NewTek releases the newest version of LightWave. © NewTek.

Earlier this month, SIGGRAPH 2006 was in full swing in Boston. Near the center of the exhibition floor, in a prime corner location was NewTek’s spot, really more stage and screen than booth. It is easy to see that NewTek is reflecting their pride in the newly overhauled LightWave showing off the software on their mammoth screen throughout all three days of the exhibition. While this was a great opportunity for users unfamiliar with LightWave to see it in action, there were enough flinch-worthy moments to question the strategy of the parge scale presentation. At one point, the presenter showed off LightWave v9’s new edge selection feature. He went on to show how selecting an edge loop was just a click away. Let me repeat: this happened in the middle of 2006. Ouch. While this may be big news to LightWave users, edge modeling is old news for users of just about every other 3D package. It seems that while LightWave 9 does offer improvements, many fall into the “too little, too late” category. Despite what amounts to an excellent effort, LightWave, once a leader in many regards, continues to play catch up.

A few of the more positive aspects of LightWave 9 are pricing and just what you get for your money. NewTek lowered the cost of LightWave to $795 last year and has continued the new pricing for v9. This is significantly lower than the big 3D kids on the block, and NewTek offers more than just a low price. Every LightWave 9 purchase includes three versions of the software: Windows 32-bit, Windows 64-bit and Macintosh, making it easier to purchase but not necessarily more useful on multiple machines. In addition LightWave 9 offers multi-core support and unlimited additional render nodes, at no added cost. The option of adding unlimited render nodes should wake up a few potential customers, especially those looking to build productions from the ground up. Render farms can be expensive, but with LightWave 9 the only cost is additional computers, which are getting cheaper by the day. Assuming the rest of the LightWave feature set meets a project’s requirements, this might be the push that gets the LightWave ball rolling for a studio. That “if” is a big assumption, one that deserves further investigation.

Feature wise, LightWave 9 offers enough new stuff that current users will definitely want to upgrade. Those looking to get into 3D should take a look as well, but should consider carefully what they hope to achieve. LightWave 9 contains some new core code to allow it to run faster than ever. Speed has always been a strength of the software, something a 3D artist can never have enough of. The material system has been overhauled and now runs on a node based system, much more modern than the old LightWave materials set up. Again, this is a feature that could have and probably should have come sooner. The new camera systems allows users to dial in any real world camera setup so that the render generated out of LightWave matches existing footage from an actual camera precisely. In addition, the camera system allows any object in LightWave to be made into a camera. This particular feature will likely prove limited beyond the strange and artsy.

Despite the hopes of many users, LightWave still comes in two parts: Modeler for creating 3D objects and Layout for lighting, animation and rendering. Surfacing objects can be accomplished in either app but details really need to be tweaked in Layout, as that’s where the renders are generated. Both apps are somewhat connected via the Hub, but this is still an ungainly way to switch between what are essentially different modes of operation. New to Layout is a small group of modeling tools, which allow artists to make model changes without switching back Modeler. This is a good first step toward integrating the two separate applications, but a far cry from the all-in-one appeal most other software offers.