NEWS • NOVEMBER 28 , 2000
Mac LightWave 6.5 Out Today
Free update adds texture baking, integrated particle system

by David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com

NewTek says it's releasing LightWave 6.5 today, available for download (if you can get through to their Web site) a little later today. The update is free to all registered users of LightWave 6.

The latest version adds texture baking capabilities, as well as an integrated particle system and numerous interface enhancements. Texture baking is the ability to save lighting and shading information as a texture map that can be applied directly to an object. The particle system includes Adjustable Birth Rate (time, emitter speed, collision events, keyframe events, wind speed); Custom Nozzles; weight, size, resistance and lifetime properties for particles; Wind; several collision modes, including Bound, Stick, Elastic, Event, Collision Friction power and Fix power; and Gravity.

The new version of LightWave has way too many new features to list here. But highlights include:

• Bone deformations have been significantly optimized (up to 40 times faster)
• Improved deformation speeds for all deformers.
• Enhanced Skelegons with Bank information.
• Inverse Kinematics calculations have been optimized for faster interactive performance.
• Node based view of scene.
• Multiple Custom Object plugins.
• Light Exclusion Lists for objects.
• Radiosity Exclusion for objects.
• Caustics Exclusion for objects.
• Radiosity optimizations.
• Extra Ray Trace Optimization option.
• Three new buffers: Red, Green and Blue components of mirror reflections.
• Shaders and pixel filters can now account for radiosity and caustics.
• Multi-surface editing.
• Vertex color map support.
• Constant Value procedural.
• Blending mode column added to texture layers.
• Enhanced discontinuous VMap support.
• Support for UV-mapped subPatch objects.
• UV texture Atlas for automated complex UV map creation.
• New RGB and RGBA VMaps.
• Airbrush tool with support for new Vertex color maps.
• Improved OpenGL support.
• Larger mouse pointers for easy visibility at higher resolutions.
• Parallax property for adjustment of the perspective view.

For a complete list of features in 6.5, visit http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/product/6.5/65_feature_list.html.

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