LightWave 3D is the common denominator between an architect in Egypt who brings his building designs to vivid life, complete with furnishings, landscaping and people, a game artist in Croatia who produced the multi-award winning Serious Sam, and an animator in Dallas whose two-minute short gave birth to an Oscar-nominated CGI movie.

Bring anything to life from buildings to characters with the broad range of tools included in LightWave right out of the box, ready to go. LightWave's tools are designed for fast productivity and easy, intuitive use. They are set in an interface that you can customize to your needs, so the tools you use most are right where you want them.

Buttons are plainly labeled with the names of the tools so you know what they do instantly, not with cryptic icons that take months to decipher and memorize. Nothing in the industry is faster to learn, easier to use, or more productive. And no other 3D application offers a native renderer of power, world-class speed, and beauty with virtually unlimited render nodes.

Requirements:

· System configuration: G4 or higher (G5 recommended).
· System RAM: 512 MB for OS X (1GB recommended).
· 230MB available harddrive space (not including content).
· Graphics Card: Full OpenGL support.
· Latest drivers from chipset manufacturer.
· 1024x768 minimum screen resolution (1280x1024 recommended).
· 64MB onboard dedicated RAM per display (128MB recommended).

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· FiberFX Cloning – Provides the ability to place multiple instances of hair on an object.
· Layout Snapping – Allows the quick connection of one item to another, saving time and additional steps.
· Drag and Drop – Allows an icon of an object or scene to be opened by dropping the icon into Modeler or Layout.
· New and Improved Export Buffers– Enables multi-pass pipeline users to output more buffers (layers) in high dynamic range, rather than be limited to 8 bpc (bits per channel), for greater flexibility.
· Multi-threaded Pixel Filters – Provides faster rendering of projects that integrate pixel filters.
· Depth Buffer Normalizing – Allows 3D scene elements exported into film or video footage to automatically blend properly, even if moving relative to one another.
· Ray Cutoff – Enables artists to decide at what point to cease ray bounces when rendering a scene with numerous reflections, refractions and transparency, significantly shortening render time.
· Open to other render engines – Other rendering engines conforming to the LightWave v9.6 SDK can be used directly from within the LightWave interface.

Three New Nodes:
· Car Paint: Greatly eases the creation of complex polished surfaces.
· Flake: A simple procedural texture based upon the flakes often seen in car paint.
· Curve: Allows the creation of complex gradients.