Well, another Video Toaster User Expo has come and gone and winter is in the air. The Expo seemed a bit small this year attendeewise, but there was a great deal of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all the booths I wanted, as time was limited and I ended up in a lot of conversations, but there were some impressive things. Not only were there very fast LightWave systems (read: Alpha), but the first of the commercial plug-ins were starting to appear. Among these were WaveFliter and Lock & Key (both for LightWave PC). You'll see some review/tutorials on these and other plug-ins in the future.

My vote for the coolest new thing at the show (as far as LightWave is concerned) is Fori Owurowa's Power View solid shader plug-in for Modeler. Using this product, you can bring up a window that will give you a solid, shaded preview of the object currently loaded in Modeler. If you have an OpenGL card in your PC, it will take advantage and give you much better feedback. The coolest thing of all about this plug-in is that NewTek is going to give it away free on-line! (Way to go, NewTek!) For those of you who don't know Fori, he is a member of the LightWave programming team (along with Allen, Stuart and Arnie Cachelin) and the programmer of FreeForm, the Amiga-based spline modeling program.

Finally, I would feel negectful if I didn't update you on my "PC situation." Last night, after about seven months, I finally put the cover back on my PC case. That's right--I now have a fully functional PC! I had to buy a new motherboard and replace the CPU and RAM from my old one, but it seems to be working pretty well. The story isn't over yet, though, as I am still taking my vendor to small claims court. That tale will have to wait for another day.

John Gross
Editor