I downloaded Houdini Apprentice a few days ago. In the course of learning the program, periodically a dialog box, called Houdini console, comes up. The dialog box has multiple lines of the following (paraphrased): NT_Generator Thread:: queue . .. . Event Dropped. At that point, everything locks up. When I try to close the Dialog Box, other copies of the Dialog Box appear. Has anyone experienced or diagnosed this problem?

Hi there,

If you have a file that reproduces the problem easily or instantly, please upload it here so that SESI can look into it. I've encountered it mostly with POPs but it might be different in your case.

The workaround is to increase the queue size and the way to do it is to set an Environment variable. Notice I said workaround instead of solution?

The variable is HOUDINI_UI_QUEUE_SIZE & you set by right clicking on the My Computer icon, select Properties, Advanced tab then Environment Variables.

In the pop-up dialog, you can create a user (for yourself only) or system (for all) variable. Either one is fine. Click New and set the following:
Variable Name: HOUDINI_UI_QUEUE_SIZE
Variable value: 99999

That should stop the the console from popping up constantly.

Hope the above helps!

Cheers!
steven

Hello,

I am also having the above mentioned problem. I tried the workaround, but alas, it is not working as well as I had hoped. I noticed that a few things trigger the problem consistently - new desktop & split window are the recent things I've noticed. Any other suggestions? Could it be a setting I don't know about? Thanks…

Hi,

What Houdini version are you using? OS and graphics card?

Without knowing the above, I can only suggest deleting your $HOME/houdinix.x (x.x means 8.0, 8.1 etc) directory and try to see if you still get the error.

Cheers!
steven

Sorry, guess I should have given you that info before…I've hijacked a laptop that is running Windows XP Professional with an integrated Intel Media Accelerator 950. I was using apprentice version 8.1.704 but reinstalled yesterday to version 8.1.816, which still gave me the same problems, which got me thinking it is the video card? I think I deleted the home directory, but I'm not exactly sure - I'm a Mac user and not the best with PC's and their related issues. I appreicate your help and patience - hopefully I can get this working :?

Hi,

The Intel Media Accelerator 950 does not support OpenGL fully so it's most likely the cause of the errors you're getting.

Would you prefer Houdini to run slower but probably with less errors? Or do you think you can use Houdini as is but without switching desktops or resizing the panes?

If you prefer Houdini to run with less errors, you can set an environment variable to instruct Houdini to use the CPU for the graphical interface. As the CPU has to do more work, Houdini will run slower or less interactively. If you would like to try this out, please go to this thread [sidefx.com] , look for my post at the bottom and follow the instructions there.

Else, don't switch desktops or resize the panes. Also, save often!

Please let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

Cheers!
steven