LightWave 3D® v9 Upgrade from All Previous Stand
Alone Versions with Electronic Manual
LightWave 3D version 9.0 Features:
- Modeling Tool Subset in Layout
- Faster OpenGL Performance
- Enhanced OpenGL Hardware Shader Support for accurate preview in
real-time for textures and lighting
- Faster Raytrace Rendering - up to 2.5X or better
- Adaptive Mesh subdivision based on visibility and distance to camera
- Faster Subdivision Surfaces
- Subdivision Surface modeling with n-gons
- True edge support in modeling, including edge weighting
- Enhanced MultiShift Modeling tool with reusable histories
- More flexibility and more user controls for the GUI
- Dynamics rewritten for improved precision, performance and capabilities
- Dynamics UI redesigned for easy and intuitive workflow
- Consolidation of tools for a streamlined workflow in Modeler
- Node-based procedural shading system
- Relativity 2 Expressions System
- Particle surface shading system
- Environment instancing on surfaces
- Camera time warper for effects such as bullet time, etc.
- Hypervoxel particle surface deformer
- Surface deformation-based texture map and color controller
- Camera lens shader system
- Much, much more
Rendering
Major Core Changes to the LightWave
Rendering Engine
The following changes have been made to the LightWave Render Core:
- Implementation of BSP/KD Tree Algorithm to achieve improved speeds as
scene complexity rises
- Complete replacement of the original ray tracing core
- Any function that uses ray tracing calls will be significantly faster in
most cases
- Improved multi-threading with dynamic segmentation to insure maximum use
of available CPUs
- Typical speed improvements at 2.5x over LightWave version 8.5 for
today's increasingly ambitious high-polygon count production scenes
The actual core of the LightWave rendering engine has
been replaced with a modern implementation that reflects some of the latest
developments in the CG industry. This new core allows for the addition of new
rendering technologies, and lays a very strong foundation for the future. In
addition to being higher quality, the rendering engine is now significantly
faster for today's ambitious production needs - and the more complex the scene,
the higher the speed differential!
Adaptive Pixel
Subdivision
Adaptive subdivision of a mesh based on distance from
camera and visibility
- Added Adaptive
Sub-division methods - Per Object, Per Polygon and Per Pixel
- Highly optimized mesh, tied to render resolution
when using Per Pixel
- Visibly similar to micro-poly displacement
- Improvements to Sub-division surfaces
- Support for both LightWave Subdivision Surfaces
and Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces
- Subdivision level can be controlled via numerical
values, envelopes, expressions, motion modifiers, textures, procedurals,
gradients and more
Improvements have been
made to sub-division s urfaces (SDS) in Layout, including support for
Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces. A new subdivision control mode has been
added, called Adaptive Pixel Subdivision, which provides the user with flexible
control of subdivision and level-of-detail at render time. This approach has
several benefits, such as significantly improved displacement performance, as
the mesh is highly optimized. For example, if you are rendering an image and you
set a pixel value of 4, then no polygon will have an area larger than 4 pixels
in size. The value can also be set in the sub-pixel range (values below 1.0).
This results in the ability to displace and deform with higher accuracy. While
not true micro-poly displacement, this method will yield similar results in many
cases.
Material Shader
Node Editor - And New Shading Models!
LightWave v9 includes an integrated Node Editor to
create complex shading networks or shader trees. Using new and improved
LightWave shaders, the Node Editor allows the user to connect parameters of
various shaders and operators together to create powerful shaders without any
user coding required. Not just a face lift, the Node Editor is a completely new
method of working with materials, which provides an order of magnitude more
capability than LightWave's surface and material edit system previously offered.
The Node Editor also takes LightWave to a new level of
flexibility in rendering. Until now, LightWave's renderer has used only the
Blinn shading model with Lambert diffusion, but with version 9 now offers
several additional shading models to choose from, including Phong,
Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayar, and new implementations of Blinn and Lambert. We've
also added Anisotropic and SubSurface Scattering (SSS) shaders to the mix. These
new shading models and functionality bring artists a greatly expanded range of
control over the final look of the render, making it easier than ever for
LightWave to provide precisely the look you want at render time.
- New Shading Models
- Normal Maps from Z Brush 2 Supported
- Branches can be imported and exported
- Math Animation Nodes
- Animated Gradient Node
- Work how you want to work: Layers in Nodes; Nodes in Layers; Layers
Only; Nodes Only
- Full support of native controls and envelopes
- Available in Layout and Modeler, and maintains context when switching
between the two
- Full SDK Support for third parties to create nodes (including shading
models) and for third party renderers to interface with / query nodal
shaders.
Advanced Camera Tools
New rendering technology renders scenes using
arbitrary camera lenses and warps. This allows for some fantastic effects, such
as:
- Camera plane deformations
- Arbitrary projections
- UV map generation
- True orthographic rendering
- Space warp simulations
- Lens distortion duplicating physically accurate real world lenses or
non-existent “imaginary” lenses
- 360 degree panorama rendering (one camera)
- And more
The Advanced Camera Tools camera lens shader system is
a whole new way of rendering in LightWave 3D. Renders are no longer limited to
the standard perspective camera. Instead, you can now create any type of camera
lens you wish: perspective, orthographic, fisheye, 360 degree panorama.
You can even render the scene as seen from the surface
of a mesh. The lens shader gives you full control over what part of the scene is
rendered for any part of the image.
Previously, effects such as these were achieved with
post-process filtering, which caused artifacts, and degraded the overall quality
of the image. Now, these effects are done mimicking actual light physics,
resulting in a very high-quality result. However, no camera lens is perfect; the
camera lens shader will let you reproduce that reality as well, by allowing you
to create lens artifacts such as barrel distortions. Don’t stop there, though.
The lens shader will also allow you to create outlandish, impossibly warped and
twisted views for that unique look when normal just won’t do.
Timewarp – Time
Re-mapping and Warping Shader
This shader remaps time for:
- Bullet-time
- Freeze-time
- Slow-motion effects
- Fast-motion effects
Timewarp manipulates time. Previously time has just
been a steady clock ticking away at a certain number of frames per second. Now
with Timewarp you can slow the clock down, speed it up, even wind it back, all
during a single animation.
Timewarp can warp the time in a scene while keeping
the camera unwarped. This will allow for unblurred camera motion, while
retaining blurred motion of the action within the camera’s field of view.
Effects like bullet-time can be cre¬ated in this way. Timewarp can also
manipulate motion blur in new ways for special effects. You can now fly through
a motion blur, without additional blurring from the camera’s motion
CCTV Shader
CCTV is a shader that paints a view of the scene on a
surface; render a view from a camera onto a surface, with controls for
brightness, saturation and contrast:
- Create a closed-circuit TV display
- Simulate digital camera displays
- Render a view through binoculars and magnifying scopes
- Create holographic instances
HV Deformer:
HyperVoxel Particle Displacement Shader
This shader stretches and squashes HyperVoxel
particles based on particle properties and distance between particle and mesh.
HV Deformer gives you new levels of control over HyperVoxel particles. With HV
Deformer you can:
- Create more realistic looking pools of water
- Change the orientation of HyperVoxel particles arbitrarily
- Stretch and squash HyperVoxels based on the properties of individual
particles
- Alter the size of HyperVoxels as a function of time, space, or distance
to an object
- ...and much more.
More precisely, HV Deformer allows you to change the
size, thickness (or flatness), and orientation of particles as a function of
distance to object surfaces, particle properties, or any arbitrary envelope.
Stress Map
Modulates bump amplitude based on degree of dynamic
local mesh deformation.
- Create wrinkles on bending joints
- Alter the color of a surface based upon polygon distortion
Stress Map makes more realistic, dynamic wrinkles.
This is done by altering the degree of bump mapping used based on the amount of
local polygon distortion. For example, when an arm is bent, wrinkles applied as
a bump map become more pronounced around the joint, where the mesh is being
squeezed. If the mesh is instead being stretched, the wrinkles will disappear.
Stress Map can also be used to alter the color of a
surface based on how much a polygon has expanded or shrunk due to some
distortion. This could be used to simulate the whitening of the skin as it is
stretched, or to indicate areas where the mesh is being stressed.
Sketch Image
Filter
This new image filter enables a render to be post
processed with a sketch-like treatment.
New Volumetric
Shader
Allows for fast rendering of large numbers (order of 1
million) of simple volumetric particles.
Animation/Character Animation
Relativity 2
LightWave v9 includes the Relativity Expression Engine
developed by Prem Design.
- Point-and-click set-up using "professors"
- Multiple levels of expressions: one object can reference another object
with an expression on it, and so on.
- Expressions to react to IK-based motions
- Ease of navigation between multiple instances of Relativity, so mass
updates of expressions can be done with ease
- Relative referencing of motion data (SELF, PARENT, ROOT, PREV, NEXT and
relative referencing of a matched object name within a hierarchy), so it is
possible to copy expressions between objects and have each know what it's
supposed to do
- A number of higher level functions are included that can measure path
distance traveled, sum up an item's channel values over time, determine
optimal following distances, watch for events, etc.
- Functions to measure speed, acceleration, velocity, interpolation, etc.
- Comments can be embedded within expressions, so you don't end up totally
confused when revisiting an expression set up a month or two ago
- Language is simple and easy to understand
- Includes a large set of "scratch variables" that allow complex setups of
expressions
- Receive detailed feedback when errors are encountered
- Expression-based morphing and displacement, including complex morphing
forms like traveling morphs, effector morphs, etc.
- Objects can follow points on other objects and morph between points on
multiple objects, allowing higher-level "crowd control" with a series of
morph targets.
- Textures can be used for displacement, deformation, color envelopes,
etc.
Sticky
This new Item Motion plug-in allows an object to move
on or by an offset distance across the surface of a target mesh.
Proximity
A new Proximity channel modifier modifies a channel
based on closest distance between an object and a mesh or other items.
Quaternion
Rotations
A new rotation controller offers quaternion rotations
to minimize gimbal lock.
Align to Path
LightWave's Align to Path command now offers a robust
new align-to-path algorithm, unaffected by very slow or no motion. The original
Align to Path is still available, and is now renamed to more accurately describe
its function, "Align to Velocity."
User Interface/Workflow Improvement
Mesh Editing in
Layout
- Many modeling plug-ins now operate in Layout
- Use Vertex Paint in Layout to modify vertex maps
- Create Text in Layout
The core workflow has begun a radical new paradigm
shift in LightWave. Many Modeler Plug-ins which operate on the entire mesh can
now be used in Layout. In addition, the user can create text within Layout,
speeding up motion graphics workflow. NewTek will be building more and more
mesh-editing capabilities into Layout throughout the 9.x development cycle,
eventually allowing the user to move the modeling process over to Layout very
early, and continue refining the mesh, rigging the mesh, and adding and editing
mesh weight and vertex maps directly from within Layout, saving many hours in
the creation and animation process.
Workflow
Improvements
Selection workflow has been enhanced with a new List
Manager panel, available by clicking a new button by the Current Item popup. The
List Manager allows fast selection of groups of items and quick and easy
creation of selection sets. We've also cut the number of keystrokes required to
custom-tailor nulls for your scene from 13 to 3 - and this is exemplary of the
workflow speedups that NewTek will turn our concentration to for the forthcoming
releases in the v9 cycle - fewer keystrokes, tool consolidation, and tool
designs that optimize your productivity. ScreamerNet now offers the ability to
abort rendering in progress.
Complete
Re-implementation of Open GL in Layout
- Much faster UI performance
- Preview Lighting scenarios within the UI
- Less need for preview renders
- Hardware shading of materials and textures
- Hardware shading of procedural textures
LightWave v9 Layout fully supports the OpenGL 2.0
specification, leveraging the power of the latest graphics cards. New drawing
modes provide new ways of interacting with scene objects and meshes, and provide
for a faster turnaround of the creative process. Results from real time OpenGL
shading very closely mirror the results of the LightWave rendering engine, which
reduces the amount of test renders that are required. Lighting and materials can
be previewed directly within the user interface with a much higher degree of
accuracy than ever before.
UI
Configuration
Now the user has more control over how the user
interface appears and operates:
- the ability to change colors of almost any element; the ability to
create special tabs with user defined commands
- the ability to change the colors of animation channels
- the ability to customize display and selection colors of points, edges
and polygons
- the ability to control the display of polygon normals beyond what was
previously available
View Renders
and Image Files in UI Viewports
The user can now create a viewport viewer with full
control in terms of context, placement and size.
You can:
- Create a Standalone Image viewer
- Create an Embedded Image viewer
- View texture images, renders, preview renders
- View as many images as you have memory for
Modeling
Improvements
- Redesigned Subdivision Surface Core Engine
- Implementation of Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces in Modeler
- Edge Selection (throughout Modeler)
- Edge Weights
- N-gons (polygons greater than 4 sides) for subdivision surface modeling
- Multishift now operates across multiple layers
Redesign of the
Core Subdivision Surface Engine
These days, subdivision surfaces have become the
standard by which most characters, props and environments are created. LightWave
led the way with the first commercial implementation of subdivision surfaces.
Now, LightWave sets the bar again, re-engineering the core algorithms for even
faster speed, and better results. That means modeling in a shorter period of
time.
Expansion of
Subdivision Surfacing Tools with Edges and N-sided Polygons
In addition to making the subdivision surface engine
faster and more efficient, the capabilities of the engine have been expanded to
include the ability to use edges in the construction process, add weighting to
edges which allows for sharp corners and creases with no additional geometry
needed, and the ability to use polygons with greater than four sides in the
process.
Edge Selection
and Operation Added to Many Modeler Tools
Edge selection and operation are now allowed in many
tools available within Modeler. This powerful addition to the Modeler toolset
will allow the user new ways of creating and refining shapes, and improve
productivity in the creation process. The capability will be extended throughout
the Modeler toolset in coming releases. 
More Dynamic Dynamics
- Faster Loading of Dynamics Scene Files
- Better Workflow with Access to Dynamics in the Scene Editor
- Improved Solving Precision
- More accurate representation of wind vector fields in Layout
- Animation Paths for Winds
- FXDynamic-Linker links objects to particles with smart routines that
reduce memory requirements
Improvements in dynamics loading and solving, and
workflow improvements including access via the Scene Editor make dynamics more
attractive and easier to use. Higher precision in solver engines allow for
better results right out of the box.
SDK Improvements
- Node Graph SDK, including the functions needed to add more shading
models
- Access to information about new camera types
- Access to additional information from volumetrics
- The AnimUV, Camera and Nodes plug-in classes have been added to the
support list of the LScript Object's server() method.
- Config files now allow loading and saving of double-precision integers
(formerly only allowed floating-point)
- Modeler SDK updated with extensive list of new functions and
improvements, including support for edge information for plug-ins, and
elimination of redundant scanning for successive edit operations
- Many more improvements
Documentation Improvements
Reformatted documentation includes many improvements
and additional material to help make LightWave easier to learn.
Demo Videos
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