Hello All
Just wondering, I am sure there are those of us the use other programs besides Blender.
I myself had tried MAYA, 3DS, Softimage etc. But after all that I love Lightwave. So that is my other program of choice
Blender & Lightwave
CyberSorcerer
Lightwave is a pretty killer app… good price-performance ration.
I just got tired of the “upgrade extortion”. I had just purchased 7.5, and soon after, version 8 was announced as an impending release, and I found out that I had JUST missed the window for a free upgrade. GRRRRR! Oh, and the Modeller-Hub-Layout thing was a workflow killer for me.
These days, aside from Blender, I’m using Wings3D for some of my modelling, although after using 2.34 for a few days, the new features are starting to tear me away from Wings a little. Sub-surf creasing! nice!
And I also use Messiah:Studio 2.0… The animation tools rock, and the materials/GI rendering can produce phenominal results, IF you’re willing to tweak a lot and wait a bit for renders. Oh, and the displacement mapping in Messiah’s renderer is nothing short of astonishing.
Yeah, ever since I used Lightwave I got this little funny feeling in my gut. It’s that good kind of feeling that makes you say ahhh. I’m thinking about getting Lightwave for this and that. Yah know the drill. Blender and Lightwave do make a good team. And the Lightwave community is just brimming with innovative 3d types of people.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I were to see a plug-in connection to support Blender files in Lightwave some day. We know that Blender branches out to other good rendering tools, new 3d tech and what not.
“Some day, we’ll be togetheraaaa a let me tell yah now, Whewwww”. Hehehehe.
I think that we will see a much happier 3d community all around once folks start to embrace more open source options of software. Then maybe there will be less complaining about stuff and more of a focus on doing great stuff. If we build some of our software who can we complain to anyway when we make a mess of it? All we can do is work on ways to improve it the next time around.
I mean, I was looking at the new 3d app release threads over on CGtalk. I was bothered by the complaining and what not about the status of these new releases. I felt like saying, “come on people they did their best to bring you yet another great software release, just get into it.” Years ago most folks would just be happy that their software got upgrades and got into using them. Nowadays many people just complain and even threaten to jump ship to another app. This weakens the spirit of the force behind the strength of those apps. Anyway.
Have fun. And…
Blend on!
I’ve been a loyal trueSpace user from 3.2 to 5.1. A very good software for the price. The interface is very unorthodox, but quite easy to learn and intuitive once you’re familiar with basic operations.
I also had LightWave 7.0, which was very powerful, but it crashed too often.
That is really werd. I have two computers, a desktop with Win98 and a laptop with XP, and i have Lightwave 7 of both and Blender 2.34. And I have heard people saying Lightwave but operates perfect for me. Then the ones that downloaded the beta version of Blender 2.34 were saying it is crashing also, but I dont have problem on either machine?
It is werd, it probably has to do with what all you have on your computer and the processes running. Something has to be interfering somewhere.
CyberSorcerer
i have used/use max, lightwave, and rhino.
i fairly fond of max, except its could be a little more stable, not to mention being windows only sux, lightwave is cool, but i hate the ui, especially the whole hub thing like sevenstring said…
rhino absolutely rocks
but blender of course is the main one i use now 
Yes I guess it is just a matter of preference. I have used both MAX and Lightwave. I love Lightwave because I have learned LScript and changed my UI to the way I want it and my own keyboard shotcuts.
I guess someone that took the time to learn the scripting engine in MAX would love MAX and have it customized also. That is why I always say Blender if FREE MAX and XSL are at the high end, but it really isn’t the program, it is the person using it.
It is true Lightwave, MAX, MAYA and all do alot more than Blender does. But it doesn’t mean Blender will not be able to do that, just that it hasn’t been programmed to do those things YET.
A good competition would be get experts in Blender, MAX, MAYA and Lightwave even Rhino and Cinema4D and have them all create the same scene the best they can and compare the differences!
CyberSorcerer
You said that you have learned to script in your 3d software . Well Blender has powerful python scripting options that are worth learning if you don’t want to wait for a feature to be added into Blender’s source code. I’m using a great bevel script that is not a standard Blender features yet. I used a Yafray script long before it was added to Blenders interface.
In reality Blender can be used much like any app that accepts a scripting language. So in the case of Blender it is the person who uses it who sets the limits of the features that it is able to support. Plus you have access to the programs source code so anything that your skills allow can be built into it or designed with it.
That’s not something that you can say about most of the major 3d apps out there. But that’s why we love using Blender too. You gotta love open source software.
Well as to competition, most artists do that in contest. But most pros do this in the marketplace. As far as software competition goes most computer end users leave that business to the software app developers.
And they are duking it out and we consumers are the winners. We also get great software upgrades out of this too.
I was reading the latest stuff over at CGtalk about MODO. If they pull that project off we will see some great advances in 3d software features. Then later on every other 3d software company will try to compete with this.
More great feature upgrades all around.
Blend on!
Regarding scripting languages in 3D apps, the integration of Python in Blender, IMHO, makes it better in that regard than all the other apps using an homegrown language since that gives you access to the incredible amount of already existing python modules which you can reuse in your scripts which you’d have to program yourself if it were some blender-specific language.
Martin
This is all so true. I love programming, currently know ASM, VB, C/C++, Java. But I currently make my living doing freelance development (Webpage design, 3D animation, Game Design, Company Branding, Network Vulnerability Testing, etc) just about anything. So my free time is little and far between. But I work on my own project when i have time.
I love Blender, still getting use to it plus the new features, and the source code. But for commercial work it is still Lightwave at the moment. Until i get up to speed with Blender.
I also have an internet radio show that will be airing in about 2 months. It will cover 3D, Graphics, Gaming and have industry experts on for interviews. I will keep everyone up-to-date on when that will be going live. Still building website for the show, and looking for a co-host.
CyberSorcerer