Preferences
Introduction
LightWave's preferences have been in the same shape since LightWave 6, with additions squeezed in where they made most sense. We have reorganised how this panel is laid out in both Layout and Modeler, so that settings are more logically arranged. The keyboard shortcuts of O and D still work as they did before.
Above the Search field, there is a Manage dropdown menu with five options:
Import Preferences - Imports preferences for a single branch or a complete set.
Export All Preferences - Export a complete set of preferences as a single .lwpref file.
Export Selected Branch - Exports a single branch of preferences as a .lwpref file.
Reset All Preferences - Sets preferences back to factory defaults.
Reset Selected Branch - Kills just one branch of prefs so you can troubleshoot preferences problems.
Search field results will show you the page or pages that the word is on, but highlighting the search will be for a future version.
Layout
Current Scene
All settings in this group only affect the currently-loaded scene. Changes made here affect your scene immediately and are saved with your .lws file
Layout Preferences
Input Device - Select between Mouse and Tablet
Navigation Options - Opens the Navigation Options Panel
File Dialog
Color Picker
Color Format
Popup Positioning
Auto Key Create Default
Fast Item Select (Toggle)
Parent IN Place (Toggle)
Left Button Item Select (Toggle)
Double Click Bone Mode (Toggle)
Frame Slider Label
Frames Per Second - Sets the Scene framerate. Common framerates are 24fps (film), 25 fps (PAL) and 30 fps (NTSC).
Frame 0 time Code
Frames per Foot
Fractional Frames (Toggle)
Play at Exact Rate (Toggle)
Unit System - Choose from SI, Metric and English (Imperial)
Default unit - Select the default base measurement used. e.g. meters, millimeters, etc.
Undo Levels - Sets the level of undo in layout (i.e. the number of command you can retract. See the **Command Window **)
Unlimited Undos (Toggle) - This allows you to toggle unlimited undoes in Layout (for those commands placed on the Layout Command Stack). This uses a lot of memory and should be used with caution on heavy scenes.
Save Options - Allows greater control over scene saving by default.
Autosave Objects - Saves Objects in the scene at the period of your choosing.
Autosave Scenes - Allows you to set the autosave at the period of your choosing.
Enable Master Autoload Load (Toggle)
Protect Legacy Scenes (Toggle) - Loading an scene from a previous version of LW will prompt the user if they wish to save the scene as a new one in order to keep the older pre-LightWave 2018 scene.
Autoscan plugins - Autoscans the nomninated plugin folder on loading.
Clear Scene to Default (Toggle) - LightWave when clearing the scene, will clear it to the default scene (which can be customised)
Threaded Mesh Evaluation (Toggle) - Speeds up Mesh Calculations by using a multithreaded algorithm introduced in LW 2018.
Thumbnail Review (Toggle) - Shows a thumbnail on the timeline when scrubbing.
Image Cache (Mb) - Sets the image cache in Megabytes
Image Cache Enable (Toggle) - Enables the image cache.
Interface
UI Scale Multiplier
Alert Level
TRoolbar :Position
Hide Toolbar (Toggle)
Dynamic Update
Bounding Box Threshold
Viewport Monitor (Toggle) - Turns the Viewport Monitor On/Off (Not currently functional in 2024)
Handle Wire Smoothing
Interface Display
General
Display Origin Only (Toggle)
USe Item Color (Toggle)
Show Fog Circle (Toggle)
Show Keyframes (Toggle)
Grid Antialiasing (Toggle)
Show Subpatch Cages (Toggle)
Motion
Spline
Gizmo
GPU
Maximum OpenGL Lights (Default is 8)
OpenGL Textures (Toggle)
Texture Resolution (Dropdown Selectioon) - On-screen resolution of textures (From 64 x 64 up to 32K by 32K images)
Faster Highlights (Toggle) - Toggles faster (but less accurate) highlights in the opengl viewport.
Pixel Blending (Toggle) - Enables Pixel Blending in the viewport for smoother looking textures.
MIPMapping (Toggle) - Enables Mip Mapping for textures in the viewport.
Frame Buffer Object (Toggle) - Toggles objects being loaded into the frame buffer (as opposed to streaming) for faster performance.
Transparency (Toggle) - Toggles transparency On/Off in the Viewport
Multitexturing (Toggle) - Toggles multitexturing for surfaces in the Viewport.
Reflections (Toggle) - Toiggles Reflections in the Viewport.
Color Channel (Toggle) - Toggles the color channel (without lighting) ON/OFF in the Vierport.
Transparency Channel (Toggle) - Toggles transparency texture On/OFF (i.e anything plugged into the transparency channel of a surface)
Diffuse Channel (Toggle) - Toggles Diffuse channel texture ON/OFF - i.e. Any colour textures will be subject to lighting in the scene.
Luminosity Channel (Toggle) - Toggles Luminosity texture ON/OFF
Specularity Channel (Toggle) - Toggles Specularity texture ON/OFF
Normal Map Channel (Toggle) - Toggles normal maps ON/OFF in the viewport.
Shading Method - Determines the ViewPort Shading Method. Selection of Multitexture Shaders (Legacy), GLSL Shaders or PBRGLSL Shaders (Newest).
Geometyry Accelration - Streaming or Buffered (VBO). Generally, Buffering will give better performance but use more GPU Memory
Transparency Sorting - Sort by Object, Sort by Polygon and Alpha Clipping
VSync - Dropdown selection of Always On, Only While Playing and Off.
Camera View
Other Settings
Immediately affect any scene loaded, regardless if these settings were different when the scene was originally made. Settings are saved to
Defaults
Parameters changed here only affect scenes going forward. Changes will only be seen after clearing the scene. These changes are saved in the Preferences file.
Modeler
Modeler Preferences is now in a single window, rather than the two from before. The same Manage and Search options are present. The same caveat for UI Magnification applies in Modeler.