From ASGVIS to CHAOS GROUP FORUMS

INTRODUCTION

As we all know there is no more ASGVIS' ASGVIS forums because of the merger with Chaos Group. Many of us were left wondering what happened to the ASGVIS' ASGVIS forums. Well! The tedious migration process is completed and everything is getting back to normal now based on what I have experienced so far.

However, if you visited the new Chaos Group site and forums, you might be having some difficulty on figuring out how the migration of your account works. I did! I am doing this tutorial to help you avoid  the same confusion I had and to help you navigate the site better.

- Here is the big picture that shows you the different steps. I will explain them in detail using different screen grabs.


THE BIG PICTURE



Imagine the place "Here You Are" as the main lobby when you go to www.chaosgroup.com. The question is what do you want to do? Do you want to go to Forum, to the download resources section or do you want to register your V-Ray for SketchUp license? Well once you have decided what to do, you need to consider the different sections as  separate rooms; you cannot enter these rooms without registering though. You need to register to these rooms one at a time. So do not assume (like me) that once you had registered, then you can access all the other rooms by using the same username. You have to register to these different sections separately. That is the whole picture! I hope the image above will help you visualize what I am talking about.  Next, I will give you the detailed step by step process through a series of screen grabs.

THE MAIN PAGE:

Once you entered www.chaosgroup.com, you will be in the main page of Chaos Group website . I will call it "Here You Are place", the main lobby of the site. You can do a lot of things here, but I will only focus ontwo parts: Part 1 - Registering to the download Section and Part 2 - Registering to the Forum Section (see image below).



PART 1 : REGISTERING TO THE CHAOS GROUP WEBSITE (in order to access the download section)

If you opted to do Part 1 and clicked register, then you will have this registration form (see image below). You need to fill in the boxes and click register. Next an email will be sent to you and you need to confirm the registration. That is for the Part 1.



DOWNLOAD SECTION SCREEN GRABS

V-Ray SketchUp Tutorial page




V-Ray Rhino Tutorial page



DOWNLOAD PRIVILEGES

Once you have registered in the Chaos Group Site, you can download all the V-Ray trial versions. You will able to see also the different tutorials. One thing to remember, not everyone can access the VISMAT section because of the Rhino and V-Ray SketchUp Migration policy. The privilege to download the VISMAT files was only reserved to the customers who registered their license V-Ray software. I will attempt to show you Part 3, how to register the V-Ray License, after the Part 2 of this three part tutorial.

PART 2 : REGISTERING TO THE CHAOS GROUP FORUMS
This part is divided into 2 sub-sections; registration or signing up to the Chaos Group Forums, and Different steps for those users of the old ASGVIS Forums who wanted to retain their old postings.

Section 1: Signing up for Chaos Group Forum
Look up at the navigation or page bars and click "Forum". Once you clicked Forum, you will have the below image. Enter all the necessary information and click register. Once you are done, a confirmation will be sent to the email you provided. Open your email and click the link provided in the email. That's it.



Section 2: Old ASGVIS users who wanted to retain their postings and Sign up at the Chaos Group Forum

If you are an old ASGVIS forum user and you want to maintain and access the old postings like me, I want to share to you on how I did it. You have to realize that all your postings, personal messages at the old ASGVIS forum were migrated to Chaos Group Forums. Your username will have an additional underscore ( _ ) +cg. For example mine was nomeradona. My Chaos Group Forum username became nomeradona_cg.  The problem is you can't access this username. If you want to use this username, here is what I did.


Step 1. Migration Policy
Read the migration policy carefully. In this policy there is a detail explanation of the Policy for V-Ray Rhino and SketchUp users for both Chaos Group Website and Forums.(See image below)

Step 2: Reset Password
In the image above, click "Forgotten Password". Once you clicked "Forgotten Password", the screengrab below will appear. Enter the same email you are using with the old ASGVIS, then click the button "Request Username/Password New".

Note: If you have forgotten your email address, then request the Chaos group support (support@chaosgroup.com) to give you the email address that you use on the ASGVIS forums before. Or check your email and look for Chaos group notification. I am sure this is the same email address you used at ASGVIS before.

Once you requested to reset your password, you will receive an email from ChaosGroup. In this email there is a bit warning, but that is normal. Follow the link provided and enter your new password. Once done, you can now access all your old postings using the username with "_cg" provided by ChaosGroup Forum. If you read the "Migration Policy", you will see all the different privileges for registered users, beta users and customers. Regardless of the policy, anyone can still read and write on the Public Forums.

Here is a screen grab of the Forum section. I like the new layout; it is very wide, simple and clean. The attached images have little thumbnails below the post thread. If you click the thumbnail, the actual size of the image will pop-out. I encourage you to play around on different stuff here to be familiarize with the interface. (Forum screen grab below).

PART 3 : REGISTERING YOUR V-RAY LICENSE
If you have a valid V-Ray license number, you can have the full access to the VISMAT materials and all the "write" privileges to the Chaos Group Forums.You need to register again separately. 

Step 1: Accessing the Register Form
As I have said, once you have registered to the ChaosGroup website you can access the downloads section, except the VISMATS section. If you attempted to click VISMAT, the image below will appear. If you have a valid V-RAY Rhino or V-Ray SketchUp license, then you have to register to access the VISMAT Materials.Click FORM.

Note: If you have not registered to the Forum, you need to do so, because in the registration, you need to enter your Forum username. If you have not registered to the Chaos group Forum, click Forum.  

Step 2: License Serial Number Registration Form

Enter all the information on the given fields. Enter your forum username and your valid license number. When  entering a valid license number, the box will turn to green. Once done, Chaos group will send you a confirmation message. An notification email will be also sent within 24 hours.Once the notification  confirmation was sent, you can start downloading the VISMAT materials.

Note: You will need your valid V-Ray for SketchUp serial number. Your serial number is required to for proof of your purchase. If you cannot locate your serial number you may have to request it from the company you purchased your license from. If you purchased directly from ASGVIS you can try to email support@chaosgroup.com to request your serial number.
 

A screen grab showing the V-Ray materials for Rhino and SketchUp



I hope you find this tutorial useful and informative.


Nomeradona