CompuServe Messages

Jim Here are the phone numbers you requested; Autodesk (3DS) 1-800-879-4233 Impulse (Imagine) 1-800-328-0184 Caligari (TrueSpace) 1-800-351-7620 Newtek (Lightwave) 1-800-847-8111 Lightwave already is a better program than 3DS. It runs on an Amiga. However, Amigas are so slow that without a ScreamerNet rendering engine, Lightwave is not a viable option for large scale animations. It's not uncommon to see animations produced with Lightwave on an Amiga that take several hours per frame to render. Lightwave is not worth having to put up with an Amiga unless you can afford the $15,000+ ScreamerNet rendering engine. Now that Lightwave is arriving on the PC, I think the entire industry will be shaken up. It never ceases to amaze me the masses of 3DS users who put down Lightwave but have never actually used it. The only real reason that 3DS is possibly better is because it runs on a PC. If you are going to produce small amounts of animation (a demo tape), wait for Lightwave. It is a better program, includes many more features, a plug-in concept similar to 3DS's, as well as vastly superior output, all at a fraction of the price. I'm running out of time, but If you'd like, I could give you an in depth comparison between 3DS and Lightwave tomorrow.