I am learning Hodini through Apprentice program. Very impressive application. But I am wondering if Win2K SP2/WinXP PRo are ideal platforms for Houdini. On the AthlonXP or P4 box, would RedHat8 Linux be a better choice. The reason I am asking is that though I have a decent 3d production box, Houdini does issue more crashes then I expected. More importantly, OS recovery after crash take ridiculously long amount of time. Lets say I used Houdini for one hour, then it crashed, btw UV Edit is particulary prone. THen Windows and Hoiudini goes through writing the error log file, and doing whatever. I had Maya4 crashes, and its pretty quick, about 15 second, recovery to OS. Same with MAX. Lightwave3D crashes, recovery is instantenous. With Houdini, I have to wait 5-10 minutes before I can relaunch. And attempting a force quit with Task Manager generates “This program cannot be closed…..” message. I understand, all 3d apps crash from time to time, but why is the recovery for Hoiudini under Windows so darn long? I a suspect that the Undo buffer is not being properly cleared on large projects, becouse the hard disk grind after crash is inordinarily long.
My system is as follows;
Athlon 1.1gb
1gb ram
GeForce3 GTS 64mb
Windows 2K Pro SP2
UltraATA100 drive.

The reason I am asking, is that I am will probably opt to purchase Houdini Select, so I can have modeling features, and $1200 tag is reasonable. I provide custom character design and 3d modeling services to VFX houses. I think I found my modeling Nirvana with Houdini. My clients are in advertising industry. My next machine is going to an AhtlonXP 2800+ that is a dual boot WinXP/RedHat8. So I need to choose which platform I would run on. I would prefer to stay on WinXP, as I can jump into Photoshop or DeepPaint3D in same session. But if stability and performance of Houdini is better under Linux, why not get that version? I would like some objective advice from developers and users.

Dave Rindner

Howdy David,

I am currently using WinXP Pro with Houdini. I would definitely admit that Houdini does launch faster with XP due to XP's application pre-fetching capability. Also, XP boot up and shut down by far faster than W2K. (or it could be my a RAID drive for that matter…)

Come to think of it… I just can't recall when was the last time I've had blue screen in XP… (I'm not trying to be an advocate here)

As far as Houdini's stability goes under XP, I can't really say much about it at the moment because of my 1+ yr old graphics card driver that 3Dlabs seemed to have abandoned. (GVX1). When I am running Houdini in school under W2K with Quadro 4 XGL 900, I'd definitely say that Houdini seems to be more stable. I haven't seen students complain crashing as much yet. For me, I personally prefer Houdini to crash than for it to freeze (which happened to me most of the time) because at least crashing will do an emergency save. All in all, I am still working with Houdini happily as usual. 8)

By now, I have already gotten to a point where I'd just get the intuition of when the software is going to freeze soon and I'd immediately save my session with a new version number.


Houdini will definitely be much more stable under Linux as far as I know of. I do believe that vast majority of Houdini users are running Linux in production, so it is much more tested than Houdini in Windows platform.

Also, instead of using GeForce, I highly recommend a Quadro 4 instead… Some of my friend told me that even with their Geforce 4, Houdini seems to be slower still compared with those of Quadro 4 XGL. I am not sure how heavy is their scene, tho…

I am going to be upgrading to a Quadro sometimes within next year. So I'll have to wait and see. :roll:


Anyhow, I hope I have provided a good bit of info here.

Take care,
Alex

I'd say Linux, definately Linux.

I mean, everything is way faster than it was in Windoze 2000 for me. (Especially the interface).

Hey Calosus,
Which distribution of Linux you use, which Xserver and most importantly which graphic card ?

valeksa
Hey Calosus,
Which distribution of Linux you use, which Xserver and most importantly which graphic card ?

Customized RedHat 7.3 (kernel 2.4-18.3), XFree86 4.2, nVidia GeForce3 (64MB).

Thanks. Looks like Linux is it. The following is my planned config for my next box. My plan to purchase it along with Houdini Select. Wish I could afford the whole thing, but that won't happen for a while.

The machiine is from XiComputer

AthlonXP 2600+
1gb 400mhzDDR Corsair SDRAM
GeForce4 Ti4200 128mb AGP
Primary dist for WinXP Pro: 80gb UDMA-133 8ms
Second disk for RedHat: 60gb UDMA-133 8ms
The rest are accessories
OS: Dual boot; WinXP Pro/Red Hat Personall V8

This is a question for SESI techies.
How is that configuration for Houdini Select Linux? Is Red Hat Personall 8 an approved OS.
This maybe a sales question. For dual boot installations, can a single seat of Houdini Select be installed on both OS's. I can see dropping into Houdini for texture and UV work under WinXP, to test with Photoshop textures. Also, one of my clients proviodes me with Windows Maya Unlimited. They don't run SGI or Linux Maya. Hard core work be done under Linux. This would all be done on a single machine.

Also I heard from SPIW (thats what the badge said) that there is a script or executable for Win/Linux/SGI that lets Shake 2.4 act like COPs. So there is no need for HALO part of Houdini. I am assuming that HALO is a standalone COPs part of Master. Is this true, if so, how does it work, and where does one get it?
I am not a Shake user, I can't afford it, but was wondering if that was true, or my chain was being yanked. I like COPs. A nice node based compoisitor. I sence an oppourtunity for SESI to fill a void for high end desktop compositor for WinXP, sence Apple in its wisdom has killed Windows version of Shake. They also killed entire line of Silicon Grail products after aquiring Silicon Grail. So now there is only Matrix Film and Combustion2 left on WinXP that use node based compositing approach, and can handle high resolution at decent speeds.

Dave Rindner