Hello Awesome People!
Today's announcement is a big one :D . And by big we mean important (though it is certainly also long). We trust most of it is good news :D.
Here are the headlines:
- Next week FaceRig (Classic and Pro) are entering the final stretch before version 1.0. (That means that the Beta discount will also end soon! If you have friends that were waiting until the last possible moment to purchase it at a discount give them a heads-up, as it probably be sooner than the 1'st of March :)).
- Upcoming relaxed EULA restrictions in regard to monetization and content ownership (you will be able to do more with the low cost versions of FaceRig)
- New content for Valentines makes its way to the main branch.
- The feedback provided to us in the latest user poll was excellent: here is how we are applying it to our development process (ties in with the ground-work for upcoming hands support, FaceRig Studio and branching off to new platforms).
FaceRig Final Stretch Before 1.0
Next week we will make public the FaceRig Build with the new, friendlier UI, built using the CoherentUI SDK. The new UI was one of the features that we deemed mandatory for version 1.0. This build will also mark the moment when we temporarily pause adding new program features, and focus on bug-fixing only until the program is considered ready to be officially called 1.0. (After that, we will resume adding new features for 1.1, 1.2 and so on :D).
During this "Final Stretch/ Feature Freeze" bug fixing phase we will poll you awesome people for bug-specific feedback until we get the feeling that all the most upsetting bugs are done for, and that FaceRig is ready to be called 1.0.
To mark this "Feature Freeze" period, we are also strongly considering switching program status from the more confusing "Pre-order with granted Beta access" status that we currently are in (and that does confuse the heck out of some folks) to "Early Access" status. (Early Access status on Steam has just become an option for software, while before, in 2014, it was only possible for Games).
We know that "Early Access" status for games has for some of you a bit of a stigma, but we need it a bit, to mark the final stretch of bug fixing to 1.0, and for the flexibility it gives us to plan for things like a free weekend prior to the launch (we are negotiating this with our tech partners, to serve as a form of demo, once almost all bugs are done for).
If this bug-fixing period takes three days, three weeks or three months will be decided mostly by your feedback: when most of you will tell us that you feel the program is bug-free enough to be called 1.0, it will be called 1.0. We don't have to rush it, but we don't want to stay in this status too long, because there are new exciting features that we are aching to add :D
Upcoming relaxed EULA restrictions for monetization
We've had a few talks with our tech partners, (and also internally) and we have agreed to relax a few important restrictions that applied to the methods of making money with the generated FaceRig content, as follows:
- Content created by users with FaceRig Pro will no longer be governed by Creative Commons, unless you want it to (as this did not sit well with some of the content creators that did not want to upgrade to Studio, but still did not want to relinquish copyright control over their video creations built with FaceRig). All other limitations regarding direct sales and such remain in place (you'll still need the upcoming Studio if you want to sell videos created with FaceRig).
- Content created with the entry-level FaceRig Classic will be able to be monetized online on YouTube and Twitch and similar sites, provided that the revenue earned by their creator from those sources is under a certain monthly threshold. If the revenue grows above that threshold in time, you'll simply have to upgrade to Pro. This is a helping hand to start-up content creators and hobbyists who do not yet make enough money from streaming to pay back for the tools they use to entertain the audience.
Details about the above, and the exact date when this new EULA will go live depends on the legal people :). (Though ideally it will be before March).
New content for Valentine's Day makes its way to the main branch.
We have updated the main branch with the Valentine's Day new free content. It also comes with a few bug fixes (more about that can be found on the Change log thread from the steam forum). Yes Fifi is Fluffo's girlfriend :) .
This is (hopefully) the very last build update that will feature the old, engineering-sample flavored interface. It has served us well during development, but it is finally time to move on to thumbnail based avatar selector and other such goodies starting with next week :D.
The feedback from the latest user poll
Thank you so much for the overwhelmingly positive response to the poll :).
Here is what we have gathered:
a. A bit more than half of our users don't really care if we call the program, Beta or 1.0, as long as we keep working on it. From the remaining users though, most (~30%) think we should not call it 1.0 just yet and only 15% think it is ready to be called 1.0 right now.
b.You have told us that the most important area for us to focus on right now is bug fixing (in the lead by a long shot) , particular face tracking improvements and to track more than just the face (others too, but these were top 3) . As a consequence :
- we are switching now to feature freeze / bug fixing mode and
- we have a few new additions to our team that focus on hand tracking and supporting new depth-based sensors (we will have more news about that early in March) .
- We have also relayed your desire for better tracking to our face-tracking technology partners (we will integrate new versions of the Visage tracker immediately as they are made available).
c. More free avatars/props content in general :). We're working on that as fast as we can :D.
d. There were a few of you (less than 3%) inquiring about new platforms.
We are looking to add in March new members to our team to lay the groundwork for new platforms, but we cannot give you a hard release date. However at this point we are confident that we have the needed resources to polish the PC version (including the upcoming Studio version), and thus starting up the effort on the new platforms in parallel is no longer a danger or a delay for the PC version.
That's about it :). Let us know your opinion on the above either here in the comments, on the forum or via email at info[at]facerig[dot]com .
Regards,
The FaceRig Team