Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Advice and workarounds on how to make the Muvizu moviemaking process easier for yourself!
User avatar
Doc
Site Admin
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:53 am
Location: UK

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by Doc »

timnixon wrote:
Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:02 pm
Thanks for all the great information.
Like many others I started with the older 2013 version of muvizu, and like so-many others I did not purchase a license (although I should have and probably would now).
Muvizu was a terrific tool for those of us who wanted to create simple character driven animations and it still has a big following and could be very useful for kids and adults.
It would be terrific if there was a way to
- purchase a license OR
- enable the licensed features

I realize there is a legal "no-mans land" that is dangerous to enter when it comes to "abandon-ware" and obviously Muvizu is not yet abandoned. I just hope the new owners of the code realize that it is a product people are interested in

I wonder if the 'administrators' (I assume you refer to financial people handling liquidation) could be contacted?

Tim Nixon, NJ USA
It's a waiting game at the moment. I like to think the new owners know what they're buying and how popular it is.
You could try contacting the administrators but I doubt they'll respond.
Here's their official statement from April:
Lee Antony Manning and Michael John Magnay were appointed Joint Administrators of Digimania Limited (“the Company”) on 18 April 2017. The affairs, business and property of the Company are managed by the Joint Administrators. The Joint Administrators act as agents of the Company and contract without personal liability.

As a consequence of the Joint Administrators appointment, the Company has ceased to trade with effect from 18 April 2017. The Joint Administrators are currently exploring the potential sale of all or certain parts of the Company’s business and assets. Please note that the Company is unable to continue to provide ongoing technical support to customers for any of its products including Muvizu, Voxelise and Minimaker.

Whilst the Joint Administrators explore potential options for a sale of the business, download of the Company’s applications will temporarily be suspended. Free trial downloads will continue to be available to customers until further notice is provided.

Partners and Directors acting as receivers and administrators contract without personal liability. Unless otherwise shown, all appointment taking Partners and Directors are authorised by The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. All licensed insolvency practitioners of Deloitte LLP are licensed in the UK to act as insolvency practitioners.

Deloitte LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC303675 and its registered office at 2 New Street Square, London EC4A 3BZ, United Kingdom.

Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), a UK private company limited by guarantee, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.

User avatar
mrhevor
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun May 27, 2018 8:05 am

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by mrhevor »

Hi guys, thank you for all informations, I've followed all instructions but I've always problems trying to activate this product.
Few information about my situation:
- Today we have this situation : is the 27 of May, 2018 and Muvizu Play server seems off, there is no way to enable regular licenses using their servers.
- I've 4 versions about Muvizu installation files:
-- 2013 (without play+)
-- 2015 (the same used when I've bought my license)
-- 2017 Anizu downloadable license required version
-- 2018 Pro version
- I've maded all my tries using 2017 version.
- I've bought a regular muvizu play + so I've a key
- I've the same computer, the same ethernet port so the same mac address used the first time I've successfully activate muvizu
- I've forgot to backup Licence folder and the relative playplus.lic, so I've not this file.

I've tried to create this file according with suggestions inside this thread:

FEATURE playplus
{
VENDOR=DigimaniaLtd VERSION=1.0 START=2015-07-15 SHARE=VIRTUAL LICENSEE="<my name my surname>"
COMMENT="Autogenerated Licence"
KEY=<I've copy and paste my play+ key here>
}

What I've now is : C:\Program Files\Muvizu Play\MuvizuGame\Licence\playplus.lic

The persistent.log say:

LicenceManager.Create start
LicenceManager.InitLicenceSystem start
LicenceManager.InitLicenceSystem finish
LicenceManager.EvaluateLicenceFile start
LicenceManager.EvaluateLicenceFile finish 0
LicenceManager.Create finish True

Nothing to do, and If I tried to activate my code obviusly the remote muvizu server answers with the error W3.
I've also writed to the muvizu assistence and they answered me after few days speaking about my regular license but they cannot work with it because there is a sort of migration to Muvizu Pro and if I want I can buy the pro version..

Can someone help me?
I've bought Muvizu Play + in 2015, I could think to buy the currently Pro version only if the Muvizu servers are active also with play+..

User avatar
Doc
Site Admin
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:53 am
Location: UK

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by Doc »

@mrhevor, welcome to Anizu :)

I like your line of thinking, but it's a bit of a dead end unfortunately. The codes in the playplus.lic file are unique, generated by the Muvizu licence manager when your code is checked by the server (which is the missing link as you've correctly identified). This code incorporates your MAC address in some way but we aren't sure how yet.

You have reminded me of a possible route to activating a stable version of Muvizu. First you would need to buy and activate Meshmellow's version of Muvizu Pro (which is a modded version of January 2017 if I recall correctly.). Then you would locate the generated playplus.lic file and move it to the April 2017 version (hosted on this site). I believe people had success with this method in the past, but that was around 6 months ago (and it involves you paying for a new licence).

Not_Coen
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2018 10:39 am

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by Not_Coen »

mrhevor wrote:
Sun May 27, 2018 8:18 am
27 of May, 2018 and Muvizu Play server seems off
Aye, aye ... is meshmellow offline again?
I was aiming to try installing Muvizu Pro on a new computer in about a week when I collect it, but I won't be risking it if meshmellow are up to their old tricks (or incompetences) again.

User avatar
Doc
Site Admin
Posts: 318
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:53 am
Location: UK

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by Doc »

Not_Coen wrote:
Sun May 27, 2018 4:33 pm
mrhevor wrote:
Sun May 27, 2018 8:18 am
27 of May, 2018 and Muvizu Play server seems off
Aye, aye ... is meshmellow offline again?
I was aiming to try installing Muvizu Pro on a new computer in about a week when I collect it, but I won't be risking it if meshmellow are up to their old tricks (or incompetences) again.
The old licencing system within Muvizu will throw error W3 since the server is online but not set up correctly. I can't speak for their proprietary licencing system - I assume that one is working for now.

User avatar
mrhevor
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun May 27, 2018 8:05 am

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by mrhevor »

@Doc Thank you for this information, it's crucial for my tries, so the file contains a unique code probably generated due to a combination between the string license and the MAC address. Good to know because it's not clear when I was reading the old posts. Currently I know there are some troubles selling the official Muvizu Pro through Amazon (reachable @ this link https://www.amazon.com/Digimania-Ltd-Mu ... B01KVE2ZDY) . Honestly, I prefer to await for an official declarations about Muvizu server health instead of trying to buy a "defected" product.
I've bought Muvizu Play + in 2015, I could think to buy the currently Pro version only if the Muvizu servers are active also with play+..

User avatar
mrhevor
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun May 27, 2018 8:05 am

Re: Keeping Muvizu alive

Post by mrhevor »

During my tries I've discovered that Muvizu error W1 could be related to "wrong serial key", in fact if you change for example the last letter of your key and your serial key is still always good for sending (green V icon) you should obtain the W1 error from the server. This experiment should be obvius but I've never reading something like it about W1 error then I've decide to report it anyway.
I've bought Muvizu Play + in 2015, I could think to buy the currently Pro version only if the Muvizu servers are active also with play+..