April 25, 2001 at 4:35 pm
LightWave Patch, Demo Due Soon
NewTek has announced a new "b" patch that offers significant optimizations, plus a new demo version will be available. Educational users can now opt for a one-year license at significant savings.
NewTek is expecting to release a new LightWave 6.5 patch called "6.5b" sometime in the near future.
Significant Speed Improvements
NewTek is happy to report significant optimizations in their rendering. On Pentium II and Pentium III systems, users can expect 25-50% faster renders. On a Pentium 4 processor, "users can expect 100% faster renders." I took this to mean that renders will take half the time that they did on machines prior to the patch. They've also vastly improved their radiosity engine and, in NewTek's terms, "it can now be used for animation."
LightWave [6.5]
The new version of the award-winning 3D animation system from NewTek! Powerful new tools include enhanced interactivity and scene editor, MetaNURBS in layout with point weighting, caustics, UV Mapping, surface editing in modeler and a whole lot more! (specifications subject to change without notice) Lightwave 3D is the most used animation system on the planet - what are you using?
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We're getting conflicting reports out of NewTek about one of the features (which I intend on following up on at their booth today) and that is about LightWave's capacity to create digital video effects. In the public forums, it has been discussed that NewTek will be releasing a DVE-Developers Kit soon after the Video Toaster [2] is released. However, NewTek demonstrated last night the ease of which you can create a custom DVE using LightWave. Perhaps the difference lies in whether or not this DVE is a real-time effect capable of being re-used by the Video Toaster [2] - certainly the preset scene they used to create the effect could be used by any editor on any video editing system for a one-time use effect. Either way, the effect (which used motion dynamics) made it very apparent that good things were on the way.
LightWave Demo Finally Coming
NewTek has also announced a new demo version of LightWave expected soon. Like most demos, LightWave's demo mode will have certain features limited. Primarily in modeler, the user will be unable to design objects larger than 200 points. Also, all renders produced with the application will be watermarked with a checkerboard pattern. LightWave enthusiasts and dealers have long clamored for a demo version of NewTek's incredible animation system.
![LightWave [6.5]](/pc/img/products/NTKI0300005.gif)
