A Brief Look at the History of LightWave

LightWave 7 is the 11th release of the program, which is in its third generation. The first generation of LightWave was available only on an Amiga computer bundled with a video card called the Video Toaster. That first generation of LightWave introduced 3D animation to an entirely new group of users who could not previously afford the technology (like the guy who’s writing this book!).

The second generation of LightWave occurred with version 4.0, when NewTek modified the architecture of the program to work independently of the Video Toaster board as well as run identically on multiple platforms, such as Macintosh, IBM PC or Silicon Graphics. That second generation of LightWave also opened up the software to third-party developers with a plug-in architecture, greatly enhancing LightWave’s position in the marketplace as well as strengthening its power by allowing small programs to be added on a user-by-user basis. These plug-ins included image filters for post-processing renders, particle systems, motion effects, and more.