If you can afford Lightwave6, then you should jump at the chance to get hold of such a good 'high end' product. This is especially true if you want to develop your 3D skills into a future career. Lightwave is a widely used pro package, Truespace isn't. Truespace is looking quite good on paper nowadays, but, with respect to the Truespace fans, the reality of using it pales beside Lightwave. BTW, you said that Lightwave and Truespace use the same render engine. I don't think this is so. Truespace4 uses Lightworks' radiosity engine in that part of its renderer, but Lightworks isn't Lightwave.