Running Lightwave 5.0 on MorphOS 2.5
  • MorphOS Developer
    Piru
    Posts: 575 from 2003/2/24
    From: finland, the l...
    Quote:

    1. Whilst the main Lightwave app runs the Make Preview crashes

    LightWave is doing some rather dirty tricks (reading and writing the screen->BitMap directly). From Options/Layout Interface, choose 4 color mode. This should workaround the crash in preview. It doesn't change the fact that the generated preview will be empty, however.
  • »15.07.10 - 15:33
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    Hmmm I had LW 5.x running on 1.4.5 havent tried it on morphos2 yet... I did have some sort of "patch" for cgx if I recall i'll investigate when I get my peg2 back on the kvm
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »16.07.10 - 01:35
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  • Just looking around
    MikeBrantley
    Posts: 4 from 2010/8/8
    I now run a three-OS shop here when it comes to next-generation Amiga or Amiga-like systems, with MorphOS on an eMac, AmigaOS 4.1u2 on a Sam440 and now AROS on an iMica Silent (thanks for the cool machine, Steve!).

    For the past several days I've been working on getting classic LW 5.0a running on all three. At the moment, it's the MorphOS machine I'm inclined to actually use for LW work, despite generally preferring AOS for, well, being most Amiga like. (What can I say? I love a good screen drag.)

    But the LW interface is just so very fast on MOS 2.5 and my 1.25ghz eMac, and I've now got all the problems solved to my satisfaction on this combination. (On AOS, I thought I was there, but have found executing AREXX scripts from within Modeler will cause a crash. These scripts for doing such things as centering selections work fine on MOS.)

    As Piru mentions, the only way to get around the make-preview bug is to drop the interface down to four colors. The resulting preview is still empty for want of the Amiga custom chips, but the rendering of the preview is so fast that it in itself functions as a real-time preview. You just don't get to loop it.

    The grayscale view of the rendering progress doesn't show for me, but who cares? The actual renders are very fast considering this is 68K code on non-current PowerPC hardware. Much faster than anything I was doing on my two 68060 classics.

    As Condor says, the key to getting Modeler to work on its own in the proper screenmode is the changemode program in toaster:programs/utilites. I'm running it at 1024x768, which looks good on the eMac CRT monitor. I'm using ModePro, another old 68K friend, to promote the Layout screen to 1024x768.

    So, at the moment, my MOS Macintosh is on LightWave duty. Only down side is it will now take me forever to learn Blender because of being distracted with classic LightWave.

    I wonder if I can get VistaPro working on it??? That one is doing very well on my AOS setup.
  • »08.08.10 - 01:51
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    Mike Brantley

    So Vista works on OS4 Thats good news... I'd like to try it on morphos as I used to use that program alot. my problem now would be how to get the program installed on my peg since I cant read floppies....

    Is it fully functional on OS4? Eventually I'll run it on the peg..
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »08.08.10 - 05:03
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    Guys I just completed my move and set up my peg2.. I checked my LW with Morphos 2.4.

    I'm running Lightwave 5.1 (.1 is important maybe??) which I got from NewTek at an Amiga con.. I also have the Cybergfx "patch" I can run the modeler screen in 1024x768 in 8 colors on morphos....
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »08.08.10 - 23:01
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  • Just looking around
    MikeBrantley
    Posts: 4 from 2010/8/8
    magnetic,

    My latest LW is 5.0a, which as I say is working just dandy under MOS 2.5, except for the empty wireframe previews that is also the case under AOS4.1 on my Sam and when promoting LW with RTG on my classic Amigas. But I wonder now what improvements 5.1 brought to the table??? You think that was the final Amiga version?

    Regarding VistaPro: I haven't made any move yet toward trying to make it work under MOS. But here's how I got it going under AmigaOS 4.1u2 on my Sam and with AOS 3.9 on my 4000 with an RTG card...

    The program is hardcoded to look for the a screen called WORKBENCH, and if it's not in a standard Amiga mode the program will not work. Don't ask me why, but because of this VistaPro would crash on my 4000 with Workbench promoted to an RTG mode. Same problem with AOS4.1u2 on my Sam440 system.

    The answer is to use a hex editor and look for WORKBENCH in the VistaPro executable code and change it to FAKEBENCH. Then use a mode promotion program, such as ModePro, to create a screen called FAKEBENCH and on my 4000 I make it a standard Amiga mode, such as NTSC 640x200 or 640x400. That is enough for VistaPro to be happy and run.

    Using ModePro on my Sam and the latest AOS, I set FAKEBENCH to the mode "P96-0:FAKENATIVE: 640 x 480" and select "Force Planar."

    Then VistaPro works quite nicely, and I set it to render very large images and save them as iff24 files. I use the MakePath utility to generate animation sequences.

    I'm still new to MorphOS, so I don't know exactly what needs adapting in the above instructions to work here or if there's a stumbling block. I would love to get VistaPro working on my MOS/eMac because the program's low-resolution screen will look sharper on my eMac's CRT monitor that it does on the LCD monitor I use with my Sam. Just the nature of running a non-native resolution on an LCD. Also, the eMac will no doubt render faster than my current Sam.

    Let me know if you give it a go and have any success. PM me if you need help getting your VP files from floppy to Pegasos.

    And don't give me any credit for figuring anything out. I read it all in a long, long thread on AmigaWorld.net. User number6 and some others did a lot of figuring out before me.


    [ Edited by MikeBrantley on 2010/8/8 21:19 ]

    [ Edited by MikeBrantley on 2010/8/8 21:20 ]
  • »09.08.10 - 01:17
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    number6
    Posts: 473 from 2008/8/10
    @MBrantley

    Do I have to follow you around the web now? heh.

    (1)The patch is no longer required, as you well know. The fact that is still listed on OS4depot is unfortunately misleading.

    (2)Greyscale rendering? Not here. Ham8 on screen.

    (3)VistaPro - You confused me on another site. I thought you had 24bit preview on screen, so I said nothing. You should have Ham8 preview in huge size, if you wish to.

    I see you accepted mixing "screens" (OS4PPC) with "modepro" (68k). As long as you accept the usage of modepro, there are far easier ways to achieve your goals. I reached the point after promoting this program with 3 different methods, that modepro alone offered the flexibility to perform certain tricks.

    To all unfamiliar with the threads in question that MBrantley refers to, I would be happy to supply links. I had posted, amongst other things the idea of having at least one member OS4/MorphOS/AROS form irc channel to co-operate on getting some old favorites running, when so possible.

    #6
  • »10.08.10 - 17:01
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  • Just looking around
    MikeBrantley
    Posts: 4 from 2010/8/8
    Quote:


    number6 wrote:
    Do I have to follow you around the web now? heh.


    He's after me! I can't get away! (grin) I couldn't make up my mind which next-gen Amiga-like platform to pick, so I got all three -- so silly me is trying to get the same suite of old programs running on three different operating systems. Don't ask me why... I'd probably be better trying to learn more about Blender or PhotoShop or something. LOL!

    Quote:


    (2)Greyscale rendering? Not here. Ham8 on screen.


    Are we talking LW or VP here? On My MorphOS setup, the LW "render in progress" screen, which has always appeared in grayscale for me on various Amigas, isn't showing any graphics at all -- just two lines of text reporting progress on a black background. That's fine for me.

    Quote:

    (3)VistaPro - You confused me on another site. I thought you had 24bit preview on screen, so I said nothing. You should have Ham8 preview in huge size, if you wish to.


    Sounds like I've got more to work on the get things set up as well as you have. Need to get with you when I get WookieChat set up properly. I mentioned the modes for "FAKEBENCH" I used on AOS (3.9 and 4.1), but I don't see any modes like that available on my MorphOS. They're all larger resolution, so not sure if the same trick will work. Would love it if it would, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of MorphOS. AOS seems very familiar, but MorphOS has a few improvements and changes that have me feeling slightly out of phase at times. Just a matter of me getting used to the environment.

    Quote:

    I see you accepted mixing "screens" (OS4PPC) with "modepro" (68k). As long as you accept the usage of modepro, there are far easier ways to achieve your goals. I reached the point after promoting this program with 3 different methods, that modepro alone offered the flexibility to perform certain tricks.


    Yeah, that long, long thread we've referenced can be confusing because of the various methods listed and the fact the some methods went awry for some people but worked perfecly for others. The ModePro method worked for me for VistaPro, and the Screens route worked for me for LW on AOS4.1. Will be interesting to see what might work for VP on MOS. As it is, classic LW is a pleasure on MOS with my eMac. I can't get over how snappy it is to move models around, etc. in both Layout and Modeler.

    Quote:

    To all unfamiliar with the threads in question that MBrantley refers to, I would be happy to supply links. I had posted, amongst other things the idea of having at least one member OS4/MorphOS/AROS form irc channel to co-operate on getting some old favorites running, when so possible.


    Wish we could have an old-fashioned user group meeting!
  • »10.08.10 - 23:16
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    number6
    Posts: 473 from 2008/8/10
    @MBrantley

    Quote:

    (2)Greyscale rendering? Not here. Ham8 on screen.

    Are we talking LW or VP here?


    Both

    Quote:

    Yeah, that long, long thread we've referenced can be confusing because of the various methods listed and the fact the some methods went awry for some people but worked perfecly for others.


    The people with clean systems got it working without a hitch, afaik.
    Also could be some failure to understand the step-by-step, which would be my fault.

    As to your comments about MorphOS, well...hence the suggestion to get together and compare notes. And let's not forget the numerous versions of programs that might also have been a reason for lack of success for some folks. Yet another reason to get real specific before issuing any instructions.

    Quote:

    Wish we could have an old-fashioned user group meeting!


    You don't know how many times I've heard that...

    #6
  • »11.08.10 - 00:35
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2793 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    Quote:


    number6 wrote:
    @MBrantley

    ...

    To all unfamiliar with the threads in question that MBrantley refers to, I would be happy to supply links. I had posted, amongst other things the idea of having at least one member OS4/MorphOS/AROS form irc channel to co-operate on getting some old favorites running, when so possible.

    #6



    Yes, please provide those links and if you have, or will write a step-by-step procedure for getting LightWave and Vista Pro working on MorphOS2.x, I would love to publish them here in the MorphZone Library.
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »11.08.10 - 03:56
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    Quote:


    number6 wrote:

    (1)The patch is no longer required, as you well know. The fact that is still listed on OS4depot is unfortunately misleading.



    The patch is no longer required? Why is that? Are you referring to Os4? What has changed?

    Quote:


    2)Greyscale rendering? Not here. Ham8 on screen.

    (3)VistaPro - You confused me on another site. I thought you had 24bit preview on screen, so I said nothing. You should have Ham8 preview in huge size, if you wish to.


    How are you getting HAM 8 screens? OS4 mode promotion does this? Can Morphos do this?
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »11.08.10 - 04:28
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    number6
    Posts: 473 from 2008/8/10
    @AmigaDave

    Sorry I can't help you with MorphOS, this is why I suggested a team to cover it all.

    Hopefully this will get you started anyway:

    the most recent thread

    Click the link in post #27 as well, since that should take you to the earlier thread where I outlined 3 different methods. If you read the responses carefully, you'll see what I mean about some people being successful with the directions and some not.

    @Magnetic

    I'll try to explain ham8 later. Have to run atm. It was obvious to me that one method of mode promotion was not giving people the ham8 screen while another was. The modepro method works.

    #6
  • »11.08.10 - 12:16
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2793 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    Thanks for the info and links number 6. I hope you make it off the island some day (I can't remember how the original series ended, but it was one of my favorite shows. I think I just dated myself, not that it is a secret that I am an old fart)
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »11.08.10 - 17:30
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  • MorphOS Developer
    cyfm
    Posts: 537 from 2003/4/11
    From: Germany
    Besides all that talk about running Lightwave, didn't it require a dongle to run at all ? How is that supposed to work on any MorphOS machine or even AROS ?
  • »12.08.10 - 00:35
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    Pega1

    Well as of LW 5 there is a STAND ALONE VERSION no "Dongle" or Toaster board required...

    I was personally given my 5. 1 Stand Alone copy by a NewTek rep at the St Louis Gateway Amiga CON in 1997..
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »12.08.10 - 02:56
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    number6
    Posts: 473 from 2008/8/10
    @Magnetic

    Quote:

    The patch is no longer required? Why is that? Are you referring to Os4? What has changed?


    Yes. Reference is to OS4.x. There is an option that was added to preferences for Planar screens on RTG.
    It should be mentioned in the threads I linked to.

    Added: I can't be certain that the option I mentioned answers "what has changed" regarding the patch. But it's necessary to get the results I published. Maybe someone more familiar with code can say.

    #6


    [ Edited by number6 on 2010/8/12 0:38 ]
  • »12.08.10 - 03:23
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2793 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    Quote:


    magnetic wrote:
    Pega1

    Well as of LW 5 there is a STAND ALONE VERSION no "Dongle" or Toaster board required...

    I was personally given my 5. 1 Stand Alone copy by a NewTek rep at the St Louis Gateway Amiga CON in 1997..




    I bought a boxed Lightwave 5.0 Amiga version that was advertised as "Stand Alone" on eBay a few years ago and found that it required a dongle and I could not run it after installation. The seller ripped me off and did not send the dongle, nor would he return any of my emails after the sale. He then disappeared from eBay completely, probably to create a new account.

    [ Edited by amigadave on 2010/8/11 23:35 ]
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »12.08.10 - 05:34
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  • MorphOS Developer
    cyfm
    Posts: 537 from 2003/4/11
    From: Germany
    So what is the deal now ? Any legal copy up to 5.0 has a hardware dongle or a Toaster attached to work and 5.1 was released without any add-on requirement ? I'm quite sure that I needed a dongle add-on (was it parallel or joyport?) in the 90s to run a legal copy of Lightwave on my Amiga .....
  • »13.08.10 - 17:25
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2793 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    If that is true, I wish NewTek would either continue to sell 5.1 via an instant download, at a low price, or release it as freeware/public domain, or open source would be even better so it could be improved and perhaps made to run native on MorphOS, but I know that won't happen.

    I would rather buy a copy of 5.1 than risk downloading a pirate copy of it off the Web.
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »13.08.10 - 17:34
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  • ASiegel
    Posts: 1369 from 2003/2/15
    From: Central Europe
    All 5.x versions required a hardware dongle as far as I know. (So did the PC port of Lightwave 5.x, by the way.)

    Any references to "standalone" versions of Lightwave allude to those that did not require a Video Toaster to function.
  • »13.08.10 - 17:46
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    pega1 + Aseigel

    Rest assured that there was a "Stand alone' amiga LW 5 version. I was a newtek authorized reseller and installer... and considering I posses the cd and it runs i'd say i'm not guessing...


    The whole point was the dongle used to be the Video toaster board (so forced ppl to buy one to run LW) then there was a 3.5 version with a dongle (parallel port iirc) and there was LIGHT RAVE which had its own dongle and allowed u to run 3.x without toaster board. As I said twice now way later 5.x version they had a DONGLELESS TOASTERLESS stand alone version.

    [ Edited by magnetic on 2010/8/14 16:48 ]
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »14.08.10 - 19:46
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2793 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    @magnetic,

    I don't doubt that you have a stand alone version, but are you certain that it was sold to the general public? Did you have many copies to sell when you were an authorized reseller? I would like to find such a version, but have never seen one for sale. If Newtek sold a lot of that stand alone version, I would think it would be easier to find, so maybe the sales of it were not that good.

    Edit: I bought my "Stand Alone" 5.0 Amiga version of Lightwave because I wanted to run in on my A1200 w/060 & 256mb Fast RAM. I did not install it on any of my other Amiga systems because I could put a Toaster card in them and install the version of Lightwave that comes with the last version of Toaster/Flyer software, v4.3. I don't remember if the v4.3 Toaster/Flyer CD has version 5.1 Lightwave on it and if yes, can I install just Lightwave from that CD onto my A1200/060?

    I'll have to check that out later today (it's 3am now, can't sleep again).

    Blender might be a better choice to run on MorphOS2.x, but there are tons of Lightwave objects and related files available and Cycas CAD can import/export Lightwave files. I need to find my registered Cycas CAD archive and try to install it on MorphOS2.x to see if it will run. Has anyone else here run Cycas CAD on MorphOS2.x?

    [ Edited by amigadave on 2010/8/15 3:31 ]
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »15.08.10 - 08:14
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    boot_wb
    Posts: 874 from 2007/4/9
    From: Kingston upon ...
    I notice on my VT4.3 installation CD that there is a BigFoot.exe installation executable.

    Anything to do with Mark Olsen (BigFoot)?

    EDIT: Just noticed that he was only 25 when the Obligement interview was published, so I guess not :-)

    [ Edited by boot_wb on 2010/8/15 13:58 ]
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  • »15.08.10 - 11:54
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12058 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Has anyone else here run Cycas CAD on MorphOS2.x?

    5 years ago hooligan managed to run it on MorphOS 1.x at least.

    https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3449&forum=9#31279
  • »15.08.10 - 15:45
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    magnetic
    Posts: 2129 from 2003/3/1
    From: Los Angeles
    Amigadave

    Quote:



    Blender might be a better choice to run on MorphOS2.x, but there are tons of Lightwave objects and related files available and Cycas CAD can import/export Lightwave files.


    Hmm yes, Blender is more modern and full featured and has a support community. However, having said that, I'm pretty familiar with LW and the interface is a joy to use. I also have many LWO files that are cool. Blender's interface is way complicated and there is a steep learning curve to get to the level i can use Amiga ver of LW.

    As far as Stand Alone, someone mentioned that it may have not been available to the general public. this may be the case, but I seem to remember a couple of vendors selling a dongless (stand alone) version of LW5.. Software hut for one. I'm sure i'm one of the few people running this 5.1 version of Amiga LW. its the last version iirc. We used to be vendors at every amiga show in us for a few years, and I was a newtek/toaster dealer too. Its cool NewTek had a cool booth a couple of years back @ NAB broadcaster convention in Las Vegas, so they are still alive!
    Pegasos 2 Rev 2B3 w/ Freescale 7447 "G4" @ 1ghz / 1gb Nanya Ram
    Quad Boot: MorphOS 2.7 | Amiga OS4.1 U4 | Ubuntu PPC GNU/Linux | OS X 10.4
  • »15.08.10 - 23:14
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