Talk:LightWave 3D

'Unique Features' Ideas
For the 'Unique Features' section, I think it would be interesting to add additional subsections with information on some of LightWave's more unusual features, such as the advanced camera tools and hypervoxels. Maybe even a little about FPrime. So if anyone considers themself knowledgable on any of those, please go for it! I think this section would be useful for people who may want to understand some of the differences between LightWave and the other 3D apps.


 * I don't think Fprime belongs under that heading since it is a 3rd party plugin. Maybe having a "notable plugins" or similar section would fit better, but currently fprime is as much a Unique feature to LW as my neighbors car.  There are many other plugs that are as notable as Fprime as well.


 * To me LW's unique features are its workflows and keyboard mappings. This thing is tight (read: special in a good way) in some places! Ideas on just how that's true can be added to the Overview for now IMO. Ncr100 (talk) 08:27, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Name Change
It would be better and more correct if the title of the page was LightWave (with a capital W). - Ben Vost, NewTek Europe...

Software Differences?
I think someone should make a section describing the difference between LightWave and 3DStudios. I feel it would be very useful. - Alex


 * Disagree, that makes it sound more like an ad comparing against another popular package. (72.64.241.153 (talk) 18:56, 24 January 2009 (UTC))


 * It was personal experience-based anyway. I personally hated the Softimage workflow but enjoyed Maya and 3D Studio Max.  The only thing worth existing in that section would be that the LightWave renderer was just bad enough until the late 90s that you could instantly spot any CG done in it if you knew what to look for.  Like I said, personal-experience  --EdityMcEditorson (talk) 06:26, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the change of name!
Hi, still working my way around editing the page, have updated a lot today and would like to get the infobox to match the size of the logo and Modeler screenshots, but I am unsure of how to do it (the template works in "ems" rather than pixels?). I'd also like to know how to edit my entries in the history pages so that I can see what I've done.

Version history key features?
What are/were the main features for each major version release?


 * LightRave was a piece of hardware/software that allowed LightWave to be run unbundled from the Video Toaster in 1993. I'm not sure if it was officially or unofficially supported because I did read about it in the press at the time, and pretty sure I read a review of LightWave that used LightRave (something like Amiga Format in the UK).
 * LightWave version 3.5 IIRC was the first package with integrated Lensflares available. Officially unbundled from Video Toaster.
 * LightWave version 4.0 IIRC introduced the package on the following platforms: Amiga, Apple Macintosh, PC/Windows, Silicon Graphics/Irix. (I also used this version in WindowsNT running on DEC Alpha's)
 * LightWave version 5.0 was the last version available for the Amiga. Across all versions it introduced full time Inverse Kinematics. (I fixed an error in the main article that said 4.0 was the last version)
 * LightWave version 5.5 introduced a new interface. MorphGizmo and SuperCelShader. SkyTracer and Steamer, allowing dynamic sky and cloud generation and volumetric lighting and rendering respectively. Support for Multiprocessors.
 * LightWave version 5.6 introduced Hypervoxels - subpixel volumetric rendering, great for clouds, pyroclastic effects, etc.
 * LightWave version 6.0 introduced an interface upgrade. Integrated Radiosity and Caustics Rendering Engine.
 * (This is off the top of my head..) Mingebinge (talk) 17:42, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Cleanup
This article has gone out of focus, and seems to be a glorification of LightWave's achievements. It is also advertising LightWave through the use of weasel words, which are inappropriate in an encyclopedia. This is an encyclopedia page, not an online advertisement site. Advertisements stating how good the program is without any backup of reliable sources are considered to be redundant will be removed.

I seriously hope that editors to this article will abide by the guidelines set out by Wikipedia. --219.74.177.182 12:17, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

I want to second the complaint above, the article is written in a bombastic style and reads like an unabashed product promotion or enthusiastic eulogy, and doesn't read like a cool dispassionate enumeration of the facts. Example:

"On February 20, 2012, NewTek began shipping LightWave 11 Software, the latest version of its professional 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software. LightWave 11 incorporates many new features, such as instancing, flocking and fracturing tools, flexible Bullet Dynamics, Pixologic Zbrush support, and more. LightWave 11 is used for all genres of 3D content creation-from film and broadcast visual effects production, to architectural visualization, and game design".

This is not an encyclopaedic entry, it's a commercial plaudit.

Vapourmile (talk) 12:24, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

Why does this section, in the History section, reference LW 9 first then LW 8? "In its ninth version, the market for LightWave ranges from hobbyists to high-end deployment in video games, television and cinema. NewTek shipped a 64-bit version of LightWave 3D as part of the fifth free update of LightWave 3D 8, and was featured in a keynote speech by Bill Gates at WinHEC 2005." Ncr100 (talk) 06:35, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Logo meaning?
Just curious what the logo is? A seashell? A cinnamon roll? --72.202.150.92 04:47, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

9.3 Release Date?
Does anyone know the real release date of 9.3, I just put SIGGRAPH for now but I don't think that will do. added 08-16-2007 at least, this is the date when it was added to NewTek's downloads for those who purchased LightWave 8 with the free upgrade to 9. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crewman06 (talk • contribs) 13:18, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Too much promotion...
I'm finding that this page contains a lot of promotion for LightWave. And as I've been looking at other software pages, 3ds max for example, I'm seeing a much more professional feel to the page. This article requiers a lot of clean-up. ShawnStovall 14:07, 20 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree that this page feels like a promotion, which I am beginning to remedy. Though I don't really agree that the pages of other software packages look all that much better... —Preceding unsigned comment added by White Boy (talk • contribs) 08:15, 10 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree, this page is currently not neutral. (Ncr100 (talk) 00:00, 5 February 2009 (UTC))

Adding info about the Mac UB port and cleaning up the grammar
Hi, after a few thousand posts over at the Newtek forums I decided it was time to clean this baby up. I'm not changing anything major, just removing some irrelevant links and redundant history (the intro paragraph says stuff about the Amiga that is also said in the History section. Also I'm trying to give it a more neutral POV.

Does anybody have some updated screenshots? The ones on there are from 9.0 which was almost 3 releases ago... Inigo07 (talk) 21:48, 11 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I took out the statement "Some critics in the industry noted that the feature set of Lightwave made it worth the price of the Video Toaster alone." That is utterly useless to anybody reading this article Inigo07 (talk) 21:51, 11 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I can understand the reference to the Video Toaster though, as in at the time, the joke was that LightWave came with the most expensive hardware dongle of any package, called the Video Toaster... Mingebinge (talk) 17:49, 28 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I took out some more useless information, such as the original price of the Video Toaster (like anyone cares?) and a description of the TCP/IP protocol that the Hub uses (like anyone cares either?). Also cleaning up some grammar. Inigo07 (talk) 20:43, 21 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The linux screamernet hasn't been updated in so long that's it's pretty much meaningless to even mention it anymore. Should the reference in the first paragraph just be removed entirely?   (went ahead and removed it.  ) (72.64.241.153 (talk) 18:24, 24 January 2009 (UTC))

Which features aren't available without the dongle?
I think that should be added to the article. I'd do it myself, but I don't know. I'll do some research to try to find out, though, but it would be helpful if someone who already knew put it up there. --71.163.134.187 (talk) 21:14, 25 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Basically without the dongle you have the demo version of Lightwave. It's not functional without it (watermarked renders and max 400 polygons savable). It's not like it's a "limited free version" without the dongle - it's just a demo. I think this part needs to be rewritten as well. Inigo07 (talk) 17:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Since I believe they used Rainbow Sentinel Lock whose protections were cracked 5 minutes after any product release using it, all features are available without the dongle. ;-) EdityMcEditorson (talk) 07:01, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

Multithreaded? since when
I'm only here because I'm waiting for some hard body dynamics to calculate. On my q6600 precisely ONE of the CPUs is flat out, the rest are twiddling their thumbs. Apart from Rendering can anyone tell me what multithreading is in use? Particularly in Modeller. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stib (talk • contribs) 11:09, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Spinoff
I'm thinking that the list of movies etc. used by lightwave should be branched off, similar to what they have done in the 3ds Max Article. (see this for an example). Anyone else agree? 76.185.42.208 (talk) 21:26, 18 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, yeah, that is a good idea. I'm really interested in getting this article up to par. This exact page was what sold me on LW anyway, several years ago. Now it's my job. Inigo07 (talk) 15:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Vandalisim?
I think that this article has been slightly vandalized. For example, Dexter's Lab and the PowerPuff Girls weren't in 3-D. --Particleman24 (talk) 12:54, 17 May 2008 (UTC)


 * @particleman: as far as I know lightwave can render 2d anime like pictures.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.156.52.98 (talk) 18:01, 31 May 2008 (UTC)


 * There was a 3d Powerpuff Girl animation done by Savage Frog That may have been what that editor was talking about. Many other 2d cartoons are using rendered 3d animations for backgrounds like Family Guy, Futurama, etc... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.64.16.58 (talk) 19:14, 17 September 2008 (UTC)


 * LightWave certainly does render 2d anime cel shaded imagery, using its in built set of surfaces - I was doing exactly this in broadcast productions in 1998. I would certainly refer to this as LightWave being able to render 3D as 2D Cel Shading natively - ie. you open the package, create an object, apply the relevant surface/material to it and render it, simple as .. Mingebinge (talk) 17:27, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

LightWave has a "Cel Shader" that makes 3d graphics appear somewhat like traditional cel animation, but there is no strictly digital-2d animation component. But several shows do integrate 3d cel shaded with more traditional looking 2d, so it's not at all unreasonable that they would use lightwave for those parts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.64.241.153 (talk) 18:22, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Further to the above, the Japanese animated series Blue Submarine no.6 was one of the pioneering examples of using (LightWave, specifically) 3d generated 2d cel shading integrated with traditional painted backgrounds.Mingebinge (talk) 17:27, 28 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Also, read this archived article from 1998: "Lightwave 3D's Super Cel Shader is an Important Tool in DreamWorks TV" [] Mingebinge (talk) 13:49, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Remove lightwave-specific terms
I've made a number of edits to try to remove a lot of Lightwave-specific terminology and use more generalized (at least to the 3d animation industry) terms and include links to the relevant wikipedia pages that describe the feature. I've also tried to rewrite the edited sections to sound less like a piece of press release and more like a list of functionality.

There really should be more references/citations, probably to the newtek site with the features. (Although this probably would just make it look more like an ad page, which I really have tried to avoid and reduce with these edits.) (72.64.241.153 (talk) 19:23, 24 January 2009 (UTC))

Babylon 5
Babylon 5 was probably what brought LightWave into prominence along with some of the (at the time) more well-known animation systems like Max, Softimage and Alias|Wavefront, since it was one of (if not the) first prime time TV shows with all the 3d effects generated in lightwave. The other software packages were considered "professional" while lightwave was still mainly known for its inclusion in the video toaster. Is this worth mentioning in the article, given proper citations/references? (72.64.241.153 (talk) 19:23, 24 January 2009 (UTC))
 * Aside from the fact that Max did not exist at the time LightWave was introduced to audiences.Mingebinge (talk) 17:30, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
 * LightWave was probably much more well known than Max when Max 1.0 came out. 3D Studio for DOS ran under a memory extender and was awful to work with IMO.  Softimage and Alias|Wavefront were limited to MIPS IRIX machines until much later if my memory serves and weren't competing in nearly the same price range or sector as LightWave.  EdityMcEditorson (talk) 06:56, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Two different industries: 3ds4/Max was for games, Lightwave was for TV. That was it. I drifted across industries and aside from a PR boost when the film Lost in Space was released in 1998, Max was still not seriously considered for TV/film. When I was converting from 3ds4 to Max in games studios, 2 years prior, some people had still not even heard of Lightwave so it was never seriously considered in the games industry aside from cut-scenes/intros, so effectively Max and Lightwave were never really in the same sector either. Mingebinge2 (talk) 00:58, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Replaced link
Replaced the Splashlight link as I could not see any relevance. They are a Fashion Photography specialist and I could not find anything remotely related to 3D CG on their site, let alone anything to do with LightWave. I assume it was added in error or there was indeed a LW3D studio of that name in the past, whose rights to the address have lapsed. I put in the award-winning Zoic Studios instead, simply because they are well known for using LightWave and they are well known for work on such projects as Firefly, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, V, and Zombieland amongst others. I have no affiliation with them. Mingebinge (talk) 00:21, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Grouping sections
Hi there, I would suggest grouping sections 3 Modeler and Layout, 4 Dynamics, 5 Hypervoxels, 6 Material shaders, 7 LScript, and 8 Lightwave SDK into one new section, say Software Details or Techniques Used or Technical Details or something. As it is, it seems to me that these sections are not on the same level as, say, History or Overview. In particular, I don't think top-level sections should feature technical words such as Hypervoxels. What do you think of this? Cheers, --Georgepauljohnringo (talk) 15:30, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

This section appears out of historical order inside the History section. It should be removed, broken apart, and then inserted into the TV and Movie sections.

"LightWave was used to create special effects for the Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager, Space: Above and Beyond and seaQuest DSV science fiction television series; the program was also utilized in the production of Titanic as well as the recent Battlestar Galactica TV series, Sin City, Star Trek, 300 and Star Wars movies. The short film 405 was produced by two artists from their homes using LightWave. In the Finnish Star Trek parody Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, most of the visual effects were done in LightWave by Finnish filmmaker Samuli Torssonen, who produced the VFX work for the feature film Iron Sky. The film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was made entirely in LightWave 6 and messiah:Studio."

Significant facts from this paragraph could also be used in the introductory paragraph.Ncr100 (talk) 05:58, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

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Famous user: Dick Van Dyke
Should a section be added to include notable actor Dick Van Dyke uses Lightwave 3D and frequently presented at conferences? Cyberbytli (talk) 02:42, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

History Section Lightwave new owner?
Should we mention in the history portion when Lightwave3D transferred from NewTek to Lightwave Digital? Doremon764 (talk) 05:53, 1 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Yes, it is significant, and it certainly is no longer under its previous owners. Mingebinge2 (talk) 00:42, 3 December 2023 (UTC)