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LightWave v9: a Letter from Jay Roth
Dear LightWavers:
Last Friday, we announced that LightWave v9 Open Beta will begin on Valentine's Day, February 14th. We want to ”show you the love”, but we do have a warning: those of you with significant others may want to wait a day. NewTek would not want to be held accountable for any relationship issues because you were using v9 Open Beta till all hours of the night!
We’re very excited about this new version of LightWave and we’re anxious to get your feedback. As we’ve stated, we’re rebuilding LightWave from the ground up; some parts remain the same, yet others are completely different. In this first release of the LightWave v9 series, we looked at what would benefit the greatest numbers of LightWave users: Reliability and Performance.
Many of you earn additional income using LightWave daily, and some of you make it a professional career. You folks need to have LightWave work reliably, in the harshest environment of all, the production pipeline. Even those of you who use LightWave less vigorously will appreciate the improvements in reliability incorporated into LightWave v9. I think that you will find this version of LightWave the most robust NewTek has ever shipped.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Regardless of whether you are a pro or an occasional user, you want to get your work done as quickly as possible. Many things figure into that simple thought: user interface performance, workflow, and of course, rendering speed. I am proud to say that this version of LightWave gives you all three.
You will see a tremendous improvement in speed while using LightWave v9 Layout. We designed a new OpenGL engine from the ground up, and the first results are here now. Viewport manipulation, object translation, rotation and scaling are significantly faster than previous versions of LightWave, in all of the major drawing modes: Wireframe, Shaded Solid, and Textured Shaded Solid. You may notice an initial pause when you first load up or switch modes - we’re working on that for subsequent releases - but then you’ll really operate at full throttle. Note that you will not yet see similar gains with deformations and bones, but you will in subsequent releases.
As a rendering preview option, you have the ability to use GLSL shaders, which will match the rendered results that you will produce without the need to render first. In some cases, this process will not be real time, but it will be faster than hitting F9.
As we go along, we will be making workflow improvements throughout LightWave. There are some small examples of this throughout Layout and Modeler in v9, with more to come. We didn’t want to go too crazy on this at first, as we know that many of you have very strong opinions about how things should work, and we look forward to incorporating your feedback as we go.
Rendering
Now, we get to a personal favorite of mine: rendering. Tremendous gains have been made in rendering since version 8.5. We have completely replaced the old ray-tracing engine, and have added a new, state-of-the-art ray-tracer. This ray-tracer uses KD-trees to manage scene data, and helps the imaging system sort though vast amounts of data very quickly. You may not notice the difference in scenes that have small amounts of data (polygons), but you will see a difference as you render more complex scenes. In fact, the more data you add, the better the performance gap will be between LightWave 8.5 and LightWave v9. This engine has really been tuned for extreme scenes, something more and more of you work with every day. We are still compiling meaningful numbers, but in some heavy duty test scenes we saw improvements of several times over 8.5.
Advanced Camera Tools
Of course, in order to render a scene, you need to work with cameras and materials. LightWave v9 has a new set of cameras and options called ”Advanced Camera Tools.” There are a bevy of cool new effects that you can accomplish with ACT, and some of them are real mind benders - literally. You can create cameras that have the lens distortions found in real world cameras; you can move the camera along a path with the shutter open, while recording a single frame; the ”slit scan” effects created for ”2001: A Space Odyssey” were created in this manner photographically. You can create Orthographic views that allow you to show off your modeling and lighting masterpieces, and much, much more. We have added a few new camera types to LightWave. We have the original camera, now renamed ”Classic.” We have a new ”Perspective Camera” which is similar to Classic, but uses new algorithms to rip through complex scenes much faster than the Classic Camera. We have the Orthographic Camera, which mimics LightWave viewport views and removes perspective from your renderings, in addition to the Advanced Camera in ACT, discussed above.
Node Editor
On the material front, we have a completely new way to assign shaders and textures to your surfaces - the LightWave Node Editor. The Node Editor allows you to build a ”node graph” of components to give incredible control over the look of your objects. The node graph tree can be simple, or very complex, depending upon your needs, and your level of sophistication. Node graphs are a different twist, and some folks may be a little disoriented by them at first. Don’t worry, our new documentation will offer you guidelines as to when you might choose to use the node graph, vs. the traditional layers interface that you are familiar with. In addition, we are offering tutorials and in depth explanations of the node-graph engine so you can get up to speed at your convenience. The new node graph is very powerful - it even has an SDK, so you or third-parties can create your own nodes! I can’t wait to see what you folks come up with…
New Shader Models
We realized something when we put in the Node Editor; it actually allowed us to leapfrog our implementation schedule a little. We are in this for the long haul , and there are some things that are going to take longer than others to address. One of the things we wanted to put in was the ability to use shaders other than LightWave’s default shading system. Some folks have written some great shaders out there, but there were limits to what LightWave’s internal shading pipeline allowed to be accomplished. This was very frustrating for us, to have to wait even longer to see these improvements. Thanks to the power of the Node Editor, however, we were able to break through that old, limited code much earlier than we had originally thought. I am very happy to report that you can now use a variety of industry-standard shading methods such as Oren-Nayar, Blinn, Cook-Torrance, Anisotropic and so on. And new nodes are coming every day.
Some of you might find a couple of new shading types of great interest: the first one is sub-surface scattering! This is our own version of the popular shader, and we think that you will like it. You have a lot of control over the final quality, and thus the render times involved. You can use a single scattered ray, or multiple rays. You can even cheat and not use any rays at all, if the look suits you. You will love the way it looks.
The other item you may find of interest is tangent-based normal maps. These normal maps can come from a variety of sources, and will look great regardless of whether you have a static object, or an object that is deformed with a skeleton. It’s fast and beautiful.
APS
Now we move on to another exciting new feature we call Advanced Pixel Subdivision, or APS for short. APS is a method of sub-pixel displacement that is very powerful and fast. You have control of the resolution of the displacement down to the amount of polygons per pixel that you want to use. For all intents and purposes, the appearance will be very similar to ”micropoly displacements” but these are truly smooth-shaded displacements, and generate an alpha channel (for you compositor-types out there.) With APS, you can take a rather simple object, subD it, and add a tremendous amount of detail with little effort or penalty (especially compared to how you have done it previously - if you could have done it at all)
As APS is reliant upon subD surfaces, we added a new type of subD method, available in both Modeler and Layout: Catmull-Clark. There are many instances where you may find you prefer Catmull-Clark subDs, but there are tasks where you will find LightWave’s original Sub-Patch still excels as the tool of choice. Now, you have that choice.
Modeler
Modeler now incorporates edges in many modeling operations, which allows you to create objects in new ways. For a number of tasks you'll discover a preference for edges over the traditional point and polygonal modeling methods, and in other cases the traditional methods may still be best. Again, now you have a choice as to how you work. You will like edges when using Catmull-Clark subDs, though, as you can have control over edge weighting. In the future, we'll also migrate these edge capabilities over to the tradtional Sub-patches.
Other great new modeling tools have been added as well, and we have made some workflow optimizations, but more importantly we have put a great deal of work into the core of Modeler that will set the stage for extensive tool consolidation as well as major new tools and performance increases. Big changes are coming, and as always, we look forward to your feedback.
The Future
We are also starting the migration of modeling tools into Layout. This process will be longer and more involved than we first thought, and we are putting a great deal of thought and effort into the design. There are many issues in Layout that need to be addressed in order for us to really open up modeling power in Layout, but we are working feverishly on them. In LightWave v9, you will be able to use any modeler plug-in that works on whole objects. You will be able to use Vertex Paint to modify your vertex maps, and you will be able to create 3D text in Layout. As we work out new UI approaches for these tools, we will include them in subsequent releases in the LightWave v9 series.
One area that we recognize we need to further enhance is the character animation system. We want to make sure that we get this one right, and we are going to take the time needed to insure the best results. We are all working very hard to insure that you don’t wait too long to get what you want. We hear you.
In fact, I just want to point out that all of the staff in NewTek’s 3D Division, as well as NewTek CEO Jim Plant, fervently read all the different LightWave boards frequently. We see it all -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. In addition to speaking directly with you, and using other information gathering tools, we have found your comments about how to improve LightWave to be very useful. We have taken on a tremendous task, and we appreciate your support as we continue to recreate LightWave. We recognize the passion that you all have - we share it!
Below, we have included the current feature list for LightWave v9. You will also find the first in the series of new LightWave v9 videos. Be sure to check these out, we’re pretty sure you’re going to love what you see. And, we’ve got over 20 more LightWave videos in the works so check back often.
LightWave v9 is just the first in a long line of powerful LightWave upgrades. If we haven’t targeted your key area of concern yet, rest assured we will. (And yes, we are looking into the LW Mind Reading Helmet as part of the new LightWave accessories offerings however, it will come at an additional charge.)
Thanks to all of you for your commitment to LightWave. With your help we’re making LightWave the best 3D system in the world.
Best regards,
Jay Roth
President, NewTek 3D Division
http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/lw9_letter.php
Dear LightWavers:
Last Friday, we announced that LightWave v9 Open Beta will begin on Valentine's Day, February 14th. We want to ”show you the love”, but we do have a warning: those of you with significant others may want to wait a day. NewTek would not want to be held accountable for any relationship issues because you were using v9 Open Beta till all hours of the night!
We’re very excited about this new version of LightWave and we’re anxious to get your feedback. As we’ve stated, we’re rebuilding LightWave from the ground up; some parts remain the same, yet others are completely different. In this first release of the LightWave v9 series, we looked at what would benefit the greatest numbers of LightWave users: Reliability and Performance.
Many of you earn additional income using LightWave daily, and some of you make it a professional career. You folks need to have LightWave work reliably, in the harshest environment of all, the production pipeline. Even those of you who use LightWave less vigorously will appreciate the improvements in reliability incorporated into LightWave v9. I think that you will find this version of LightWave the most robust NewTek has ever shipped.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Regardless of whether you are a pro or an occasional user, you want to get your work done as quickly as possible. Many things figure into that simple thought: user interface performance, workflow, and of course, rendering speed. I am proud to say that this version of LightWave gives you all three.
You will see a tremendous improvement in speed while using LightWave v9 Layout. We designed a new OpenGL engine from the ground up, and the first results are here now. Viewport manipulation, object translation, rotation and scaling are significantly faster than previous versions of LightWave, in all of the major drawing modes: Wireframe, Shaded Solid, and Textured Shaded Solid. You may notice an initial pause when you first load up or switch modes - we’re working on that for subsequent releases - but then you’ll really operate at full throttle. Note that you will not yet see similar gains with deformations and bones, but you will in subsequent releases.
As a rendering preview option, you have the ability to use GLSL shaders, which will match the rendered results that you will produce without the need to render first. In some cases, this process will not be real time, but it will be faster than hitting F9.
As we go along, we will be making workflow improvements throughout LightWave. There are some small examples of this throughout Layout and Modeler in v9, with more to come. We didn’t want to go too crazy on this at first, as we know that many of you have very strong opinions about how things should work, and we look forward to incorporating your feedback as we go.
Rendering
Now, we get to a personal favorite of mine: rendering. Tremendous gains have been made in rendering since version 8.5. We have completely replaced the old ray-tracing engine, and have added a new, state-of-the-art ray-tracer. This ray-tracer uses KD-trees to manage scene data, and helps the imaging system sort though vast amounts of data very quickly. You may not notice the difference in scenes that have small amounts of data (polygons), but you will see a difference as you render more complex scenes. In fact, the more data you add, the better the performance gap will be between LightWave 8.5 and LightWave v9. This engine has really been tuned for extreme scenes, something more and more of you work with every day. We are still compiling meaningful numbers, but in some heavy duty test scenes we saw improvements of several times over 8.5.
Advanced Camera Tools
Of course, in order to render a scene, you need to work with cameras and materials. LightWave v9 has a new set of cameras and options called ”Advanced Camera Tools.” There are a bevy of cool new effects that you can accomplish with ACT, and some of them are real mind benders - literally. You can create cameras that have the lens distortions found in real world cameras; you can move the camera along a path with the shutter open, while recording a single frame; the ”slit scan” effects created for ”2001: A Space Odyssey” were created in this manner photographically. You can create Orthographic views that allow you to show off your modeling and lighting masterpieces, and much, much more. We have added a few new camera types to LightWave. We have the original camera, now renamed ”Classic.” We have a new ”Perspective Camera” which is similar to Classic, but uses new algorithms to rip through complex scenes much faster than the Classic Camera. We have the Orthographic Camera, which mimics LightWave viewport views and removes perspective from your renderings, in addition to the Advanced Camera in ACT, discussed above.
Node Editor
On the material front, we have a completely new way to assign shaders and textures to your surfaces - the LightWave Node Editor. The Node Editor allows you to build a ”node graph” of components to give incredible control over the look of your objects. The node graph tree can be simple, or very complex, depending upon your needs, and your level of sophistication. Node graphs are a different twist, and some folks may be a little disoriented by them at first. Don’t worry, our new documentation will offer you guidelines as to when you might choose to use the node graph, vs. the traditional layers interface that you are familiar with. In addition, we are offering tutorials and in depth explanations of the node-graph engine so you can get up to speed at your convenience. The new node graph is very powerful - it even has an SDK, so you or third-parties can create your own nodes! I can’t wait to see what you folks come up with…
New Shader Models
We realized something when we put in the Node Editor; it actually allowed us to leapfrog our implementation schedule a little. We are in this for the long haul , and there are some things that are going to take longer than others to address. One of the things we wanted to put in was the ability to use shaders other than LightWave’s default shading system. Some folks have written some great shaders out there, but there were limits to what LightWave’s internal shading pipeline allowed to be accomplished. This was very frustrating for us, to have to wait even longer to see these improvements. Thanks to the power of the Node Editor, however, we were able to break through that old, limited code much earlier than we had originally thought. I am very happy to report that you can now use a variety of industry-standard shading methods such as Oren-Nayar, Blinn, Cook-Torrance, Anisotropic and so on. And new nodes are coming every day.
Some of you might find a couple of new shading types of great interest: the first one is sub-surface scattering! This is our own version of the popular shader, and we think that you will like it. You have a lot of control over the final quality, and thus the render times involved. You can use a single scattered ray, or multiple rays. You can even cheat and not use any rays at all, if the look suits you. You will love the way it looks.
The other item you may find of interest is tangent-based normal maps. These normal maps can come from a variety of sources, and will look great regardless of whether you have a static object, or an object that is deformed with a skeleton. It’s fast and beautiful.
APS
Now we move on to another exciting new feature we call Advanced Pixel Subdivision, or APS for short. APS is a method of sub-pixel displacement that is very powerful and fast. You have control of the resolution of the displacement down to the amount of polygons per pixel that you want to use. For all intents and purposes, the appearance will be very similar to ”micropoly displacements” but these are truly smooth-shaded displacements, and generate an alpha channel (for you compositor-types out there.) With APS, you can take a rather simple object, subD it, and add a tremendous amount of detail with little effort or penalty (especially compared to how you have done it previously - if you could have done it at all)
As APS is reliant upon subD surfaces, we added a new type of subD method, available in both Modeler and Layout: Catmull-Clark. There are many instances where you may find you prefer Catmull-Clark subDs, but there are tasks where you will find LightWave’s original Sub-Patch still excels as the tool of choice. Now, you have that choice.
Modeler
Modeler now incorporates edges in many modeling operations, which allows you to create objects in new ways. For a number of tasks you'll discover a preference for edges over the traditional point and polygonal modeling methods, and in other cases the traditional methods may still be best. Again, now you have a choice as to how you work. You will like edges when using Catmull-Clark subDs, though, as you can have control over edge weighting. In the future, we'll also migrate these edge capabilities over to the tradtional Sub-patches.
Other great new modeling tools have been added as well, and we have made some workflow optimizations, but more importantly we have put a great deal of work into the core of Modeler that will set the stage for extensive tool consolidation as well as major new tools and performance increases. Big changes are coming, and as always, we look forward to your feedback.
The Future
We are also starting the migration of modeling tools into Layout. This process will be longer and more involved than we first thought, and we are putting a great deal of thought and effort into the design. There are many issues in Layout that need to be addressed in order for us to really open up modeling power in Layout, but we are working feverishly on them. In LightWave v9, you will be able to use any modeler plug-in that works on whole objects. You will be able to use Vertex Paint to modify your vertex maps, and you will be able to create 3D text in Layout. As we work out new UI approaches for these tools, we will include them in subsequent releases in the LightWave v9 series.
One area that we recognize we need to further enhance is the character animation system. We want to make sure that we get this one right, and we are going to take the time needed to insure the best results. We are all working very hard to insure that you don’t wait too long to get what you want. We hear you.
In fact, I just want to point out that all of the staff in NewTek’s 3D Division, as well as NewTek CEO Jim Plant, fervently read all the different LightWave boards frequently. We see it all -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. In addition to speaking directly with you, and using other information gathering tools, we have found your comments about how to improve LightWave to be very useful. We have taken on a tremendous task, and we appreciate your support as we continue to recreate LightWave. We recognize the passion that you all have - we share it!
Below, we have included the current feature list for LightWave v9. You will also find the first in the series of new LightWave v9 videos. Be sure to check these out, we’re pretty sure you’re going to love what you see. And, we’ve got over 20 more LightWave videos in the works so check back often.
LightWave v9 is just the first in a long line of powerful LightWave upgrades. If we haven’t targeted your key area of concern yet, rest assured we will. (And yes, we are looking into the LW Mind Reading Helmet as part of the new LightWave accessories offerings however, it will come at an additional charge.)
Thanks to all of you for your commitment to LightWave. With your help we’re making LightWave the best 3D system in the world.
Best regards,
Jay Roth
President, NewTek 3D Division
http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/lw9_letter.php