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Lightwave 3D

lionheart

lionheart

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Hey all,

I wanted to start a separate thread on Lightwave. I have started one on Rhino 3D and I am going to talk also on the possibility of using Lightwave now as a tool for making planes for FS.

First, you may wish to check out the site;
http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/


A cool tutorial on how they have 'on the fly' scene rendering for checking lighting and materials.
http://tv.newtek.com/player.php?recordID=63


Now I know nothing about LW except that its powerful, can render, has some amazing tools (the main important part) and can export in 3DS.

A nice factor of this package is that its only $894.00 USD to purchase the full package. (woo hooooo!!!! ). Also, it can render.


I am going to see if they have a demo kit, and also, if they do gamepacks in-house. I wonder if they can create a MDL compiler.

I have a team member that I use now for creating mesh when I need one fast, (and he is fast) and he creates these in Lightwave, exporting to 3DS which I import into Gmax.

I love using Gmax mainly because it exports so fast. Using max was horrible, having to setup, memorize DOS addresses and type them in manually into the DOS window. I thought that was a bit backwards for high technology, expensive modeling. I could be wrong. Maybe that is the way of the computer CG and gaming world. Nice tools, like what Gmax has, I think is state of the art and saves you tons of time in making models, doing check models, etc. Saving 5 min's here and 5 min's there is of key importance.

Thats my feelings...

How awesome it would be to have a new 3D engine, affordable, ultra exotic, with one or two button 'instant export' tool built in or added on....!

Build, Export, Test in FS... repeat...


Oh to dream....



Bill
 
lionheart said:
Using max was horrible, having to setup, memorize DOS addresses and type them in manually into the DOS window. I thought that was a bit backwards for high technology, expensive modeling. I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

I can't let that comment pass without, well... a comment!

If you were doing all of that, you've really made life hard on yourself. With about three minutes of "one time effort" you could have set up a "Send To" event that would simply allow you to right-click on your .x file and "Send To Build Aircraft."

Bing! Nearly instant .mdl file is created. Drag-n-drop into your ..\model folder. Done.
 
Bill,

I tried that. You tried to show me how, and then Felix also tried showing me via online chat and we tried everything to make it work and it wouldnt. I must have something different in my versions of FS/Gmax/WinXP, etc...


But you didnt mention that fact that it takes me like 30 min's to compile a FS9 high count model... :D



Bill
 
Well, I have installed a demo 30 day trial version of Lightwave. I must say that the controls are all similar to CAD, no icons at all. In Gmax/Max/Rhino 3D, you have tons of little icons. Lightwave is all verbage and based on the panel on the left side of the screen. Of all of the 3D programs, I think Lightwave is the most different. MoRay is the one that looks more like an old version of Max with all its icon buttons and layouts, (almost identical).

I am going to see though how it works and if I can 'sync' with it. The issue so far is that Rhino 3D has higher poly count model structures. My thoughts are that we cannot see the actual mesh like you can in Gmax/Max in wire frame view mode, (in early versions of Max, the new Max versions seem to do the same thing, hiding the 'actual' mesh structure from view, which I find very annoying in working with these models. Though we are not as limited as we used to be in mesh models, we still cannot do half million poly structures).

I am posting a couple of pics of the two 3D engines; Rhino and Lightwave.


Bill
 
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