CompuServe Messages

>>all the IPAS routines that you would have to purchase to get features that are in Lightwave right out of the box.<< As someone who has worked on many 3D packages, including LightWave, I think you should really take a look at your "out of the box" statement. LW is a terrific program but to realize it's full power, you have to buy many 3rd party add-ons. Just flip through any issue of Video Toaster User and look at the ads. In another message you said 3D Studio is out of your price range. If you can get the $800 for LW then you should be able to save your money and get 3DS, it's not THAT much more, ( I shopped around and got one third off list when I got 3DS.) and, you would probably find, as I did, that 3DS makes you much more productive "Right out of the box". Also, if you're waiting for LW on the PC, you should know that many of the (necessary) 3rd party add-ons will either not be available on the PC or sell for much more money than the Amiga version. Some of the LW developers (ie Positron publishing) have now gone over to the PC (3DS) camp. (Flogging dead horses isn't good business). You are correct about "strengths and weaknesses" and having more than one approach to 3D animation is almost a necessity, but when thinking about LightWave, many people tend to forget that almost all of the production work done with it is also done with the Video Toaster. LW unbundled, as powerful a package as it is, is still only a portion of the Toaster. The video Post function of 3DS alone makes it one of the most powerful programs available on any platform (I didn't say fastest <g> ) Now that I mentioned "fast"………" Rendering Speed." Period…… I gave up Impulse's Imagine (as well as LW) for rendering speed as much as any other reason. On LW, One hour is a reasonable time for a frame rendering, On my P90 running 3DS, the same frame takes about 1 min. Now that is a major difference.( OK, the glass doesn't look nearly as good, but how often do I render glass? ) One more thing to think about…3D Studio is really a $20,000 program that you are permitted to buy only as much as you want or need and get it little by little if that's what you want. I'm glad that they didn't include a lot of IPAS (Ok I'll try to start calling them "Plug-Ins" but it wont be easy <G> ) and raise the basic selling price. I'm glad you are a 3DS user. I hope you can afford to buy it someday to "complement" LightWave. You may eventually find out what were all on about. Nice ranting at you David BTW I"d like see some of your work, what do you do? Bye