Most Significant Upgrade in 10 Years Breakthrough Rendering Technology, Advanced Character Animation and New Modeling Paradigm Makes Lightwave [6] the Established Leader

SANTA CLARA, CA --(May 11, 2000)-- 3D Conference and Expo--NewTek, manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video production products, announced today that LightWave [6] for PowerMac is shipping to customers Worldwide. LightWave [6] is the culmination of over ten years of development and represents the most significant upgrade to LightWave in the history of the product. LightWave [6] advances the state-of-the-art in professional 3D animation by adding a comprehensive set of advanced character animation tools, groundbreaking rendering capabilities, next generation modeling paradigm, new and improved architecture and a refined work environment.

During the process of designing the new architecture of LightWave [6], technologies in upcoming Mac OS revisions were considered. It is for this reason that new Open GL technologies, Altivec tuning, integrated QuickTime support and OSX compliance are all a part of the LightWave [6] Mac release (OSX version available at the time of OSX release). This release of LightWave [6] marks the greatest level of integration with the Macintosh platform that NewTek has ever achieved. Finely tuned system specific code gives LightWave [6] a significant performance boost as well as better integration with Mac OS features like navigation services.

"LightWave [6] is set to push the envelope for 3D modeling, rendering and animation and contains many features never before seen on a Macintosh system," said Brad Peebler, Vice President of 3D Graphics Tools for NewTek. "With the new G4 processors, the Apple/LightWave [6] combination represents the fastest rendering solution to provide caustics, radiosity, ray tracing and volumetrics in one system. Combined with the new animation and modeling tools geared for high-end character animation work, LightWave [6] will be head-and-shoulders above any animation system currently available for the Macintosh. LightWave [6] also represents the first animation system to be redesigned from the ground up to take advantage of Apple's operating system advances," Peebler continued.

LightWave, the recognized leader in the film and television industry, provides the most complete feature set of any 3D animation tool available. LightWave [6] offers breakthrough rendering technologies, advanced animation tools, and a new modeling paradigm as well as improved workflow, better control over texturing, customizable user interface and extensive improvements to real-time views. LightWave [6] is the only 3D software system to run on Macintosh, Windows NT, Alpha and Silicon Graphics systems.

"We are very excited about our new Macintosh release and from what we have seen and heard in the past few months, the market is clamoring to get their hands on it," says Peebler. "Because of the overwhelming success LightWave has seen on the Macintosh platform, we believe that other high-end 3D companies will follow our lead and migrate towards the Macintosh platform."

Version 6.0 Takes LightWave 3D's Proven Success to Even Greater Heights

The three traditional areas of 3D, modeling, animating and rendering, have received massive enhancements in the new software. Among the thousands of changes in this completely re-designed system, LightWave [6] boasts real-time subdivision surfaces as a modeling and animation tool, radiosity, caustics, high dynamic range image support, 96-bit floating-point rendering, a hybrid Inverse/Forward Kinematics engine and new character-animation technologies: IntelligEntities, Skelegons, Endomorphs and Multi-meshes.

"The Macintosh is a very important platform for NewTek and LightWave 3D, and the speeds we see on the new machines are incredible," said Peebler. "The Macintosh has always been a computer for the artist and creator. Just like Apple, we have created LightWave 3D with the artist in mind, making it faster and easier to create stunning works of art."

Groundbreaking Rendering Technologies

LightWave [6] introduces a number of new rendering technologies, including:

• -- radiosity and caustics rendering for the calculation of indirect light as it bounces from diffuse, reflective and refractive surfaces, which allows LightWave [6] to deliver the nuances of lighting better than any other 3D package on the market;
• -- a 320-bit IEEE floating-point rendering pipeline assures ultimate color depth and accuracy adding exceptional richness and realism to the imagery; The engine dynamically scales from 160 bits to 320 bits depending on the requirements of the scene;
• -- High Dynamic Range Image support provides the user a method for importing imagery that contains data well beyond traditional bitmaps. This extra data can be leveraged in the radiosity rendering process to allow scenes to be lit accurately from environmental maps. This technology was recently revealed at Siggraph 99 in the Fiat Lux project. LightWave [6] marks the first comprehensive commercial application to incorporate this new concept. High Dynamic Range Imagery is certain to change 3D rendering and compositing.
• -- sub-pixel displacement rendering for the creation of realistic volumetric surfaces such as water, clouds and gels with incredible precision and speed;
• -- advanced HyperVoxels for direct ray tracing of volumetric surfaces, optimizations that make HyperVoxel rendering 400% faster and;
• -- a volumetric lighting model optimized for a more than 300% boost in speed with full texture support for innovative new volumetric lighting effects.

Character Animations and Game Development Advancements

Unique to LightWave [6] is a new breed of character animation tools called IntelligEntities. IntelligEntities consist of Skelegons, Endomorphs and Multi-meshes, which allow objects to carry data well beyond simple geometry.

• -- Skelegons are a new type of polygons that appear like traditional 3D bones. These Skelegons are saved as part of the object so that a character always has an intact skeleton. With Skelegons, as modifications are made to a character the bone structure is automatically updated. Skelegons provide an enormous arsenal of tools for creating bone structures as well as fantastic control and maintenance of characters.
• -- Endomorphs allow the change of expression, mood, or action by training a single model. The use of Endomorphs provides for the simple creation of lip sync and complex morphing scenarios.
• -- Multi-meshes embed multiple layers of geometry into a single object.

With Multi-meshes, hierarchical objects are saved as a single, complete model with all of the defined relationship and pivot data included.

LightWave [6] introduces a hybrid Inverse/Forward Kinematics engine that improves on what is already the industry's most flexible Inverse Kinematics (IK) engine. This hybrid system combines the strengths of Inverse Kinematics for making sweeping changes to a number of joints with the precision and direct control of Forward Kinematics. Free-form and locked IK goals allow users to have goal items that are locked to the length of the chain or that use a rubberband-style goal that can float in space away from the chain itself. In addition to introducing Endomorphs, Skelegons and Multi-meshes, LightWave [6] enables vertex grouping for bone assignments, resulting in greater control of anatomically precise characters.

For realistic motion of any kind, but for characters in particular, it is important to have precise control of the motion curve. With LightWave [6] the curve editor has been completely rewritten providing flexibility and a robust feature set. Curves can now be created with multiple tangent types including Bezier, Hermite, TCB, Linear and Stepped. These tangent types can actually co-exist on a single curve. Because each curve type has specific benefits, it is tremendously useful for fine tuning motions. The graph editor provides a rich set of tools for manipulating curves of any type and allows interactive copy and paste between those curves.

Price and Availability

LightWave [6] for the Macintosh is now shipping for a suggested retail price of $2,495. Customers can purchase LightWave [6] through authorized NewTek dealers Worldwide. Registered users of LightWave 3D 5.6 can upgrade to LightWave [6] for $495; upgrades are available through authorized NewTek dealers. Customers can find retail dealers selling LightWave by visiting the NewTek Web site (www.newtek.com) or by calling 800-862-7837.

About NewTek

With headquarters in San Antonio, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, animation and special effects tools. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent film and television projects include Shakespeare In Love, Bond 19 "The World Is Not Enough," Roughnecks: Starship Troopers, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The X-Files, Back Street Boys "Larger than Life," Ally McBeal and Family Law. Recent game titles include Torment, Ridge Racer Type 4, Jersey Devil, Prince of Persia, Sports Car GT, and Ghost in the Shell. Contact NewTek at 8200 IH-10 West, Suite 900, San Antonio, TX, 78230. Phone: 210-370-8000, fax: 210-370-8001, website: http://www.newtek.com.

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