I am running Win2K , V5.5.036. I downloaded new version and ran installer, but its same .036 version. This version has serious COP bugs with nVidia cards and OpenGL problems. Is there a newer version or patch for Apprentice?

Thank you
David Rindner

http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/sidefx/cd1_5.5.151/Windows/ [vislab.usyd.edu.au]

Have you checked the install folder to see if you may have 2 versions installed on your system.

I am pretty sure I am now running 5.5.151 Textport window reports 151 version Oct21, 2002 build. I cleanout old .36 and reinstalled .151 clean. The thing is is that I see no change in Houdini behavior. The COPs are still buggy, and unstable. Using Composite or Layer COP with Over or Atop mode yields incorrect color results and make Master and Halo crash prone. OpenGL remains the same. Houdini would work for a long time, then all of a sudden, the OpenGL display would go nuts, and screen redraw stops working within Houdini. Not such a bad problem in itself, EXCEPT that any saves done after redraw problem occurs are corrupt and will crash Houdini's next session on load. I have come to really love Houdini, best darn GUI and workflow in industry. But I am worried that I won't be able to run it under WindowXP, I am now running Win2K, but next machine is going to be XP. Maya, Rhino, After Effects, Photoshop, and other apps I run (I provide high end 3d models to post/FX industry) I am runninng under Windows. I toyed with idea of dual booting and running Houdini under Intel Linux, but that would not be productive for me as I need to jump from app to app. Plus people have reported problems running Houdini under RedHat8 and theres lots of manual work in setup, and I know nothing about Linux. So everything I run has to run nicely under Windows with nVidia cards. I suspect that my problem is endemic to Houdini's drawing problem with mainstream nVidia cards. I currently run GF3 64mb. The next machine will run either GF4 Ti4600 128, or Radeon 9700 Pro 128. I absolutely refuse to waste money on overpriced highend boards like Quaddro4 or WildCat, as they don't give me anymore and cost a lot more.

Dave Rindner

Watch for a new version of Houdini Apprentice in the next week or two. It will deal with the COPs problems. We will be posting some compositing tutorial videos at around the same time. The announcement should be on the community home page late this week.

Another quick fix to your corupting .nchip files is to set your viewer to the text port so nothing will get cooked when you open up the scene. Then go back a couple of sops, cops, or what have you. you may actually find out what is causing it to crash. I am also running it on a nvidia geforce 3 card. And crash sometimes, but lately it's been better. Also with the redraw issues stow away the bar with all of the icons in the viewport this seems to help me since i never use them anyways.

Residnt