The optical flares will be linked to lights witch you can move in z space yes ( it allows you to hide the flares behind objects !) the features are really slick … things like dynamic triggering are really nifty… check out that preview and you are sold for sure… at least that is if you are a ae junkie like i am 
I’ve seen the features videos, and I’m amazed. Well… only 139$, it’s bargain price for what it offers.
Much as I don't want to like it, it does look rather good. I still don't get what's 3D about a lens flare though.Isn’t the 3D saying that the lens flares will be 3D layers in AE now, so you can move them back in Z-space and they can follow 3D layers around and such? I’m asking because I don’t even know, but that’s what I always assumed. That was always an annoying problem with Knoll.
That would make sense. Although I did see a screen shot that made it look as though you could actually fly around the lens flare. At the end of the day, you can link a 2D position to a projected 3D point pretty easily anyway.
Occlusion by objects in 3D space would be well handy though. That appears to be included. That would save a lot of work.
But anyway, I’m going to reserve judgement until I’ve used it.
-felt.