CompuServe Messages

Actually, if you're talking final output quality, Lightwave and 3DSr2 were very similar. They both computed color in 24-bit space and they both used adaptive super-sampling for antialiasing. However, the 3DSr3 renderer is so much better than Lightwave that it's in a completely different league. If output quality is what you're comparing, there IS NO COMPARISON. You just can't get the edge quality with super-sampling that you can with an analytical A-buffered renderer. Plus, you'll have color posterization (quantization) problems in dark areas with Lightwave… especially if you attempt to do gamma correction. To be perfectly honest, we have objective proof that the 3DSr3 renderer is even better than the ALIAS renderer, which also uses adaptive super-sampling. Gene Bodio currently has both systems in his studio and he's sending the ALIAS system back because it's so slow and the quality is so bad. Edge and color quality is something we made sure in 3DSr3 was as good as Renderman. Nobody else except for Wavefront (and Pixar, of course) in the commercial rendering business can honestly make that statement.