#LightWave 3.5
29 messages in this thread
SO, forgive me for being stupid, but is this AMiga LightWave upgrade shipping
yet? It's version 3.5 right?
Lost in UpgradeLand…
Trent/ReAnimators
Trent,
Must be; I'm installing it this AM!
Nate.
And how much is this version gonna set us folks back?
Ed,
It was $100 or thereabouts (not billed yet) from Creative. They said it'd take
two weeks, came two days later.
Haven't done much with Modeler yet (did see 10 layers, some more
screen options and such), but there's a grunch of new stuff in LW. 4
or 8 color interface on the 2000 with 3 screen sizes (672×432,
800×600, and 1024×768), render to HAM anims (6 and 8 bit) and screens
plus PiccassoII, render any size image, control of memory used during
rendering (excludes Z buffer, I found!), lots of improved gadgets,
can be run in a machine with a VT *OR* a dongle. Much more.
Pretty nice upgrade, especially if you're still on 3.0 as it includes
the 3.1 stuff also.
So, anybody know why my left Amiga audio channel started going whacko
when I fire up the VT software? Sounds like a bad PD game machine
gun track for a few seconds. Started just a few days ago, before I
put 3.5 in. I suppose my real old rev. card is finally about to
expire…
Creative?
Now you've got me confused.
And hey! I got a letter from Avid today! I'm finally gonna get my
Seminar stuff!!! *Yay!*
Creative Computers, in the magazines.
Now I'm getting a wierd problem with 3.5. Modeller keeps telling me
it's internal buffers are too small when trying to do a solid drill
tunnel on one 72 side cylinder with another (making a ring shape).
Could've swore I was doing more complex stuff with 3.1 with no
problems. Hope I'm not having 'nother memory problem.
BTW, for me the swap selected function was worth the price of the
upgrade alone.
Thanks Nate, I'll get on it…
Trent/ReAnimators
I got it today yesterday and wasn't impressed. Wavemaker scene files
bomb the machine. (Anybody know why?) $99 and I really couldn't give
you one compelling reason to upgrade. I don't need all the Targa
Board support (although I can guess why its there) and camera choices
including 110 pocket camera's and 65mm Imax. I was really hoping for
Forge/Essence support. "Windswept" is the term they use for
Metaforming objects. Not exactly blown away by this one. Hey, values
for surfaces go to 400% That's twice as good, init? Joe Clasen Joe's
DB&G
Really distressed by your message. I thought I was told that 3.5 had
the plug in architecture and all that needed to be done was the
essence type packages needed to be modified into a LW plug in. Also,
I saw a demo of the metaform function and it looked really useful to
me.
Prehaps, but lets hope Lightwave Pro spills the beans. It needs a
Grossian explanation, What the hell does "Metaform will convert any
basic shape into an approximately C2 continuous smooth surface which
inscribes the starting hull form." I know lawyers that aren't that
vague. On the other hand I made a kinda cool looking shuttlecraft by
just Monkeying around. Joe Clasen Joe's DB&G
I would have to disagree with your disappointment in the 3.5 update.
Although it is not as big in terms of new features added as previous
upgrades, it continues to become a more functional and elegant
animation environment.
The metaform tool is quite powerful. I've been able to come up with
dozens of uses for it. Modeling a hand, cars, faces, etc., is now
easier. I've worked extensively with Metaball modelers on the SGI
platform, and almost prefer the approach taken here.
As far as trouble with your WaveMaker scene files is concerned, there
was a change in the scene file format with this version. We had
trouble with Dynamic Motion Module scenes loading until we crunched
out a quick upgrade (1.07). It is likely that a text editor could be
used to change the problamatic part of the scene file. My guess is
that the references to Null Objects has changed. I could be wrong.
LightWave continues to be both powerful and easy to use.
I am warming up to 3,5, since on a ECS machine you get yellow highlights
when modeling, although SLOW. Metaform is pale in comparison to Freeform
as a modeling tool. I found a cheap fix for Wavemaker:
1. Load the scene file…DO NOT Cancel the requester
2. Resave the scene file.
3. Everythings Okey Dokey
Direct Access is cut off but all those scene files are not wasted
anymore. Lightwave is still the best program on the planet. Newtek
is usually so good at upping the ante, I was hoping for a bigger pot.
Its just kind of tough when then first thing you try after an upgrade
Bombs the machine,
Interesting news Joe. Especially in light of the fact I'm thinking
of ordering the stand-alone LW and sell my original Toaster card. Is
there EGS support?
Choice of Layout:1. 672×432 4 or 8 Color
2. 800×600 4 or 8 Color
3. 1024×768 4 or eight color
* 8 colors provides a yellow highlight for rendering. The larger sizes
provide for larger monitors and less squinting.
Saves are 24 bit RGB, Targa, Raw, and 6 or 8 bit
Alpha Images are 8 or 24 bit
It may be me, but I think it renders 10 percent slower.
Joe Clasen
Joe's DB&G
Thanks for the info, Joe. I'll set up some speed comparisons while I'm waiting
for delivery.
Trent/ReAnimators
It's great having 8-color support on my A2000 sys with LW 3.5 :^)
Can anyone tell me how to keep it on as a default when I enter LW? I've
had no luck with the LW or MOD-config files.
Also can someone tell me how to config LW so I can render LARGE image
files on a 16 meg sys? I just tried to render a print res image from
a very basic setup and I got an error, 'Not enough Ram for frame
buffer'. Pretty sure this setup would have rendered no problem using
LW 3.0 on my sys.
Theres definately been ALOT of work done lately by Newtek to get LW
ready for other platforms, Its becoming quite configurable. Can't
wait to see it 'Opened up' for s/w like DMM and Forge.
Perhaps you need to turn off the render to Framebuffer feature?
RE: Rendering print res images…
Allen has changed the way that LW needs memory – In earlier versions,
the frame buffer (where the image goes b4 being saved – not the
Toaster frame buffer) was segmented, so you could render large images
as long as you had enough memory for a segment. Now LW has to keep a
full size frame buffer in RAM. To figure out how much mem you need,
take width X Height of output rez and multiply that product by 4.
This is how much RAM in bytes needed to render that image. Plus add
in the amount of RAM needed by the system, image maps and the user
defined Segment Memory.
This change was made in order to incorporate post-process plug in
features which need to operate on a single image in memory.
Allen plans to incorporate a virtual memory scheme in order to allow
large resolution images to be rendered. This update will be posted
online as a patch. It will be a little while yet… (1 month?)
Do not confuse this segmented frame buffer with the Segment Memory
button in the Camera panel – that is for rendering memory and whether
the image is rendered in one segment or many and then sent to the
frame buffer…
Solution for now: render with earlier versions if you can until the
patch is available.
Oh, yea… At present there is no config file option to default in 8
color mode.
John,
Thanks for the info.
Bummer about both problems. Luckily I can easily revert to LW 3.0 IF
it will work with my current Toaster 3.1/LW 3.5 setup. I guess it
will.
Will all of the scenes saved by LW 3.5 render through 3.0 s/w?
This is unfortunate for many of us who use LW for print applications
as much as animation. The main reason I got my 3.5 u/g was the
ability to render to 8K images, Now I can't even go print res :^( I
guess the people saying you'd never have enough Ram to render 8k*8k
images were right for now. Helluva RIP :^)
I got 100 megs set aside for Gigamem on my system, it would be nice to
be able to use that. Thought about trying it. I guess I will.
What type of post processing features do you mean? I would think DMM
or Forge would be Pre Render plug ins.
Gigamem works well with LW, there is one critical setting, as I
recall, someone here or in NewTek tech support should know the
trick…
Thats good news about Gigamem :^)
Hope someone chimes in with the trick to getting it to work with LW.
….John
Gigamem is fine unless you're running a EC040. My GVP '040 is fast as
all get out but chokes on virtual memory stuff.
Allen has some ideas for cool post processing effects inspired by Anime
(Japanese animation) and others. Think of these plug-in post processing
features as IPAS routines (but better).
JG
I knew I should have just read further. Will you post a general message when
the patch is available?
RE: Print Res patch…
I probably wont have to announce the availability of this patch as NewTek
will, but I'll keep my eyes open
Also, in case anyone is wondering about the reason Load and Save Preview
aren't supported in stand alone…
The original preview code was written in Assembly by an ex NewTek
employee. Allen had to rewrite the preview code in C for the stand alone
release, but did not have enough time to get the Load/Save preview in
before shipping. If you run it from the Toaster, the old code will work
and you will be able to load/save.
I don't know if this Load/Save for standalone will come as a patch or
only as a next version thing…
It is a tad slower on my 2000 '040 33. Also, with 18megs I cannot render in
print resolution with 3.5 whereas with 3.1 I could.
I would like to see some support for virtual HD memory for us GVP '040 guys. I
know it would be slow, but I need to render in big formats from time to time.
Jim Roof
*The Patches for VTA and VTI are available for us on NewTek's
BB…(913-271-9299) and a read me file. A readme file also exists.
(VT) Maybe this will help. Joe Clasen Joe's DB&G
Are there any plans to port LightWave to the PowerMac
Mark Daunt