Use of OptiX in commercial software

I am trying to determine whether or not I can use OptiX free of charge in commercial software. This page for the 4.0 beta download:

[url]https://developer.nvidia.com/designworks/optix/beta-download[/url]

from April 2016 states:

“As of version 3.5, OptiX continues to be free to acquire and use within your own company or institution, and to include within applications you distribute but do not publicly sell, but commercial applications (those that are publicly sold as “packaged” software) now require a Commercial License to redistribute OptiX 3.5 and later.”

However this more recent page for OptiX 5.0 download:

[url]https://developer.nvidia.com/designworks/optix/download[/url]

from December 2017 states:

“OptiX 5 is free to use within any application, including commercial and educational applications.”

Is the ability to use OptiX in commercial software dependent on the version? Currently we are working with version 3.9.1, due to use of older generation GPU’s.

Any info to clear this up would be greatly appreciated!

I apologize for the confusion. OptiX has always been free for commercial use, regardless of version, however there is a notification requirement for commercial applications which has changed over the years.

In order to improve the quality of our platform we would like to keep a list of contacts of people who are using OptiX, and other DesignWorks SDKs, in commercial applications. This not only helps support our investment but also allows us to notify you about changes to the SDK when necessary.

Please go to this link [url]https://developer.nvidia.com/sw-notification[/url] and complete the form so that we know who you are and that you are using OptiX for a commercial application. With the completed form you will have met the requirements of the EULA and you can use ANY version of OptiX in your commercial application although from a technical point I would recommend you target the latest version 5.0.

The current DesignWorks EULA has the following language.

1.5 Notification. You are required to notify NVIDIA prior to use of the NVIDIA DesignWorks Licensed Software in a commercial application (including a plug-in to a commercial application). Please send notification by visiting Software Licensing Notification | NVIDIA Developer and submitting the web form requested information. NVIDIA will request company name, DesignWorks software and version used, platform, commercial application release date, and weblink to product/video. Failure to notify NVIDIA pursuant to this section shall be considered a material breach of this Agreement

Hi Ankit,

Thank-you very much for that clarification. I have filled out the form at the link you provided.

We are planning to redistribute the fulling runtime libraries with our application:

OpenCL.dll
OpenCL64.dll
optix.1.dll
optixu.1.dll

The OpenCL libraries are those provided with the NVIDIA drivers. Is it okay to redistribute this runtime libraries?

Best regards,
Daniel