LightWave and Picasso or other Amiga 24-bit Graphics Cards

Product: LightWave

Platforms: 2000 3000 3000T 4000 4000T

Please note that the stand-alone Lightwave package includes only very limited support for retargetable cards such as the Picasso. Lightwave still operates dependably when used in the screen modes standard on any model Amiga, i.e. NTSC high res interlace. All functions of the program are available in that mode. When used in 800x600 mode, static preview is available in Modeler, but Moving preview does not work.

LightWave for the Toaster/Flyer requires the Toaster software to be running in order for Lightwave to operate, and the Toaster, of course, requires use of the NTSC screen modes.

As to creating previews in Layout, when operating with the Picasso card this function does not work. Layout bypasses the blitter and writes directly to the Amiga graphics RAM when creating previews. This was done so that the function would work on any professional model Amiga (2000/3000/4000), including older Amigas with early version chipsets which do not have sufficient blitter bandwidth for the preview playback. Picasso intercepts the blitter, but apparently does not intercept writes to the graphics RAM done in the way Lightwave is doing.

Changing what Lightwave does would break the software for our users with older machines, and we have chosen not to do that to a large installed base of faithful users of the product.

We have also confirmed that TPaint and Layout both have control menus that do not appear when Picasso is being used as the primary display. In both cases the problem is simply that Picasso does not support a basic Amiga function, the display of multiple overlapping screens. The color display bar that pops up when the "Surface color" button is pressed in Layout is actually a small custom screen overlaid on the main Layout screen. Most TPaint control panels are done in the same fashion, as are some of the control panels in the program Brilliance.

Currently we have not used any 3rd party display board in house that proved capable of doing this. This may be correctable by future revisions of the software, firmware, or hardware of such boards.

When LightWave is used in the appropriate screen mode all features will be available.