"As promised with the LightWave v9 series we’ve added major capabilities with each of the updates we’ve delivered so far and LightWave v9.5 is certainly no exception," said Jay Roth, president, NewTek 3D Division. "With the addition of a complete hair and fur solution, all new real-world lighting system and GI that is significantly faster with even more beautiful results, LightWave v9.5 has something to offer the 3D community regardless of the specialty - from game developers to character animation to architectural visualization."

LightWave v9.5 Update Includes the following:

Character Animation Enhancements

New Hair and Fur System
Enhanced IK and Animation Systems

• New Collada, FBX and OBJ I/O
• New IK Calculation Options for Faster Performance
• New Bone Type - Joints
• New Objective Options for IK
• IK/FK blending
• Multi-threaded Mesh Deformation Evaluation

Modeler

• UV Unwrap/UV Relax
• Symmetry Tolerance

Lighting,Rendering and Surfacing Enhancements
All New Lighting System

• New Light API
• IES Lights
• New Spherical Light
• Area and Linear Lights Enhanced

Renderer

• Faster Sampling System for GI
• Improved GI
• New GI Controls to Customize the Render
• Disk-Based GI Cache

Node Editor Enhancements

• Interpolated Soft Rlections/Refractions
• Support for New Light API Functions
• Oren-Nayar Shading Option for Many Materials
• Optimizations for Materials and Shaders

SDK and LScript Improvements

• New Light Plug-in Class for Third Party Lights and Light Plug-ins
• SDK Support for New GI Functions and Disk Cache
• SDK Support for New IK and Animation Capabilities
• Set Surface Properties Through the Surface Global

UI and Workflow Enhancements

• Enhanced Scene Limits
• Updated Scene File Format
• EXIF Metadata Support
• OpenGL GLSL Enhanced for New Lighting System
• Image Viewer Consolidation

In addition to the new capabilities in LightWave v9.5, the LightWave v9 series has delivered enhanced performance in a number of areas including improved global illumination with higher quality and faster rendering, expanded OpenGL capabilities with new depth of field preview, advancements in the new camera tools and the node and materials editing system. Further, there are now over 24 hours of free LightWave training available online at www.lightwave3d.com. Visual effects artists who used LightWave's world-class rendering system and other capabilities in recent major projects such as Jumper, The Ruins, 300, The Guardian, VFX Emmy®-winning Battlestar Galactica and other hit series, such as The Sarah Connor Chronicles, CSI, CSI Miami, The History Channel’s Dogfights and the up and coming high definition game, WarDevil, depend on LightWave to produce state of the art visual effects on time and on budget.

Pricing and Availability
LightWave® v9 is available now at suggested retail price of $895US. LightWave v9.5 will be available as a free update to registered LightWave v9 owners. Registered owners of LightWave 3D® [8] or earlier are eligible to purchase an upgrade to LightWave v9 for $395US.

For more information or to purchase, visit www.lightwave3d.com.