LightWave® v9 is the perfect combination of power, speed and value. Long considered one of the easiest 3D animation systems to learn and use, LightWave 3D® is versatile enough for any application from award-winning visual effects to stunning hi-res print graphics, dynamic video games, powerful motion graphics and more. LightWave offers modeling, animation, dynamics, volumetric rendering, particle effects and a motion picture quality rendering engine with unlimited render nodes making LightWave on a Lantech Systems Workstation, the centerpiece of the most cost effective 3D production pipelines in the world.

LightWave v9 marks a rebirth; core changes provide a tremendous increase in user interface performance, dynamics systems improvements and render speed enhancements. LightWave v9 adds a broad range of new features and improved workflows for faster and more efficient production at all levels. LightWave has been production proven time and time again in films, television, games, print, engineering, architecture and more.

True Value

LightWave 3D is a complete solution right out of the box that includes three different operating systems to meet your particular production requirements: Windows® 32-bit, Windows 64-bit and Macintosh®. LightWave for each operating system comes with unlimited render nodes. LightWave also supports the latest generation of dual-core and multi-core processor systems at no
additional cost.

What's New

LightWave v9 introduces new interface paradigms, such as a Node Editor for materials and surfaces, volumetric lights, and displacements. Exciting new physically correct cameras have been added, allowing artists to recreate any real world camera lens, and have footage rendered in LightWave match real world photography (a must for compositing CGI and real footage together). These cameras can also be extended into the hyper-real, or even bizarre, as any mesh object can itself be made into a camera and record a scene. The possibilities are limitless.

New techniques for displacement mapping, and support for ZBrush® displacements have been added. New shading models, such as Blinn, Oren- Nayar, and Ambient Occlusion now allow for a tremendous versatility for artists no longer bound by the original shading model in previous versions of LightWave. Of particular note are the new shaders for sub-surface scattering, anisotropic specular and reflection shaders (which allow for hromatic aberration), easy to use and offering a spectacular visual impact. Artists and technicians have more power to access, with the inclusion of the popular Relativity 2 expression system in LightWave v9. This system uses easy “expression wizards” to create associations between almost any scene component or animation channel, and has been used for some incredibly complex effects that were a snap to set up. All these changes and more make LightWave v9 the best solution for all 3D artwork needs. Whether you are modeling or animating, working in fi lm and broadcast or for print, dealing with organic or inorganic objects - LightWave 3D is the tool for the job.

Rendering

» Implementation of BSP/KD Tree Algorithm to achieve improved speeds as scene complexity rises.

» Complete replacement of the original ray tracing core.

» 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.

Adaptive Pixel Subdivision:

» Adaptive subdivision of a mesh based on distance from camera and visibility.

» Choice of 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.

Modeling:

» Added Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces

» Subdivision level can be controlled via numerical values, envelopes, expressions, motion modifiers, textures, procedurals, gradients and more.

» Edge Selection

» Edge Weights

» N-gons (polygons greater than 4 sides) for subdivision surface modeling

Node Editor:

» New Shading Models

» Normal Maps from ZBrush 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 and 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)

Open-GL:

» Preview lighting scenarios within the UI

» Less need for preview renders

» Hardware shading of procedural textures

Other:

» Timewarp – Time Re-mapping and Warping Shader

» CCTV Shader

» HV Deformer: HyperVoxel Particle
Displacement Shader

» Stress Map

» Sketch Image Filter

» Pixie Dust Volumetric shader

» Relativity 2

» Quaternion Rotations

» Mesh Editing in Layout

» Native 64-bit support

» Multiplatform

» Dual and multi-core support» Added Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces

» Subdivision level can be controlled via
numerical values, envelopes, expressions, motion modifiers, textures, procedurals, gradients and more

» Edge Selection

» Edge Weights

» N-gons (polygons greater than 4 sides) for subdivision surface modeling
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