The 8.5 update has removed the offline function from the content manager
If you set up a rule in firewall to block CC or IC8 from making outgoing connections, and you load an asset half the time a water mark is slapped on screen, and you get a licence failure due to internet error. you can cancel the error message but the watermark remains.
If you try to render you get an error message stating that the project contains trial content, clicking the (View Unpurchased Items) the message bar tells you that (No unpurchased items exist in this project) which is a blatant contradiction, then slaps a water mark on the rendered output.
CC and Iclone are desktop apps that run locally, and don't need to connect to reallusion every time, EVERY TIME being the issue
whether on propose or not Reallusion has set up a user tracking system that requires users to report to the reallusion servers EVERY TIME the programs are used. and if a user tries to enforce their privacy rights by blocking the defacto tracking, reallusion restricts the functionality of the programs. and generates error messages and pop-ups that contradict each other
Without the online connection assets I own are being flagged as unpurchased and or require updating erroneously. then water marked
just in case I re read the release notes for both CC and IC neither mention the removal of the offline function, and I wouldn't have updated if it had
Just to pre-empt the (helpful user experience argument) users have the right to privacy and the right to opt out of processes that can infringe, Reallusion has effectively removed that right.
The European union has already forced Microsoft and Apple to change their intrusive policies, and I'm quite sure that Reallusion could end up being forced to change as well, or potentially lose a large market. Bearing in mind that the US population is 330 million, while the EU has 450 million
Or Reallusion could just do the right thing and stop invading users privacy.