Z brush upgrade question

Cglewis

Im looking into buying zbrush for home use, i know they come out with updates and you can get those for free with in a certain time frame...or version number.

so my question is if i buy 4r7 the last 4. version will i be sol when 5. comes out is it just better to wait till 5. comes out?

i cant find anywhere on the web site where it implicitly says yes or no to this question

although on the website it says any user with a copy of zbrush may upgrade to 4r7 for free....makes me think i would be ok with buying 4r7 and i would get free updates.

but i would really love to hear yalls input on this.



seems like the upgrade policy is free upgrades...idk what my coworkers where talking about ahah but if you guys could verify this it would be awesome ahha

James Edwards

Upgrades have been free since version 1 - released over 10 years ago. At some point pixologic will charge for an upgrade. I'd bet money this time the next full version will be a paid upgrade. When that will be I couldn't say. This is the risk you run with buying any software though, zbrush being the only exception so far. I thought 4 would surely be a paid upgrade after using the software for so long but I was wrong then, I could be wrong again.

Zack Maxwell

Pretty sure they said you have to pay an upgrade fee to go from 4 to 5, but 4.7 just came out, so it will probably be at least a year before five is even released.

MagicSugar

If Pixologic start charging for upgrades I don't think it will cost more than it's nearest competitor Mudbox (about $500 perpetual, $10/month rental).

I think they'll still offer a free version and maybe have a bundle (two-way Modo bridge?) to sell.

Count Vertsalot

I wouldn't worry about it considering Zbrush 5 is probably over a year or more away. Pixologic has long development cycles. At any rate, they'll probably offer upgrade pricing if they do charge for it, so you won't have to pay full price again.

Cglewis

Thank you guys for all the feed back, i really appreciate it!
i ended up pulling the trigger and getting zbrush
and I'm pretty excited about using it haha!

pmiller001

grats! have fun, zbrush ia an exciting and amazing tool, i'm sure you'll have a great time.

MmAaXx

I bought my copy when the 3.1 was released, even I have to pay 300bucks for an update to zbrush5, it is ok to me, I love pixologic and what they doing for the industry.

Equanim

Even if you have to pay for an upgrade, it almost certainly wouldn't be anything near full price. Speculating based on watching how much the 3D community talks about Zbrush compared to it's competitors, and how Pixologic has stayed afloat with new sales alone, their market penetration must be like 90%. If they charged $20 for the upgrade, it would generate a massive amount of revenue. Considering the features added in r4 (dynamesh etc.) it'll be worth tossing them a little money for their effort.