What is Happening with LW?

[paulk]

Saw in the Facebook Lightwave 3D - Salvation group that DStorm (dstorm.co.jp) is having a 20% off sale to upgrade to Lightwave 2020, AND, throwing in the 3rd Powers Suite. Unfortunately, you have to be a domestic (Japan Only) customer.

<rhetorical_question>Whereforehowcomeizzit Newtek/VizRT can't do something like this?</rhetorical_question>

[erikals]

<rhetorical_question>Whereforehowcomeizzit Newtek/VizRT can't do something like this?</rhetorical_question>

not a rhetorical question, i'd say.
would've been smart to do so prior to 2020,
seems too late now.
developers gone and all that...

[Nicolas Jordan]

Yeah Rich's stuff is pretty cool. There is no doubt Modo is capable in all areas and is a good choice for many artists, niche shops and of course the design field. It should be okay as it has a pretty solid following and good sized development team. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to my boss if LW ever quits working on our PCs and the similarities to LW would make it a good choice for a team who's personalities wouldn't be too keen on learning a new app. That being said the pace of Blender development is crazy and their long term support program is a very smart strategy and its FREE.

Even though I hate the shader tree I think Modo would be the quickest, easiest and most pain free transition for me if I ever had to leave Lightwave behind for some reason. So much of Modo is like Lightwave especially in regards to modeling that I think it makes it worth while for most Lightwave users to seriously look at it and transition to it the future even if it's not free like Blender.

[lardbros]

This is a longshot as my heart says that LW is dead - but - and it's a big BUT - maybe Vizrt wants to do it's own thing with LW and realized that the reasons LW was floundering is that the developers sucked, the beta team sucked, the documentation sucked, the marketing sucked and support sucked. So they're rolling their own in all regards. Oh yeah I forgot one - the forum sucks.

Problem was, they needed investment to make these things better... but yes, they did all suck, pretty bad
They sucked so bad because of the lack of money, and they probably lacked motivation due to the lack of caring. The black sheep of Newtek/VizRt

[Tim Parsons]

Even though I hate the shader tree I think Modo would be the quickest, easiest and most pain free transition for me if I ever had to leave Lightwave behind for some reason. So much of Modo is like Lightwave especially in regards to modeling that I think it makes it worth while for most Lightwave users to seriously look at it and transition to it the future even if it's not free like Blender.

Yeah I'm the defacto 3D guy at work and while we have 3DSMax as part of our Autodesk Inventor Suite, I would push for Modo to replace LW for the reason you mentioned. I won't make that push though until absolutely necessary - when LW stops working. So it could be 10+ years. After more than 15 years of our team using LW, I still get questions on a regular basis on how to do certain things so I'm not looking forward to a change as all the training falls on me. I'm just hoping the boss wouldn't insist on using 3DSMax because we are already have it. Then I'll be pushing for Blender. Hopefully a miracle will happen and we won't have to worry about it.

[Tim Parsons]

Problem was, they needed investment to make these things better... but yes, they did all suck, pretty bad
They sucked so bad because of the lack of money, and they probably lacked motivation due to the lack of caring. The black sheep of Newtek/VizRt

That whole thing was meant more as a tongue-in-cheek thing with the exception of the marketing and forums of course.
I think the devs were extremely motivated and dedicated to LW. There just weren't enough of them to get the job done. So I wouldn't blame them.

[Markc]

Well until that ‘fat lady’ sings, carry on as normal.

[lardbros]

That whole thing was meant more as a tongue-in-cheek thing with the exception of the marketing and forums of course.
I think the devs were extremely motivated and dedicated to LW. There just weren't enough of them to get the job done. So I wouldn't blame them.

lol the forums are definitely a bit of a joke, that's for sure.

[jwiede]

Well until that ‘fat lady’ sings, carry on as normal.

Newtek almost never declares software products "dead" -- witness Aura, 3D Arsenal, SpeedEdit, Chronosculpt, Nevron, etc. In a few cases, years later they've tacitly acknowledged there's no development, that's about it. Chronosculpt and Nevron are still being sold, after all -- are they still "healthy products" too?

[Ztreem]

Newtek almost never declares software products "dead" -- witness Aura, 3D Arsenal, SpeedEdit, Chronosculpt, Nevron, etc. In a few cases, years later they've tacitly acknowledged there's no development, that's about it. Chronosculpt and Nevron are still being sold, after all -- are they still "healthy products" too?

Yes, Lightwave Rendition for Photoshop should be out of beta anytime now...

[erikals]

true, many NT Apps are abandoned.

but Chronosculpt should still hold water, i would think. (?)

[jwiede]

true, many NT Apps are abandoned.

but Chronosculpt should still hold water, i would think. (?)

Whether it "still works somewhat" isn't the point, though. The point is that Newtek clearly ended Chronosculpt development and support long ago, and never bothered to tell existing customers, nor are informing potential purchasers of that now -- the same approach taken with their other software products in past, many times. There's zero basis for expecting NT/V will handle Lightwave any differently, because NT/V are still handling Chronosculpt and Nevron that way.

[erikals]

oh that, yeah sure.

common strategy around these parts. such it is.

[wingzeta]

Sounds like they should take whatever OTOY will offer for it. I would hate to see LW go subscription, but at least it would still be developed for those people who don't mind. I would have to move to blender unless there is another subscription free option out there.

[wingzeta]

Best would be if they sold it to someone who was dedicated to keeping it a perpetual license, as a marketing point, and noble principle. Do they exist?

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Actually best would be LW going open source.