A First Look at LightWave 5.0

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                       A First Look at LightWave 5.0
  Bohus Blahut                                             bohus@xnet.com
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       "Imitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement"
                                                   ©1996 Bohus Blahut

A look at LightWave 5.0

In the last issue, we examined a few of LightWave 5's new features.  These
observations were based on hands-on demonstrations at NAB in Las Vegas. 
NewTek is already shipping the PC version of LightWave 5.0.  The following
is the list of improvements verbatim from the press release. 

NewTek reported to us that the only differences between this list and what
will actually make it to the Amiga release, are that the Amiga version
won't have any features that call on "OpenGL".  Other differences between
versions will be more apparent once LW 5.0 Amiga is actually shipping. 

Note: features denoted with an asterisk (*) are features that are also
available in previous versions of LW.

LAYOUT

True OpenGL support for real-time shaded views.  Includes support for up to
8 interactive lights, acknowledges surface attributes such as Diffusion,
Specularity, Luminosity, Double-sided, Outline Only, and Smoothing

Front Face View of objects for faster redraw and cleaner interface

AutoKey Create mode for ultra-fast keyframe set up  

Realistic OpenGL Previews animations

Tiling and Alpha Channel options for Texture Maps

Dolly, Truck and Pan capability allowing movement along an object's axis

Infinite Surface Layering

User definable Texture Map anti-aliasing

Numerous enhancements to the User Interface including:

Color Background images for enhanced compositing

Color Swatches in RGB fields

Render Sample Cube

Copy/Paste Surface attributes from Render Samples

* Dozens of surface attributes including Luminosity, Glossiness, 
  Diffusion, Transparency, Reflectivity, Bumpiness

* Animate and Morph textures

* Apply over a dozen textures including Marble, Wood Ripples, Fractal 
  patterns and a variety of image mapping options


ANIMATION

MetaMation: A new organic animation plug-in that automatically smoothes an
object with Metaform2 before each frame renders

Bone Enhancements including: Joint Compensation, and Muscle Flexing

Inverse Kinematics improvements including active goals and goal strengths

Multiple Target Object Morphing from one envelope

Interactive Camera Zoom levels

Interactive Light Cone angles

* Inverse Kinematics allows you to create complex character animation
  quickly

* IK makes animating like puppeteering

* Animate nearly all attributes of your scenes through an easy to use
  keyframe interface, or with envelope controls.

* Animate lights, lens flares, textures, objects, even camera attributes;
  zoom or depth of field

* Hierarchical motion and targeting

* Displacement Mapping and 3D Morphing

* Advanced Motion controls including Spline Controls, Velocity, Shifting
  and Scaling

* Multi-color wireframe layout (not available on Amiga Version)

* Save AVI and FLIC flies

* Advances lens flare controls allows streak rotations and other
  manipulation

* Penello Lite from XAOS tools gives your imagery an organic look

MODELER

OpenGL support for real time shaded views, acknowledging surface attributes
of Diffusion, Specularity, Luminosity, Double-sided, and Smoothing

METANURBS Modeling Tool; this new tool combines the ease and flexibility of
polygonal modeling with the power and organic feel of NURBS modeling

Metaballs Modeling Plug-In

New and improved MetaForm2 Plug-In

New Spline Modeling Tools

Surface Editing directly in Modeler

Graphics Tablet Support standard

Randomization for Bevel and Array tools

Data sharing (import/export) between Layout and Modeler

Enhanced support for True Type fonts

Dramatically increased Graphic Redraw speed

Easy to use Lasso Style Zoom

* Hundreds of modeling tools including Extrude, Lathe, Bevel, Mirror,
  Clone, Quantize, Jitter, Subdivide and many more

* Postscript and TrueType font compatibility

* Draw freehand shapes, or trace over images

* Work among ten different layers

* Preview objects as solid or see through wire-frames or new OpenGL preview

* Boolean tools allow cutting, slicing, and combining objects easily

* Create organic objects with spline curves, spline patching, and Metaform2

* Multiple view options

* Macros allow automation of complex functions

* Multiple levels of Undo and Redo

* Automatic standards format between metric and standard in numeric
  requesters

* Mathematical functions can be typed directly into numeric requesters

PLUG-INS

Robust Plug-In architecture gives NewTek and other developers direct
control over LightWave 3D to suimply add new features and functions such as
gravity, image filter/processors, or new modeling tools.  Plug-Ins included
with LightWave 3D are:

Equation
LWpanels
Globsave
MotionEffector
InheritRotation
JitterMotion
MathMotion
ParentBone
ParentCamera
ParentLight
ObjList
ObjectSequence
DisplacementMapEffector
LazyPoints
MetaMation
Blotch
CelShader
Checker
ColorCube
HSLColorCube
NormalColor
SurfBlurShader
StoryBoard
FilmExpand
4XStoryboard
ImageList
MotionDump
AllBGLayers
Arn_calculate
BoundingBox
Cage
Calculate
Center
Center
Center1D
CenterScale
CenterStretch
CutCurves
Envelopes
ImpSurf3D
Julienne
LightSwarm
LoadFonts
MathMotion
NextEmptyLayer
PathToMotion
Platonic
Plot1D
Plot2D
PointCenter
PolyEdgeShaper
Donut
Wedge
SplineCage
RandomPoints
Gear
RandPricks
RotateAnyAxis
RotateHPB
SceneToVRML
Stipple
SuperQuadric
Symmetrize
TextCompose
TextCurve
Throw
Toroid
Translator3DOptions
VRMLAutoSave
VRMLSave
Wedge
Add-Metaball
AutoPatcher
AutoPatcherMK
BGConform
Converge_Points
Fast-Triple-Fan
Fast-Triple-Traverse
Make_DoubleSided
MakeSpikey
MetaBalls
MetaForm2
Points2Polys
TriangleFan
TriangleStrip
Power-Texture
PowerView
RandPoints
Reduce-Polygons
Rest-On-Ground
Rotate-About-Normal
Rotate-Arbitrary-Axis
Rotate-To-Ground
Rotate-To-Object
Spherize
Squarize
SurfFuzzShader
Weave
ZOR
BlurFilter
Convolve
Emboss
Gamma
Negative
NightVision
NTSC_Legalize
PAL_legalize
PENELLOlite
Sepia
SpecialBuffer
SurfBlurFilter
SurfFuzzFilter
VidNoise
Vignette
Watermark
AVI savers
FLIC saver

Image Loaders/Savers for the following formats: Alias, BMP, Cineon, IFF,
JPEG, PCX, Pict, Pixar, QRT, Rendition, SGI, Sun, TIFF, Targa32, Toaster,
WaveFront, XWindows, YUV

Translator 3D loaders/savers for the following formats:
3DStudio, AuoCAD, Alias/Wavefront


RENDERING

New Cel Animation Features for Cel edges and Cel rendering, makes 3D look
hand drawn.

New Plug-In classes including Pixel Filter and Special Buffers for new
rendering and shader effects

New Lens Flare modes including; central ring color and size modifications,
and star filter enhancements

Project bitmap images through spotlights

* Render 32bit images in custom resolutions

* Saves 24-bit images and separate 8-bit alpha channel images

* Use realistic camera options such as Focal Length, Depth of Field and
  Motion Blur

* Generate true-to-life Ray Traced shadows, reflections, and refraction

* Control light attributes including Light Type, Color, Intensity, Falloff,
  Lens Flare, Shadow Options, and more

* Create special effects such as animated Fog, Image Keying and Particle
  Blur

* Unaffected by Fog option for objects

* Unseen by Rays option for object

* Custom resolutions up to 8,000 by 8,000 pixels

* Render module allowing network rendering on up to 999 CPUs

* IFF2Clip module allows building of Video Toaster Flyer Clips

LightWave 3D includes a CD-ROM full of license-free objects, images,
textures, and scenes.

For more informations call 1-800-TOASTER, info@newtek.com, or
HTTP://www.newtek.com

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