DESCRIPTION
LightWave 3D® is a complete modeling, animation and rendering solution. Its native renderer is unparalleled and serves as the centerpiece in the production pipeline of many facilities both large and small. Render nodes are free and set up is quite straightforward. LightWave Modeler excels both as a subdivision surface and a polygonal modeler, fast, efficient and again, straightforward in functionality. In addition, an industry leading node-based texturing and shading system allows you to create any look you desire - quickly and easily.

You'll find LightWave is the most complete and robust 3D system right out of the box anywhere at any price. It is a thriving, dynamic system, ever evolving to meet the needs of our users. We work closely on a day-to-day basis with LightWave artists so that we know exactly what you are trying to accomplish. The LightWave renderer is first class and infinitely easier to set up and use than any other, not to mention the fact that unlimited render nodes are free.

We take great pride in the fact that LightWave artists have won more Emmy Awards than those using any other package. We are proud of the fact that our user community is the most passionate, most active and most helpful in the industry. LightWave is more than a 3D program, it is a business, it is an art form, it is a film, it is a game, it is realistic, it is cartoonish, it is moving, it is still... it is whatever you make of it.

LightWave is in the midst of a major renaissance driven by the needs of 3D artists worldwide. Vast improvements have been made to the system in the LightWave v9 development cycle. A large troupe of LightWave artists contribute to the development efforts through the Open Beta program, where registered owners of LightWave v9 gain early access to the software for testing and feedback. As a result, the LightWave v9 series, including the recent LightWave v9.5, has seen the addition of the following benefits:

• Character Animation Enhancements:
  • FiberFX: Complete hair and fur solution for all platforms.
  • Collada, FBX and OBJ I/O support: Improved compatibility with other applications.
  • Enhanced IK and Animation Systems: Provides improved character animation controls.
• Rendering:
  • IES Lighting: Accurately duplicate physical lights from manufacturers’ datasheets.
  • Radiosity Cache: Unique animated and static caching with size multipliers.
  • Photoreal Motion Blur: Artifact-free live action blur as if photographed with film
  • New anti-aliasing methods: Greater control for balancing quality with render speed.
  • New global illumination and radiosity: Easily create photorealistic scenes, sharacters and products while simulating the effect of real-world lighting in photography.
  • Progressive previews for global illumination: Provide immediate feedback
  • Implementation of state-of-the-art BSP/KD Tree Algorithm: Provides much faster and more efficient raytracing; bigger scenes render a lot faster.
  • Improved multi-threading with dynamic segmentation: Insures maximum use of available CPUs, optimizing render times.
• Adaptive Pixel Subdivision:
  • Speed increases many times over previous versions of LightWave: More efficient render times for today's increasingly ambitious high polygon-count scenes for production.
  • Adaptive subdivision of a mesh based upon distance from the camera and visibility: Allows for effective use of system resources for workflow viewing versus rendering.
  • APS Choice: Per Object, Per Polygon and Per Pixel: Provides the widest range of flexibility.
• Advanced Camera Tools:
  • RealLens Camera: Physically correct cameras allow recreation of any real-world camera lens for matching footage rendered in LightWave to real-world photography. (a must for compositing CGI and real footage together)
  • New rendering technology produces scenes using arbitrary camera lenses and warps: Create fantastic effects such as: camera plane deformations, arbitrary projections, UV map generation, true orthographic rendering, space warp simulations, lens distortion duplicating real-world lenses or "imaginary" lenses and one-camera 360° panorama rendering.
• Node Editor:
  • New subsurface scattering materials and shaders: Accurately simulates lighting and shading for materials such as marble, milk, etc., as well as a specific and easy to use material for skin shading.
  • Material Nodes: Conductor, Dielectric, Delta and more: Allow for the creation of physically accurate surfaces such as glass, liquid and metals quicker and easier than ever before.
  • New Make Material and Standard Nodes: Allow for conbination of shading models and other node maps to create your own distinct material.
  • Blinn, Oren-Nayar, Ambient Occlusion and other shading models: Provide unlimited shading possibilites.
  • Shaders for sub-surface scattering and anisotropic specular and reflection shaders: Allow for easy-to-use chromatic dispersion in surfaces, and offer spectacular visual impact.
  • Support for normal maps from ZBrush® 2 and Mudbox™: Adds incredible detail to low-poly models via displacement.
  • Workflow flexibility: Nodes can be used freely with layers and even shader plug-ins.
  • Full support of native controls and envelopes: Best of both worlds when texturing materials quick and easy traditional layers and powerful and flexible nodes.
  • Full SDK support: Allows third-parties to create nodes (including shading models) and for third-party renderers to interface with and query nodal shaders. A vast selection of third-party nodes and cameras is already available.
• Modeling:
  • Improved editing performance: Create and edit your models and meshes faster than ever before.
  • New screen drawing system in OpenGL: See the results of your changes faster than ever before.
  • Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces: Expand and simplify the modling workflow by widening subdivision capabilities to include edges, edge weighting and n-gons.
• Other Lightwave Benefits:
  • Native 64-bit support: Ability to access more RAM allows for creation of more complex and realistic scenes, as well as production at higher resolutions for film, high-definition television and print.
  • Multiplatform: Provides complete operating system flexibility from work to home: Windows 32-bit, 64-bit, Mac Universal Binary.
  • Dual and Multicore support: Allow you to tap into the full power of the latest advancements in hardware technology.
  • Unlimited Free Render Nodes: Make photorealistic rendering affordable across a large network.
  • Free technical support: Saves time and money.

New in version 9.6:

• FiberFX Cloning – Provides the ability to place multiple instances of hair on an object
• Layout Snapping – Allows the quick connection of one item to another, saving time and additional steps
• Drag and Drop – Allows an icon of an object or scene to be opened by dropping the icon into Modeler or Layout
• New and Improved Export Buffers– Enables multi-pass pipeline users to output more buffers (layers) in high dynamic range, rather than be limited to 8 bpc (bits per channel), for greater flexibility
• Multi-threaded Pixel Filters – Provides faster rendering of projects that integrate pixel filters
• Depth Buffer Normalizing – Allows 3D scene elements exported into film or video footage to automatically blend properly, even if moving relative to one another
• Ray Cutoff – Enables artists to decide at what point to cease ray bounces when rendering a scene with numerous reflections, refractions and transparency, significantly shortening render time
• Open to other render engines – Other rendering engines conforming to the LightWave v9.6 SDK can be used directly from within the LightWave interface
• Three New Nodes
• Car Paint: Greatly eases the creation of complex polished surfaces
• Flake: A simple procedural texture based upon the flakes often seen in car paint
• Curve: Allows the creation of complex gradients

REQUIREMENTS

• Windows 64 and 32-bit
  • Operating system: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
  • Processor: Intel or AMD (32-Bit)
  • Processor: Intel EM64T or AMD64 (64-Bit)
• Macintosh
  • Operating System: OSX 10.4.10 or later
  • Processor: PowerPC G4 800Mhz or faster; any G5 or any Intel-based Mac
• System RAM: 512 MB minimum requirement, 1 GB recommended
• Graphics Card: nVidia FX 5200 series (minimum) or ATIFireGL V 5100 (minimum)
• Graphics Support: Full OpenGL (OpenGL 2.0 support, or ARB shading language 100 OpenGL extension in earlier versions, required to use GLSL features)
• Graphics Driver: Latest from chipset manufacturer
• Dedicated Video RAM: 64 MB per display minimum requirement, 128 MB recommended
• Minimum Resolution: 1024x768 minimum requirement, 1280x1024 recommended
• Hard drive space: 230 MB for program installation (not including content)