Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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Over as a Lightwave plug•in.
Unfortunately, they won't ship as a
standard feature of Lightwave V4.
The final newcomer in the Surfaces
section is the long-awaited Glow Effect.
Courtesy of glow you can add a userdefinable
aura or incandescence around
any surface - no need anymore to slap
lerts flares everywhere if you need to fake
some radiosity within a scene. Better still,
Glow offers a means of easily generating
some very tricky effects, such as realistic
lasers, neon lighting and so on.
However be warned - adding
glow does increase rendering
times quite dramatically, as a
separate image processing
pass is required during render
to generate the effect.
A spectacular
object by Kevin
Storming proves
there's more to
Lightwave than
amazing a nima tion
A new look for an old Interface, with new
fader options and Improved ceiour controls
colour feature for keying operations.
The only remaining element is the control
system for the aforementioned Glow
Effect. As you can see from the screen
shot, configuring the new feature isn't
exactly a tricky business.
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The real surpriwis
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How•ver, there is
a completely new
sec lien dedicated
entirely to glow
control
At the top of the Lights panel sits
another newbie to the Ligh!wave
repertoire, namely Global Flare Int.
Basically. this provides a means of
ramping all the lens flares in a scene up
or down automatically. The feature was
specifically requested by makers of
SeaQuest DSV to provide an easier method
of controlling lens flares during power
out/power ups and explosion sequences.
Lens flares are another area that's seen
some major attention, with one of the
biggest changes being the ability to user
define Anamorphic distortion. Unfortunately,
this can't be enveloped at present, but even
as it stands its pretty useful for generating
the Star Trek TNG warp effect and other
spatial anomalies.
Add to that user-definable streak settings.
which include the ability to set streak,
intensity, density and sharpness, and you
have a fairly comprehensive editing
environment for all manner of flare effects.
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Much improved user
control over lens fl are
has to be the highlight
of seemingly
unchanged lights panel
The image section is unique, because it's the only section not to boast
any major changes - assuming you don't have access to a Flyer that is.
Not surprisingly, support for Flyer Clips has been added to the sequential
image section. However, there's no direct support for the PAR, or any
other third-party DV system, Plug-ins may appear later
.
Amiga Computing
MAY 1995
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On the record
Perhaps the most notable change in this
section has to be the option for userdefinable
fi le naming conventions.
According to NewTek this has been added
to make Lightwave files more compatible
with the filename requirements of other
packages. I think it's been added to make
life a little easier for the PC.
The Only other new arrival is a rather
mysterious Fader Alpha button, which without
the aid of a manual remains something
of a mystery. Best guess is that it's another
add-on for improved keying during image
composition.
Another notable change is improved support
for third-party graphics cards.
However, during testing I didn't notice any
dramatic change with regards to the
Picasso - although the interface was
marginally faster when running a 800x600
display. Unfortunately, the preview option
flatly refused to play back either wiretrame
or bounding box anims. Obviously with a
Beta some bugs are to be expected and
hopefully this one will be put to the sword
prior to release.
No major changes,
apart from a fresh
approach to fi le names
Screamernet
Unfortunately, power users aren't likely
to be overjoyed when it comes to
Network rendering. As it stands there
appears to be no change to the basic
ScreamerNet set-up.
One of the biggest disappointments
of ScreamerNet in Lightwave 3,5 was
the lack of batch rendering. Alas that's
still the case. Lets hope the profusion
of plug-ins will offer support for some
sort of batch rendering add
-like
all plug-ins it will undoubtedly
on, mean additional b u t expense,
).•
II-