Pixar’s Renderman is going to be free for non commercial use, or $495 for commercial.
Links
Renderman Price Restructuring - Non Commercial FAQs
With the upcoming release RenderMan will be free for non-commercial usage.
Examples of non-commercial use-cases include evaluations, personal learning,
experimentation, research, and the development of tools and plug-ins for RenderMan.
When will free non-commercial RenderMan be available?
Free non-commercial RenderMan will be released in parallel with the latest commercial RenderMan (v19.0) in the SIGGRAPH 2014 timeframe. You can register in advance for non-commercial RenderMan and we will notify you of the latest developments.
Is free non-commercial RenderMan restricted in any way?
No. There is only one RenderMan and free non-commercial RenderMan is exactly the same as the commercial version. There are no watermarks, no time limits, and no reduced functionality. The only limitation is that upon acceptance of the EULA at installation, the software is only to be used for non-commercial purposes.
“Rumors” says Renderman 19 will include VCM (vertex connection and merging) - scroll down last pages