LightWave Digital releases LightWave 2024.1
The LightWave 2024 promo, created with some of the veteran 3D animation software’s latest toolsets, including RHiggit for character rigging and Flow for liquid simulation.
Originally posted on 28 July 2024. Scroll down for details of the LightWave 2024.1 update.
LightWave Digital has begun its LightWave 2024 releases, the latest annual series of updates to the veteran 3D modeling and animation software.
LightWave 2024.0 integrates the RHiggit modular character rigging system, previously a third-party add-on, and adds new weight painting and liquid simulation toolsets.
There are also updates to LightWave’s node-based procedural geometry system, and to OctaneRender for LightWave, its integration with the GPU renderer.
The second major release from LightWave’s new owners
LightWave 2024.0 is the second major update to the software in eight months.
It follows a three-year hiatus during which development was suspended by previous owner Vizrt, which acquired NewTek, LightWave’s long-time developer, in 2019.
The software’s current owner, LightWave Digital, is a start-up whose management team comprises people who were closely involved with the software in its NewTek days, including former NewTek staff, plus key add-on developers and LightWave users.
3D Modeling: new Tendril, Thicken and Lathe nodes, and new Edge Slide tool
New features in ProGeo (Procedural Geometry Nodes), the node-based modeling toolset introduced in LightWave 2023, include the new Tendril node.
Its main function is to draw procedural vegetation, like vines or ivy, over surfaces in a scene, in a similar way to ivy generator plugins for other CG software.
However, in livestreams ahead of the relase, the developers talked about its other potential users, like annotating on-screen markups when reviewing shots.
ProGeo also gets more conventional Thicken and Lathe modifiers.
While ProGeo is available in Layout, LightWave’s scene layout and animation app, there is also a new tool, Edge Slide, in Modeler, LightWave’s dedicated modeling app.
It enables users to slide points or edges across the surface of a model to adjust its topology, including the option to create creases.
Character rigging: now incorporates modular rigging system RHiggit
Outside ProGeo, Layout gets three major new toolsets: RHiggit, WeightBrush and Flow.
Originally a paid third-party add-on, RHiggit – the capitals come from the name of its original developer, Craig ‘RebelHill’ Monins – is a modular character rigging system.
It enables users to create character or creature rigs – the original version supported quadruped, arachnids and birds as well as bipeds – via a semi-automated workflow.
Character rigging and layout: new WeightBrush toolset for painting weight maps
It is complemented by WeightBrush, a new weight painting toolset.
Its most obvious role is to paint skin weights for characters directly in Layout, without the need to switch to Modeler.
However, LightWave Digital say it has a wider range of uses, including weight-driven surfacing and instancing, making it a scene layout as well as a rigging tool.
Simulation: new Flow toolset for small-scale liquid simulation
The final new toolset in Layout is Flow, a new simulation system.
In the online documentation, it’s described as a “unified physics plugin”, although the main intended use seems to be small-scale liquid simulations.
Potential use cases include “liquid pouring into a glass, water splashing onto the floor, [and] jelly cubes bouncing and deforming”.
It’s based on open-source physics library Newton Dynamics and FleX, NVIDIA’s real-time particle-based physics toolset, and, like FleX, is Windows-only.
Rendering: updates to OctaneRender for LightWave and the native renderer
LightWave ships with OctaneRender for LightWave, the integration for OctaneRender, Otoy’s GPU render engine, LightWave Digital having now taken over its development.
In LightWave 2024.0, it has been udpated to OctaneRender 2023.1, with key changes including the new Standard Material and Standard Volume Medium.
There is also a high-performance new Photon Tracing kernel and a Post Volume node for creating fast fog effects.
LightWave’s native renderer gets performance improvements, with anti-aliasing now “up to 30%” quicker, and better motion blur for clip maps.
Pipeline integration: new Kit Surfacer and updates to OpenVDB and Unreal Bridge
The final major new feature in LightWave 2024 is the Unified Surfacing Tool, also referred to in the online documentation as the Kit Surfacer.
The latter is more descriptive, since it’s a semi-automated system for converting asset kits from online libraries – including KitBash3D, Megascans, and Substance 3D Assets – for use in LightWave. It also works with 3D plants from Maxtree.
LightWave’s integration of the OpenVDB library for volumetric data has been updated to OpenVDB 11.0, improving performance.
As well as importing VDB files from DCC apps like Houdini, users can also now export VDB files from Turbulence, the smoke simulation toolset integrated in LightWave 2023.
Unreal Bridge, LightWave’s real-time link to Unreal Engine, now supports Unreal Engine 5.4, the current version of the game engine and real-time renderer.
A recording of LightWave Digital’s livestream previewing the new features in LightWave 2024.1.
Updated 19 July 2024: LightWave Digital has released LightWave 2024.1.
The update adds new options to the RHiggit toolset for copying and pasting animations from one character or animated object to another.
The basic Motion Copy and Motion Paste tools copy and replace the motion of the selected item for the entire scene; Motion Paste Advanced replaces only selected animation channels.
Motion Dump and Motion Scoop store the motions of multiple selected objects, and reapply them to new selected objects in the scene, as shown at 15:30 in the video above.
New OctaneRender depth of field control
For rendering in OctaneRender, the update also adds a new Octane DOF Range node, which provides a quick way to control aperture and focal distance settings for depth of field effects.
Users can adjust the focal point of the render camera – both its position and the size of the area in focus – by moving a control in the viewport, as shown from 06:40 in the video.
Price and system requirements
LightWave 2024.1 is compatible with Windows 10+ and macOS 10.15+ (macOS 11.0+ for Apple Silicon Macs, and macOS 13.3+ to use the Octane renderer).
New licenses cost £795 (around $1,050).
Read an overview of the new features in LightWave 2024 on the product website
Read more about the new features in the LightWave 2024 updates in the online documentation
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