View LWO files in your browser
The model file of LightWave 3D, the app behind years of TV and film effects. Open one right here in 3D with its surfaces. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your model opens in 3D, lit and framed, with what's in it beside it and what you pick on the other side.
- Turn, zoom and move it • Double click to center on a point
- Every object in a list • Hide one or see it alone
- Its own colors, clay, wireframe or X-ray
- Export • PNG, GLB, USDZ, STL and OBJ
About LWO
NewTek's LightWave 3D began on the Amiga's Video Toaster in 1990 and made the effects of many TV series and films in the 1990s and 2000s. Its Modeler saves objects as LWO, and its Layout puts them in scenes saved as LWS. LightWave 6 brought LWO2 in 2000, and LightWave 2015 brought LWO3.
An LWO is an IFF file of chunks: layers of points and polygons, tags that name its surfaces and parts, vertex maps for UVs and weights, and surfaces with their colors, shading and image maps, whose pictures are files named by their paths, often in an images folder beside it.
Filepeek reads the object with three.js's LightWave reader, each layer and surface in its colors, with the image maps from the files dropped with it.
LightWave object
.lwo
Format
- MIME type
- image/x-lwo
- Made by
- NewTek, now LightWave Digital
- Released
- 1990
Inside the file
- Container
- IFF, chunks of four letters
- Geometry
- Layers of points and polygons
- Surfaces
- Colors, shading and image maps
- Versions
- LWO2 from LightWave 6, LWO3 from 2015
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens an LWO in 3D in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers only download it.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open LWO
- WindowsLightWave 3D • Blender with an add-on
- MacLightWave 3D • Blender with an add-on
- iPhone and iPadNo app opens it
- AndroidNo app opens it
Questions
How do I see an LWO with its textures?
Drop it with the pictures its surfaces use, or the folder they're in. Their paths are in the object, often under images, and Filepeek finds them by name.
Does it open older LWO files?
Objects from LightWave 6 on, LWO2 and LWO3, open. The LWOB objects of LightWave 5 and before show their About card.
Does it open LightWave scenes?
An LWS scene only places the objects, lights and cameras it names, so open each LWO it uses.
Can I convert an LWO to OBJ or GLB?
Yes. Choose Export to save it as GLB, OBJ, STL or USDZ, or the view as PNG.