Houdini 20.0 What’s new

What’s new in Houdini 18

New features and changes in Houdini 18.

New features and improvements

  • Solaris

    Solaris is Houdini’s support for creating and editing USD. This includes a new network type (LOPs), tools for layout and lighting, an improved scene viewer that displays the scene using Hydra delegates, and a new renderer (Karma) that natively renders USD files.

  • RBD Destruction

    Houdini 18 features exciting improvements to destruction workflows such as guided destruction, improved chipping, destruction in SOPs, and custom fracturing.

  • Modeling and Geometry

    Houdini 18 adds numerous new and improved tools for interactive and procedural modeling.

  • PDG and TOPs

    In Houdini 18 PDG has even better wedging, better Deadline and Tractor integration, a new toolbar UI to get an overall sense of the network state, and numerous improvements to tools and internals.

  • Viewport and user interface

    Houdini 18 includes improvements to the viewport and user interface such as a new Paint tool, 2D pan and zoom of 3D cameras, hotkeys in radial menus, and much improved custom Python states.

  • Pyro and FLIP fluids

    Houdini 18 features a new more efficient sparse volume implementation of pyro, pyro in SOPs, and faster FLIP fluids.

  • Vellum

    In Houdini 18 vellum improves resolution and scale independence, more robustness, sliding surface constraints, and other constraint improvements.

  • Character and crowds

    Houdini 18 adds blendshapes on agents, export from crowds to USD skeletons, procedural clip transitions, better FBX support, and more.

  • FEM

    Houdini adds new solver models with improved realism and performance.

  • VEX and expressions

What’s new

Current version

Older versions