How old are you?

I am 21 years young now.

When did you see LightWave for the first time?

I first saw, or rather heard about LightWave when I was still using another program. It was when I was still pretty new to 3D and very ignorant about the process of creating effects.

I heard that it had been used in lots of movies, and if movies are made with it, it has to be good so...

The first place I saw it in action though was Sci-Fi series Space: Above and Beyond and Star Trek DS9. I'm a real sucker for Sci-Fi.

When did you first start using it?

I first started using it about four years ago, version 5.0 in conjunction with another program that suffered badly from lack of modelling tools. I imported the models I was creating in LightWave into that program. Then dropped it completely and fully immersed myself in LightWave. Since then, I have been a LightWave addict, preaching its greatness to everyone I know.

I am now saving my pennies so I can upgrade my copy to [8] when it's released.

What do you like about the package?

The Modeler! I'm a real polyhead, and I think that is where it really shines. All the little tools and functions there to make as polygonal modellers happy.

The separation of the package into Layout and Modeler. I like it because I spend 90% of my LightWave hours in there. I don't have to worry about precious interface space being taken up by animation and lighting tools. I truly hope that it will stay separated in the future too.

And the interface - text-based: winner. No obscure icons hanging around all over the place. I love it. And the layers are awesome. You have all those different pieces of your model right there, without having to fuss about with hiding and unhiding its just a single click away.

What could be improved for you?

Hmm, I had to think about that one for a bit. But I think it would have to be real integration of edges. Making a solid, "in-package" edge-bevel tool for example, I'd love that. The alternatives I have found are decent but quite often I have to do a lot of edge bevelling by hand. So that would be awesome.

The what I would like too is to have more controls over procedural textures with weightmaps. Kind of like connecting the different settings of a procedural to a weightmap, so you can get that Small Power i.e. on just a certain area, or controlling it with textures as well. Texture in texture.

Apart from that it's mostly small functions, that I'm sure there are obscure plug-ins or scripts out there that can handle whatever it is I need.

What spec machine(s) are you using it on at the moment?

Right now I use a machine that is a few years old. Its a 700 MHz Athlon-powered beast with 256 MB memory, 20+40GB hard drive and a GeForce4 MX440 64MB video card. To top it off I have a second-hand 19" Monitor. I think it's time to upgrade soon, but I don't have an endless pot of gold yet so I'm putting it off until I do.

It can be a bit slow sometimes with high polygon numbers, but that's what the Layers are for. And I have patience when it comes to rendering, I'm surviving.