Other 9.3 improvements deal with how Lightwave renders translucent materials like glass and more opaque materials like multi-layered human skin with improved subsurface scattering, radiosity, and other light absorption/dissipation improvements. Also, a lot of improvement has been brought to bear in the performance and rendering speed area over the original 9.0 release, both in overall increase in power and in giving you the option to ignore rendering polygons that aren’t visible to the camera.
Performance
We tested this out on our 1.86 Ghz Core2 Duo with Windows XP Pro x64, 3 Gigs of RAM, and the nVidia Quadro FX 1500 card (which was kindly provided by the folks at nVidia). With the lack of memory constraints of the XP x64 OS and Newtek’s native support of the OS, Lightwave really moves smoothly on this system. The aforementioned improvements in performance and rendering speed in 9.3 left you with much more agile performance on basic to intermediate scenes than the original release of 9.0. However, on large, complex scenes with lots of detail, the rendering was noticeably slower than some other 3D software packages we’ve used. While 9.3 definitely increased the speed of rendering from 9.0 and gave you options to decrease some of the heavier lifting, I would like to see some more improvement in rendering speed in a later version of LW 9.* or LW 10.
Value
Missing only a 3D paint program like Maxon’s BodyPaint 3D, Lightwave 9.3 is perhaps one of the most complete 3D programs in existence, with new upgrades that help make your rendering much more photoreal than ever before. For less than $900, this may be the most microfilmmaker-friendly total 3D application on the market.
Final Comments
Those familiar with Lightwave don’t even have to ask themselves if it’s time to upgrade. The node-based editors, rendering and overall performance improvements, and real-world settings more than justify the upgrade price. For new users, its learning curve is a bit steep, but Lighwave 9.3 is well worth sticking with so that you can make use of the power it offers at less than a fifth the cost of 3D Studio Max. At the very least, you owe it to yourself to download a demo of Lightwave 9.3 and see if it isn’t a 3D program that unlocks some serious creative potential in your future films.
Ease
of Use
7.0
Depth
of Options
9.8
Performance
9.5
Value
10.0
Overall
Score
9.1
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
