Hi,

I just wanted to get into Houdini. I downloaded the aprentice version and was excited about a new programm.

At the startup i recognized that no Buttons are visible and the program does need more than a few seconds to react on my comands?

I read the system requirements and everything should be fine.

My computer is a Windows 64bit, 8GB Ram, Intel dualcore 2.6GHZ with a Nivida Geforce 8600.

I dont have any geometry or so, just an empty scene!
Does anyone has an idea what the problem could be?

I tried to deinstall, installed on an new user, shut the internet/Firewall/Antivirus down. The newest Drivers are installed, I even installed Houdini 9 but there i had the same problems..


Would be very thankfull if anybody could help me.


*update:

Now I installed Houdini 10 on an olda laptop wich isnt even a dual core with 1gb ram and the programm is running and everything is okay. I mean the interface behaves normal and ich can creat geomentry ect!`

What could be the problem

Use the windows Task manager and see if there are other programs eating up cpu and ram.
Normally, with that hardware setup, houdini should fly (even on windows).

I tested it the CPU Usage stays at around 20prozent and 1-1.5gb of Ram is used.

I created a few objects ect. but i always had to wait a few seconds at each click.
I managed it to the preferences and there everything was okay.

something is going wrong on your pc for sure

i have a much less hardware (1gb of ram, and a pentium 3.2)

and the houdini performance its really great on this little set up


But i have a habit of have 2 different versions of Windows in 2 different HDs:

When i failed to run things in one, i go to other…

there are things in the hardware/software world that even Bill Gates doesnt know

Hm . i think i try setting up another windows.

But it makes me aYX(“Ä:'§”§. that it wont work. I mean all other applications a running very smoth and I just want to know the problem.

Sometime the latest & greatest graphics drivers are not the best. Did you turn on Antialiasing & Anisotropic settings on the graphics card? Houdini doesn't use anything of those. You should set it to “Application controlled” in the Nvidia Control Panel. You can also try to use a software profile like XSI or Maya to see if it helps.

To test if it's graphics card related, you can run Houdini with software OpenGL to see if it runs better. You just need to edit your houdini.env file in your $HOME/houdini10.0 directory with the following:
#
# Houdini Environment Settings
#
# The contents of this file are read into the environment
# at startup. They will override any existing entries in
# the environment.
#
# The syntax is one entry per line as follows:
# VAR = VALUE
#
# Values may be quoted
# VAR = “VALUE”
#
# Values may be empty
# VAR =
#

# Example:
#
# HOUDINI_NO_SPLASH = 1

HOUDINI_OGL_SOFTWARE = 1


Please let us know how it goes.

Cheers!
steven

If your interface is screwed up make sure you are installing it as Admin and that you are installing it to the correct directory. Since you are using Windows 64, use the 64 bit version of Houdini and make sure not to install it to the ProgramsFiles(x86) folder - as Houdini wont appreciate the special characters.

I'm running Win 64, 8gig ram, Nvidia 285gtx, Ci7 core and I have no problems at all.

The 64bit version of Houdini is installed to the right directory, I am the Administrator and my graphic card was set to “let the programm decide”

Now I run it in the “openGL mode” but nothing changes.

thank you for your help

Please try other Nvidia Graphics Drivers. It does sound like a graphics performance issue to me.

First try the latest and greatest. Then step back through the checkpoint driver releases on the Nvidia website. On Windows it is pretty simple to try different driver versions.

Nvidia's drivers are a constant work-in-progress and quite dynamic.

OpenGL programs are quite susceptible to Nvidia driver increments. Especially those that use older OpenGL calls like Houdini (and other CAD/CAM apps) currently does (but is getting better all the time). Please hunt these forums and others to see what drivers are recommended.

Also take note that setting the HOUDINI_OGL_SOFTWARE = 1 is a last resort to getting Houdini to run as it bypasses your hardware OpenGL acceleration. Best to see if there is a driver from Nvidia that works first. This env setting is genneray used if you don't have accelerated hardware like default intel graphics.

Now i tried some old drivers. Nothing has changed.

I installed houdini on some pcs of my friends. It always runs smoth. I dont understand why it doesnt work on my machine.

tomorrow i install a friends graphic card on my machien to test if it changes anything

Damn, I have this same problem, just bought apprentice and its super slow with no icons. I really hope this can be resolved, I'm on win xp quadro fx 3400 and 2 gigs of ram,

I'm going to try and set up a dual boot and try the linux version.

Maybe this helps:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=11617&highlight=icons+directory [sidefx.com]

If not, maybe try searching for “no icons” on the forum - this ain't new issue.

Greg

try linux version of houdini!@

although seens a bit more difficult to setup things and the video card, a lot of guys already said that is more faster…

is that true:?

My impression is similar, seems to run a bit smoother on Ubuntu than on Win.

However, there are issues that might stop people from using the Linux version - for example, I use a lot of illustrator and photoshop files, which forces me to stick to the Win version most of the time.

Greg

hi this topic has inspired a bunch of questions…

what is the best set-up for houdini?

I want to use ubuntu but if I'm running Houdini on ubuntu would there be a big difference in speeds between running 64 bit ubuntu and 32 bit?

Photoshop cs4 only runs on 32 bit as of yet so if i have to run 32 bit ubuntu alongside 64 bit ubuntu in order to get photoshop surely i may as well just use 64 bit windows?

if I turn off all desktop effects on windows vista would it run houdini as quick or quicker than windows xp?

In terms of speeding workflow up… I'm not sure how it portions out - do simulations speed up more if you increase the ram or processing power?

does running SLI affect houdini?

tp.
Photoshop cs4 only runs on 32 bit as of yet so if i have to run 32 bit ubuntu alongside 64 bit ubuntu in order to get photoshop surely i may as well just use 64 bit windows?

I don't understand this. First of all, 64-bit operating systems can *always* run 32-bit software. Secondly, Photoshop doesn't run on Linux as far as I know. If you're running it under WINE on Linux, then you can just run a 32-bit version of WINE under 64-bit Ubuntu.

ah i didn't realise you could do that.