Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 13, 2017. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Since the last release of LightWave 3D 2015, NewTek has taken a little time with its 3D software. Now the company has begun its New Year’s resolutions and announced the 2018 release for January 1, 2018.
LightWave 2018 Features
The published feature list is long and includes many new functions such as PBR rendering, VR functions and Open VDB support, which we summarise here.
Physical Based Rendering
LightWave 2018 has a new shading, lighting and rendering system that enables you to achieve a higher degree of realism when creating your scenes and images.
Volumetric Engine & Open VDB Support
The update also comes with a new engine for volumes – you can now control parameters such as scattering, absorption and emission with node networks. In addition, the OpenVDB standard is now supported for exchange with other software tools.
Lights
The new physical lights can now be applied to geometries, so that you can use any mesh as a light source. You can also now optionally set lights to “visible”.
Surface Editor
The Surface Editor has been revised and offers a node-based structure for creating PBR materials.
Virtual Reality
There are also new functions in LightWave for the subject of VR. The VR camera now offers both cylindrical and spherical modes and is also suitable for stereo 360-degree renderings and animations for VR applications.
Integrated FiberFX
The existing FiberFX features have been revised and are now compatible with the new shading system. You can use any material on the generated fibres.
Other New Features & Improvements
The modifier order for bones, morphs, subdivisions and displacements can now be rearranged by drag & drop. The Modeler also has new interactive tools such as Lattice, Smoothing, Array and Spline Bridge. Furthermore, when shading non-realistic Cel Shaders in LightWave 2018, you have more options – including colour gradients and improved edges. As a supplement to the new shading engine, the render buffers have also been revised to offer better previews and compositing interfaces. In addition to real-time preview options, this also allows multi-layered EXR files to be exported. You can also accelerate rendering with new noise filters by reducing the samples of the Global Illumination Rays.
To the feature overview: To the official blog post
Compatibility and Price
The software will be available for Windows and MacOS on January 1, 2018 here. For new customers, the price is the equivalent of €846; existing customers can update for €250. You can download a free 30-day demo of the new version from January 1 here.
For more information: To the LightWave 2018 website or to the 2018 release PDF
Incidentally, we took a look at the last 2015 release in DP issue 02 : 15; you can read the article about it for free here.
