Activating Corona Renderer 7 (and older) for Cinema 4D

Updated August 06, 2024 06:45

Activating Corona Renderer 7 (and older) for Cinema 4D

The license of Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D will prompt you to activate automatically or once your start any Corona rendering.

Note: this guide applies only to Corona Renderer 7 and older. If you need help activating Corona 8 or newer, please see: Activating Corona for Cinema 4D

1. Installing and Activating Corona Renderer on a Workstation

Download the Corona Installer and install Corona Renderer on your machine.
Prepare your registered email address and your password.

Your registered email address is the one you entered at the checkout page when buying Corona Renderer from our online store.

Your password was set by you right after the purchase after following a link in one of the confirmation emails. If you can't find this email, please double-check your SPAM folder and other inbox folders or search your inbox for the keyword "Corona".

If you don't remember your password, or if you need to reset it for any other reason, please visit this link.
Run Cinema 4D and set Corona Renderer as your active renderer. To do this, open Cinema's render settings, switch the renderer from ''Standard'' to ''Corona'' and exit the settings.
An activation window should pop up. If it doesn't, press Ctrl+R (Windows) or Cmd+R (Mac) and render a blank scene.

Note: If you have previously activated the Trial, or any other license, first go to Corona > About and click the "Remove license" button.
Select “Activate” and press next. Corona will try to connect to the internet and:

If it can connect to the activation server: will prompt for your registered email address and password. Just enter them, click next, and that's all.
If it cannot connect to the server (either the computer does not have Internet access, or the firewall blocks the connection): you will see your request code along with a link for the offline activation page.
Visit the link ( https://corona-renderer.com/customer-zone/ ), make sure you are logged in using your registered email address, then input your request code in the "Paste request code" field, and click "Activate". The page will display your activation code. Just copy it back to the Corona Renderer activation window, click next, and that's all. Your license is now activated.

Note: To deactivate your current license, go to Corona > About... and press the "Remove license" button. To activate your license again, use the above procedure. This is useful in rare cases, for example when changing the active license type.

Note: The license will automatically renew each month or year, depending on your license type. If you're running an older version of Corona, it is free to upgrade to the latest version, as long as you have an active subscription. Upgrading will not disrupt your license in any way.

2. Corona Licensing Server

The easiest way to activate Corona Renderer 7 or older on multiple computers over LAN is using our Corona Licensing Server. It is especially useful for render farms.

3. Render Farms and Computers without host software GUI

If you need to activate Corona Renderer 7 or older on a farm, or on a computer without access to the host software GUI, please see the following article: Activating Corona on renderfarms and computers without the host software GUI

4. Environment variable activation

In Corona Renderer 6 and 7, it is possible to activate the license using a Windows environment variable. This is intended mainly for specific cases where standard activation methods are not possible. Use this method only if you are sure it is required. Otherwise, it is recommended to use the standard activation steps mentioned above in this guide.

Variable name: CORONA_ACTIVATION

Variable values:

For email and password, use the format:
```
email:password
```
For licensing server address, use the format:
```
LS:address
```

NOTE: if you use the "email:password" format, please consider that your login credentials are exposed to anyone with access to the computer!

5. Troubleshooting

Activation problems

If you are experiencing any problems with the activation. For example, Corona Renderer does not allow rendering and displays a message such as:

To activate the demo, click on "Activate license", select "Activate demo", and then press "Next". If this is successful, your license should now be activated.

I cannot locate my password

Reset your password here https://accounts.corona-renderer.com/account/recover and we will send you a password reset link by email.

The server says "Too many activations"

The number of computers that can be activated is limited by the number of licenses you have purchased. Make sure you are not trying to activate too many computers at the same time.

How to activate Corona Renderer on a render node?

Generally, the installation and activation process is exactly the same on workstations and render nodes so you can use the above steps. If, for example, your render nodes do not have an internet connection, or they do not have Cinema 4D installed with its UI enabled, please see the following guide:

Activating Corona using the Licensing Server

My license expiration date is wrong!

The "Activated until" date printed in the Corona About window is NOT a date when Corona Renderer will stop working for you.

It shows a future date at which the license will be automatically extended, provided that the computer is connected to the Internet or visible to the Corona Licensing Server. Don't worry if that period is shorter than expected - it will get automatically extended anyway.

Note: this guide applies only to Corona Renderer 7 and older. If you need help activating Corona 8 or newer, please see:Activating Corona for Cinema 4D

Please contact us if you need further assistance, and we will be happy to help you.