Official LightWave 3D Forum status update

Tim Parsons said:
Trial version?
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That´s what he wrote.
And it´s not publicly available for any user to start to download currently, you have to ask for them to set that up in your account.
I myself are just to busy now with embergen, and I have some recordings to do on that before I download my Lightwavetrial from the account I have.
The trial (60 day) should include everything which is in the original version, and I do hope there is no difference in functionality or bugs.
 
Tim Parsons said:
Trials have been in the past fully functional for the determined time period. 60 days is good, I hadn't heard that. (y)
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I think they previously had like 30 days, which I always felt was too short, even modo had a very short trial time, I also said that trials need to be a bit longer, so good they make sure one can test it properly.

Hopefully when they put up a public "try it Demo" they will keep 60 day period, that will give some better incitaments for actually trying it compared to Modo that still has 30 day trial, though that trial can be reached by anyone without any fuzz, so the Lw team needs to make the trial publicly available to download ASAP, If they are interested in the competition.
 
prometheus said:
I think they previously had like 30 days, which I always felt was too short, even modo had a very short trial time, I also said that trials need to be a bit longer, so good they make sure one can test it properly.

Hopefully when they put up a public "try it Demo" they will keep 60 day period, that will give some better incitaments for actually trying it compared to Modo that still has 30 day trial, though that trial can be reached by anyone without any fuzz, so the Lw team needs to make the trial publicly available to download ASAP, If they are interested in the competition.
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They have also talked about rent to own options as well. That would be great but technically it might be complicated. So a user signs up for $20 a month and gets his license - then he decides to stop paying - how does LWD keep fraud from happening. The license has to phone home every month or something. :unsure: I think rent to own would be a great way to get new users and am excited to see what happens in LW's future.
 
Tim Parsons said:
They have also talked about rent to own options as well. That would be great but technically it might be complicated. So a user signs up for $20 a month and gets his license - then he decides to stop paying - how does LWD keep fraud from happening. The license has to phone home every month or something. :unsure: I think rent to own would be a great way to get new users and am excited to see what happens in LW's future.
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Sure..could be something in the future, but first, Walk before running, which means the basics of marketing it by providing a demotrial as we used to have directly on the main site, this is crucial or new users will just go away from the site without noticing you have a trial to test before you buy, this shouldn´t stay like this current status for long I bellieve, their choice, but I am just saying..

and, get the forum fixed so users can start to share better, and also help marketing it, give tips etc.

The basics.

next would probably be to find a way to get the free student licensin in to programs where 3D, vfx is educated, and that will not be easy over here for instance.
Theres got to be some serious incitaments for the current schools to accept yet another tool ( that currently isn´t what is considered standard tools) but a tool that isn´t or rarely is used over here.
That said, could be different in the Usa and England for instance and many others.
 
They have already said that student licenses will be free - with a $30 sign up fee. And that fee is per school not student. I'd imagine that if a singular student wanted to get LW they could also do it for the $30.
 
Tim Parsons said:
They have already said that student licenses will be free - with a $30 sign up fee. And that fee is per school not student. I'd imagine that if a singular student wanted to get LW they could also do it for the $30.
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I know that, but that´s not the thing to focus on, it´s How to get schools adapting Lightwave as a tool to learn when the big boys (Maya/Houdini/Max.. are occupying the education plan, and that by itself is tied to what is most commonly used out at the company floor.
So two major obstacles to try and squeeze in something else.

Often these schools are having lecturers from VFX, Game industry, and it´s not likely they will pull out Lightwave as the hidden Magic trick or gem that they use.
So that one is going to be tough, it may very well be so that this will not be possible until Lightwave establishes something extraordinary that some studios, game companies use.
At such point ..Education with Lightwave in mind will have a natural foundation to stand on and will not be frown at by schools, they would need to take it more seriously, but I believe that will takes some years, provided Lighwave can break through with some really valuable features/workflows that not only rivals, but surpass the big boys in some areas.

That said, it may be a bit biased based on what can be seen here in Sweden, Internationally there may be better chances.
 
prometheus said:
I know that, but that´s not the thing to focus on, it´s How to get schools adapting Lightwave as a tool to learn when the big boys (Maya/Houdini/Max.. are occupying the education plan, and that by itself is tied to what is most commonly used out at the company floor.
So two major obstacles to try and squeeze in something else.

Often these schools are having lecturers from VFX, Game industry, and it´s not likely they will pull out Lightwave as the hidden Magic trick or gem that they use.
So that one is going to be tough, it may very well be so that this will not be possible until Lightwave establishes something extraordinary that some studios, game companies use.
At such point ..Education with Lightwave in mind will have a natural foundation to stand on and will not be frown at by schools, they would need to take it more seriously, but I believe that will takes some years, provided Lighwave can break through with some really valuable features/workflows that not only rivals, but surpass the big boys in some areas.

That said, it may be a bit biased based on what can be seen here in Sweden, Internationally there may be better chances.
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Yeah good points. There is no doubt that it's an uphill battle to acquire new (young) users.
 
Markc said:
My posts are moaning about NO Mac version yet (even though I have paid).
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that's why I never fell for or went for Apple Silicon in a big way @Markc

I only bought this older Mac Mini recemtly for $400 USD/Euros because I had to download some software I bought from apple and they said older Macs weren't allowed to. so I was forced to buy a minimal grade computer to get the job done.

But otherwise I wouldn't shell out very much for their Silicon Apple lineup if at all possible for the reason that you cited. Such as their mac Studio or new Pro models. The new macs don't run 1/2 or probably 2/3 of the software out there anymore.

If you shell out 3,4,5-6 thousand dollars for a computer it should be able to run anything on the planet.

That's why I'm planning to but the last of the Intel Macs - the 2019 Mac Pro because it can run Windows Mac and Linux natively on the same machine. That's like getting 3 computers for the price of 1. Little wonder that Apple did away with them...because its customers were considered 'getting too good a deal' and they wanted them to buy Apple only instead of other platforms.
 
fashion said:
The new macs don't run 1/2 or probably 2/3 of the software out there anymore.

That's why I'm planning to but the last of the Intel Macs - the 2019 Mac Pro because it can run Windows Mac and Linux natively on the same machine. That's like getting 3 computers for the price of 1.
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People buy Macs to run software which runs on a Mac.
Lightwave has been Windows/Mac for a VERY long time.

I would advise you NOT to buy a 2019 Mac Pro.
These are now almost 5 years old, and will stop supporting newer versions of Mac OS soon.
This would be a money pit.
 
Sigh, these forum restrictions.

Not only are we not allowed to talk Lightwave topics here anymore and those are closed ( though I fully understand that, so web moderators, please do not take it as I am blaming you) :cool:
It´s the others who do not provide better options.

Right now I am fixing some issues around Lightwave and Embergen and solved some rigging import and export issues, the problem is I can´t post more than 3 consecutive posts, then another member must reply before I can post, maybe the jangaFX team heard about my sparse postings, and decided to implement this limit rule😁
Now..I have asked them to remove it, so hopefully I can share what I have found and solved.

I can´t share it on the new Lightwave forums either, since the functions are not there to do so properly.
Perhaps on my own forum, problem is too few members and too few active ones, and the embedd images function is not good, but maybe that´s still the best option.

Some evil puppeteer master simulator want´s me to join discord, or facebook.

Would it be too much to ask for the webmasters in these forum to make it possible to discuss, post Lightwave related stuff until the new team within a few months get´s their forum functionally as a normal forum, I understand and I suspect that may be to ask too much of you, it would probably take working time of you guys to moderate something you shouldn´t have to, and also providing bandwith and all that for this.

Just a thought, though I am pretty sure what the answer will be.
 
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Meh..sharing the tips and trick to solve it on my own forum, for what´s it worth, I could go and become a youtuber as well of course :D
 
Markc said:
People buy Macs to run software which runs on a Mac.
Lightwave has been Windows/Mac for a VERY long time.

I would advise you NOT to buy a 2019 Mac Pro.
These are now almost 5 years old, and will stop supporting newer versions of Mac OS soon.
This would be a money pit.
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Yeah I just picked up a refurbished Dell 7920 that I see has a manufacture date of 5-31-2019. Seems to run fine and has Win11 on it.
 
... They knew the job was dangerous when they took it ... o_O

But good news & not much off that March guesstimate awhile back.
 
It's good that things are moving. I am really curious how many licenses that they actually sell in a given month. 795 lbs is 1000 US dollars! That's nuts! I realize they need to make it work, but who is buying licenses? Studios? - I doubt it. Hobbiests? - I doubt it. Independent freelancers? - maybe. Manufacturing industries? - I doubt it. Marketing groups? - I doubt it. The only customers I see even considering LW would be long time users from way back in the day. Too much time lapsed between Vizrt dropping it and LWD getting it. People went to Blender in droves. I almost went there myself but bought an upgrade just to get a personal copy of 2020. I haven't even used 2023 for anything yet. Maybe the next patch will convince me to use it. So, yeah I'm glad its moving along but is it even close to being sustainable?
 

I can't see LightWave Digital keeping that price, agree.
Many speculated the cost would be below half.
That said, LightWave 2023 is powerful.
OD Tools + Turbulence + much more...

Studios should use it.
But LWD's problem is that most Pro LightWave users left a decade ago.

They need to repair that somehow. And i don't think a $1000 price tag is the way.

 
Tim Parsons said:
It's good that things are moving. I am really curious how many licenses that they actually sell in a given month. 795 lbs is 1000 US dollars! That's nuts! I realize they need to make it work, but who is buying licenses? Studios? - I doubt it. Hobbiests? - I doubt it. Independent freelancers? - maybe. Manufacturing industries? - I doubt it. Marketing groups? - I doubt it. The only customers I see even considering LW would be long time users from way back in the day. Too much time lapsed between Vizrt dropping it and LWD getting it. People went to Blender in droves. I almost went there myself but bought an upgrade just to get a personal copy of 2020. I haven't even used 2023 for anything yet. Maybe the next patch will convince me to use it. So, yeah I'm glad its moving along but is it even close to being sustainable?
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What do I know, I am a bit baffled they still haven´t put up a Public Demo Trial, that in my eyes should be the very first thing alive on their webpage when they started to market and sell it, but..it´s their show to run, I just thought that should have attracted more users already than they probably have at this moment, and thus give a better kickstart of it all, but that is written in the stars.

There must be some reason for them not putting a demo trial up, other than just, we haven´t had time, or we didn´t think of that.
 
prometheus said:
What do I know, I am a bit baffled they still haven´t put up a Public Demo Trial, that in my eyes should be the very first thing alive on their webpage when they started to market and sell it, but..it´s their show to run, I just thought that should have attracted more users already than they probably have at this moment, and thus give a better kickstart of it all, but that is written in the stars.

There must be some reason for them not putting a demo trial up, other than just, we haven´t had time, or we didn´t think of that.
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Maybe after this upcoming Mac version and service pack.
 
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