hi i am having the “blank icons” issue.

seems like this beast(it is a beast, not a bug) is going to stay till the judgment day.

1) i am using houdini 9.5 on windows xp sp2.
2) i have tested deleting houdini's directory, it didn't work.
3) i searched the forums(a lot), but didn't find any other suggestions for windows users. most solutions are targeted at linux or MAC user's.

4.History) i didn't have this issue for 1 year. then once it happened, then i stopped using houdini till someday i run houdini by accident and found out that the problem was solved. but yesterday i reinstalled my windows and then installed houdini and the issue's back. in the first year i had reinstalled windows many times and i had never had the issue.

5) i am very sad. please help

by the way:

my houdini version: 9.5 apprentice build 379.

and i am well aware of new versions of houdini but i have dial up connection so downloading the new versions is not an option for me.

and i use win 32-bit.

i don't know if this is considered a bug and should be reported like a bug or if it is better to ask it in the forum.

doesn't anyone have any idea?

You could try deleting the SVGIcons.cache and SVGIcons.cache.serial in the $HOME/houdini9.5/config/Icons directory (where $HOME is your home directory).

thanks twod. i have tested this method, but it didn't work. is there anything else i can do? cause this happened once before but then it got solved by itself and before that i had never had this issue it is kinda weird that i am having this problem on a fresh installment of windows. cause on fresh installment it was ok before, and since i have changed no hardware it is like the exact same situation as before so why should this happen?

Is it a permissions issue? Did you install Houdini as Administrator, and then run Houdini as a limited user? Try setting the environment variable HOUDINI_ICON_CACHE_DIR to a directory that's known to be writable by you (and one where you don't mind the icons being written to).

i installed houdini as administrator and run it as administrator. but i want to try your solution, how can i set environment setting? i don't know what HOUDINI_ICON_CACHE_DIR variable is.

i have a feeling this is the issue cause houdini's directory is read only and whatever i do i can't change it to writable.

HI. using help and a lot of luck i kinda realized how to use command tools to set environment variables,

if i am correct set shows the list of all variables, but i don't see any HOUDINI_ICON_CACHE_DIR variable. what should i do?

Set the environment variable via Start > Control Panel > System, then Advanced tab and click “Environment Variables” (I haven't used XP in ages so apologies if that's a bit off). Add a New variable, name HOUDINI_ICON_CACHE_DIR and value <directory you want to use>.

Now, when starting Houdini, it should use that variable. If you're launching from the command line, you'll need to open a new shell.

thanks twod.

i created the variable and now houdini creates icon files in another directory but, the problem is not solved. houdini is still so slow and buttomless.

what amazes me is that it was fine before, how come i am experiencing such issues now?

do you have any other idea? :cry:

Hi.

the problem got solved. i am writing this so if someone is having the same issue maybe my method can help him.

i just have done several things in the past few days and one of them has solved the problem but i don't know which one.

1 installing visual c#
2 changing my computer time
3 installing nod 32 anti virus.

maybe developers can guess which one it is and how it has solved the issue.