db&w documentation wiki - tools

Audio Frequency Node

Audio Frequency Node This node can load audio files (WAV, MP3, FLAC), performs a FFT analysis on them and then provides the amplitudes at specific frequencies as nodal outputs. It can be used to drive deformations, animation or shading from audio files.

Render Audio Notifier (Windows)

Render Audio Notifier (Windows) This master handler plugin allows you to assign sounds to specific events. Supported events are: * Starting Frame Render * Frame Rendered * Starting Render * Render Done * Scene Loaded * Scene Saved You can use

Bilerp

Bilerp Taking a projection and four colours, this node will render a gradient un UV space, interpolating between the fours colours used for the corners.

Boolean Comparison

Boolean Comparison This node compares to values using various different operators and returns the result as a true/false value. Controls Pass-through If the Boolean input is connected, this control is available. When enabled, the node will not perform any computations, the Boolean input will be passed directly to the Boolean output.

Boolean Logic

Boolean Logic This nodes combines two Boolean values. User Interface Controls Input A If nothing is connected to the Boolean A input on the node, the state of the first Boolean variable may be toggled here. Input B If nothing is connected to the Boolean B input on the node, the state of the second Boolean variable may be toggled here.

Boolean Switch

Boolean Switch This node allows switching between a pair of inputs depending on the value of the boolean input. Controls Invert This inverts the value of the boolean input, effectively switching the inputs of the pairs. Connections new When the node is first launched, there is only one connection called

Booster

Booster The booster nodes are a collection of nodes that, as the name cunningly suggests, boost values. Common Controls * Camera Rays Only This will only apply the boost if the incoming ray is directly from the camera. Material Booster This node allows you to tweak the output of a material. The colour computed by the material can be boosted (multiplied) to enhance the effect.

Cache

Cache This node basically passes through the inputs to the matching output. However, if a value is requested from the output for a second time at the current spot (and recursion level) the last value will be returned. This caches the value and prevents duplicate evaluations of the value connected to the input. This node can be used for all computationally heavy nodes if multiple inputs are connected to their output.

Channel Blender

Channel Blender This node that allows you to split a vector/colour into the three components or merge them together. You can also selectively overwrite a single component. The XYZ inputs have precedence over the Vector inputs. The Length output provides the length of the vector, the Normalised output a normalised version of the vector.

Channel Reference (in progress)

Channel Reference (in progress) This tool allows you to reference any animation channel. Controls Path / Channel Read only text controls that show the path and name of the currently referenced channel. Select... This opens a new panel with a control

Chroma Key

Chroma Key This node uses a simple algorithm to extract a matte from a colour input. Colours matching the key colour will output as white/100%. Softness extends the range of the matching colours.

Colour Space

Colour Space (Lightwave 3D V10 and higher only) This node converts colours from one colour space to another.

Command Statistics

Command Statistics This Master plugin records all commands fired by Layout and sorts them by how many times they are accessed. The idea is to record all actions, allowing you to decide which commands are used more often to streamline your configs and keyboard shorcuts. You can let it run while you work and after a few sessions it should become clear which parts of Layout you use more.

ColourSpace Converter

ColourSpace Converter This generic plug-in opens a non-modal window in Layout that allows you to convert a colour from one colour space to another. This is useful in situations where the automatic conversion in LightWave 3D doesn't work as expected or if you'd like to manually convert colours.

Depth Limiter

Depth Limiter This pixel filter limits the distance values stored in the depth buffer during rendering. Any distance greater than the limit will be set to the limit. The reason for this is to improve the quality of depth buffer anti-aliasing in cases where huge distances are stored in the depth buffer (such as rendering on a blank backdrop or using certain volumetric renderers such as xStream).

DoF Helper

DoF Helper The DoF Helper is a Master plugins that helps in visualising and working with Depth of Field in Layout. It comes with generic plugins that can be added to shortcuts or menus to add/open, enable and disable the plugin. Basic Functionality

Elbow Node

Elbow Node The Elbow node is designed to help clean up node graphs by re-routing connections. The Elbow node does not have a user interface in the panel at all, all interactions happen vie the node in the node graph itself. Dragging a node output to the

Extended Spot Info

Extended Spot Info This node exposed some additional information about the spot being currently shaded. Some of these outputs are modified to make them more useful as inputs for other nodes. Outputs * Object ID The internal object ID as used by LightWave 3D

FRs for existing Plugins

FRs for existing Plugins Layout Groups Add a list box with all existing layers to the main panel.

Get Automatic Size

Get Automatic Size This node exposes the automatic size as computed by LightWave 3D for the current node graph. From observation, we expect this to be the un-deformed size of the base mesh or the current surface on the base mesh (depending on the context of the node graph).

Growl (OSX, 32-bit only)

Growl (OSX, 32-bit only) This master handler plugin sends notifications to Growl on OSX. Supported events are: * Starting Frame Render * Frame Rendered * Starting Render * Render Done * Scene Loaded * Scene Saved You can use the Growl preferences to customize these.

Hash Colour

Hash Colour A hash value is essentially the checksum of something else (in this case a name). If the name is the same then the hash value will also always return the same value. On the other hand, a hash value is computed in a way to be as unique as possible.

Image Gradient

Image Gradient This node allows you to select an image and then sample individual pixels from it. One way to apply this is to use a line of pixels in an image as a colour gradient.

Installation

Installation Download the latest ZIP from the link mailed to you and extract it. The paths to install the plugins to depends on the version of LightWave 3D. These instructions assume that LightWave 2018.0.5 is installed. Make sure to install the version of the plugin file that matches your LightWave 3D installation. dbwTools2018 is designed to be used in LightWave 3D 2018 and 2019, dbwTools2020 is designed for LightWave 3D 2020.

Instance Filter

Instance Filter The Instance Filter node allows you to select instances in the viewport and filter in a node graph depending on the selection. The passing through of values depending on the selection is similar to the Boolean Switch Node. Controls Instancer

Instance Inspector

Instance Inspector This node allows you to use the position, rotation and scale of a specific instance in a node graph. For example, this may be used to drive the position of another item. Controls Instancer This pop-up allows you to pick the instancer to use. Only items with an attached instancer are displayed here.

Instance Info Plus

Instance Info Plus When working with instances, we noticed that the native Instance Info node returns an instance index in LW up to 2019, but an instance id in 2020. So we decided to write a replacement. Controls Instancer This allows you to select the Instancer to inspect. The Pop-up will only display items that have an Instancer attached to them.

Layout Groups

Layout Groups These plugins implement groups for Layout. They allow for the selection of multiple items depending on the group they belong to. An item may belong to more than one group. The groups an item belong to are stored as item comments. These are preserved during a

Legacy versions

Legacy versions Version 2.1 * The Tint Strength input in the Simple Colour Corrector Node was of the colour type, but should be a scalar. * Added Material Tweaker * The blending modes in the Material Blender were not processed correctly. Please note that this is a

Material Blender

Material Blender This node allows you to split up materials into shading components, merge shaders into materials or blend different materials together. One thing worth noting is the fact that the shading input always overrides the respective material, so if you connect a material to the

Material Tweaker

Material Tweaker This node has changed drastically due to the new shading model using by LightWave 3D 2018. It modifies the weights for the component channels used later on by shading and allows you to boost them (changing their contribution to the material) as well as changing their colours using blend modes.

X-Maths

X-Maths Multi-Maths is a node that attempts to collect all maths functions in a single user interface and node to encourage experimenting with different calculations. The node has two scalar inputs (X and Y) as well as two vector inputs (A and B) and two matrix inputs ( M and N)

Multi-Variables Node

Multi-Variables Node This node allows you to add multiple outputs and controls of different types that can be used to control other nodes via their inputs. It is designed to be used as a “cockpit” for a node graph. If you add the node, no outputs and controls are present.

Multi-Image Sampler

Multi-Image Sampler This node allows the user to use select one of a list of images dynamically for texturing. One example would be to use an instance ID to randomly texture instances given a list of images. Controls Background Colour / Blend Mode / Opacity

Multi-Mixer

Multi-Mixer The Multi-Mixer node allows you to weigh multiple inputs to create a single output. This is similar to how the Morph Mixer works, but as a node. The node is available in four versions, Scalar Multi-Mixer (which works with integers as well), Vector Multi-Mixer (which also works with colour connections), Normal Multi-Mixer and the Material Multi-Mixer.

Scalar/Vector/Material Multi-Switcher

Scalar/Vector/Material Multi-Switcher The Multi-Switcher nodes allow for switching between multiple inputs depending on an index value. You can add as many inputs as you'd like to by connecting outputs to the new input. The name of the created input is the same as the input it's been connected to.

Open Directory

Open Directory This is a small generic plugin that can be used to open any directory in Explorer / Finder (depending on the platform). By default this will open the settings directory, but can be used in simple scripts to open any directory. The following script uses this plugin to open the content directory.

Oscillator Node

Oscillator Node The Oscillator nodes provides multiple waveforms as a scalar, including options to fade them in our out. It can be used to deform meshes using a position or distance as an input, but also to influence an animation by using time as an input.

PBR Texture Set

PBR Texture Set The PBR Texture Set node is designed as a one stop solution for using a set of PBR textures. It supports both the Metallic and Specular PBR workflows and even converts between both of them if required. When used with the native Principled BSDF material, a Metallic workflow is preferred.

Polygon Picker

Polygon Picker Polygon picker allows you to pick a polygon in any of the views that display meshes in Layout (regardless of the view mode) and then perform actions based on that selection, such as opening the Surface Editor or the Node Graph editor for the surface used by that polygon.

Preset System

Preset System This Preset system is used by various db&w Plugins. Using the Presets pop-up you can apply any of your presets, save your current settings as a preset or delete existing presets. Our plugins have their own system to manage presets. The main reason for developing a custom system was to differentiate between user, global and project (content directory) specific settings.

Presetto

Presetto Presetto is a generic plugin to load and store various parts of a scene as presets. It uses the Preset System common to all of our plugins. The following settings can be saved as presets: Render Range Stores the render range, the first and last frame as well as the frame step.

Projection Ex

Projection Ex Projection Ex is a system to work around the limits of the native projection nodes system in LightWave 3D. Some speciality projections such as Triplanar require more than one texture sample in places, which implies that they also require more than one UV coordinate per surface spot. The native projections don't allow for that, which is why Projection Ex has been created.

Plugin Proposals

Plugin Proposals This is a list of plugin ideas that have been vetted and will at some point in time be available for voting by patrons. Paste Image Paste an image from the clipboard as an image into LW. Use for cross platform clipboard access.

Random Image Mapper

Random Image Mapper This node is based on the 3DS Max Random Bitmap OSL shader. Developed by Zap Andersson, Copyright 2018 Autodesk Inc, All rights reserved. Licensed under Apache 2.0 license. The node places one image within a 0..1 range of UV values, similar to UDIM tiles. Controls Background Colour / Blend Mode / Opacity

Ratio

Ratio The Ratio node takes an input colour and/or scalar and splits it into two values defined by a ratio. Both a colour and a scalar can be split at the same time using an identical ratio Controls * Colour The colour to split into two values

Ray Type Comparison

Ray Type Comparison This node is only available in a node editor context where raytracing is available. It will check the current (incoming) ray for specific properties and return true if they match. The incoming ray is the ray evaluating the current surface spot.

Reflection Lines

Reflection Lines The Reflection Lines procedural texture creates the virtual reflections of lines. This is intended to help judge the quality of the mesh geometry. Controls Axis Determines the axis the lines will be projected from. Number of Lines

Changes

Changes We recommend removing any previous versions in the LightWave 3D plug-in editor and re-adding the current one to make sure that all new plugins are available. Version 2025.08.27 * Fixed an issue that caused context menus on the viewport to crash in LW 2025 only.

Releases in 2018

Releases in 2018 Version 2018.12.18 * Fixed an issue where the Multi-Image Sampler would crash if the first image was removed from the list. Version 2018.12.17 * Added a preview version of the new Multi-Image Sampler Version 2018.12.03a * The first release featuring a Plugin of the Month thanks to our patrons

Releases in 2019

Releases in 2019 Version 2019.12.18 * Added the first changes to the Spline Toolkit: * Add the option to evaluate a spline at a real world distance along the spline, as opposed to a % * Patron Request: Added command to add and edit a spline in one go.

Releases in 2020

Releases in 2020 Version 2020.11.30 * Fixed a bug introduced some time ago while trying to speed things up - now a change in the panels of a node will trigger a VPR refresh again - as well as whatever else needs to be triggered. * Added a diffuse colour texture to the PBR Texture Set node - now it can contain a full metallic as well as a full specular set.

Releases in 2021

Releases in 2021 Version 2021.12.12 * Fixed build issues on Windows which often caused the 2018 build to be defect. * Added Storing the matte colour to Presetto and Second Unit Version 2021.11.28 * Fixed an issue with Second Unit where the settings for a camera were not removed when the camera was deleted, causing them to be re-used when a new camera was created afterwards.

Remap

Remap The remap node takes a value that is between the Input Minimum and Maximum and maps it to the range defined by the Output Minimum and Maximum value. Controls * Clamp Values makes sure that no values beyond the output range are created. Inputs

Render Delta

Render Delta This Generic plugin displays the render time difference between the previous and current render as a percentage. It's designed as a tool to help you optimise render times. A percentage above 100% means that the current render is slower than the previous one, lower than 100% means that it's faster.

Render Priority (Windows)

Render Priority (Windows) This Master Handler plugin changes the process priority of Layout while rendering. Especially with many core, Layout can really tax the system making it hard to use other applications while it is rendering. Lowering the priority while rendering can help alleviate the issue. The downside is that renders will take longer, depending on the other running tasks.

Revenge of the Lenscap

Revenge of the Lenscap This is an image viewer plugin that does - nothing. It was added to make using Matt Gorners F9 Render script easier to use. Yes, it really serves no other use unless you make one up ;) To quote a very satisfied customer: I've discovered db&w's lens cap plugin creates excellent possibilities for extremely fast high resolution animation rendering - about as close to instantaneous as possible.

Scene Comment

Scene Comment This Master plugin stores a text comment with the current scene. It can (optionally) display the comment after the scene has loaded and will also display the comment in the screamernet output. The comment can be edited using a menu that's accessible using the right mouse button.

Schlick's Approximation

Schlick's Approximation This node is a simple replacement for the fresnel function and allows for the manual design of energy conserving materials - especially of metals. Controls * Facing Reflectivity This is the reflectivity of the surface when facing the ray/camera

Scratch

Scratch This node creates procedural scratches that can be used to drive material attributes. Controls Density The density of the scratches, a higher density creates more scratches. Width The width of each scratch, which is also randomised per scratch.

Second Unit

Second Unit Second Unit is a helper that can store selected scene properties per camera. These properties are saved in the scene by the plugin. When a Store ... section is enabled in the plugin, the current settings will be saved for the currently selected camera when switching to another camera. The settings for the newly selected camera will be restored. If the newly selected camera doesn't have these settings stored yet, the settings of the previously selected camera will be used.

Sequencer

Sequencer This node takes an input integer number to output a number within the range of 0 to 1.0 (0 is not included). This can be used to create a gradient input from a polygon number, or to create a RGB colour instead (for item or surface ID outputs using shaderMeister).

Simple Colour Corrector

Simple Colour Corrector A node that offers the same colour correction options as the image panel, including gamma correction. The simple colour corrector is also available as an image filter as well as a pixel filter. If you use it as a pixel filter it will be applied before anti-aliasing, allowing you to modify the gamma of the image before the adaptive threshold is computed by LightWave 3D

Single Light Lambert

Single Light Lambert Computes the lighting due to a single light and returns the shading. The function input allows you to change how the shading is computed, there is also an option to compute the illuminance, which is just the amount of light hitting a spot regardless of the surface normal.

Spline Morph

Spline Morph This deformer takes a series of morphs and applies them as a chain, using TCB splines to interpolate between them. Basically every morph is treated as a TCB spline keyframe for the vertices. Controls Progress Current progress for the morph. 0% is the morph at the start of the list, 100% the end - regardless of how many items are in the list.

Sprite Sheet Sampler

Sprite Sheet Sampler This node allows you to use a sprite sheet as an image sequence. Since all frames of the image sequence will be loaded into memory at once, the images in the sprite sheet can be accessed randomly. Controls Background Colour / Blend Mode / Opacity

db&w Tools

db&w Tools The db&w Tools are a collection of small plugins for LightWave 3D. They've initially been written out of personal need, due to user suggestions, as a playground or to complement our products. As of November 1st 2018, all future versions will only be available to our patrons on

Sticky Front UV

Sticky Front UV This node performs front projection mapping (classic and perspective camera only). Optionally it may directly output the UV coordinates to be used in a compositing application for texture mapping. The front projection may happen in releation to the item position at a reference time and will then stick as the item is moved.

Surface Selector

Surface Selector This plugin is designed to navigate quickly between nodal surfaces without requiring the surface editor itself to be displayed. The small generic plugin just shows a pop-up list of all surfaces in the current scene. If you select one of the surfaces, the respective node graph for the surface is opened.

Texture Repetition

Texture Repetition The Texture Repetition nodes takes an images that is no tileable and randomly splats it onto a surface using a projection. The random mixing is controlled by an underlying noise function. This works best for images that are more organic and irregular in nature.

Time Info

Time Info This node exposes the current frame and time as well as the frames per second of the scene. Original idea by James Willmott

Tonemapper

Tonemapper This pixel filter applies simple tone mapping to the image, as it renders. It can be edited interactively while VPR renders (but causes VPR to re-render when any of the settings change). Mode Currently three simple algorithms are implemented:

db&w Tools Documentation

db&w Tools Documentation A generic plugin that can be assigned to a shortcut or menu. It opens the main page of the db&w Tools documentation in a browser window.

Triplanar Mapper

Triplanar Mapper This node maps a single image three times, along each of the major axes (just like cubic mapping) but blends between the three projections depending on the angle of the surface to hide the seams. This can be used to quickly texture more organic or natural objects without requiring precise UV coordinates.

Triplanar Mixer

Triplanar Mixer This node blends colour input using the triplanar method. Essentially, depending on the direction of the normal, either the X, Y or Z inputs are being used respectively. The colours provided by the inputs are blended the further away the normal points from any of the main axes.

UV Distort

UV Distort UV Distort is a tool to distort UV coordinates using simple corner pinning. One use case is matching UV coordinates to a texture image of an item with perspective distortion. Basic Use To use the tool, make sure you have a working Texture map selected in the bottom right of the Modeler user interface.

UV Transform

UV Transform This Modeler tool allows you to move, scale and rotate the selected UVs in the UV view. UVs can also be fit to a section of the UV space. Viewport Handles The viewport handles support the ctrl or shift modifiers . However, only either one of them and they need to be pressed before a handle is selected in the viewport.

Variables (Angle, Colour, Distance, Percentage, Position, Rotation, Scalar, Scale)

Variables (Angle, Colour, Distance, Percentage, Position, Rotation, Scalar, Scale) These nodes correspond to the native “Constant” nodes. However, they have optional evaluation modes controlling how their values are retrieved if they are animated via an envelope:

Vector Motion Blur

Vector Motion Blur Deforms an mesh for sub-frames to allow LightWave 3D to compute motion blur from object sequences. The displacement must be provided as a vertex map of velocities per frame. The vector input must be connected to a a node evaluating the vertex map that stores the velocities. The vector output provides the displacement for the current sub frame.

Weave

Weave This shader renders a simple weave made out of threads, can be used for carbon fiber, cloth, or similar. Since the threads are rendered along the U and V coordinates, it requires a Projection. This node is based on the 3dsMax Weave OSL shader. Developed by Zap Andersson, Copyright 2018 Autodesk Inc, All rights reserved. Licensed under

Wheel Rotation Control

Wheel Rotation Control This generic plugin is used to control the caches of all db&w Wheel Plugins. Since the caches don't (and can't - due to technical limitations) update their caches automatically, you can use this plugin to modify the caches of all db&w Wheel plugins.

Wheel Rotation

Wheel Rotation This node computes the rotation of a wheel if travelling along a distance. The distance is based on the movement of an item. Controls Wheel Radius Use this control to enter the radius of the wheel to rotate. This value can currently not be enveloped because that would require evaluating the whole envelope up to the current frame every time the node is evaluated.

Transform Deformer

Transform Deformer This deformer allows for a mesh to be deformed using a normal transformation (position, rotation, scale), optionally limited by a weight map. Since deformers can be stacked, multiple Transform Deformers can be applied to different parts of a mesh, separated by weight maps.