Hi,

I have a little problem here with Houdini. If I hit Render -> Start Render -> mantra1, then it can take up to 1-2 minutes until mplay appears and the rendering starts.
It doesn't depend on the scene. Same behavior for a fresh scene with only a sphere.

As always you have to provide more info like machine spec, os, graphics card, etc.

Latest Houdini-Apprentice-Build on Windows XP SP3

CPU:
Intel Core2Duo E6750

Graphics:
Geforce 8800GT

RAM:
4GB, ~3.5 effectively (32bit Windows)

I find that starting renders through the “Render -> Start Render” menu to be extremely unreliable. I never use it anymore.
Try starting the render from the render node directly in the ROP network. That is much more reliable on my computer (and on me colleague's as well).

Quite weird bug. Since they both have what seams to be exact the same function. To start renders.

My setup is a HP xw6400 running Fedora 6 as far as I can remember.

few days ago I had a similar question…. so, maybe this will help you too:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=13954 [sidefx.com]
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=13404 [sidefx.com]
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=11744 [sidefx.com]

Problem seems to be solved.
Here is what I did (Don't know, which step exactly solved it):
- uninstalled houdini
- installed the latest graphics driver
- reinstalled the latest houdini
- switched the license-server to standalone

I tried it out: It was the license-server. If it is a standalone-server, everything is good.