No One

Yes. And Autodesk makes more money from 3ds Max licenses than Maya licenses.

YES! That would be a win-win situation. The last version of U-render was already better and 100x faster than Redshift RT, although with more limitations. It would be a fantastic second render and viewport for C4D.

I hope they don't mess with Object Manager. It is the best in the industry. Blender literaly copied it from C4D. There are room for im[provements but if they go too far away with the nodes stuff they will destroy what I see as one of the main features of Cinema 4D: the Object Manager. Every time I have to work with a complex scene in Maya I curse and wish Maya had C4D Object Manager and tag system.

If I am not mistaken, @srektold us that Xpresso won't be replaced by Scene Nodes because they are very different and made for different things. Honestly, I still think Scene Nodes was a mistake. They shoudl have created a Xpresso Plus or something. Why would I learn a seccond Maxon only node language if they abandoned their first one? It's very likely they will do the same with Scene Nodes later on.

I voted for Xpresso, because I use Xpresso a lot and it deserves some love. But I am surprised that "real-time game engine like (e.g. Unreal) renderer" was not an option. This is what I'd want the most. We don't even need something at the same level of Unreal - even something with all the features of Element 3D for After Effects (something from 11 years ago!!!) would be great. U-Render was basically this but sadly they are no more. I was one of the early beta testers and buyers of U-Render and I was very disappointed when they closed down. U-render - even in its unfinished form - was amazing with Cinema 4D.

Modo i going the way of Lightwave, Strata, Softimage,, Animation Master, etc... No future. In term of general 3D software, the big boys in town are Maya, C4D, Houdini, 3ds Max and Blender. And I think they are here to stay. The first 4 because each one is very strong in one area/industry (Maya = Character Animation, Houdini = VFX, 3dsMax = Architecture, C4D = Mograph/Broadcast) and Blender because it actually became usable after 2.8 and it's getting better and better, and it's VERY customizable*. * Even if you hate vanilla Blender, which is my case. Using the Pie Menu addon and some other tweaks I was able to make my Blender to act a lot like Maya. Very impressive.

Geez, Maxon is losing its most ardent defender @BoganTW... this can't be a good sign...

I still don't get it how DIscord can replace forums. I know this is happening but I see Discord as something very different. I use Discord to talk with my friends when we are playing something online. I think it's weird it's replacing forums.

Hitfilm and Apple Motion are the closest alternative to After Effects, withh Hitfilm the closest. They are close to AE to the point that I was able to start using both without any tutorial, just based on my years as a After Effects user. DaVinci Resolve is an alternative to Premiere, not to After Effects if you don't consider the Fusion. If you do use the included Fusion, it becomes an alternative to Nuke, not Fusion. I don't really consider Nuke a close alternative to After Effects - it covers well the compositing/VFX aspect of After Effects but not the Motion Graphics/Animation part. Same with Natron.

Add to that: 1) Maxon CHARGES for it's student version. 2) Maxon unnecessarily changed Cinema4D UI making all the old pre-R25 tutorials useless for beginners.

I'm not sure the details, but what I read about in Blender and Octane forums is that due to the licensing of Blender, they cannot use all of their proprietary technology because they would then have to release it as open source too. Not sure if that's true (I didn't have time to really research deeply about it) but it makes sense if we consider how BAD and SLOW the Octane implementation in Blender is. It is also weird because you need to install a specific version of Blender. I've being using Octane in Cinema 4D,, Maya and 3dsMax for years. So I can say with confidence that the Blender implementation feels like a much older and slower version of Octane. Which is a shame because I was really excited in having an extra and free version of Octane (the Blender version is free) in addition to my Studio license. (And after I learned how to customize Blender with the Pie Editor, my version of Blender is working very similar to Maya and Cinema 4D. So I'd love to have a proper Octane version on it). Right now, is better to use Cycles then Octane in Blender.

Very good call. This will save the company in the long run, avoiding the U-Render fate. It's not good to depend only on Cinema 4D. I strongly believe that U-Render would still be alive and a success if they had released the Maya version earlier. Cinema 4D was already niche and now it's even more niche due to a mix of external circumstances ( (Blender 2.8 and later, Maya/Max indie,, etc...) and questionable MAXON decisions (charging for student versions, no more cheap Prime version of Cinema 4D, unnecessary UI revamp copying Blender, etc...). Personally, I think it will be fantastic to have a particle and simulation plugin that works across my two main apps, Maya and Cinema 4D. I already do this with Octane. No sure if the Blender version will be any good though. The open source license of Blender limits what plugin developers can do. For example,, Octane for Blender is a joke in comparison to Octane for C4D, maya or 3ds Max.

Yes, I was expecting a reply more along these lines, not just a vague line about rumors.

If that's not the case I stand corrected then. I just wanted to keep this forum alive and made a suggestion.

Thanks for the reply @DMcGavran. But no, I am asking you, not @Igor. Because, as far as I know - and correct me if I am wrong here - it was Maxon who decided to not support the forum anymore and forced the name change. Then Igor was forced to create a paywall to keep the site running. Just because you guys appear here now and then does not mean you actually support the site. As I said - and I say this as a college professor - there is a historical and educational value in this forum for Cinema4D users (and thus, value for Maxon). I lost the count of how many times a student of mine came to me complaining that every time they google a question about Cinema4D, Google shows a thread from this forum but they can't see it because of the paywall.

So even with the ads the site didn't pay itself? I totally misunderstood what happened them, sorry about that @Igor. I thought it was a choice to get rid of annoying ads, not a necessity. As this is the case, there is nothing we can do then, as you said. But it's really puzzling that Maxon does not see the value in having a Cinema 4D community and to keep years of valuable threads online. But I'm sure Maxon has its reasons. Care to enlighten us @DMcGavran?

I think this is a good middle ground (although I'd just bring back the ads). Core4D, as the former CafeC4D, has a historical value that the paywall blocks. If you google almost any question about Cinema 4D Google will show you some thread from here but non-members cannot read them. Which is a shame and really bad for students. Actually, amazes me that Maxon does not see value in this (the historical value of years of C4D threads) and withdrew their support for the forum.

What do you think @Igor?

So, I think to close the forum and charge a fee was a valid experiment but I think we can all agree that the forum has been pretty dead after that. I think it is time to open the forum again and bring back the ads, even if they are annoying. What do you guys think?

I also like that everything is in the same window in the Octane Node Editor: all the Octane Nodes (as well as the compatible C4D nodes) on the left,, nodes in the middle and the attributes on the right. Much easier to use and with high discoverability.

That's true. On the other hand, Octane's node editor in Cinema 4D is so good that I don't wanna have to use the native C4D editor when I'm using Octane.

The free Magic Solo from Nitro Man. I can't use Cinema4D without it. Ten times better than Maxon's implementation (and it existed years before C4D got its own solo button). Cactus Dan's plugins were great too but they don't work with the last versions of C4D.

I never used the Geometry Nodes in Blender, so I can't really give an opinion on that. I don't know if they are easy to use as Xpresso or needless complex as Scene Nodes. But I can tell you that Blender users tend to be very different than Cinema 4D users. Due to Blender's workflow which is heavily based on keyboard shortcuts, its users tend to be more technical than Cinema 4D users, which are more visual inclined. Cinema 4D became relevant for two reasons: the Mograph tools and the easy to learn workflow, mostly visually based (great UI, easy to read icons, etc...) which let user bypass the more technical demands of software such as Maya. Scene Nodes goes against that, thus it's a big mistake. Specially when C4D already has a great and super easy to use node-based script system: Xpresso. They should just update and improve Xpresso.

I think it's great that is not scene nodes. Scene nodes are a mistake, C4D is not Houdini or Softimage. Different type of users. Maxon is clueless. They should improve Xpresso instead os wasting time in another, much more complex, node scripting system. Autodesk did something similar with the Max Creation Graph for 3ds Max (released in 2016, I think) but almost no one uses it right now. Max users kept using Maxscript, because it's easier and what they have being using for years. But back to the topic: Amazing work @HappyPolygon! I can see myself using this in a future project. Looks great.

Well, Maxon already had Forge but then they bought Zbrush... But if you're talking about Redshift RT, I don't think that's comparable to U-Render. Redshift RT is great, but it's more akin to Octane Direct Lighting or Arnold GPU. it's not a super fast game-engine-like renderer like U-Render is (as you know, as you were working there). Anyway, it was just an idea, maybe @DMcGavranwill spare some minutes to look into it. Just trying to help.