Subject: Lightwave 3.5 and DCTV
From: Steve Koren <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 08:06:28 -0600

> 	o Does LW support outputting anims in DCTV format?

No.  But there is little need to have LW write every format known to
man.  Render to IFF24 and convert to your favorite format after
rendering (which can you do even while LW renders the next frame, if you
need to).  I'd personally rather have Allen work on other things than
making LW write 47 zillion different graphics formats.

> 	o To make "decent" animation scenes (say 3 airplanes
> 	  flying over a town maded up of 10 low-detail houses),
> 	  can afford!!! I'm poor!!!) is 8MB ok???

8 may suffice, although it'd be tight.  It also depends on the
resolution you wish to render at, and many, many other factors.  If you
do things right, you should be able to render such a scene in 8 Mb.
Don't plan on big image maps or other such things.

> 	o is there direct support for HAM8???

Yes, although you are better off rendering to IFF24 and post-converting
to HAM8 with ImageFX.  (This is true for *any* renderer).

> 	o for a tipical not too complex frame, can I
> 	  expect rendering times within the range 1-5
> 	  minutes per frame on an 030/82 33Mhz acce???
> 	  (I know "typical" is hard to describe but...)

Maybe.  For simple to moderate single objects rendered at medium res
with no transparency or reflection or antialiasing, I get render times
between 30 and 150 seconds on a 68040/25.  Double or triple that for a
030.  However, there are a great many things which can increase render
times beyond 5 minutes.  So yes, you *can* get render times in that
range in simple cases, but you often won't.

> 	o is there a student discount for LW3.5???
> 	  I could afford something in the $300 range,
> 	  but $600 is just way too much.

Street price seems to be lower than your $600 figure, but also higher
than $300.  LW is easily worth that amount, but if your budget
absolutely won't let you get LW, you might look at Aladdin 4D, which is
about $250, and fairly powerful, if a bit hard to use at times.

  - steve