By Marvin Landis (Marvinl) (68.63.199.213) on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 09:10 pm:

I'm pleased to announce that Richard Brak has successfully ported the qemLOSS3 plugin for LW7.5 Mac OS9 and OSX users. Details about obtaining and using the plugin, as well as tutorials covering the new features can be found on the qemLOSS3 web page:

http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/lw/qemloss3.html

By Ted Lee (Tedlee) (66.156.9.166) on Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 02:48 pm:

While I'm grateful for the work R. Brak has done bringing this plugin to OS X users, why not just charge for it? I mean, his conditions for obtaining the plugin seem a little old world. I guess the GPL license prohibits him actually charging for it.

He does mention that once you obtain it, you can redistribute it however you like... So when some does obtain it, how about posting it for general download? I'll pony up the space/bandwidth if necessary...

By Marvin Landis (Marvinl) (68.63.199.213) on Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 05:19 pm:

Just to make things clear, Richard is not the one asking for a trade, it is me. I sent Richard the source code and he compiled it on the Mac for me.

As for why I am trading for it, maybe it's because I am "a little old world". Many developers these days are starting to charge small amounts for their plugins and I wish them well in their endeavors. I hope it proves to be worthwhile for them, because we can use all the plugin developers we can get. I decided in these economic times, I would prefer to ask for a trade item, which should be "affordable" to anyone that wanted the plugin. The GPL license, if read carefully, would not have prevented me from charging for the plugin if I wanted to.

I have given away every plugin on my web page in the past. I have even allowed Newtek to distribute several of my plugins (SGI Movie plugins, qemLOSS2, SDTS, and RAPTS)with Lightwave 5, 6 and 7, and I have not received any money for them at all. The additions in this version of the plugin compared to version 2 were extensive, and it took quite a long time to develop. I thought this time it might be nice to at least get a little something more out of my time than just watching download numbers from my web page. I am not being selective at all about what someone offers me as a trade, I have not turned down any item at all. I really don't understand why a trade offer would be considered unreasonable.

By Beam Tracer (Beamtracer) (203.109.241.109) on Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 08:00 pm:

QemLOSS2 has always been a really useful plug-in for reducing the number of polygons in an object. I'm sure that Marvin has made QemLOSS3 even more useful. The mathematics behind it must be very complex.

It would be interesting to try it out, though like Ted, the unusual request for a trade item scares me. I've never struck something like that before. In some ways I'd prefer to make a payment on the credit card than send in a model or something I've made. It just seems a bit odd.

Once again, Richard Brak deserves a medal for his contributions to the Mac Lightwave community. Where would we be without him? Newtek should sit up and take notice of this guy.