LightWave 2015 Features
Bullet
Constraints and Motors
Take control over dynamics simulations with new constraint types such as Point-to-Point, Hinge, Slider, Cone Twist, Spring and six degrees of freedom (DOF) constraint types. Whether it's a car rolling over a terrain with fully working suspension, or a rag doll falling down the stairs, constraints help make it believable.
Constraint Types
- Point to Point - Also known as a ball socket joint. Allows items to be connected to one another.
- Hinge - Restricts rotation to one axis, perfect for things like doors. A motor can also be applied, allowing for powered movement.
- Slider - Allows movement to rotate in one axis, while sliding along that axis. Great for simulating mechanical movement.
- Cone Twist - A hybrid point to point constraint, that restricts movement within a cone angle, very useful for rag doll limb movement.
- Spring - As the name suggests, this constraint is perfect for simulating car suspension and other mechanical properties.
- 6 Degrees of Freedom - A general purpose constraint that combines many of the other attributes, allows locking of translation and rotation in all axis.
Importance Sampling
Better, Cleaner Renders
Greatly improve the quality of scenes lit by GI and HDR images or any type of background lighting. By intelligently concentrating rays into important areas, noise and splotches that can arise from highly differing light intensities are eliminated, resulting in cleaner, more accurate renders.
Match Perspective
Plate Matching In Minutes
Whether matching plates or simply placing objects into photographs, matching the camera position and rotation is a tedious process. With the new Match Perspective tool this chore is now a breeze. Using simple on-screen gizmos to feed information to the Match Solver means you can sync your LightWave camera to an original photo or plate quickly.
Genoma 2
Fast, Flexible Rigging
This rapid modular rigging system, which at the base level is a complete rigging development kit (RDK) can be used to quickly rig characters for animation without the need to setup complex rigs from scratch. Genoma 2 gives everyone the ability to create expert rigs and makes it possible to generate custom presets that perfectly fit into any character animation pipeline at any degree of complexity, including the use of Math Expressions and Scripts. It also features new and improved Human, Feline and Arthropod preset rigs.
Edge Rendering Improvements
Intersection Edges
Can now be drawn where geometry intersects on the same object and/or separate objects, allowing for more creative control over cel rendering.
Patch Borders
Sub-division patch borders can now be made visible in the render at the click of a button. Perfect for modelers who wish to showcase their mesh topology combined with the beauty of the full rendering.
Edge Buffer
Render all edges into their own buffer, allowing for post-process manipulation in your favorite compositing package.
Interactive Dynamic Parenting
Parent With Ease
The workflow for dynamically changing parent relationships has received an overhaul. You can now easily assign dynamic parenting using inutitive on-screen gizmos, rapidly speeding up the animation process.
Enhancements
Feature Improvement
64-Bit QuickTime Support
Quicktime is now available to those using 64-bit versions of LightWave. Now, loading and saving QuickTime movies is as easy as using any other file format LightWave supports.
Textured Falloffs
Falloffs in Modeler now offer
Texture Editor support, allowing you to use any image, procedural or gradient to affect your modeling operations.
Per Surface Clip Maps
Clip maps were always available on a per-object basis, now in addition to object based, per-surface based clip maps are now available both in the layered Surface Editor and Node based surfacing.
Camera Overscan
Overscan cameras without affecting the zoom factor. This allows you to render extra areas by specifying either pixels or a percentage of the original frame size.
VPR Alpha Channel Rendering
VPR now renders alphas, and can be saved when using file formats that support alpha channels.
Spline Control Improvements
Modeler splines can now be converted for use with spline control, allowing you to use Modeler to accurately place your spline paths.
Enhanced 3DConnexion Support
3D input can now be customized for the way you work. 2D and 3D viewports can be set up to operate uniquely, with complete control over any input axis. It also includes different modes for navigating in either first person or model view.
Improved Interchange
Updates to LightWave's already robust interchange toolset include: Alembic 1.5, FBX 2015, Unity 5, GoZ Multi-Tool Support.
Motion Blur for Displaced Geometry in VPR
VPR now supports motion blur on deformed geometry, allowing you to preview your renders closer to final render.
FiberFX API
Includes a new comprehensive API in the SDK that allows third-party renderers to utilize FiberFX data in their rendering engines.
Workflow Improvements
With every release of LightWave, many aspects of workflow are addressed. Here are some of the notable improvements.
- Global MipMapping Toggle
- Multi-Selection Awareness in Scene Editor for View, Active and Lock
- Multi-Viewport VPR
- Double-Click to Deselect in Modeler
- Viewport Layout Sub-Menu accessible from Viewports
- Morph Mode HUD
- Multi-Select Key Copy/Paste in DopeTrack
- Image Editor Search and Filtering Options
- Independent Viewport Cameras and Lights
- Improved Advanced Save Dialog Panel
- Load-from-Scene Search and Rename Functions
- Image Viewer Copy to Clipboard
- Mouse Wheel Zooming in Modeler
- Multi-Layer Support For Many Modeler Tools
- Multi-Selection Aware VMap Panel
- Falloff Improvements in Modeler
- Improved Search in Edit Menus, Edit Keys and Plugins Panels
- Double-Click to Add Keys in Graph Editor
- Improved Graph Editor Key Drag Copying
- Easy Setup for Background Image Compositing
- Distribute All Axis Added to Layout
- VPR Refreshing Improvements
- Improved Slider Drawing
- Graph Editor Prev/Next Key Shortcuts Consistent with Layout
LightWave 2015 System Requirements:
WindowsTM
Hardware
- Intel® CoreTM 2 or AMD AthlonTM II Processor (or better)
- 64-bit System RAM: 4GB minimum
- 32-bit System RAM: 2GB minimum
- Available USB Port (for users with existing hardware dongles)
Operating System
- 64-bit: Windows Vista through Windows 8.1 64-bit Edition
- 32-bit: Windows Vista through Windows 8.1
Mac OS®
Hardware
- Intel® Processor
- 64-bit System RAM: 4GB minimum
- Available USB Port (for users with existing hardware dongles)
Operating System
- Snow Leopard® 10.6 or better
Display
- Minimum Graphics Card: NVIDIATM GeForce® 8400 series or ATI® X1600
- Minimum Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels
Installation Requirements
- Storage: All systems require 750MB available hard drive space (excluding content); complete Content library is approximately 3GB.
- Optical Drive: DVD-ROM for Program and Content installation (for boxed versions of LightWave).
