of the same preset. But then I would also like it to randomize growing age. Cuz the best thing about the grove is that the trees that you grow on the same simulation are affecting eachother resulting in super nice different tree forms. But to create a divirsified forrest in one click there would need to be more settings. Anyone have any idea or example ?
Hi
Can any buyer tell me how the license works?
Is it locked to a computer or can I buy one and use it on multiple machines for farm rendering ? (I dont like to export and import model/textures/animation…).
Thanks in advance.
edit: seems I was wrong, it’s Wybren van Keulen just to keep the record straight here…
Some of his last posts on the dev forum are from oct. 2019, not sure what’s going on.
But anyway, I have same experience. I paid for the addon and don’t use it as it’s lacking in many areas and has increasingly overcomplicated UI.
There isn’t any way to convert the particle system based tree into a mesh you could export into a game engine, despite the webpage says the addon is suitable for producing game engine models. I contacted the addon creator about it a few years ago, and he said he will eventually add an option to turn the grove tree into a mesh, but several years and releases later, it’s still not there. So whatever grove generates either has to stay in Blender, or you have to do clunky, long manual process of converting it to a mesh yourself.
So I’d definitely suggest not buying it. It’s just not on par with the price tag.
Hey guys, not sure if this a good place to ask, but since there doesn’t seem to be a good way to contact Wybren this is probably the next best thing.
I’m the developer of the Alpha Trees plugin, which creates 2D tree billboards from 3D models.
I want to expand the default library that comes with the addon, and using The Grove seems like a good way to do it.
However, I don’t know whether selling renders of the trees is allowed by the “license”. On the surface it seems fine, but there is this line on the checkout page:
I bought the addon year ago, a strange solution is to prohibit it for commercial use of trees from the developer.
Twigs seem to have not been updated for a long time, although grove 10 has recently been released.
Renzatic
(Professor Emeritus Billy H. Wafflesmith XIV Esq.)
80
My personal, I Am Not A Lawyer But I Read A Book Once take on it is that the latter half of that clause would prevent you from distributing Grove derived tree images alongside your plugin.
I could be wrong, but if it were me, I wouldn’t use it until I get a direct answer from the Grove people.
Hmm, thanks for the answer, that’s kinda what I assumed. The main problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any good way to contact the developer @wavk . I’ve already sent him a couple of e-mails, and messaging on most of the accounts is disabled. I understand that he must get a lot of requests about the same topic, but not having any good method of contact is quite frustrating.
Renzatic
(Professor Emeritus Billy H. Wafflesmith XIV Esq.)
82
From what I’ve read previously, and the one semi-conversation I had with the devs that one time, it seems that they have no problem with people using the addon as part of own renders and animations, but anything that involves selling or distributing the raw output from it, things people could otherwise buy a copy of The Grove for themselves to make, is greatly frowned upon.
I’d still send out an email and hope for a response, because, hey, you never know. But I’d start looking for alternatives in the meanwhile.
Thanks, that’s good to hear someone else’s view on it. I’ve sent three emails over the past couple months, but it doesn’t seem like they really get through…
