LightWave 2015 crossgrade

The LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc., has announced special upgrade pricing of $395 (USD) and crossgrade pricing of $695 (USD) for a full license of LightWave 2015. The special offer ends September 30, 2015.

This will be the last crossgrade/upgrade offer for LightWave 2015 before the next release of the software, which will introduce a new pricing program for LightWave. In appreciation of its loyal customers, the LightWave 3D Group is offering registered owners of LightWave 2015 preferential upgrade pricing on future releases of LightWave. Details are available at www.lightwave3d.com/crossgrade_promo/.

Crossgrade pricing is available to all artists using other 2D and 3D software programs such as Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max and Softimage, Houdini, Cinema 4D, Modo, Unity, Zbrush, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, and more. Crossgrade pricing, however, varies in Japan. For more details, contact Dstorm at www.dstorm.co.jp.

The LightWave Advantage

Some of the many new features of LightWave 2015 include:

• Bullet Constraints: Take control of dynamic simulations with new constraint types such as Point-to-Point, Hinge, Slider, Cone Twist, Spring and six degrees of freedom (DOF) constraint types.
• Importance Sampling: Greatly improve the quality of scenes lit by GI and HDR images or background lighting.
• Match Perspective Tool: Whether matching plates or simply placing objects in photographs, the new Match Perspective tool can quickly sync the LightWave camera to an original photo or plate.
• Genoma 2 Character Rigging System: A rapid modular rigging system, which at the base level is a complete rigging development kit (RDK), can be used to quickly rig characters for animation without the need to set up complex rigs from scratch. It also supports the use of Math Expressions and Scripts and includes new and improved human, feline, and arthropod preset rigs.
• Edge Rendering: Intersection Edges can now be drawn where geometry intersects on the same object and/or separate objects, allowing for more creative control over cel rendering. Use Patch Border Rendering to make Sub-Division patch borders visible in the renderer with the click of a button. It is ideal for modelers who want to combine and showcase the mesh topology with the full render. Edge Buffer can be used to render all edges into their own buffer, allowing for post-process manipulation in compositing software.
• 64-Bit QuickTime Support: Loading and saving QuickTime movies is now possible to those using 64 bit versions of LightWave for Windows.
• LightWave 2015 includes new enhancements to the Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR) and introduces many new features and improvements such as Interactive Dynamic Parenting, Textured Falloffs in Modeler, Fiber FX, GoZ Multi-tool and Unity 5 support, and more. It also supports the latest interchange formats such as Alembic 1.5 and FBX 2015.

Artists are invited to test drive the software by downloading a full-feature 30-day trial version of LightWave 2015 at www.lightwave3d.com/try_lightwave.

For more information about LightWave 3D software or the LightWave 3D Group, please visit www.lightwave3d.com.