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LW dont work for arch ?


DelfoZ
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I would have to say that LightWave does suck all around when it comes to it's modeler. I started off in 3D with LW5 and still continued to use it all the way up to LW6.5. I found that the LW modeler isn't very accurate, but has some great tools. The problem is it lacks the major key features that are required when it come to modeling such things as architecture and products that require accurite measurments. The biggest example would be the lack of "snaps" and because the Modeler and Scene editor are seperate apps there is no "real" world center or origin to referance when building your models. Maybe Newtek has addresed these issues in their latest version of LW7.b But untill they do, LW will never be accepted as a power player in the 3D community. I don't mean to bang LW, I LOVE ALOT of the features LW has to offer and hate that these fetures are not available in 3dsMax. My favorite feature is LW's HyperVoxles (a.k.a. volumetrics).

I love LW, but it's realy only pratical for organic and impressionistic modeling. I eventualy matured my modeling skills in 3DsMax/Viz, it's realy the only app that should be used for architectual modeling. Not to mention the fastest workflow around!

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Hi Erik,

 

you should really put a 'IMHO' when you come out with statements like you mentioned above. just so new ppl reading this aren't put off by software other than max/viz for architecture.

 

"max/viz the only app that should be used for architecture" - absolutely not, that is a closed minded view.

 

"Until they do, LW will never be accepted as a power player in the 3D community" - well, it is probably the 2nd or 3rd most popular 3d app in the 3d community in the world.

 

You should never blame your tools on the quality of your work. Personally i dont rate viz/max for architecture as much as i used to, and im a viz/max traditionalist.

 

sorry to be a pain here, but just trying to level the playing field a bit :)

 

[ July 05, 2002, 04:07 AM: Message edited by: STRAT ]

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Me too. Most of my work is rendered in Lightwave (FWIW the rest in Electric Image), but modelled with FormZ. And i have to agree that modelling architectural things in LW is not as easy as in FormZ for example. Working with solids is better than dealing alone with points and polygons. BUT, if i have to change little things on the modell LW's modeller works good.

 

ingo

www.im-graphics.com

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  • 1 month later...

ahh man, this is crap

 

i see this forum alone, so i think Lightwave s*ks for achitecture ?
listen, you don't want to blaim the program do you, so if you would work with LW you would say, i can't make any good images cause my program stinks......tsss...

 

i'll say it one more time..

The program is just a set of tools, it's the artist that makes the models, and it does NOT make any difference with what kind a program your work, i saw people do 3d stuff in illustrator which was really good, and i saw people work with max, lw, maya, c4d, and even with low class modellers i saw people make thing's i can only dream off now, so don NEVER blaim anything else for that yourself "the artist"

 

Until they do, LW will never be accepted as a power player in the 3D community
that's really crap dude, be honest, LW is one of the programs with a really nice future and we can expect a lot of it, just ask the guys at luxology...

 

There are four programs that run heads in the 3d scene : Max, LW, C4d, Maya and you can achieve the same with all four, if your really good :D

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I would say lightwave has the best renderer and the layoutmodul is that what an artist want. ..easy and fast.

I personaly loved the layouter of the old versions more, because it was more reduced to what a director of art really needed...anyway new versions brought new features. Photoshop output is one of these outstanding feature.

 

The modeler is somehow difficult for ppl who know max/viz and want to change every aspect of the model later with the changes from the client, BUT if you know the way lightwave organise projects you can expect the same or even better workflow with architectural scenes.

Also features are working.. boolean works perfect, stencil too, bevel too, subdivisons even better than you would think. Also don't forget that Lightwave can use REAL polygones: you can have a wall with 10 windows but the wall will have only ONE polygon.

Don't forget that a lightwave project can have hundreds of different scenes with ~5kb but has only one set of objects.

 

I work with Lightscape and Viz3, but i know lightwave from the past and now , since i think the update to viz4 seems to be a waste of money i maybe go back to lightwave and don't update to viz4.

The only thing which holds me back is insight for viz.

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imo LW's renderer is second behind LS's (still a long way behind tho ;) ) but i hear different reports about it's actual gi and radiosity rendering speeds.

 

im under the assumption it's rather slow, very slow actually, but other ppl says it's pretty fast. how does it compair in speed to say cinema 4d or viz?

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sponza

 

The speed depends on the settings like with any other renderer. If you want to light the scene with GI you can get very fast results with big eval. space values , but if you want fine details from the GI you have to wait much longer.. then LW is slower than other renderer.

 

Lightscape was a pretty good renderer but it was/is slow... i still like lightwave because of the shaded VP ... i wish there would be a new version with specular hilights for the VP.

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  • 2 months later...

I think that LW is one of best software available in architecture visualization. His modeler, workflow and render engine are perfect for this work ... and with his incredible new instances plugin you can manage large scenes without problems.

 

Perhaps Newtek could promote LW more in this techincal visualization areas.

 

You can see our web page .... all work done 100% with LW.

 

Regards,

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  • 2 months later...

Hello

 

Well, it's late, but:

Actually LightWave is the most selled 3D software around the World. And most used too.

 

NewTek offers only LightWave.

discreet offers many of them and they count all of them together.

 

I love LightWave, and I think it's the best 3D Allrounder with a very high learning curve.

 

But, I would never use LightWave for Arch vis.

Lightscape is imho better (much faster).

 

Richie

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LW is great, is our main app for ARCH work. But regarding licensed sold, not true, max alone has more seats sold than LW (close to double). Form*Z soon will be close to be a larger group than LW. Anyway I had read reports that say that truespace is the world best seller :)

 

The key question is, out of any report, how many of those are active? that will show the real winner.

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Hmm...

 

I don't know...

The last report I saw, put all product under one point, ie. Max, VIZ, ACAD etc.

 

But aonther point: Since discreet using illegal licencing techniques, they are not really serious company in my eyes (they tried this at least).

 

Richie

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Hello

 

Sorry, I have no idea about...

I just remember, that the report says: Selled Licenses (MAX, ACAD, VIZ and some other software) count xxx, and NewTek LightWave: Selled Licenses: xxx...

They don't say how many max licenses they selled, but the number of all selled products from this family (ie. MAX, VIZ, and ACAD).

Offcourse they was absolutelly number one on the list. LightWave was second on this list.

Now, you can just imagine, how many architects are using ACAD or VIZ. But actually in this comparation you should count only the selled MAX liceses, but not software that has nothing to do with DCC (acad and viz).

 

I'll look, maybe I'll find a link, but it was on some big page, so it should be easy for you too, to find the link...

 

Richie

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well.. FYI.. ACAD based software from AutoDesk has 6+ million licenses sold... so if ACAD was there has to be number 1. Last report I read, Max has sold about 170K. Keep in mind that AutoDesk has a sales machine monster that many other companies don’t have.

 

Clearly, not all of these "seats" are active, not sure if all were paid. I love LW, but I don’t think is #1 in sales. Caligary claims to have a #1 backed up by a report! :) so... I dont know.

 

Perhaps the LW figure is related to desktop video production or limited to a 3D sub market, since it bundled with the toaster.

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I agree with you David, from my time working as a Microstation supporter i only remember that you can easily cut Autodesks numbers by half; its like AOL saying it has trillions of users because they count all their send out CD's :D

 

ingo

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hehe ... richie is an austrian guy .. i know the support of Autodesk here in austria and can understand him.

 

Just to point you to the situation of Lightwave in Austria: There is one company in styria which is selling Lightwave and which offers crossupdates from Lightscape.

Lightwave is here a smart and cheap tool for freelancer.. no competitor to max or viz.

 

I still think lightwave has the better renderer but lacks of effency objectoriented modeling tools which is *for me* a must have in arch viz.

 

I know Marko Dabrovic from rna.hr and for him the situation is maybe different, because he knows LW much better than me and can do lot of things you can only do when you worked many years with LW. His work is great and shows the pure power of LW.

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Hey, Hello

 

Nice to see you...

Well, we are using LightWave since ver. 3.5 (the first vers. in Europe).

I also know the works from Mr. Dabrovic, but I would say, no Architect have such amount of time to do this kind of work.

This is why I say, NO LightWave for Architects.

 

Richie

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