Lightwave 3d books4/28/2023 ![]() The “Borg Queen” approach has proven to be very effective for us and one that has allowed us to advance LightWave architecture in extremely important ways most notably with the all new “unified geometry engine” that we have put into what will be the next released version of LightWave Layout. This approach allowed us to make good progress toward our goals without completely going dark for a long period or disrupting the system as we continued to advance LightWave forward and introduced LightWave 2015. Progressively, more and more tools and systems would begin to use the new tech until we reach a point where the older technology can be “unplugged” and deprecated leaving only the new more advanced system in place. We would then be able to insert this new technology into the main LightWave system and begin using it in small ways as we continued to unplug from the old and plug in the new as we went along. In the same way Borg technology grows from the inside until it takes over the system, the “Borg Queen” approach allowed us to develop radically different technology without worrying too much about the limitations of the current architecture. ![]() Teska at Foundation Imaging for the television show Star Trek Voyager where the head and spine of the Borg queen is lowered into the Borg body. I called it the “Borg Queen” approach in honor of the iconic LightWave shot done by John M. ![]() LightWave Borg Queen – Image Courtesy Paramount and Foundation Imaging To achieve this, I suggested that we take the “Borg Queen” approach because I thought it would be a low risk way for us to move forward while allowing us to add dramatically new technology to LightWave in the process. So we really began to focus on how best to do this progressive refactoring of the major systems at the very heart of LightWave. When the team would express frustration with our current architecture or toolkits the attitude of the users on the team was to say, “Well, let’s change it then.” and on that the entire team eventually agreed. Progressively our momentum grew, all while we continued to ship the product and began mapping out a long term plan to make a truly modern LightWave 3D product a reality. We passionately discussed everything from programming languages to how best to approach a modern user interface toolkit. These discussions progressed at subsequent development meetings and as we progressed through the 10 cycle and into the LightWave 11 cycle as I continued to encourage the team to find innovative solutions to move LightWave to a more modern base architecture while making LightWave technology more modular and flexible. ![]() Shortly after the release of LightWave 10, internally we began heated discussions about the challenges of working with the current LightWave architecture with the agenda of removing current barriers while keeping the “soul” of LightWave intact and continuing to ship the product. Page from Internal Development Comic Book It only stands to reason that by putting technically minded advanced artists and designers on the team would result in a more beneficial development process for all LightWave users. Certainly bug reporting and software testing are effective as well but the addition of “uber-users” directly on the team and the collaboration that this created has fundamentally changed our process for the better.Īfter all, we are trying to get to the end goals of putting tools in the hands of our users that make sense and giving them workflows that are fast and simple to empower their art and design. This is important because it helps us get to positive results much faster than before. With this combined approach user workflows are considered at the genesis of any discussion and is ongoing throughout the entire process. The unique synergy created by having the user perspective involved in the earliest stages of the development process has proven to be very fruitful and has deeply influenced the LightWave development process in a very positive way. Internal Development Comic Book from 2011Īnother thing that I considered very important was to add several experienced LightWave users to the team who came from various different backgrounds and to integrate them directly into the software development process.
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