LightWave 3D, version 9.2 Includes:

• Improved depth of field, which offer more realistic results and realtime preview
  
• A new photoreal, 3D motion blur, which mimics the blur captured on live-action film
  
• Global Illumination and Radiosity improvements to provide faster and higher quality renders, including the new Final Gather mode
  
• New Material Nodes, which duplicate real surfaces in a simple one-step manner
  
• Dielectric - A physically accurate glass and liquid shader
  
• Conductor - A physically accurate metal shader
  
• Sigma - A node for sub-surface scattering
  
• Simple Skin - A physically accurate skin shader with sub-surface scattering
  
• New anti-aliasing technology including a new pass technique and new sampling patterns which allow an artist to produce better results in less time
  
• New modeling and selection tools like Create Rows, Select Entire Loop, Select Entire Surface, Select Entire Part, Select Path, Loop Expand and Loop Contract to improve workflow
  

http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/v92.php

I´m evaluating Lightwave and XSI atm, and I must say that Lightwave is much more intuitive.
I´m still unable to send you PMs. I would like to talk to you regarding some features / experiences.

@fogman: And there is a Lightwave MDL7-Exporter. Very important.

See here ... http://www.greenbriarstudio.com/3D/GameLWMod.htm

man, if this lighwave had the gui of cinema i'd already bought it:) i dont like the gui of it and i dont find my way thru it like i dont find it in blender.. to bad, the features are cool and so is the price

wow, those are some nice features. If i had 800 dollars right now i would buy it

Ello:
I see your point. It took me some time to learn LW. But I also liked the GUI right at the first glance and there are several reasons for it:

• it is not colored and therefore does not distract from your work
  
• it does not uses icons, only text so even a beginner understands instantly for what a command is made for
  
• the tabbed command panel folows a clear logic
  
• all important commands have short-cuts and you can create your own
  

And if you look at videos of experienced LW users then you will realize that all of them do not click any buttons (or at least very seldom). They just work with the keyboard and the mouse. You are extremely fast then.

And don't forget that this software delivers all the goodies like hair and fur, physics simulation, cloth simulation, FK / IK animations and whatever you need for the big productions.

One really outstanding feature of LW is the Viper panel. It is a rendering-preview. I often use it to find the best set of properties for my materials. You can see your rendered image and it updates while you change properties like specularity, bumpyness or procedural shaders. It is no OpenGL preview. It is really a rendered scene that quickly changes materials in real-time.

This saves so much time if you try to make a perfect material.

i know, frank, i know... the workflow between lw and 3dgs seems to be quiet good, too, thinking of greenbriars toolset. do you use that, too?

Yes. I use it. It works fine. It has its own logic but this is needed to get animations out (vertex and / or bones).