PopcornFX
Support Information

(updated on 2021/01/12)

Comparison of Support plans (for 1 year)

BasicExtendedPremium
Maximum Standby Time before answer *5 days3 days2 days
Communication channelsticket system+ mail or chat+ conference + private channel
Initial tickets package **1040unlimited
Queue positionBased on order received Any major or showstopper ticket goes ‘next in line’All tickets go immediately ‘next in line’
Roadmap adjustmentsNot availableDepending on our capacityPrioritized Management
Custom requestsNot availableOpen to discussionHigh consideration
Technical Account Manager***NoNoYes
Pricing (annual)5000€20000€50000€
Additional ticket400€300€0€ (unlimited)
* business days (Monday to Friday)
** additional tickets can be purchased separately, bugfixing does not account for a ticket
*** A Technical Account Manager is a designated single point of contact who works with your organization to ensure that your engagement with our Support Team is consistent and effective. Over time, they become a virtual extension of your team as they are familiarized with your workflows, datasets, applications, and processes. Working together with your Account Manager, the Technical Account Manager advocates on your behalf to the technical experts at PopcornFX.

Support process diagram

support system workflow

1. Introduction

The Support Services consist of providing technical support, advice and/or council by the licensor’s engineers, up to an agreed maximum number of man hours during an agreed period of time, in order to support and maintain the connection between PopcornFX Software and the Designated Software(s), besides assisting in the integration of Popcorn Particle Engine into the Designated Software(s), as further described below.

Licensee’s team may use Support Services to obtain:

• technical support,
• advice about ‘how to’ optimize the use of PopcornFX and its processes;
• consulting regarding creative aspects.

2. Definitions

‘Level’: There are 3 different levels of support. Each level is defined by a number of tickets, a reaction timing and some specific options.

‘Ticket’: a request of support regarding the use or integration of PopcornFX. Each separate request is qualified by the team and may account for 1 ticket. In most cases, a request can be solved with one ticket. One ticket is capped to 90 (ninety) minutes of work. Tickets may be classified by clients as Standard or Urgent.

• ‘Urgent’: means a component or critical feature is down, and as a result no work can be performed
• ‘Standard’: means abnormal or inconsistent behavior, or a software problem that does not prevent work on the software

‘Bug’: an issue on a PopcornFX official feature. Bug fixes are free. A ticket will never be accounted to fix a bug.

‘Effective Date’: date written in license agreement.

‘Licensee’: a company which has acquired a license of PopcornFX.

‘Support Period’: period during which the support is included in the license fee. It can be extended at a cost.

‘Custom Requests’: a feature needed by the Licensee and not available in official versions (public changelogs of each version available on wiki.popcornfx.com, popcornfx.com, support.popcornfx.com). The roadmap for the upcoming official versions is available on request.

3. General

3.1. Persistant Studios will provide support and maintenance with regards to the connection between PopcornFX and the Designated Software(s).

3.2. Support Services will be provided during the first 12 months following the Effective Date.

3.3. Support Services shall be provided during Persistant Studios’ ordinary France office hours (10am-6pm CEST).

3.4. In the event that the Licensee requires Support Services at any time after the expiration of the Support Period, Licensee may purchase an extension of the Support Services.

3.5. Support Services comprise of offsite support provided from Persistant Studios’ offices. In addition, onsite support may be provided on request, at Persistant Studios’ then in force day rate (which is currently €800 per day).  Onsite support includes up to 8 hours between 9am and 6pm. It can start 72 hours after the specific quote approval. Onsite training can start the next business week after specific quote approval.

3.6. Persistant Studios may provide bug fixes and updated releases to the Licensee from time to time as such are customarily provided to licensees of the Software. All bug fixes, updates, and other software provided by Persistant Studios shall be deemed part of the Software and subject to this Agreement.

3.7. Coverage parameters specific to the services covered in this Agreement are as follows:

• Email support: Monitored from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. CEST Monday – Friday.
• Emails received outside of office hours will be collected, however no action can be guaranteed until the next business day.

3.8. Remote assistance will be provided in-line with the above timescales according to the priority of the support request.

3.9. The following Services are covered by this Agreement;

• Monitored email support
• Planned Onsite support (extra costs apply)
• Planned Onsite training (extra costs apply)

4. Support Level 1 – Basic

Price : from 5000€ (yearly)

4.1. To the extent of any conflict between General Support and Support Level 1, Support Level 1 shall take priority.

4.2. Number of tickets : the Licensee can issue up to 10 tickets.

4.3. The Support team will respond to tickets submitted by the Licensee within the following time frames:

• Within 48 hours for issues classified as Urgent priority.
• Within 5 business days for issues classified as Standard priority.

5. Support Level 2 – Extended

Price : from 20000€ (yearly)

5.1. To the extent of any conflict between General Support and Support Level 2, Support Level 2 shall take priority.

5.2. Number of tickets : the Licensee can issue up to 40 tickets

5.3. The Support team will respond to service related incidents and/or requests submitted by the Licensee within the following time frames:

• Within 36 hours for issues classified as Urgent priority.
• Within 3 business days for issues classified as Standard priority.

5.4. The following Services are covered by this Agreement;

• Custom Requests (depending on our availability, see 8.6 for requests qualification)
• Access to priority features

6. Support Level 3 – Premium

Price : from 50000€ (yearly)

6.1. To the extent of any conflict between General Support and Support Level 3, Support Level 3 shall take priority.

6.2. Number of tickets : the Licensee can issue an unlimited number of tickets

6.3. The Support team will respond to tickets submitted by the Licensee within the following time frames:

• Within 24 hours for issues classified as Urgent priority.
• Within 2 business days for issues classified as Standard priority.

6.4. The following Services are covered by this Agreement;

• Custom Requests (high consideration, see 8.6 for requests qualification)
• Access to priority features and premium builds
• Dedicated account manager on Popcorn side
• Access to preview builds including new features, optimizations, upcoming platform support…

7. Responsibilities

7.1. Licensee responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

• Payment for all support costs at the agreed interval.
• Reasonable availability of customer representative(s) when resolving a service related incident or request

7.2. Persistant Studios responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

• Meeting response times associated with service related incidents.
• Appropriate notification to the Licensee for all scheduled maintenance.

7.3. The Licensee may terminate the Maintenance Services and receive a pro-rata refund for the Support Fees paid for a period after the termination date if the Service Provider fails to meet the service levels set out above 3 times in any 30-day period.

8. Support system

8.1. Persistant Studios creates a dedicated and private (visible only to PopcornFX support team and Licensee) support tracker on support.popcornfx.com

8.2. The Licensee can create tickets on its private tracker or on the general public trackers (visible to other Licensees and PopcornFX support team)

8.3. A ticket can have a subject, priority, description, status and ticket type (Bug, Support, Feature). The ticket type is determined by Persistant Studios based on the request type:

• Bug tickets refer to crashes or bug reports
• Support tickets refer to questions regarding the use of PopcornFX Editor, C++ SDK integration or plugins
• Feature tickets refer to custom requests needed by the Licensee and not fulfilled in official PopcornFX versions or the public roadmap

8.4. The PopcornFX Support team can create a public ticket for the original private support request, effectively making the private request part of the official backlog. If the original ticket was a custom request, this means the custom request has been accepted by the PopcornFX Support team and is now part of the public backlog.

8.5. Custom requests which are already scheduled for upcoming PopcornFX versions do not account as tickets.

8.6 The Licensee can ask that a custom request is scheduled for upcoming PopcornFX versions, in which case the custom request counts as two tickets. If the Licensee does not ask to prioritize the request for upcoming PopcornFX versions, the request will be added to PopcornFX backlog and will not account as a ticket.

8.7 Custom requests that are assigned to the PopcornFX backlog are not guaranteed to be assigned to upcoming PopcornFX versions.

8.8 Upcoming PopcornFX versions are the next two scheduled minor versions (ie. if the latest released version is v2.8, upcoming versions are v2.9 and v2.10) and their respective patch versions.

8.9. The PopcornFX Support team reserves the right to refuse custom requests for one or several of the following reasons:

• Persistant Studios considers that the request does not fit within the PopcornFX long-term roadmap and/or design
• Persistant Studios considers that the required development time for this custom request is too important for the perceived benefit
• Persistant Studios considers that the required feature needs engine development that is not part of PopcornFX
• Persistant Studios considers that the required feature needs development for a custom version of an engine that we support as part of our official plugins

8.10. Custom requests which are not accepted by the PopcornFX Support team can be addressed by general work-for-hire contracts (contact@popcornfx.com)