NewTek LightWave 3D 6.5b (2001) WIP Thread (Based On An XP SP3 Install) Many Extras>>>

BellicoseBloke

BellicoseBloke

OK whilst working on the Max 4.2 I suppose I can start on LW65... It was out about same time as Max4... Backing up a bit the original version 6.0 was out in 1999 & was actually the first 3D package to have the ability to render radiosity using HDRI lighting...

Had immense popularity back then because of it's cheaper pricing as well... $2,495-

LW65-Price-4-2001.jpg


LW would go on in later years as cheap as $595!!

So why LW65?... Like Max 4.2 & Maya 4.5 & XSI 2.0.1 & C4D XL7.3 it's the very oldest that I would seriously use that has capabilities that I find 'plenty good enough'... How bout max 3.1 or 2.5 or LW 5.5? NOPE!... Sure they are nice to play around with for nostalgia but are too 'goofball' for serious work...

So in this thread will be kinda like the 3DS Max 4.2 version... When views hit around 500 then I'll start uploading, by then I'll be done with the Max thread...

In the meantime I have uploaded a care pak that has LW 6 demo AVI & others... GIFs that are too large to mount here & some flash tutorial EXEs that are for 7.5 but work same for 6.5-

https://workupload.com/start/MfxZMgzpUZy

OR

https://send.now/56983sj9vk52

OR

https://gofile.io/d/LWq1Ih

OR

https://www.sendspace.com/file/htagqp

Radiosity rendering is quite nice in it... No need to be lusting away for another render engine, LW would be tops for many years-

lw0000132.jpg


Here's scene I made up to test HDRI with Radiosity... Notice the image of the loaded HDRI in the left bottom corner of the Image Editor-

LW65-HDRrender.jpg


RENDER2.tiff.png


Shadow Designer plugin adds some spunk to shadows-

shadowdesigner.jpg


They did a nice job on this dumpster scene-

LW65-DumpsterBake.jpg


I have these two books which are about same thickness... I much prefer Dan Ablan's Wench!-

ILW6-It-S4.jpg
 
Radiosity render of Taco Bell building in6.5b-

TacoBell.jpg


One of the coolest plugins is Eon Ozone version 1... as 2 did not work for 6.5b I just happened to find version ONE!...

LW65-Ozone104.jpg


Strangely enough Ozone readily makes great chemtrail clouds, now we know why Iridi-Cow looks so sick-

LW65-Ozone-Chem-Cow.jpg


Blizzard Chest all textured up in Layout-

Blizzard-Chest2.jpg


Will also show textured up in Modeler-

Blizzard-Chest1.jpg


Biggest thing with LightWave is the split of Layout/Modeler... Not so much the interaction but which plugins are to be loaded into what... And some will work in both & others NOT!... Where to mount some plugs that require a button to be hit to work...

This 6.5b was similar to C4D at the time... Neither one had 'edges' it was just polygons or points as you could do whatever you wanted with those two choices but having edges does make things easier...
 
Alright... Had some time tonite so decided to test the connection of LW 6.5 to C4D XL7 BodyPaint3D then back to LW 6.5... Was expecting knashing of teeth but it was pretty slick for first time trying... I tried DeepPaint3D & it's rather a pain & not a real connection either...

Yes, Tablet pressure was used but just a small wacom bamboo which is 512 step, BodyPaint does not consider it HiRes so that box deticked in prefs... I have two old Intuos which are 1024 step which ARE considered HiRes...

LW65-BPXL7a.jpg


LW65-BPXL7b.jpg


LW65-BPXL7c.jpg


LW65-BPXL7d.jpg


LW65-BPXL7e.jpg
 
Well, this got to 500+ views fast, not done with the Max thread either, guess it's time to populate both...

SETUP.jpg


Since there have been problems in the past I have made this install a three part process in PlaySkool fashion... Even before Karl Childers could easily get through it but now Simple Jack could do it... I guess some need 'stop points' in order to read NFOs or other ReadMes...

This is LW 65 & manuals... The install before adding presets is only 26 MB when done, very tight & efficient version...

Everything is an overwrite there's no keygens...

https://send.now/4wwpsjnix7bc

OR

https://gofile.io/d/BIQZP6

OR

https://www.sendspace.com/file/dsitxj

OR

https://workupload.com/start/2M3knbANkyr
 
Once up-running you can install the SHADES plugin... Which is a bunch of free shader plugins in one-

Shades-Project-LW65.jpg


So download here-

https://web.archive.org/web/2010070...arizona.edu/lw/shades/plugins/shades2_60i.zip

Inside there will be a Lightwave plug... put it in plugins/Texture then load it up in Layout, not Modeler... The shaders work in Layout but will be greyed out in Modeler...

For some to work you must also load a few legacy plugins located-

LightWave\programs\Legacy_plugins\Common

Add - EnvAccess.p & Gradient.p

Even though there's a surface editor in both Modeler & Layout the workflow is that in Modeler you assign surfaces & perhaps change colors but that's pretty much it... The real McCoy you do in Layout where you assign shaders or textures to those surfaces where you can F9 render or use VIPER to see the actual hell you are doing>>>
 
Here's a image from Maxon Site of old showing BodyPaint3D working connection to LightWave 6.5... Since we already tested that out a few posts back we know that works well-

BPXL-LW65.jpg


KillerCroc & Harleyquin radiosities-

KillerCroc.jpg

Harleyquin.jpg
 
Firstly there's a LW6 'Open Presentation' Demo from 2000 here-


A few plugs to add there's Worley G2 which is another shader plug & Worley Sasquatch 1.5 which is a Hair plug & a fairly complex one at at that...

Also some PDFs one is Inside Lightwave 6 Lo-Rez version, A nice 187 MB PDF on modeling a car in LW 6.5 & a small PDF on Hair in LW (Polygon Trans-Mapped kinda Hair)...

https://send.now/sujoe1rjggay

OR

https://gofile.io/d/qMxLhn

OR

https://www.sendspace.com/file/0wkkto

OR

https://workupload.com/start/bt3YPNgnx6C


Some Sasquatch ScreenZ>>>

SASQb.jpg

SASQf.jpg

SASQh.jpg

SASQj.jpg



Some G2 ScreenZ>>>

G2b.jpg

G2c.jpg

G2d.jpg
 
Found some of my old links to LW plugs & such...

Some are very good others not... If you don't know what is what then best to grab EVERYTHING then sort it out later...

David Ikeda's Power Tools... Note that those at the bottom are important as well (POZExtender & others)

https://web.archive.org/web/20030719084155/http://www.davidikeda.com/

Here's the POZExtender page-

https://web.archive.org/web/20021115085221/http://www.davidikeda.com/

CTBFproc page-

https://web.archive.org/web/20010720222846/http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/ctbfproc.html

SpinTris here-

https://web.archive.org/web/20030401151844/http://www.terryf.dsl.pipex.com/htm/frameplugins.shtml

Absolute bunch from here-

https://web.archive.org/web/2001022...graphics.com/public/freestuff/plugins/lw.html

Some here-

https://d-creation.sakura.ne.jp/plugin_old.htm
 
Back to LW65...

Found an Anime Son Gokuh tutorial that was on a corner of a HDD... All steps & files included there's also a hair (transmapped) & a candle tut as well by Pang Sie Piaou in 2000-

t3_full.jpg



Going along with that is a very good old cell shader plugin-

3DDCelShader.jpg


3DDCelShader3.jpg


3DDCelShader2.jpg



Then there is a buttload of Babylon5 models but also scenes with many of them... Apparently some of these are actual copies of models used in the actual series... These all come in the separate Scene/Object/Images that LLW uses... Personally I make a folder under each 'Babylon5' then a sub-folder for each under that for 'Centauri Primus Battlecruiser' then put respective files in each of the three... It makes it much easier to find the files when LW initially queries....

Some scenes may be lacking a BG space scene image well use NONE or collect a bunch up from the internet to use as replacement you can probably do better than what they had back then...

Here's the Centauri Primus Battlecruiser in 6.5-

CentPriBat.jpg


There's a few more things thrown into the RAR... Photorealistic Texturing for Dummies PDF also another on Hair (transmapped)... an MHT on complex UV Mapping & a 1001 tips for LW 8 PDF but many of the tips go all the way to 5-6 the nice thing is that under each tip it tells you what versions it's applicable for, wish everybody did that...

https://send.now/31de41y04e22

OR

https://gofile.io/d/D8LdEA

OR

https://www.sendspace.com/file/h6k3k2

OR

https://workupload.com/start/y6fVdCLgkPv
 
Found some links to videos I mounted up on 3DTestosterone some years ago... Still there-

These all cover LW6...

Lightwave 6 Stage Promo (2000)

https://3dtestosterone.net/vidsys/?p=video&v=HLO9HpU2h9d0crZbSYB1r6rQ2nKX0hJA


Lightwave 3D 6.5 Applied Demo Compilation (2000)

https://3dtestosterone.net/vidsys/?p=video&v=AzUSynkeSiiqc_5S4hOviCbvzu741bng


This last one was resized up from a very small 292x204 AVI video but I really liked the animation-

Imagination Sight-

https://3dtestosterone.net/vidsys/?p=video&v=sUsITsBrpctmFJ3ehu6lKMusAjPBmlMA
 
Plinking around in LW 6.5 I find that it did not have a 'Bridge' plugin back then so looking for a way to bridge without doing all kinda work the 'QuadSew' plugin was the answer... This was a freeware plug from Happy Digital...

LW65-Bridge1.jpg


LW65-Bridge2.jpg


LW65-Bridge3.jpg


LW65-Bridge4.jpg


LW65-Bridge5.jpg


LW65-Bridge6.jpg


LW65-Bridge7.jpg


LW65-Bridge8.jpg
 

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Whelp... I go to wayback this morning & get this>>>

2026-09-12_015558.jpg


Maybe it'll be back later today or maybe not at all...

Certainly signifies the importance of having goods offline & safe...

If nothing else I'll upload my copy of the plugin (Don't have it on this machine).... May upload this whole package again soon... Also once again installing DeepPaint3D to test out that particular painting workflow... I have DeepPaint3D 1.04 with the TextureWeapons 1.5 addon....

HOWEVER-

After much cussing & spitting found that LW does not 'export out' a UV with a model at least not in the simple way you would expect...

Probably because 'inside' LW you can have as many UV maps as you want for any object...

However only ONE is allowed to be used by others...

In order to get this accomplished you must make a BS model, Assign blank textures & UV map in Modeler then save, send to Layout, go into the surface editor & add a shader called LW_Baker which is the Surface Baker...Inside that shader you assign the UV map to the Baker...When done then Render one frame using F10 NOT F9 then you will say 'SHIT!...Nothing happened!' But actually it did NOW the exported LWO has a baked in UV-

Here an exported MetaBox in Deep UV showing baked in Atlas UV in LWO format-

LWmetaform-Deep-UV.jpg


Anyways painting away test garbage all is sticking-

LWmetaform-Deep-Paint3-D.jpg


LWmetaform-Deep-Paint3-Db.jpg


DeepPaint3D do have some kool brushes...

ReLoading back into LW65 Modeler color certainly showing up-

LWmetaform-Modeler.jpg


Which don't much look impressive but sent to Layout it looks pretty good-

LWmetaform-LWrender2.jpg


Well, that's the workflow the manual says for DeepPaint3D as you don't use a plugin you 'share' where you have the model saved then update textures in LW as needed but just keep painting in DP3D...

Using BodyPaint3D a bit more straightforward however DeepPaint3D has projection paint & the Texture Weapons pretty cool as well you can have numerous UVs for different parts with autoUV options... However ALSO BodyPaint3D has kool painting on actual rendered surface so it looks like exactly what you are painting when re-rendered...

Right Hemisphere has been gone along time now but back in like 2005-6 they set DeepPaint2D free as they were concentrating on DeepPaint3D & had no time for 2D... It is same kinda system but also kool to paint 2D using diffuse, bump & specular....

Flat2D has a copy, grab, practice up it's same system as the 3D version-

https://flat2d.com/deeppaint.html
 
Back again whilst some tabs open... If I didn't relay before here's a buncha LWO vehicle models... There's numerous pages just plink the big obtuse right or left arrows on the page...Kool stuph...

https://web.archive.org/web/20040605062207/http://dmi.chez.tiscali.fr/models0.html


Newtekniques PDFs & other like Keyframe Magazine poke about in there... Personally I DL late 1999 to mid-2001 this covers LW 6-6.5 but you do as you will>>>


https://archive.org/search?query=newtekniques&tab=all


Make sure getting Jul-Aug of 2000 Newtekniques has Shave hair tut, DeepPaint3d tut & Aura making textures in (licensed TVpaint)...

Also Jan-Feb of 2001 good UV mapping info....

Aura features page-

https://web.archive.org/web/20010307123116fw_/http://www.newtekniques.com/aura/aura_feature_list.htm
 
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