LightWave Digest - Christmas Special 2024

[@carloscaldeira4448]

🎉 Marry Christmas all LW team and users.

[@RichardFeeney]

The enthusiasm, particularly from Andy is great to see. Thanks for the episode

[@3artesestudio14]

Merry Christmas LWD and LWD, LWD for Lightwave Digital and LWD for LightWave Digest we love you guy

[@pilotpeak]

good episode!

[@erikals]

Well, I got LW2024, and was very glad there was a good Black Friday sale. Happy to see LW2025 rolling. ⭐

[@joewalter9211]

Merry Christmas! What a awesome gift!

[@JeckelNotHyde]

“Gonna have to watch this later on,… WaaaaY to much noise over here currently..! LoL” “MeRrY ChRiStMaS ALL!!!”🎉

[@RichardFeeney]

What`s this a marvel movie? With the wildly successful post credit scene

[@MarquisDeSang]

I sold my inferrior 2080ti/64 gig ddr6, 12core/24 thread amd PC in favor of a superior mac because of Andrew. I am not joking, I really just did that. Thanks Andrew. I need the best computer for LW 2025 and mac is the only way.

[@JohnRWMarchant]

Look guys, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. Keep doing what you are doing. Remember at the end of the day when you're time is done its your family and friends that will count, they are the ones that will attend your funeral and wish you bon voyage.

[@JohnRWMarchant]

Ok now i have to to watch it in it entirety.

[@erikals]

38:00 Maya Anim > LightWave Render = Awesome! Houdini plugin = Awesome!

[@painted_in_thick]

Thank goodness I don't have to learn Blender. Marry Christmas.

[@LightWaveDigest]

Blender has some good tools though that can benefit your usage of LightWave. :)

[@jasonwhite8903]

I thought it was a great offer, I didn’t really need to upgrade at all, so was super happy to get 2024 at a bargain price.

[@RedeyesXBL]

Glad you're not letting the doom sayers influence you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[@libbysworld1509]

We need an update for the amiga version

[@LightWaveDigest]

Hahaha... I have an AmigaONE X5000 and I would LOVE to have a version for AmigaOS 4.x... but... I do not think it will ever happen. :D Blender 2.78 runs like a charm though... /Cageman - LightWave Digest

[@justsomeguy1074]

How will Lightwave and all other 3D and production apps remain relevant with AI coming for you/us?

[@joewalter9211]

I think if AI can be used as an aid for 3D, then it could be a good use case.

[@erikals]

3D and Ai will blend over time. 3D apps like LightWave will make the transition smoother. for example, you cannot create nice precise 3D models in an Ai art app, that is still many years away. also precise animations movements is still superior in 3D apps. This is the short answer. ... i'll add, a bird told me that LWD is looking into some Ai stuff, tho' I don't know more than that.

[@justsomeguy1074]

I agree if you need something very specific AI might not do it yet but look how fast it is improving. The problem for artists going forward may be their clients that would have hired them previously will now use AI instead!

[@justsomeguy1074]

Also AI could be taught to make perfect 3D models but there would be no need for them.

[@erikals]

@@justsomeguy1074 yes, it will happen soon, for some VFX shots it even works now. But atm there are quite a few show stoppers. Give it 3-4 more years, and it will compete more in some areas.

[@JohnRWMarchant]

Im drunk, to much Chablis but im sure its good and i can watch later, my mind will not stretch to over two hours of concentration. Shit that beard is getting bigger Andy. Deuce, what are you having for Christmas.

[@LightWaveDigest]

Well... I am very surprised to see how many views we have had so far considering we released the Episode on Christmas Day.... so, you are absolutely excused if you do not watch / listen to this episode during the hollidays. :) /Cageman - LightWave Digest

[@darrelhidle5598]

I get it LWD is getting some unfair backlash and unrealistic expectations in some cases but ... Wow. I did not expect to get made fun of for expressing disappointment in the timing of the Black Friday deal and the 2025 Deal. The implied message from this podcast, intended or otherwise is that Lightwave will be for the elite that make money with Lightwave and hobbyist are out of their league. I agree you cannot make everyone happy, but you cannot expect new customers or returning customers to know your release schedule. I was a Lightwave 10 user that saw Lightwave fall off the scene for a while. In my opinion to say it is the user's fault for not keeping with Lightwave is not a fair statement especially when there are more complete lower cost alternatives. Lightwave is an amazing product please do not get me wrong. I expect it will get even better which is why users will want to be able to afford to keep updated. It was stated that since it is perpetual that users could have stayed with 2024 and not upgraded to 2025 in 4 months. (If you stick to your promise of Q1) Does that mean you will continue to fix bugs in 2024 and if so for how long past 2025 release? (My apologies if that was addressed in the podcast) I do love Lightwave and want to stick with it as long as I can.

[@joewalter9211]

LW is a great tool for both companies and hobbyist. Both can make money using LW as a professional 3D tool. I don't think they ever felt LW was only for elites. As it has been sold for the individual user 3D generalist in LW marketing from the beginning. It's low cost has always been a plus side to LW, as well as upgrade sales, etc. Making money doing 3D is awesome, if ya haven't made money you should start. 3D can be an expensive hobby... Happy you are a user and enjoy it. Happy Holidays!

[@LightWaveDigest]

Sorry if you feel targeted by some of the topics going on in the podcast. Andy did a whole segment of what he thinks the negativity comes from... and that was from the time NewTek owned the software and later VizRT... it probably started back in LW8 era and continued growing... After LW2015, NewTek went dark for 3 years regarding LightWave... and after 2020 release they sort of did a lot of smoke and mirrors until VizRT decided to kill LightWave 3D. He did state that he understand that people from that era will have that bag with them. Regarding LW2025, they did announce that they would start showing things of it in December and aimed for a Q1 release... this was never communicated in emails or their website, but in one of their previous live events. With that said... if you never watched them on their KZbin channel, you will most likely not know about it. And that is where the confusion becomes a reality for new users that did not know anything about that. In all honesty, I really like the communication that LW Digital have done so far, but.... there are room for improvements... such as doing a summary write up of things told in their live events and put that on their website with a link to the VOD hosted on KZbin. Regarding LW2024... from what I have heard... they are working on a patch for it.... No idea on when that is going to be released though, but probably in Jan/Feb next year. /Cageman - LightWave Digest.

[@MarquisDeSang]

You only have 5% of Mac because LW has ignored Mac in the past. The opposite was true with Electric Image, where they had few Windows users because the Windows version was inferior (I quit EIAS in early 2000 because I could not make plugins for EIAS without a Mac). Now that LW is taking Mac seriously, things could change. But I fear the damage has already been mostly done. Maybe the only new market LW could actually win a lot is Mac. LW is geared toward artists and TALENTED artists are mostly on Mac. lol

[@LightWaveDigest]

I would argue that the most talented artists are on PC and are working in the games industry.

[@MarquisDeSang]

@LightWaveDigest The same game industry that is dying? Yeah sure. So many AAA games studios are closing this year and next year (Ubisoft). Have you seen the latest Steam stats? 90% of gamers this years have not played modern game in 2024. But yeah, gaming is mostly on PC, normal most artists working on games are on PC.

[@LightWaveDigest]

And also VFX industry. Not seen a lot of MAC usage in either of those two very big industries....depending on what Apple do with the hardware it might change... one area that Apple once dominated was Desktop Publishing in the past. /Cageman - LightWave Digest

[@JamesOblak]

I'm not sure if that is a joke or a false impression that Mac platform dominates the design market (or people who perceive their talent). You need to ask actual developers why they don't put as much effort into Mac. It's easier to hitch your livelihood to a stable ecosystem. Talented artists can still run Adobe CS6 and LW7 on modern Windows. It just works. It's not accurate to say LW wasn't taking Mac seriously. At 5% usage, any reasonable business would abandon a platform, unless they already had a strong investment in it, as LW has.

[@MarquisDeSang]

@@JamesOblak I was about to join in on LW in 2015 (the first release of Chronosculp?) But when I saw chronosculpt was only available on PC I did not buy LW (I had a mac at that time). I said to myself NOT AGAIN. A software that favors one platform over another cannot be used or trusted. I pre-ordered lw 2025 in the hope that they implement the little missing features on mac. If they don't reduce the differences over time -> I keep my money. I needed a PC for VR 8 years ago and when I installed Strata on my PC it was trash compared to the mac version. This is not OK. The past is the past, but I think it is not so much difficult to make them similar enough so nobody is complaining. Programmers are more and more using linux and macs. Mobile developers have no choice but to use a mac, but even web developers use more and more macs. Work for home has favored reliable product, something that PC never delivered, not even on Linux.

[@MarquisDeSang]

Flow was the worst example Andrew could give against Blender. Flow does not work on 50% of PC (Only available on NVIDIA) and it does not exist on LW macOS. Yesterday, on LW discord, there was a guy asking for a water simulation app that could work with LW. Flip fluid only cost 60$ for Blender, but there are no apps below 400$ that can simulate fluid for LW. Or there is something I do not know.

[@LightWaveDigest]

You can use Houdini Indie and simulate water there... export an object sequence with motionvectors as a vmap and db&w has a node that you hook into it to get motionblur.

[@MarquisDeSang]

@LightWaveDigest 400$ exactly what I said. Blender wins this one on the price with the cheaper flip fluid plugin. LW requires Blender to do the parts LW cannot : sculpting, painting, simulation... You cannot not use Blender. You still need Blender if you use Houdini for sculpting. Blender is the only software that does everything, all the other require other softwares.

[@LightWaveDigest]

@@MarquisDeSang Houdini Indie is $269... not $400+. Regarding Sculpting, most studios are using ZBrush.

[@MarquisDeSang]

@ 400$ canadian

[@JamesOblak]

FLIP Fluids does not work well on Raspberry Pi. Hardware choice is just as important as software choice. An Nvidia GPU gives you many more software options, even outside of LW. LW artists have created liquids with hypervoxels, openVDB fluids, Deep FX plugin, Realflow, HOT Ocean, Houdini, etc (many which were available before FLIP Fluids appeared). FLIP Fluids cannot effectively create all types of water simulations. We need all these software options for fluids.

[@proceduralcoffee]

45 minutes of them talking about their failed black friday deal.. meanwhile artists moved to Blender.

[@LightWaveDigest]

That is not true and you know it. If you listened, in that segment there are a lot of talk about other things as well. :) Thanks for watching though. :)