Houdini 12 Reference Panes

Overview

The performance monitor is a profiler that records events and generates statistical reports for Houdini objects, such as nodes, viewports, scripts. The monitor can help identify performance bottlenecks in your scene.

Profiles

A profile is a statistical snapshot of your scene. It stores the performance data for each profiled object in Houdini.

Create a new profile

  1. Start a new recording by clicking in the toolbar. This puts the performance monitor in a listening state, so that it records events that take place in Houdini.

  2. Perform actions in Houdini that will trigger events such as cooking and drawing.

  3. Click the button to stop the recording and generate a new profile from the recorded events.

Note

You can turn on Live Updates in the Sample menu to see updated statistics during your recording session.

Statistics viewer

The statistics viewer shows a breakdown of your profile.

Profiled objects are listed on the left-hand-side of the viewer and are organized by nodes, viewports, and other objects. Performance statistics appear on the right side of the viewer for each profiled object in the list.

Statistics are categorized into three groups. You can change the display of these statistics by clicking RMB Time or selecting them from the View menu.

Cumulative times

Show the time spent in a profiled object and in its descendants (i.e. its children, its children’s children, etc.). Cumulative timed statistics can be displayed in the statistics viewer either as absolute times or as percentages of the total time.

For example: Cook, Solve, Draw, Time

Self times

Show the time spent in a profiled object. It does not include the time spent in the object’s descendants.

For example: Cook (self), Solve (self), Draw (self), Time (self)

Event counts

Show the number of times an event took place in a profiled object.

For example: Cook Count, Solve Count, Draw Count

Toolbar

Clears the statistics collected by the recording profile. This button only applies when recording with Live Updates turned on.

Starts a new recording. The performance monitor is put into an active state where it can record events in Houdini. You cannot view other profiles when the performance monitor is recording.

Stops the current recording. Statistics are generated for the recorded event and are stored in a new profile. The performance monitor is put back into a passive state.

Specifies the frame range for which to display performance data. Only controls what data is displayed, data for all frames is always collected).

Menu

Profile

Open

Opens a profile from disk.

Save As

Saves the current profile to disk.

Export As.

Exports the current profile in comma-separated format (CSV) to disk. The exported .csv file can be loaded into a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel and used to generate graphs.

Create Profile Comparison

Creates a difference profile from two existing profiles. This new profile shows changes in statistics between the given profiles.

Edit Performance Preferences

Allows you to modify Performance Monitor preferences, namely threshold values.

Delete

Close the current profile. This will not delete saved-to-disk profiles.

Sample

The Record menu lists the event types that the performance monitor can record. Check the items for the events that you want the monitor to keep track of in the next recording.

Node Cooks

Records node cook events. This includes events for evaluating parameters, executing callback scripts, and running internal Python code (for Python OPs).

DOP Solves

Records DOP simulation solver events.

Node Draws (CPU)

Records events executed on the CPU that prepare nodes for drawing in the viewport.

Node Draws (GPU)

Records events executed on the GPU that prepare nodes for drawing in the viewport.

Viewport Draws

Records events that draw objects (i.e. geometry, handles, construction plane) in the viewport.

Scripts

Records script events (i.e. Python, hscript).

Mantra Renders

Records events related to Mantra rendering.

Tip

You need to press the Render button in the Operation Controls toolbar to get stats in the Performance Monitor when using the Render Region tool.

Thread Stats

Monitors statistics based on individual threads.

Frame Stats

Monitors frame events and outputs them in the Event Log View.

Memory Stats

Monitors statistics for memory-related events.

Note

On Linux, Houdini uses an efficient memory allocator, jemalloc, that obtains memory in chunks. The allocator may cause some items in the performance monitor to have 0Kb of growth while other items have growths of 4Mb increments.

To view a more accurate distribution of memory growth, you can start Houdini without jemalloc by running the following commands in a terminal: 

# Set this environment variable so that Houdini chooses
# to load an empty jemalloc library.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HFS/dsolib/empty_jemalloc:$HFS/dsolib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

# Run this command to start Houdini.
# For 32-bit Linux, use /lib/ld-linux.so.2 instead. 
/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 --inhibit-rpath '' $HFS/bin/houdini

Note

Recorded memory statistics may be inaccurate if multi-threaded cooking is enabled. At the moment, multi-threaded cooking applies only to compositing networks and can be disabled in the Houdini Preferences dialog.

Errors

Monitors warnings and errors.

Select All

Turn on sampling for all events.

Select None

Turn off sampling for all events.

Live Updates

Updates statistics every few seconds during a recording session.

View

View Absolute Times

View the times in the stats viewer as absolute times, that is, display the times in hours, minutes, and seconds.

View Percentage Times

View the times in the stats viewer as percentages of the total time spent in the recorded events.

Tree View

Shows recorded statistics in a tree view.

List View

Shows recorded statistics in a list view.

Event Log View

Shows the event log instead of the recorded statistics.

The Enable Output checkbox turns on performance logging. You must turn this option on to see any output. The Clear button clears any logged output in the window.

General Stats
Time

The total time spent on an item, such as a node or viewport. This includes its children, and its children’s children, etc. The total time sums up the cook, draw and solve times.

Time (Self)

The total time spent on an item. The total time sums up the cook, draw and solve times.

Cook Stats
Cook

The time spent cooking a node, its children, its children’s children, etc.

Cook (Self)

The time spent cooking a node.

Cook Count

The number of times that a node was cooked.

Cook (Avg)

The average time spent cooking a node.

Cook (Min)

The least amount of time spent cooking a node.

Cook (Max)

The most amount of time spent cooking a node.

Solve Stats
Solve

The time spent by a DOP node, its children, and its children’s children, etc. solving a DOP simulation.

Solve (Self)

The time spent by a DOP node solving a DOP simulation.

Solve Count

The number of times that a DOP node solved a DOP simulation.

Solve (Avg)

The average time spent solving a node.

Solve (Min)

The least amount of time spent solving a node.

Solve (Max)

The most amount of time spent solving a node.

Draw Stats
Draw

For nodes, this is the time spent preparing an object node, its children, and its children’s children, etc. to be drawn in the viewport. For viewports, this is the time spent rendering all of the components in the viewport, such as handles, guides, construction plane.

Draw (Self)

For nodes, this is the time spent preparing an object node to be drawn in the viewport. For viewports, this is the time spent rendering a single component in the viewport.

Draw Count

For nodes, this is the number of times that a node was prepared for drawing. For viewports, the number of times that a component was rendered in the viewport.

Draw (Avg)

The average time spent drawing a node.

Draw (Min)

The least amount of time spent drawing a node.

Draw (Max)

The most amount of time spent drawing a node.

GPU Draw Stats
GPU Draw

For nodes, this is the time spent preparing an object node, its children, and its children’s children, etc. to be drawn in the viewport using the GPU. For viewports, this is the time spent rendering all of the components in the viewport, such as handles, guides, construction plane using the GPU.

GPU Draw (Self)

For nodes, this is the time spent preparing an object node to be drawn in the viewport using the GPU. For viewports, this is the time spent rendering a single component in the viewport using the GPU.

GPU Draw Count

For nodes, this is the number of times that a node was prepared for drawing using the GPU. For viewports, the number of times that a component was rendered in the viewport using the GPU.

GPU Draw (Avg)

The average time spent drawing a node using the GPU.

GPU Draw (Min)

The least amount of time spent drawing a node using the GPU.

GPU Draw (Max)

The most amount of time spent drawing a node using the GPU.

Script Stats
Script

The cumulative time spent executing a function or code block, and any code it calls.

Script (Self)

The time spent executing a function or code block.

Script Count

Number of times a function or code block is executed.

Script (Avg)

The average time spent executing a function or code block.

Script (Min)

The least amount of time spent executing a function or code block.

Script (Max)

The most amount of time spent executing a function or code block.

Render Stats
Render

The cumulative time spent executing a render-related function or code block, and any code it calls.

Render (Self)

The time spent executing a render-related function or code block.

Render Count

Number of times a render-related function or code block is executed.

Render (Avg)

The average time spent executing a render-related function or code block.

Render (Min)

The least amount of time spent executing a render-related function or code block.

Render (Max)

The most amount of time spent executing a render-related function or code block.