Important Message

Brendon Pywell

Bob's Track Builder
Future Development

The past year has seen me work pretty much full time on BTB with a couple of side projects helping fund BTB development. That has meant between 12-16 hours every day with very few days off.

Whilst I have enjoyed indulging myself in BTB development and have added a lot of good features, continuing in this manner is not financially possible. Sales haven’t been anywhere near what is needed to sustain this rate of development.

My kids are growing older and naturally more demanding, the wife wants an occasional holiday and it would be irresponsible of me (and impossible) to continue solely on BTB income. A recent offer to join one of the leading game development teams at what they call "good income" still is a financial step backwards compared to what had been my regular job.

So, somewhat sadly, having given a lot to track building (very willingly of course) it is now time to devote more of my life to my family and to other areas of my life in order to live a more balanced existence.

Henceforth I am back into the regular development world and BTB development will continue at a more relaxed pace.

Licenses

Licenses are generated for a CPU and Motherboard.
I have had a few users request for licenses to be reset because they have had hardware failures. On occasion I get someone asking for a second license for another of their own machines, and after I reject their request, they later cite they hardware failure as a reason.

Given that I have no way of determining if a request for a new license after hardware failure is genuine or not; nor do I have any control over how well a user looks after their hardware; I have decided to reject all such requests. If your hardware fails, you will need to wait for your existing license to expire, then generate a HardwareId.txt file and upload it in order for a new license to be generated.

I will be resetting all licenses with v0.9 so if you are currently locked out because of hardware failure, you will be able to generate a new license again soon. If you wish to help test the Beta, then that will be even sooner.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Windows XP is listed as a requirement for BTB.

More people are moving to Windows 7 and hence are asking for me to reset their licenses so that they can run under the new operating system.
I still do not have either operating system and will refuse to assist anyone attempting to run BTB on anything other than Windows XP running on a PC.

The version 0.9 release does contain some updates to the 3rd-party HardwareId generation application so it will be more stable when generating the HardwareId number. This might help some users where the HardwareId number changes upon reboot or where removable drives are causing fluctuations.

Emails

Ironically, despite the lack of sales, I get many emails a day asking for free BTB/Track building help. This is something which I cannot personally answer in any kind of satisfactory detail. Please continue to use these forums as a primary resource of assistance.

And as usual ... please read the sticky threads. I do intend on updating these over time and the tutorial videos too, but I can't give a date on when that might happen.

Thanks,
Brendon.
 
Read this as a fair critique, not as someone who is froth-mouth-ranting.

Currently I feel the pricing is fair, even if I don't fully understand what you get/the whole license thing. If you want to donate more to Piddy, I'm sure he'd appreciate it, and that could be arranged. I think we'd all like to see him succeed and be able to live a healthy fulfilling life doing something he enjoys. BUT, I don't see how there is ANY sustainability in income from BTB. It's a niche market to start with, to scale that market down not everyone is interested in creating tracks. At some point everyone that wants to will own BTB.

Generally I feel hardware dependent licenses are nothing but greedy. If I have a laptop, and a desktop, why shouldn't I be able to use both to work on Software I paid for? I always thought as long as the both programs aren't in operation at the same time you are fine. To me people are up in arms about licensing because it was never clearly defined what you were paying for. At the time I purchased I got 3 licenses I thought to do what I want with. No confusing lock you out of your own software time limits to deal with. I did see my licenses whither away and be reset with minor updates-not ever sure why since it was apparent that the software was not finished. The licensing has changed so many times I don't know what is going on anymore. All I know is that I paid for BTB. I'd be really mad if I couldn't use it. I'd feel downright cheated. I understand the need to protect against piracy. I just think there is a better way to go about handling licenses that doesn't interfere with a legitimate purchaser's ability to use the product.
 
I see people getting concerned about on going payments when it is not even an issue. It was a suggestion someone made, Piddy said nothing about it, I see no need to get upset over something that doesn't exist. Its a case of "the sky is falling down"

http://www.bobstrackbuilder.com/purchase/purchase_btbpro.aspx
I am working on Bob's Track Builder Pro expanding the features and making the existing ones even easier to use. If you buy today consider as a pre-purchase for the new versions as they become available.

The once-only purchase will give you all updates for free as I plan to release new features every few months.
nuf said. :glasses-nerdy:
 
Well Piddy you are a nice man is all I can say, thank you for this wonderful product for such a cheap price considering all that is possible. I am suprised you lived off BTB the past year but anything is possible. I agree however that rfactor and such sims would be lucky to have you on their staffs.
 
There is no sky. How can it fall? Who is upset?
I see a discussion with people expressing their personal opinions. Isn't that what forums are for? At the very least Piddy can look at the suggestion, and get feedback for how his consumers would react. Without negatively expressed opinion about the suggestion there is a higher chance of being implemented.
 
I think the model (Brendon BTB income versus niche users) might work but it would cost more than now. If we pay 100.00 for yearly licence and there is 1000 users. This can give yearly income of 100 thousand. Not cherry picking but a nice income to support family. Not sure how many guys are using the program though, but with branching to different platforms/racing games or other games, needing map building tools, it might be possible. Who knows how much income Brendon needs to work only for BTB and us, maybe 50 thousand, this could be even easier to achieve.
It might work or not, probably not very well at the beginning. Building a new business and business model, is never easy.

It really sucks that we lost full devotion of Brendon for BTB and our racing community.

PS. Davesta, I'm sure that if Brendon made pretty money, he would have rewarded some poor students with free licence, if asked nicely. :)
 
  • Andrew Evans

btb is a great app... but i totally wouldn't pay a regular top-up for new features... it'd be like an MMO without any character development :becky:

my personal big issue is the licensing system... i purposely took a 4 month licence, thinking there's no way i'll need a new machine before that... but play it safe...

predictably, machine died... and i've got to wait until mid-january for a new licence.... i've never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life... i'm not allowed to use the software that i paid for...? piddys sitting on my cash and i'm left with nothing.... it's like a time-share scheme gone bad...
 
In the meantime you (and I too) are writing about the future of BTB and the behaviour of Brendon (and we are looking for a solution that gives both the opportunity to have new wonderfull features - users - and a better income - Brendon), I would only remind all that several people are still waiting for an answer by Brendon about the procedure to have BTB' license working after having changed the Operating System... and the way Brendon choose to (not) answer sounds not well mannered...
 
For license / operating system issues I suggest people read the first post in this thread again and perhaps the sticky in this forum. v0.9 will probably go some ways to helping the situation, however given that I do not own Windows 7 I have no means of testing BTB or the license system under it and hence no way to support it. That goes for Vista, Mac's running Windows and any other type of emulation software that might be able to run BTB. The requirements have been stated in several places quite clearly that BTB requires Windows XP.

As for the pricing, mianiak is spot on. I have never charged for any BTB update and this is not about to change.
 
Thanks Brendon for answer and excuse me for stoling time to you. But my question is not IF BTB WORKS OR NOT UNDER OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS!

I used Vista 64 for more than one year and BTB WORKS VERY WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT ALSO WORKS VERY WELL UNDER SEVEN 64!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm actually using BTB at this moment under Seven 64 bit, but I found that the HardwareID.txt changed from the previous one after I changed from Vista to Seven ON THE SAME MACHINE AND WITH THE SAME HARDWARE.

So my question is really easy...:
1. due to the change of the hardwareID, is it correct thinking that I'm using BTB as a 30 days trial version?

2. or is the version that I bought and I'm still using covered by the license, also if the HarwareID.txt has different codes from the previous one?

If the true answer is the first point, well, I (and persons in the same conditions) need to receive a "new" license code before the natural expiration of the current one, otherwise we can no longer use BTB!

I hope you can clear my doubts, that are not about the OS and BTB... many many thanks!!!
 
I will be resetting all licenses with v0.9 so if you are currently locked out because of hardware failure, you will be able to generate a new license again soon. If you wish to help test the Beta, then that will be even sooner.
Licensing has been effectively handed over to the user to manage.
After the licenses are reset with version 0.9 can I suggest that you don't set your license for longer than 2 months.
This is what I do.
This way in a worst case scenario you may have to wait 2 months for a new license.
Renewing the license is a fairly quick process (under 1 hour) from my experience.
 
Hi,

I think as Eric said, all those who are not under XP and I use that will take a license with the shortest time possible. In turn, this will be even more time lost to Brendon was handling requests that are closer in time.
I remain convinced that there must be a better solution to protect their work without inconveniencing users.
Finally, since it must live with his time, pray that Father Christmas brings a beautiful Brendon Seven in his sock. XP has had its day but Seven is far from what the crap Vista.

@ +
 
Would it be possible to make a license last for a shorter period of time, say, a month? Because if the licenseing system isn't very reliable on Vista/7, I would feel much more comfortable knowing that if it goes wrong, I only have to wait for what's left of the month.

I'm sure that activating licenses is not too much of a problem so as to make this unfeasable.
 
For license / operating system issues I suggest people read the first post in this thread again and perhaps the sticky in this forum. v0.9 will probably go some ways to helping the situation, .

OMG

i paid your software 1week ago, this Weekend my motherboard had a crash.
I sent you 3 mails since saturday, you don't answer. I have to come here to see why you don't give me an explanation.

Do you think that is normal ?
Do you think that is normal to not explain your rules clearly on your website ?

Moreover, if you know how too use well your protect system, you'll be able to verify if all the computer change or just one element.

I advice you to change your point of view fastly.

And to all people who don't have BTB yet : be sure that you have a very good computer :embarrassed: and if you want upgrade it, be sure that Brendon is ok with that ! All users of BTB have to wait the end of their license to fix or upgrade their computers, and apparently this is normal for him :th_wink:
 
It seems to me that the vast majority here seem to feel that the software itself is excellent, a view I share by the way, and that the licensing is just fine, right up until the point you find yourself locked out of it, for a possibly lengthy period of time. Again, I agree.


However, having spent twenty years of my life as a commercial software developer I also strongly sympathise with Brendon's position; of course he has to protect his software!


Rather than an endless debate about the merits of the licensing model, perhaps we should divert our attention to possible alternatives that would benefit us as users, and Brendon as the developer, while bearing in mind that any change made to the licensing will take extra development time from the software we all clearly love to use!


Of course I don't know how Brendon would feel about such a discussion; I know that changing licensing can be a real pain and often a considerable amount of work to boot, so Brendon, please excuse me if I'm raking up a can of worms you'd rather leave alone, Id just rather see some constructive ideas instead of a debate about the current system of licensing.


MVK
 
HI,

Fanlebowski, you still have another license, cause we have 2.

I do think, BTB is the best tool for making sim tracks, allthought piddy in several times, does not take care about our suggestions, and he makes some changes that i dont understand. I think there are some bugs, that piddy doesnt mind, maybe he is too busy, his family and so on..., I understand him, but anyway it the best tool, and I give him thanks for it.

License?, I m not very happy with his way of doing, but if he develops the program as fast as he was doing until now, is not a big problem because licenses are reset in each version, buut if you spend the 2, like me, i dont know how, but I set my second one until December 2010, lol !!!, and my notebook crashes, lol!! I will be very very very upset,

REgards
 
I just did a bit of searching on Google and found something related to another program which also uses a hardware ID.

The page I found is only marginally relevant, but here is the link for anyone interested: http://www.satsignal.eu/software/fingerprints.htm

Based on the link, perhaps HID.exe should be run in Administrator mode, and maybe BTB should be too. Of course that won't be much help to someone with a 6 month license with 5 months 27 days to go, so I have a suggestion for Brendon:

Allow a 2 or 3 day license so that people can work out if there is a set of conditions under which the license system works with Vista or 7, without having to wait too long for their next attempt.
 
@ Maxvk :

i don't ask Brendon to give his software for free ;)

How a new user of BTB learn the rules about licences :
before paid he can read :
"purchase a Single User, Single Machine license for Bob's Track Builder you must be registered to this website. Payment is performed via PayPal so you will be redirected there to enter your details."

Single machine doesn't mean this machine can't change until the death. This is not clear.

After make the donation on paypal :
"Purchasing a Single User License entitles you to run Bobs Track Builder on one PC. The license will be created specifically for your Motherboard and CPU and will be valid for the number of months that you specify when submitting the HardwareId.txt file."

Ok, now i agree, the explanation is more precise, but we have already paid and moreover, i still don't see "you can't change one part of your computer".

And so after 4 days without answer of Brendon, you can find this topic (i didn't find the link for this forum on his website by the way) :
"If your hardware fails, you will need to wait for your existing license to expire, then generate a HardwareId.txt file and upload it in order for a new license to be generated."

Ahh ! now i understand well. This sentence MUST be on his website before buy the software.

Personnaly i have never seen a software lock on one machine and can't be upgrade if this one change. If Adobe, Microsoft or other big compagnie do this, everybody will say that is scandalous.

For example, 3dsimed use the same type of protection. Personnaly i don't know anyone who have the versions 2.0 or more without paid !

@Alvaz :
" HI,

Fanlebowski, you still have another license, cause we have 2."

i don't understand what you mean ? :struggle: i had one licence and now the website is locked for this part. I have to wait my licence expire, i don't see another licence anywere ? can you explain me more ? ;)

bye
 
HI,

Fanlebowski, I m BTB pro user, go to bobs web site, login and go to the license tab, which is on rigtht, there you have data about your licenses, btb users have 2 licenses.

REgards

PD, yeaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! i ve realized that my licenses expire in 2010 january not in december!!!, what a mesh with english spanish date wirtting, this is like finding money!!!!!!!!
 

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