NewTek has released Lightwave 11.5 of it’s venerable 3D application.
New features include:
- Dongle-Free Licensing – Dongles are no longer required to access the many features of LightWave
- Bullet Soft Body Dynamics – Soft body effects are now possible with Bullet, including cloth
- Bullet Forces – Several force types are now available within Bullet
- Genoma – Fast, modular instant rigging system for Modeler that includes presets for rapid-rigging
- VPR Update – Depth-of-Field, Motion Blur and Anaglyph Stereo now visible in the renderer
- Rolling Shutter – Rolling Shutter camera effects are now possible to aid matching footage that has this effect present
- Edge Rendering Node Control – Control edge opacity, taper and color using nodes
- Flocking Update – Predator / Prey behavior, new Director types and Node control
- FiberFX Update- Multiple styles per object – stored with the object, new styling controls, updated UI
- GoZ™ Fiber Mesh™ Support – Building on the robust GoZ support in LightWave 11. LightWave 11.5 now supports ZBrush Fiber Meshes
- Adobe™ After Effects™ Support – ‘GoZ style’ After Effects interchange for Cameras, Lights, NULLs and animation
- Instancing Update- Per Object control, speed and memory improvements
- Modeler Tools Update – ABF UV Unwrap, Edit Edges, Place Mesh, Slice, Thicken, Heat Shrink, Tweak, Transform, Axis and alignment tools and more
- Workflow Enhancements – Many enhancements to streamline and improve workflow
I used to do some Lightwave, back when I wanted to really learn 3D. Now it seems most people lean towards Cinema 4D, though I have never had a chance to play with it, and I would love to try out Z-Brush as 3D sculpting sounds very cool. Still Lightwave is a powerful program, and I am glad they are adding to it’s feature set.