LightWave 3D® 2019 is Now Available - Official Discussion Thread

Chuck

Chuck

NewTek Social Media
NewTek is pleased to announce the release of LightWave 3D® 2019, a new edition of the production-proven graphics and animation package that refines the artist’s workflow to make creation of complex, photo-real animation and imagery faster and more efficient. Leading the list of improvements are the revolutionary new integration tools with Unreal Engine for real time data transfer to the world’s leading game engine. The system performs automatic discovery to make the workflow entirely seamless.

Another major advance for LightWave users is the new Metamorphic system, which brings multipurpose animatable mesh sculpting and painting to Layout. Fully multi-threaded for fast operation, Metamorphic includes a wide range of brush options and controls, multiple animation modes, nonlinear interpolation, motion blur support and much more.

Additional Highlights:
  • New UV mapping and UDIM tile mapping tools and capabilities in Modeler
  • Smoothing Groups in Modeler for fine-tuned control of contours in models
  • Limited Bones mode
    • Set the number of bones that affect a given point to match the target game engine
    • Real-time optimizations to better match the bone system performance expected in game engines
  • Interchange Bridge for interactive FBX interchange; support for more FBX attributes
  • Shading Model Customization Tools
  • New Shape Primitives and tools
  • OpenVDB creation tools
  • Shading and Rendering Enhancements
    • Edge Shader Node simulates beveled or rounded edges without geometry
    • Patina Node adds wear and dirt to surfaces to give your world that lived-in look
    • Procedural Shader Node wraps classic LightWave™ procedural textures for Node Editor
    • NVIDIA OptiX™ Denoising for still images (requires NVIDIA graphics card)
    • Despike can reduce or eliminate artifacts for a render that has “fireflies”
    • Scientifically-accurate Physical Sky shader and SunLight light type.
  • Workflow and UI:
    • Display Scaling Options for high-resolution monitors and multiple monitor setups
    • Expanded Layout Undo System
    • Popup Menus now support mouse wheel, navigation keys, search and more
    • Node Graph controls for grid size, snap to grid, grid brightness and color, Tidy Nodes
    • Online Documentation adapts to the screen format of any device
    • “Managed portal” licensing option for large facilities. Purchase by special arrangement.


Availability & Pricing
LightWave 3D 2019 for Windows and Mac OS is available now for USMSRP $995.

Registered owners of any previous version of LightWave 3D can upgrade to LightWave 2019 for US$395, through March 31, 2019.

LightWave owners who are eligible for special pricing under the terms of a previous purchase will need to contact LightWave Customer Services directly for their purchase arrangements.

International pricing may vary.

Educational pricing is also available. Visit www.lightwave3d.com/buy-lightwave/ to purchase or to locate an authorized LightWave reseller.


New Features Page (with videos)

LightWave 3D 2019 Tutorials
 
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We've added links to help you check out the new features page and the tutorials. The Tutorials are also on our YouTube account.
 
Markc said:
Just got my discount request from my account.
Does this also expire 31 march?
Click to expand...

That's not a question we can answer for you here, if you mean that you have a discount based on the terms of a previous purchase. You'll need to contact LightWave Customer Services for that information. We're honoring any terms we've previously set forth, but that's not something we're going to try to work through with people on the forums or on social media.
 
I'm a little confused where the link to purchase the upgrade is..
It says " links are found in the 'Registered Products' section on your Account page, and are located next to each eligible LightWave product. "

However I don't see 2019 on there anywhere. However there is a "Request Upgrade Discount" button next to my 2018 serial number...
 
TSpyrison said:
I'm a little confused where the link to purchase the upgrade is..
It says " links are found in the 'Registered Products' section on your Account page, and are located next to each eligible LightWave product. "

However I don't see 2019 on there anywhere. However there is a "Request Upgrade Discount" button next to my 2018 serial number...
Click to expand...

Yes, if you click that "Request Upgrade Discount" button, that will start the purchase process.
 
Downloaded and messing around. (Mac) Installed without a hitch which is something I recall was a 2018 snafu on the Mac. Just off the cuff it feels really solid. (Hackintosh Geforce 1080ti)

Chuck does the Unreal interchange work with other products that use Unreal Engine (primarily thinking of Ross Frontier Virtual Set tech)
 
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TSpyrison said:
I'm a little confused where the link to purchase the upgrade is..
It says " links are found in the 'Registered Products' section on your Account page, and are located next to each eligible LightWave product. "

However I don't see 2019 on there anywhere. However there is a "Request Upgrade Discount" button next to my 2018 serial number...
Click to expand...

This will give you a page with your discount.
I got the link to see what the price was......:)
 
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Only checked the vdb tools presentation from oliver, great stuff in there, and a lot of what I have asked for.
Finally we now have a way to turn any mesh shape in to volumetrics, and also nice to see the advection node to distort the volume fully, scattering of particles on this also reminds me of secondary scattering shapes in houdini Cloudfx.

And the gas solver...what? a way of simulating fluid like stuff natively..though different technique and not a true fluid solution that reacts to obstacles, but interesting.

Native sky environment, Great...asked for that for some time.

Nodes..fixed AA, Finally the connections looks smoother and professional.

Have no time to try the new 2019 out for weeks though, the new tools (may) open up for much more designed clouds from my perspective.
Thanks to oliver for presenting it so well.
 
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Wow! I really did not expect this. I haven’t downloaded yet, but judging from the feature list it really looks like Newtek has underpromised and overdelivered. Nodal editing/mixing of shape primitives was NOT anything I was expecting. Very excited to try this new stuff out!
 
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