Waiting and Waiting for Lightwave 9
It's been a while since Lightwave 9 was expected to ship and it looks it will be a little bit longer before the final version ships out. What can people expect vs what people want to see is an age old issue with Lightwave over the years.
There are those that have had their fill and there are those that hang on and look forward to using the features promised in the marketing videos and flyers.
Lets go Forward to the Past
There is no need to candy-coat that Lightwave 9 will not be the uber, ground shaker that long time hold outs are expecting. This may be more the transitionary model that showcases what the new team is looking to accomplish. After the mediocre reception in LW8, LW9 is expected to prove itself as a turning point release. Of course this isn't aided by the fact that market forces continue to produce ever more productive tools that further push some of Lightwaves features back in time.
That is Lightwaves biggest issue. Implementation of features others have had for years. Going forward to catch up with the past.
Newtek needs to pull out all the stops. Not one LW9 feature should be released in a semi-functional state. Jay Roth's SIGGRAPH position that features lists alone don't make a program sound, features that work as advertised do, should be on everyones mind. Lightwave has a loyal following but even they have adopted using exterior apps to fill in LW's short comings. NewTek needs to deliver a solid application without excuses.
Even if Lightwave 9 is a solid/stable release, the market continues to innovate at break neck speed. Somewhere at sometime Newtek will need to retool and build Lightwave from the ground up. There simply not practical to build up on such an old code base. The innovation potential in the market three years out virtually demands a new design. The only question remains is if NewTek is up for it.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
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