Why so expensive?

[Heisenberg]

I'm more of a hobbyist, not a professional. I used previous trial versions of the application for fun and really enjoyed it.

However, the price on Steam is only justified for professionals (cloth designers, animators, 3D modelers, game developers) who make a living off of the software. The price tag for hobbyist, non-commercial users should be a 10th of that.

Consider perhaps multiple licensing schemes? Maybe even an educational license?

[Solalle]

At least it isnt a subscription license, will save money in the long run not having to fork over money every month.

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by Solalle:

At least it isnt a subscription license, will save money in the long run not having to fork over money every month.

How would it save any money for someone who doesn't use the software commercially?

[ninjafriend]

Originally posted by HeisenbergAoE:

Originally posted by Solalle:

At least it isnt a subscription license, will save money in the long run not having to fork over money every month.

How would it save any money for someone who doesn't use the software commercially?

I agree with this statement. I hope CLO will think of some cheaper licensing for hobbyist. i am sure there are alot of hobbyist wants to install this. only a few can justify the price of buying. Many i think will go the illegal pirate way. i dont like the pirate way i want to own it legally. But at a slightly cheaper price because i dont get back money from this using this software. Hopefully Marvelous Designer can come out with a student/hobbyist license.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by HeisenbergAoE:

I'm more of a hobbyist, not a professional. I used previous trial versions of the application for fun and really enjoyed it.

However, the price on Steam is only justified for professionals (cloth designers, animators, 3D modelers, game developers) who make a living off of the software. The price tag for hobbyist, non-commercial users should be a 10th of that.

Consider perhaps multiple licensing schemes? Maybe even an educational license?

(Note: Sorry, I just had to point out some things. I feel your pain, but... some perspective is needed, here.)


While I am all in favor of hobbyist licensing and the like, I have to say that sort of pricing scheme usually involves a hamstrung product that has the best features removed when it comes down to professional quality 3d/2D software. By the time you get such a product, you're already aware of how limited it is and it's a clear factor in application-induced depression...

MD is a Professional Quality product that, with competent knowledge, yields Professional Quality results right-out-of-the-box. And, it's priced at an extremely accessible price for serious hobbyists. As far as professionals are concerned, it's darn dirt-cheap for what it can quickly do. It's a virtual "Do Art" button for clothing design and its much more powerful than that moniker suggests.

An equitable comparison in price and performance for professional-quality software that's actually used in professional environments would be the Substance series, also available on Steam. And, it's still priced within range of decently serious hobbyists, too! (Darn awesome suite. 'Nuff said.)

A few hundred dollars (USD) is practically pocket-change compared to the price of other 3d/2D visual arts products that are accessible to "hobbyists" and are frequently cited in the end-credits of Hollywood and premier "Triple A" game and 3D products... You're literally buying the same product used in multi-bajillion money production work-flows... Maybe not using it with the same skill, but it'd be in your Library.

Marvelous Designer is one of the very last/few 3D products in the professional-grade product marketplace that actually has a "Perpetual License." That is such a welcome thing to see that I'm half-temped just to start throwing money at them in encouragement... No kidding. The SAAS moneygrubbing model and perpetual paid-development mentality has virtually snatched ALL the professional quality packages straight out of the hands of any normal hobbyist. Marvelous Designer is one of the few products that appears to show a modicum of sympathy and integrity towards home hobbyists who love 3D. The gulf has widened so very much that hobbyists are being driven down-stream and away from "true professional-grade products." No so with Marvelous Designer!

MD's list price is even a welcome sight to see in a marketplace normally priced outside the range of 3D hobbyists. And... it's got Perpetual Licenses? ZOMGZ! (Anyone familiar with 3D software knows that kind of model stopped years ago.) If this thing ever goes on sale, buy it! (Though, I think buying the perpetual license version from the developer's website is a smarter move, considering the Steam version isn't going to get version updates, apparently. Kind of sad, too.)

TLDR: It's well worth the money it asks for its professional-grade results for home hobbyists. You won't find anything that does what it does at a better price with similar results. (Blender is "working" on some things, but it's a very long way away from producing MD quality. And, MD's price means it's much more desirable as a focused app in a hobbyists workflow rather than a cobbled-together python script that has no versioning stability whatsoever.)

(While I am happy to see it on Steam, it's best to buy it from the developer's site. Though, to be honest, I'm tired of certain third-party purchase transaction companies that have bad track records with customer privacy... I read somewhere that "Stripe" does MD transactions and they can go jump off a cliff as far as I am concerned.)

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Originally posted by HeisenbergAoE:

I'm more of a hobbyist, not a professional. I used previous trial versions of the application for fun and really enjoyed it.

However, the price on Steam is only justified for professionals (cloth designers, animators, 3D modelers, game developers) who make a living off of the software. The price tag for hobbyist, non-commercial users should be a 10th of that.

Consider perhaps multiple licensing schemes? Maybe even an educational license?

(Note: Sorry, I just had to point out some things. I feel your pain, but... some perspective is needed, here.)


While I am all in favor of hobbyist licensing and the like, I have to say that sort of pricing scheme usually involves a hamstrung product that has the best features removed when it comes down to professional quality 3d/2D software. By the time you get such a product, you're already aware of how limited it is and it's a clear factor in application-induced depression...

MD is a Professional Quality product that, with competent knowledge, yields Professional Quality results right-out-of-the-box. And, it's priced at an extremely accessible price for serious hobbyists. As far as professionals are concerned, it's darn dirt-cheap for what it can quickly do. It's a virtual "Do Art" button for clothing design and its much more powerful than that moniker suggests.

An equitable comparison in price and performance for professional-quality software that's actually used in professional environments would be the Substance series, also available on Steam. And, it's still priced within range of decently serious hobbyists, too! (Darn awesome suite. 'Nuff said.)

A few hundred dollars (USD) is practically pocket-change compared to the price of other 3d/2D visual arts products that are accessible to "hobbyists" and are frequently cited in the end-credits of Hollywood and premier "Triple A" game and 3D products... You're literally buying the same product used in multi-bajillion money production work-flows... Maybe not using it with the same skill, but it'd be in your Library.

Marvelous Designer is one of the very last/few 3D products in the professional-grade product marketplace that actually has a "Perpetual License." That is such a welcome thing to see that I'm half-temped just to start throwing money at them in encouragement... No kidding. The SAAS moneygrubbing model and perpetual paid-development mentality has virtually snatched ALL the professional quality packages straight out of the hands of any normal hobbyist. Marvelous Designer is one of the few products that appears to show a modicum of sympathy and integrity towards home hobbyists who love 3D. The gulf has widened so very much that hobbyists are being driven down-stream and away from "true professional-grade products." No so with Marvelous Designer!

MD's list price is even a welcome sight to see in a marketplace normally priced outside the range of 3D hobbyists. And... it's got Perpetual Licenses? ZOMGZ! (Anyone familiar with 3D software knows that kind of model stopped years ago.) If this thing ever goes on sale, buy it! (Though, I think buying the perpetual license version from the developer's website is a smarter move, considering the Steam version isn't going to get version updates, apparently. Kind of sad, too.)

TLDR: It's well worth the money it asks for its professional-grade results for home hobbyists. You won't find anything that does what it does at a better price with similar results. (Blender is "working" on some things, but it's a very long way away from producing MD quality. And, MD's price means it's much more desirable as a focused app in a hobbyists workflow rather than a cobbled-together python script that has no versioning stability whatsoever.)

(While I am happy to see it on Steam, it's best to buy it from the developer's site. Though, to be honest, I'm tired of certain third-party purchase transaction companies that have bad track records with customer privacy... I read somewhere that "Stripe" does MD transactions and they can go jump off a cliff as far as I am concerned.)

I appreciate your answer... but it's not a product that I can make money out of and it's beyond the "pocket change" range (that is the kind of price you'd pay for games let's say) so therefore unaffordable.

Of course affordable and unaffordable are subjective.

[Recon]

Well game development, no matter if you make money for not, can be expensive it takes a lot of money and time to make software like this. and even for people in other areas, that may use this software...... sorry you can't afford it, but you can use Blender they have some free tools like it.

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by Recon:

Well game development, no matter if you make money for not, can be expensive it takes a lot of money and time to make software like this. and even for people in other areas, that may use this software...... sorry you can't afford it, but you can use Blender they have some free tools like it.

Yes, but unlike material property, software, being intellectual property has almost no transference costs (the act of licensing an individual to use the software) on the part of the seller.

That is to say, I'm not going to purchase the license at its full price, but would rather agree to a much lower priced non-commercial license.

In that regard they're only losing business from me and people like me.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by HeisenbergAoE (NO CUMANS):

...
I appreciate your answer... but it's not a product that I can make money out of and it's beyond the "pocket change" range (that is the kind of price you'd pay for games let's say) so therefore unaffordable.

Of course affordable and unaffordable are subjective.

I do understand - "Price" and its impact is entirely subjective.

Basically, what I was saying in my long-winded way is "This is the best you can get for the price that it is offered." :) Modeling (after its fashion), simulation, and production of dynamically produced 3D "cloth" with its ease-of-use at the price offered and at the quality it produces is... not available anywhere else.

But, it's not a stand-alone, either, in terms of one's workflow, either for completed models or game assets. So, yeah, it's a workflow production app. But, a very fast and powerful one.

Considering that 3D art is a bit more electic in terms of the population of those who actually produce it, it really doesn't have a lot of solutions for hobbyists. At least, not a lot of "quality" solutions. There are plenty of 3D apps and programs out there, but very, very, few have modern sources or are capable of having professional-level features a serious hobbyist or indie producer would really want. At their offered low price, that is - There's plenty of expensive solutions for production-house budgets or for people who make their living off of producing "3D Stuffs."

Blender is coming along nicely. Before the last UI update and cleanup, I would have never recommended it to anyone but those who are true masochists... or the existentially desperate. (Those serious about pushing the creative envelope, but couldn't afford a pricey professional package, should have already moved to Blender.)

But, if you're not using Blender, then you need to move to it with all haste. There isn't anything out there that gives you that amount of power for free. Blender is looking to implement some cloth dynamics similar to MD with a "pattern" style and the like, AFAIK, so you might be well-served, there. IOW - Go to Blender and solve all your 3D-Related problems at once, for free. (Except for the sweat-equity put into learning it, which is not for the faint-hearted since it's still designed by friggin' committee. :))

AFAIK, there are no cheap "Dynamic Cloth" creation&simulators out there that are powerful enough to warrant one's attention at all. And, none that include actual 3D model creation within them.

PS - If there was a cheaper product that did anything worthwhile that MD does, I'd recommend it to you if I knew what it was. :) One thing you "could" risk is looking for old versions of production-quality 3D apps that allow license transference, but then you'd be buying into a product that is orphaned. ie: An old 3dsMax, for instance, using a fairly kludgy cloth dynamics sim, or something else that used to be a "stand-alone boxed copy" on Ebay or some such. Not guaranteed to work in Win10... etc. And, with anything bought from anonymous third-party persons, "Buyer Beware!"

Note: You can "simulate cloth dynamics" in some cheap apps like Poser or DazStudio (with a paid plugin, I think) but you can't "create" that inside those apps and that's really a deal-killer, here.

PS - Sorry for any delay in replying, if it was noted. Good luck in your search!

[Gu Gu Ga Ga Nim]

Zbrush - $1,000 *no sales
Marvelous Designer - 430 *up to 50 percent holiday sales, 10 percent trial end discount = 60% off
210 Dollars... that's the same as 4 AAA title games or a little over half a year of coffee. Save up make a fund. It's worth it even for hobbies.

If not just grab the 30 day trial every month or if you're in Canada grab it for free...


It's worth abstaining from coffee for 200 days.

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by Daddy:

Zbrush - $1,000 *no sales
Marvelous Designer - 430 *up to 50 percent holiday sales, 10 percent trial end discount = 60% off
210 Dollars... that's the same as 4 AAA title games or a little over half a year of coffee. Save up make a fund. It's worth it even for hobbies.

If not just grab the 30 day trial every month or if you're in Canada grab it for free...


It's worth abstaining from coffee for 200 days.

Perhaps...

I don't really drink much coffee

[Gu Gu Ga Ga Nim]

If you eat out that can also help, or not grabbing alcohol. Anything non essential... It's a hobby so it's a big treat and the more you wait the better it will be.

[僕の名前 (仮)]

Marvelous Designer - 430 *up to 50 percent holiday sales, 10 percent trial end discount = 60% off
210 Dollars... that's the same as 4 AAA title games or a little over half a year of coffee. Save up make a fund. It's worth it even for hobbies.

Or 8 AAA games if you buy with -50% discount on same sale.