General
Are communications secured ?
Yes, the Tchat Addon uses HTTPS connexion with SSL encryption, meaning all the communications between your machine, and the server, are encrypted and cannot be stollen on their way.
That said, the server is not 100% free of any bug or attacks. That's why I would advice not to share confidential or sensible data using this tool. As said in the GPL Licence Blocks :
"This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY"
Are you saving my password on the server ?
No. Authentification is done using SHA256 hash.
It means, let's say your password is "HelloKitty" (which is not very safe, by the way), the password will be transformed in a complex string like "5c561176cd17c42d96599b3dfc796a71e84293b608801581482aa08bcc9bcbad" which is called a hash, and saved that way.
The next time you log in, you type again "HelloKitty", the same long string is generated, and authentification is done dealing with these strings. The interesting thing is the fact that this hash generation cannot be done backward.
It means that if for some reasons the server is hacked, the hacker would not access passwords, but only their complex hash. Let's say it's also your Facebook password, it would be no use for the Hacker. It's a way of adding security for (bad) people who use the same password everywhere. That said, you should never use the same password on different websites and services.
Is chatting using a lot of internet data ?
Not at all. Requests are very light. In addition, the Blender Tchat Client is using "long pooling" on the server, which means, it makes an update request, and the HTTPS connection is left open until a new message arrives, and the server responds at that moment. It means it should not cost more that one HTTPS request per message, which is very light.
Profile pictures are sent only one time, and saved localy.
Contact / Issues / Bug Reports / Suggestions
If you enconter any problem don't hesitate to join the Facebook Blender Tchat Group for issues, bug reports, suggestions, etc
You can also contact me at contact@mailing.tricotools.com
Blender
Blender is Open Source, why should I pay for a premium subscription ?
Indeed Blender is free, but developping Blender is not free. Developpers at Blender Foundation are paid thanks to donations. Paying for this addon is a way of doing a donation. Chat and file sharing are free under a limited usage, but are still costly for the developper. In addition, the more users, the more data stored online, the more I'll be charged. Thank's a lot for your help !
Houdini
What does this addon brings to Houdini ?
In addition to direct messaging inside Houdini, the best usage of this addon is to Drag & Drop Nodes over the network. At sending node, it's like "copy pasting" a node from a location to another, but over the air. Every nodes are sent with right params and connexions. Even groups or labels can be sent. On the other side the user can download them and then directly paste them into his network
We are a studio but we are concerned by security and privacy
I understand. If you are interested by this addon, we can agree on a price for having your own server locally running at home for your employees. You would have infinite file sharing (no limits) and would garanty security and privacy. Contact me at contact@mailing.tricotools.com
Who are you ?
Hi, my name is Enguerrand Quilliard, and I live in France next to Grenoble. I work as a Research Engineer for Driving Simulation & Artificial Intelligence.
Two of my passions are coding, and 3D modeling. Here is an addon for merging both...
Enjoy !