By adam stern (Adam) (24.76.115.42) on Friday, December 27, 2002 - 01:08 pm:

Just ordered our copy.

By Beam Tracer (Beamtracer) (203.109.241.109) on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 06:12 am:

I didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to release a software product during the Christmas break. However Worley has done it:

http://www.worley.com/

G2 is probably the most amazing plug-in every released for Lightwave. I wonder how many people will hear about the introductory discount price before it expires on January 3. All those poor Mac users are away on their holidays!

By Karl Hansson (Karl) (217.208.3.35) on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 02:22 pm:

I just ordered mine too!!!

By Beam Tracer (Beamtracer) (203.109.241.109) on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 07:14 pm:

I'm about to put an order in. I'm looking foward to getting subsurface scattering, and those amazing realistic skin tones. No more mannequin-looking models!

I note that Worley Labs has dropped support for OS9. This is OS X only. I think that's a good thing.

By Darthmole (Darthmole) (81.86.131.124) on Sunday, December 29, 2002 - 02:54 pm:

Yep - I'm down for one. And I agree: dropping OS9 development is a wise thing to do. Besides, I doubt if it would be such a useful tool with crashy ol' LW OS9...

P.S. Usually, you can download an unregistered copy of Worley's plugs and use them to play with the demo scenes - however, there's nowhere to get the OSX G2. Anyone seen it?

By Karl Hansson (Karl) (217.208.3.35) on Sunday, December 29, 2002 - 03:07 pm:

As I understand it G2 will be sent to you by mail upon completed order.

By Darthmole (Darthmole) (81.86.131.124) on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 06:34 pm:

According to WorleyLabs Yahoo Groups, the download will be available tomorrow (or maybe later today, US time). The PC version is there already.

By Beam Tracer (Beamtracer) (203.109.241.109) on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 04:05 pm:

If I look at my clock, there is only a couple of hours to go to take advantage of the G2 discount offer, before it goes to the higher price.

By Dany Roth (Dany) (217.162.138.97) on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 05:49 pm:

The download of G2 is available!
at http://www.worley.com/downloads.html

By adam stern (Adam) (24.76.115.42) on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 05:56 pm:

Cool! Now if only I had my manual...looking forward to the mail next week!

By Darthmole (Darthmole) (81.86.131.124) on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 09:25 am:

First impressions of G2 are somewhat mixed. Biggest disappointment is that it's not properly multithreaded - it crashes LW if you try to update the preview (F9) with anything more than 1 thread, which kind of spoils things (with 1 thread, my DP800 doesn't exactly fly).

However, when it's working, some of the edge and subsurface scattering effects are fantastic.

By ~@~ (Phong) (66.52.181.74) on Monday, January 06, 2003 - 10:32 pm:

The next G2 update will be out shortly ("later this week") and the multithreaded extensions are being finished now.

I have a copy and am Very (extremely) Happy with what I am seeing.

Worley rocks again! (smile)

By adam stern (Adam) (24.79.126.243) on Monday, January 06, 2003 - 10:50 pm:

just got going with G2 today. Extremely happy as well...I can see this really changing the way I work in layout. Unbelievable shading features *and* real-time previewing. so cool...

Thanks to the folks at Worley. Very exciting.

By Beam Tracer (Beamtracer) (203.109.241.109) on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 05:31 am:

Phong: there you go lurking in the darkness of this forum again! You must know someone at Worley Labs to get the multithreaded version early.

By Darthmole (Darthmole) (81.86.131.124) on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 01:48 pm:

Nah - I got it too (G2_GS). Steve Worley's nice like that...

By Christian Avalos (Cavalos) (64.213.56.192) on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 02:35 pm:

I´m not shure about G2 yet. Most of G2 output at Worley´s gallery doesn´t convince me at all. Maybe is a great addition to LW´s wokflow but the important things to me (Like SSS) looks faked and not properly implemented in order to have really photorealistic works. I supposed I need more feedback and experiences from other users before take a desision.

Best
Christian

By (Zarathustra) (68.85.110.4) on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 03:20 pm:

If for no other reason, buy it for real time previews.
Once again:
REAL TIME PREVIEWS!!!!!!!

It could be called RTP and that's all it does and still be worth the $$$$. Oh, it also does SSS? And more? WOW!!!

How many times a day do you tweak your lighting,textures, etc? How many times afterwards do you hit F9 to see how that change looks? What's your average wait time?
Do the math....at the end of the day, how much time do you waste waiting? Add it up over a week...a month...a year.
Is that lost time worth $300 or $400?

By matthew baldwin (Mbaldwin) (166.84.191.166) on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 04:38 pm:

G2 is the most useful 3rd party plug I have. It totally makes layout a different software program.

don't hesitate to get it. It will save tons of time.

By Chris W. (Chriswork) (24.123.214.36) on Wednesday, January 08, 2003 - 09:20 am:

Just a note on the real time preview options in G2. They are great, and very fast. However keep in mind that G2 can't do real time previews of the following:

- Changes to surfaces
- Raytraced shadow positions (colors it can do)
- Post process effects.

For changes in these area's you have to do a new update which means an F9 render. The only one that really puts a damper on things is the inability to tweak surfaces and textures. According to the docs this is a part of LW developers can't access as of yet.

What you can preview are light positions and the myriad of options the G2 shader offers.

To me the most valuable feature is the "boosts" that if offers. You can do some really cool things very interactively with colors and tints and subtle exposures.

Anistropy is another very cool thing. You can adjust the G2 anistropy parameters and literally watch the anistropic pattern move across the surface of your object in real-time!

The other reason I bought G2 was for the artistic rendering options, which I haven't gotten into yet...but I think it's going to every bit as cool as the rest of the plug.

Overall for $300 (or $400) it's going to pay for itself on the first job if render quality is your bread and butter.

By Karl Hansson (Karl) (217.208.3.35) on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 02:14 pm:

I have come across a problem with G2. In the top of the preview window there are some buttons, output, channels, lights, view, LUT, tools.

I click the View button and then the Camera button wich brings up the cameraselector window. Then when I try to select a camera LW crashes.

Does any one else have this problem?

By Michael Linde (Mlinde) (4.64.200.243) on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 03:25 pm:

Works fine here:

G4 2x800 GeForce 2MX, 10.2.3

-michael

By Hervé Steff (Hervé) (212.76.255.76) on Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 02:19 am:

My old mac (early G4 450) is realllly not made for OSX, it becomes so slow.. incredible.... so I went back to OS9... i just still have photoshop on it, so it's OK..