H O P P E R P E D I A ©
-Brian Hammons





NewTek LightWave 3D is a software package used for rendering 3D images, both animated and static. It includes a rendering engine that supports such advanced features as realistic reflection and refraction, radiosity, and caustics. The 3D modeling component supports both polygon modeling and subdivision surfaces. The animation component has features such as reverse and forward kinematics for character animation, particle systems and dynamics. Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included SDK which offers LScript scripting (a proprietary scripting language) and common C language interfaces.


Capability Definitions:


1. Modeler and Layout: LightWave is composed of two separate programs: Modeler and Layout. Each program is specifically designed to provide a dedicated workspace for specific tasks. When the two programs are running simultaneously, a third process called the Hub can be used to automatically synchronize data.

Layout contains the animation system and the renderer which provides the user with several options including ray tracing options, multithreading, global illumination, and output parameters. Modeler, as the name implies, includes all of the modeling features used to create the 3d models that are used in the animation and rendering component. This differs from most 3D computer graphics packages which normally integrate the renderer and the modeler. A long-standing debate in the LightWave user community has consisted of whether or not to integrate Modeler and Layout into a single program. In response to this, NewTek has begun an integration process by including several basic modeling tools with Layout.

There is also a command line-based network rendering engine named Screamernet which can be used to distribute rendering tasks across a large number of networked computers. This is used to reduce the overall time that it takes to render a single project by having the computers each rendering a part of the whole project in parallel. Screamernet includes all the features of the rendering engine that is integrated in Layout but without an interactive user interface.


2. Dynamics: Lightwave is equipped with all the required dynamics such as hard body, soft body and cloth. Hard body dynamics equips the user to simulate effects like rockslides, building demolitions and sand effects, using realistic forces like gravity and collisions. Soft body equips the user with a tool that can simulate jelly or jiggling fat on overweight characters. This can also be applied to characters for a dynamic hair effect. Cloth can be applied to clothing for characters. This can also be used for hair to simulate more realistic hair movement. The CORE subsystem of Lightwave 10 includes a new rigid-body dynamics engine called Bullet (software).

3. Hypervoxels: Hypervoxels are a means to render different particle animation effects. Different modes of operation have the ability to generate appearances that mimic:

• Blobby metaballs for things like water or mercury, including reflection or refraction surface settings

• Sprites which are able to reproduce effects like fire or flocking birds

• Volume shading for simulating clouds or fog type effects


4. Material Shaders: Lightwave comes with a nodal texture editor that comes with a collection of special-purpose material shaders. Some of the types of surface for which these shaders have been optimized include:

• General-purpose subsurface scattering materials for materials like wax or plastics

• Realistic skin, including subsurface scattering and multiple skin layers

• Metallic, reflective, materials using energy conservation algorithms

• Transparent, refractive materials including accurate total internal reflection algorithms


Programming Language Behind LightWave


Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included software development kit (SDK or "devkit") which offers LScript scripting (a proprietary scripting language) and common C language interfaces. LScript is a series of scripting plug-ins designed specifically for LightWave. LScripts are text files with .ls extensions or they can be compiled using the Lscript Compiler in Layout to make files with .lsc extensions.

A software development kit is typically a set of development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.

It may be something as simple as an application programming interface (API) in the form of some files to interface to a particular programming language or include sophisticated hardware to communicate with a certain embedded system. Common tools include debugging aids and other utilities often presented in an integrated development environment (IDE). SDKs also frequently include sample code and supporting technical notes or other supporting documentation to help clarify points from the primary reference material.


Price for Lightwave 3D standalone software: US $895.00 SRP

This product is shipped in a dual-disk case with the following:

•LightWave v9 Program Disk (64-bit PC, 32-bit PC and 32-bit Mac)

•LightWave v9 Third-Party Sampler/Content DVD (Third-Party Samplers, New Content, Hi-Res PDF Manuals, Demo Videos)

•Mac/PC USB Dongle



Technology


Operating systems that Lightwave supports:

Platform: Windows & Macintosh

Hardware:

Windows- 64-bit; Intel® Core™ 2 or better or AMD64; System RAM: 2GB minimum; 32-bit; Intel or AMD equivalent of Intel Core or better

Macintosh- Intel processor
Macintosh

Operating System

Windows- 64-bit; Windows Vista® or Windows 7 64-bit Edition

32-bit; Windows Vista or Windows 7 Edition

Macintosh- Snow Leopard® 10.6 or better


Graphics Card

Windows- NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400 series (minimum) or ATI X1600 (minimum)

Macintosh- N/A


Operation Protocols:

LightWave requires TCP/IP protocols for the Hub to operate. LightWave uses this protocol to transfer the data between Layout and Modeler through the Hub. There is so much data to be passed back and forth that this was the best and fastest way to do it. There is a way to deactivate the Hub if installing TCP/IP on your system is a problem.


Graphics Cards Recommended for LightWave

LightWave 9.x requires an OpenGL 2.0 (or higher) compliant graphics card with an nVidia or ATI GPU.

Minimum: (64MB of RAM):

nVidia GeForce FX 5200

or ATI Radeon 9500


Recommended: (128MB of RAM):

nVidia GeForce 7300/Quadro FX 350 or higher

or ATI Radeon X1300/FireGL V5200 or higher


Licensing


Prior to being made available as a stand-alone product in 1994, LightWave required the presence of a Video Toaster in an Amiga to run. Currently, LightWave licenses are bound to a hardware dongle (e.g. Safenet USB or legacy parallel port models). Without a dongle LightWave will operate in "Discovery Mode" which severely restricts functionality. One copy of LightWave supports distributed rendering on up to 999 nodes.


Online License Transfer System


Online License Transfer provides a flexible and convenient web-based mechanism for customers with Standalone licenses to transfer their licenses to different machines without using a dongle. This basic functionality is available without additional charge and there is no limit on the number of transfers.


Previous Version Compatibility:

Maya 2011 can access .ma and .mb data from Maya 3 through Maya 2010.


Resources



LScript Resource

LScript Reference Manual

Render Farm: ResPower

Render Farm- Render Planet

Lightwave wiki