LightWave 3D Group Offers $695 LightWave 11.6 Crossgrade to 2D and 3D Artists

yes! you read it right $695 crossgrade from ANY software,
and is true I just send a screen capture and I got my coupon…for test

is a good deal or lightwave is a dead software?
remember me whats happens with messiah studio…oh well

http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/lightwave_3d_group_offers_695_lightwave_11.6_crossgrade_to_2d_and_3d_artist

When they say ‘any software’, does that include Blender?

Otherwise, Blender in this case could be used as a sort of cheat to get Lightwave for a lower price because it doesn’t cost anything and anyone can just quick whip something up and send the screen capture.

Otherwise they would also have to extend the deal to users of such software as Milkshape 3D and Anim8or, not sure how well that would work.

Well, I just send a screen capture of toon boom animate…

I would think they’d be happy to get some Blender users.:slight_smile:

Lightwave is far from dead. There´s been really good, and needed, development the last couple of years. Not my cup of tea, but definitely not dead.

I was reading a thread on cgtalk on a similar question and the impression given by a some current and ex users was that it was heading down that road

LghtWave was the first 3D software I ever used, 20+ years ago. I made a switch to Blender about 6 years ago. But now I use a lot of software. I still have LightWave. There are a few features that are really cool. Surfacing nodes and rendering are a tad more advanced than Blender. Modeling is behind in my opinion. Rigging and animation in Blender is a superior workflow.

I think for the most part, the enhancement to a Blender artist would be the bullet dynamics (rather than having to use the game engine) and basically surfacing and rendering. It would be a great app to export animation from Blender (mdd) and then surface and render in LightWave.

So really I think it is the other way around where there is more advantage. A LighWave artist has more to add to his toolset by adding Blender. But, really if you want really easy and very high quality rendering and surfacing, it is hard to beat.

Cycles is very very nice, but LightWave still has a few advantages in features now. Though that will likely be short lived.

The main problem is that LightWave is on an antiquated architecture. For example undo is very limited. And in modeler ( which samefully is a separate app) you have no undo on selection. But there are a few advanced modeling tools I still miss in Blender.

It is worth looking into as future upgrades will be promising I feel.

But currently I get most of the things I am missing in LightWave and Blender from Maya.

I believe they list the software that they accept for this promotion.

I’ve used Lightwave for years and have slowly been moving away from it in favor of Blender, which is starting to surpass it in terms of feature set.

There’s an interesting thread over at the Lightwave forums concerning Lightwaves’ future and how Gooseberry could potentially push Blender into mainstream use --> http://forums.newtek.com/showthread.php?143183-Watch-for-Project-Gooseberry

Lightwave isn’t dead, but it definitely needs some love. I made the point that the next version of LW needs to be more than just a few new tools. Version 12 needs to include features that push the boundaries.

I’m also a long time Lightwave user and owner. Since the Blender 2.5 overhaul I’ve gone over to Blender for personal use. I got the Lightwave 11.6 upgrade with the intention of using it as an external renderer for Blender scenes but Blender keeps improving it’s rendering features and I’m not sure I’ll reach the event horizon where it’s worth the effort to export a blender scene to lightwave and go through the effort of surfacing and rendering in lightwave. Rendering nice looking animation is probably better done in Lightwave [at the moment].

…that said, the main reason I’m sticking with Blender and not making use of my lightwave seat is that I’m trying to simplify my workflow and keep things simple. Doing everything in one 3d app that has zero copy protection issues is a big plus to me.

Autodesk have done me in and worn down my resolve with all the licensing hoops you have to go through just to own and use their products. Newtek (lightwave parent company) has been historically better to deal with as far as licensing and dongle issues go, but no, I’m too old for that messing around now and being able to download and use Blender straight away, on any suitable machine is Blender’s best ‘feature’ for me.

I think the answer to both questions is no. No its not a good deal for most people, and no its not a dead software.

It might be a good deal if you been using Lightwave since the “Seaquest” or “Babylon 5” days, and know the ins and outs of the package and are extremely proficient with it. I know a few people like that. They have used it and use it still, however most have switched to a third party renderers like Thea/Octane.

I’ve used it 20 or so years ago, then again 15 years ago, then again from time to time last 10 years, mostly when freelancing on jobs that were tied to it as a primary package.

Its not getting better in the core. Yes a few features sparkle from time to time but still it will be pretty frustrating for anyone familiar with other software and may limit those just starting out (without them knowing it).

I think Modo and Houdini Indie are much better deals at the moment (Modo was 40% off until recently).

Voices in the industry have been saying “Lightwave will be dead soon” for as long as I remember, and it has not happened yet. It is, however, crippled somewhat by its separated Modeler<=>Layout architecture and workflow.

I am a LW9.6 user, and mainly use it to render certain product shots. In the last couple of years more and more I tend to use Blender and Octane these, so Lightwave is becoming much less important to me.

I have to say though that Newtek has been a very friendly company to deal with in terms of licensing costs: I started out with 7, and got two free full point releases. If Newtek only consolidated the two apps into one I would probably update my license.

The Bullet dynamics in Blender can now be simulated without having to use the game engine, it’s really easy to use, perhaps you missed that part in the release notes?

dang, i wish they had a linux version

Oh right, yeah, vaguely remember now,thanks for the heads up.

From there then it would be a matter of comparing implementation.

Another long time LW users here who got into Blender on the 2.6 point. I’d agree LW is far from dead, but for sure when it comes to modelling, it has long been a neglected area, thus my transition to Blender. After years of failed delivery in that area, I gave up trusting any movement to be delivered.
It took me quite a while to wrap my head around Blender but now I find I tend only to drift back to LW to make use of the LWCAD 3rd party plugin, though there remain one or two modelling tools I still wish Blender had from LW.

LW will continue I am sure, but then I also think for the hobbyist it is becoming less of an option given the changes in price, plus, with free software so powerful, why spend money if you aren’t looking to get into the industry.

I am an old fart, so remember the days of PovRay and notepad to do 3D, I could never of imagined having such a powerful package as Blender for free back then. :slight_smile:

Richard Culver and colkai:
What modeling tools from Lightwave would you like to see in blender? And which LWCAD features are most useful to you?

I switched from Lightwave to Blender about 3 years ago, largely because if there were modeling tools that I felt were missing, I could add code to Blender to add them. I agree with Richard that LW is great for easy and high quality surfacing and rendering, which is why I started with LW in the first place.

I tried LW a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Did not like its workflow. It had like 2 modes to switch to do things and that duality was really getting in my nerves.

I’ve also tried LW a millennia ago. Of course, you always begin with modeling when you’re starting. Not that I’m interested in anything other than modeling when it comes to 3D. Back then there was also TrueSpace and all these sophisticated-sounding names.

LW didn’t click with me. Just the fact that I can’t use the scroll wheel for zooming irritated the hell out of me. I also come from a place where I don’t have to use any short cut key to do anything simple (like in Rhino, for example. I had to when I got serious with Blender). There’s just no way I could find my way in that type of UI without reading a manual.

For me, the reason I end up back in Lightwave is the render speed. That along with the little quick stuff that in Blender, I have to build a comp for… like lens flares, glows, etc. That stuff is pretty much a button push in Lightwave.

One of the reasons that my stuff is so much faster in Lightwave is that I know how to set up the render settings to go fast but make things look nice. That comes from years of rendering production stuff in Lightwave. I’m just now getting the hang of Blender Internal for doing good looking, quick renders. Cycles… not so much. For a still image, Cycles is amazing but for animation it’s pretty much unusable for a one-man production unless you have a renderfarm. If they would just get sss to work with gpu, then we’ll be cookin with gas!

I’m a hobbyist that own Modo 401, LW 10.1 Edu, and also using Blender.

LW might not be dead, but as per CGTalk article, obviously heading that way. They develop a plug-in that can be used in OTHER app (Chronosculpt)? Not that its wrong, but that is not how you gain users to your MAIN app - bread and butter.

And the other thing is that industry perception and usage. They are losing educational market, and are NOT capturing Indie market. So I don’t know how well is their future.

To use current Sony stock evaluation analogy, I consider LW stock as ‘junk’ (which also for those who read, is what financial analyst consider SONY stock as.

They might be legendary years ago, might be the pioneer (as in SONY, that would be the walkman). But they missed the bus and made a lot of business mistake (shutting CORE over LW is only prolonging the envitable. CORE was meant to be their rising Pheonix / Final Fantasy).

And to me, MODO was the spiritual LW anyway.