LightWave 3D brought back from the dead

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
21

Well, it is official!

It’s the 27th and as promised by the new dev team, they’ve just posted that they’ve officially taken ownership of LightWave:

(taken from Discord, posted by Andrew Bishop:)

"Hey there LightWave community! We know you’ve been waiting patiently for some news about the future of LightWave 3D. Well, the wait is over! LightWave Digital is here to bring you a refreshed and reinvigorated software that will blow your minds.

Led by the one and only Andrew Bishop, our global team is dedicated to delivering the best-in-class 3D animation software you deserve. Bug fixes? Absolutely. Updates? No question. New features? You better believe it. And let’s not forget about the quality of life improvements on the user interface, performance, and output quality. We’re talking a software that will make your modelling and rendering more impressive than the Millennium Falcon doing the Kessel Run.

We hear you, we see you, and we’re user-centric, baby. We’ve listened to your feedback, and we are responding to your needs, so we can return LightWave 3D to the powerhouse you know and love. As Yoda would say: “Begun this journey has”. We are now busy completing the transfer from Vizrt and will be ready for action on our launch day on May 4th. So, mark your calendars because it’s going to be out of this world! May the fourth be with you! Sincerely, LightWave Digital"

"About LightWave Digital: Lightwave Digital aims to revolutionize 3D animation creation through cutting-edge software solutions, that empower artists around the world. Our re-launch of LightWave 3D will allows users across multiple industries such as, film production, anime, video games & architectural and real estate, to create anything they can imagine!

Our vision is to enchant the world with the magic of 3D and evolve our technology through creativity and innovation. We are committed to inclusivity and our mission is to make world class 3D graphics accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Our UK-based senior leadership team is made up of LightWave 3D specialists, animation industry veterans and technology experts supported by engineers and creatives spanning the globe, so we are extremely well positioned to take LightWave forward into its next evolution."

We picked up the drives and servers an hour or so ago - Deuce is driving them back now

WE OWN LIGHTWAVE 3D

Official statement:

Reveal of LightWave Digital signals new chapter for the Emmy-award winning 3D software
Andrew Bishop has assembled a UK-based leadership team to develop the 3D animation system, delivering a reinvigorated software for the dedicated LightWave community.

San Antonio, Texas –– 27th April 2023—Vizrt Group, the global leader in software for live video production, today announces that LightWave 3D the 3D computer graphics program, has been sold to UK-based team led by Andrew Bishop.

With over 30 years in the animation and VFX industry, Bishop and his team have now stepped forward to develop the LightWave 3D software and usher in its next chapter. LightWave, first developed by NewTek and then acquired by Vizrt Group in 2019, has a long history of being a high-quality 3D application for creatives to deliver the finest, most realistic art and animation, efficiently, and cost effectively.

As users for over 25 years, Bishop and his team has a vested interest and commitment to upgrading the software for its tens of thousands of loyal customers around the globe. Andrew has always been passionate about LightWave and when the opportunity arose to acquire the software, he leveraged his wide-ranging network, to pull together a unique team. They include experienced LightWave specialists, Donetta Colboch, Elmar Moezler and Jack “Deuce” Bennett, together with leading experts in delivering technology solutions, business operations and finance, to build a team that Andrew is confident can achieve LightWave’s full potential.

“We did not make this decision lightly, but the aim has always been to ensure LightWave 3D has a future with a team that has a strong desire to breathe new life into the technology, bring more value to users, and usher in the next generation of 3D graphics for film, animation, and VFX,” says Michael Hallén, CEO of Vizrt Group. “We are certain under this ownership Andrew and his team will deliver this and more.”

“The creative power behind Lightwave 3D is used by visionary artists, across the globe in industries from film to television, motion graphics, visual effects, video games, virtual production, and much more. It’s an integral and widely used program with an incredible community, that has unwavering passion for the technology. We are immensely proud to acquire the software and take it forward under LightWave Digital,” states Andrew Bishop, Creative Director, LightWave Digital. To follow the latest on LightWave Digital news, connect with the community, and hear about new updates, visit the LightWave Digital discord channel.

1 Like
22

New official pricing is up.

I doubt this will attract new users.

23

about the same pricing as newtek had. oddly, the 2020 version is still for sale on newtek’s site as well (for a bit more than the new site)

24

Unless they plan to soon show the beef (that is, a new and improved Lightwave with tons of bugfixes, faster creation, and polish), then this is a rather odd thing to showcase especially after what was considered a weird trailer for what is supposed to be a DCC app.

Otherwise, people are going to conclude that Lightwave is still dead, and they will be hard-pressed to get the application over that hurdle and back into relevance.

1 Like
25

oh, i doubt LW at this point would attract any one new, muchless all the old LW fans… it’s gonna take another release (than the upcoming 2023 release) to get anything ‘real’ done, that could have the .potential. of winning back a few.

that said, i went ahead and did the 2023 upgrade (but not with the 2020), and yeah, it’s mostly a nostalgia thing crossed with the tiniest bit of hope. :smiley: and that does not mean i’m hanging up blender if it does become relevant again… i have no issues using multiple tools. :slight_smile:

26

This “new” version is just old LW with some minor updates in a new tin? Pass.
I feel like LW is too far behind and will constantly be playing catchup with current 3D programs.

27

aye, i can’t see it being much different; they haven’t had LW’s code under their fingers long enough to do much else. i can only imagine any bigger change would have had to at least been majority-finished, if not polished, before the transition, and just wasn’t released yet as an update to 2020, and that would have been by the old team. which was my reasoning for not bothering with the get 2020 now, 2023 on release deal… 2023 isn’t going to be dramatically different than 2020, just slightly if anything. i’d love to be surprised, but i certainly am not counting on that.

28

There’s also the fact that the new coding team has to examine what’s there to get familiar with it, then try to work in their own code, fix bugs, etc.

From what I’ve heard in the past, the existing code it quite gnarly, so it’s going to be a challenge to implement new things within all that spaghetti. I could be wrong… the coders may be quite capable, but there’s still a tough road ahead to make LW able to compete with Maya/Max, C4D, and other paid-for apps. It’s not on the same level as Blender IMO, so getting folks to pay money for it could be a tall task.

Really, the only thing going for it right now is that it’s not subscription based, but who knows how long that will last. The 800-pound gorillas in the 3d market had a tough time staying profitable, so they were forced to go to a subscription model.

2 Likes
29

I actaully have an old seat of LW2015 on my ancient toshiba laptop.

LW ,compared to todays major 3DCC’s, is like where the old poser software is compared to Daz and Reallusion Iclone/CC4.

The only people still interested enough to actually buy it are nostalgic loyalists who still long for that early-mid 2000/2010’s’s comfort bubble.

For LW to be seriously considered ,by any modern studio or game dev company, it would literally have to exceed Blender in every aspect( modeling,rendering VFX, Character rigging & animation).

And at the same time be on par with Autodesk Maya & Houdini but at a much lower price point with comparable 24 hour support for big studio clients.

I do not see this happening.

4 Likes
30

i’m sure when they attempted refactoring it (the CORE era) didn’t help the gnarly-ness of it either, and i suspect work on that refactor was never completed, trying to maintain somewhat backward compatibility with the plugins.

hehe, aye, i used to have Poser way back when too, before DAZ came along. :slight_smile:

1 Like
31

A massive amount of great work was done with Lightwave, but Newtek lost a lot of talent and vision along the way (aka Modo), and near EOL they were struggling to keep up with every other software in the market. How long has it been since anyone really touched the code in some significant way… 5+ years? That’s a very, very long time in this industry. And 5 years ago, Lightwave was 4 years behind the curve.

I’d be surprised if VizRT didn’t throw their hands in the air and cheer, when someone made an offer to take it off their hands.

1 Like
32

an email was sent out yesterday talking about the upcoming release. from the release:

"
Over 60 update features
• At least 12 headline features
• 30+ Procedural Geometry Nodes
• 20+ Interface improvements (Ease of life improvements)
• Instance Brush (placing instances with a brushing interface)
• Apple Silicon - now 51% faster
• Linux Coming
• Unreal Bridge 5.x support (direct interchange with Unreal Engine 5)
"

that’s actually more things than i expected for this first release under their belt. not enough to amaze and wow newcomers, of course… that’ll be another 2 or 3 releases probably before we see anything that approaches that.

more about the nodes:

"
We were absolutely thrilled last night to be able to share some of the amazing development that has been done on the Pro Geo Nodes. We now have nodes for…
Boolean CGSCombine Geometry
Extrude GeometryGrid Geometry
Prom Mesh
Point Geometry
Ply Geometry
Spline Geometry
VDB Geometry
Primitive Geometry
PointPaint
Select Polygons
Line Geometry
LSystem
Geometry VDBAdd Geometry
ProGeo_Instance
ProGeo_MakeMesh
As well as many, many more!
"

i’m not a fan of this “ProGeo” nomenclature, shortened from procedural geometry. but whatever they call it, this is neat to see, if well after everyone else has done so. :smiley: the node setup is very similar to how Blender has done it, as far as the interfacing goes, but then, there’s only a few ways you can work with nodes. (also similar to how LW did shader nodes way back when). they are (at this time) still keeping the Layout / Modeler seperation, and these Nodes can be used directly in Layout.

the LSystem nodes are particularly interesting to me, just encapsulating that system in a node format, including ‘string’ type inputs to control the L System.

1 Like
33

Better than all the guys on youtube, who call their addon “SomethingSomethingPro”, where Pro is supposed to mean professional. Like they’d also sell a version called “SomethingSomethingFoolishAmateur-Looser”.

greetings, Kologe

2 Likes
34

The video presentation is here:

It’s nice to see LightWave developed again, although I have to wonder who would invest in it in its current state other than old-timer loyalists.

They are planning to include the free version of Octane and have bought the OD tools set of plugins. A new live text tool was also presented, but that one looks very rough around the edges.

That interface though. And the split between Modeler and Layout is really holding its potential back.

2 Likes
35

the Modeler/Layout seperation made sense to me, back when. but then, you weren’t having one person doing modelling, lighting, rigging, layout, composition… those who needed modeller used just that, and those further along the pipeline that were working on the layout didn’t need the modeller bits, so stuck with layout.

for a solo 3d-ist :smiley: to me, having the seperation really doesn’t feel much different than switching tabs between say, Layout and Shading tabs in Blender… just in LW my tabs would be in the taskbar. :smiley: it does link the two, so a change in Modeller is reflected in Layout immediately (i could be wrong, but i believe both share the same memory for the mesh data, keeping it efficient… if not, that would prove to be an issue with today’s heavier scenes). Now, for 3d generalists who do it all, yeah, mebbe it is time to give up on that, and just put them in tabs.

And while the UI is quite dated from what most users expect these days, it was quite customizable, just as Blender is now. :slight_smile: but UIs are often personal taste. i personally never liked Max’s UI, yet many many other people did, or it would have never taken off either. I still prefer Outlooks UI over Thunderbirds, even though Thunderbird is the much better program. :smiley: In the end, it would be nice if the engine and UI code could be completely seperated, allowing for everyone to have their own UI style (with a few choices prepackaged), for all software. but alas, some coding habits are hard to break. :smiley:

i wouldn’t expect anyone to do so at this time, other than like you say, us old-timers. (though i’m not a loyalist … i am using Blender right now rather than the last LW license i have)

36

Many of the new procedural nodes sound like higher-level versions of what Blender has, or what Blender will have in the form of built-in assets.

Higher level nodes would make a lot of things easier and faster for artists, but at the cost of some functionality not being tweakable because of it being a black box (at least with Blender’s hair assets you can make changes to them to fit specific needs for the scene).

Now they just need to lower Lightwave’s price so as to undercut the big boys and bring back the midrange (because right now we only have FOSS and high-end save for restricted licensing tiers).

1 Like
37

I think that’s the most important point.

Their biggest challenge to get brand new customers is going to be that they have to be better than blender.

They are already so far behind maxon and Autodesk that they’re basically never going to catch up… So their only chance to have any sort of financial success is to be far better than the free software, which is also several years ahead of them.

3 Likes
38

though one advantage they have over maxon/autodesk is they are basically starting from a point where they can feel free to break things to build better, something the “big boys” really can’t do without causing more issues with their user bases. not worry so much about backwards compatibility or previous paradigms. now, whether they take advantage of this or not remains to be seen; i won’t hold my breath, of course. :smiley: though it would be best if they did that now or between this 2023 version and the next version (whenever that will be)

39

I was a LW user for many years. Wouldn’t switch back for ANYTHING… Anyhoo, I recently watched the documentary Tim’s Vermeer (trailer below) and I have my suspicions that Tim Jenison’s obsession with his “side project” could have perhaps contributed to LW’s downfall… I dunno. Maybe he was hardly involved anymore at Newtek when his project/obsession started. Great doc though. Everyone should check it out. I think it was on Prime.

2 Likes
40

could be … i think the CORE project didn’t help either… they lost momentum, and a number of their good coders at that point. though Newtek did keep focus on their other project/products, like the tricaster stuff and now NDI/NDI+ which I see being used quite often (i even have NDI codec cameras at our little theatre). so i suspect during that CORE period that the company heads just lost interest in fighting with the other software (specifically Maya) and focused more on what others weren’t doing. not sure how Jenison’s side project lined up with all that timewise, but it’s probably a combination of all that and more.