Hello, I am considering purchasing Lightwave, and I was wondering a few things about it. First: The scripting code, or LScript, what can it do? is it soley to create plugins? If so, what are these plugins, what is the limit to what you can do? If not, what other things can it do? And second: Does anyone have a strong opinion as to why I should purchase Lightwave over something else, or vise-versa?
All comments will be greatly appreciated.
LScripts are user-definable (meaning: the people who write them decide what they do). There are no real limits (at least I don’t think there are. I’ve never written one myself). They can do more than a plugin, meaning they are actually little programs. Very little 
But whether or not you should buy it depends…I have used LW for 8 years. I have tried 3D Studio MAX as well, but it just seems a bit messy to me. I don’t think it very intuitive. But that’s just me I guess.
There is a cheap educational version. Which is upgradable to the full version after 6 months. You could also buy the full version. The edu version is available for $250 but the full versioin is $1595. It’s cheaper if you get the edu version and upgrade after 6 months for $495 without a printed manual $595 with a printed manual.
More info: http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/product/pricing.html
Of course you must be a student to qualify for edu version. And saying that lscript is not limited is definitly not true, the sdk for c++ is limited as well. I am not a programmer so cannot say where limits are, but some of the best plugins written are held back due to the lightwave architecture.
Now as for convincing you about which app to use, that is not a goo idea. Try the demos (lightwave update to 7.5 acts as demo without dongle) of the apps out there and decide for yourself.
good luck
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