Editing LightWave 3D (section)

==Features==

===Dynamics===
LightWave provides [[Physics engine|dynamics physics systems]] supporting [[Rigid body dynamics|hard]] and [[Soft body dynamics|soft]] body motion, deformation, constraint, motorization, environments, and particles. It interacts with 3D object models, [[Interactive skeleton-driven simulation|bones]], and hair (FiberFX). LightWave includes both [[Bullet (software)|Bullet]] and legacy proprietary (comprising ClothFX, SoftFX, HardFX, ParticleFX emitter, wind, collision, and gravity) dynamics engines.

===Hypervoxels===
Hypervoxels are a means to render different particle animation effects. Different modes of operation have the ability to generate appearances that mimic:

*[[Metaballs]] for objects like water or mercury, including reflection or refraction surface settings
*[[Sprite (computer graphics)|Sprites]] which are able to reproduce effects like fire or flocking birds
*Volume shading for simulating clouds or fog type effects.

===Material shaders===
LightWave comes with a nodal texture editor that comes with a collection of special-purpose material shaders. Some of the types of surface for which these shaders have been optimized include:

*general-purpose [[subsurface scattering]] materials for materials like wax or plastics
*realistic skin, including subsurface scattering and multiple skin layers
*metallic, reflective, materials using energy conservation algorithms
*transparent, refractive materials including accurate [[total internal reflection]] algorithms
*[[Dielectric Shader|dielectric shading]] to render the behavior of light rays passing through materials with differing refractive indices

===Nodes===
NewTek expanded LightWave's parameter setting capabilities with a [[node graph architecture]] (Node Editor) for LightWave 9. This Editor enabled broad hierarchical parameter setting on top of its fixed and stack-based parameter setting support. Example node types include mathematical, script, gradient, sample, instance, group, and shader. Nodes are usable within the Surface Editor, Mesh Displacement, and Virtual Studio features. A node plug-in API was released for third party developers to add their own nodes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://static.lightwave3d.com/sdk/11-6/html/globals/nodeeditor.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305125025/http://static.lightwave3d.com/sdk/11-6/html/globals/nodeeditor.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |title=Globals: Node Editor Functions |website=Static.lightwave3d.com |access-date=2016-08-09 }}</ref>

A notable example of third-party node development is Denis Pontonnier's Additional Nodes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dpont.pagesperso-orange.fr/plugins/nodes/Additionnal_Nodes_2.html |title=Additional Nodes for Lightwave 3D 9+ |website=Dpont.pagesperso-orange.fr |access-date=2016-08-09}}</ref> These free nodes enable modifying images, renders, [[procedural texture]]s, Hypervoxels, object motions, animation channels, and [[volumetric lighting|volumetric light]]s. Also they enable particles and other meshes to drive node parameters.

===Scripting===
LScript is one of LightWave's scripting languages. It provides a comprehensive set of prebuilt functions you can use when scripting how LightWave behaves.

With LightWave 11, NewTek added [[Python (programming language)|Python]] support as an option for custom scripting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://static.lightwave3d.com/sdk/11-6/python/index.html |title=Welcome to LightWave Python's documentation! — LightWave Python 11.6 documentation |website=Static.lightwave3d.com |access-date=2016-08-09 |archive-date=March 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326055049/http://static.lightwave3d.com/sdk/11-6/python/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===LightWave Plug-In SDK===
The [[Software development kit|SDK]] provides a set of C classes for writing native LightWave plug-ins.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lightwave3d.com/lightwave_sdk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010205820/https://www.lightwave3d.com/lightwave_sdk/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 10, 2012 |title=LightWave - Software Development Kit |website=Lightwave3d.com |access-date=2016-08-09 }}</ref>