I had not heard of the lightwave 8 fiasco. I currently use the 'Lightwave 8.5' mess, and remain unconfused by the way the tools are identified by names rather than mysterious icons (though, to tell the truth, the first three months of learning were solid hell.) Free plugins, in preference to pay plugins, might be a gripe to some. People gripe about anything. For example, I found Maxon’s Body Paint UI to be a confused mess. Despite touting compatibility with Lightwave, Maxon provides a plugin for version 7 that can’t read subpatches, and they refuse to update so I advise Lightwave users to stay away. Lightwave’s weaknesses are in UV mapping and the lack of a 3d paint function, but Right Hemisphere’s Deep Exploration bundle has fallen in price. Safe Harbor had it on sale for around $500, and it includes Deep Paint 3d and Deep UV. Also, Modo maps and textures, and it was developed by the originators of Lightwave who left NewTek some time ago.

Download my free stuff here: http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.php?page=2&userid=323368