Hi,

I am a Lightwave User….I enjoy the Houdini 7 appre. version very much,
but nearly everything is different to LW.

1. Geometry Selection
When I have a sphere and I select some polygons/vertex …..,
at the back of the sphere the it also selects those polys…
In Lightwave, when you are in perspective mode, it just selects
only one side…… (hope someone undersands this)

2. Volumetric Lights
Are there some ?


3. Geometry

I know the difference between Nurbs and Polygons
What are the other types like
-Primitive
-Mesh
What's their use, because they have very few editing possibilities.



Thanks for any help

Greets Tom

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1. Geometry selection.

I agree, it's been bugging me for years, but Sesi seem to like it the way it is. It make no logical sense and doesn't work how you want. But hey whatever. It's what makes Houdini so unique

2. Yes there are volumetric lights. Check out fog objects.

3. Primitives are the most simple mathematical shapes you can think of. They render and display very very quickly and are useful for doing particle things with and as standin geometry. Meshes are special, think of them as like the control cage for Nurbs. They have to be made up of rows and columns, strictly no triangles. You can convert back and forth between meshes and Nurbs, which makes them a useful go between for mixing poly modelling and Nurbs modelling.

Hope this helps a little.

1.) Geometry Selection:

This has never tripped me up in the past, probably because I dont model too much in Houdini and when I do I keep it as procedural as possible.

However, I did some tests and working in “smooth wire shaded” or “hidden line” seems to help when selecting points or prims in the viewport. When I select a prim in wireframe I sometimes get a backface – when I select in hiddenline I dont. This only works one prim at a time… if you drag a selection box it will still select the backfaces.

There should be a simple way to lock backfaces off as non-selectable poly's……. eh, SESI???
:roll:

2.) I believe the object you're looking for is called “Atmosphere.” Look for it under “Generators” when you hit <tab> at the /obj level.

3.) What Simon said :wink:

In the viewport's left toolbar, there's a button that looks something like “F/B”. Click and hold on it. It should bring up a menu. Scroll down to “F/”. After that, it'll only select polygons which are front-facing with respect to the viewer.

Otherwise, you can also use Lasso and Brush select modes which won't select the backfaces. Also in the left toolbar, it's the button right above “F/B”.

Yes, what Edward said )

However, unfortunately, the F/B is deceiving. Try it on a Torus, you'll still get points selected you didn't want. The only real way is to use Lasso mode, which is annoying at best for most tasks.

Frankly, box-selected selecting and accidentally getting hidden geometry is one of the reasons a lot of people don't like modelling in Houdini. Houdini is a great poly modeller otherwise…

Cheers,

Peter B

Personally, selecting only front-faces would completely screw up my modeling workflow, but I've seen a bit of Simon's stuff and it's very good, so hey…

Oh, it should be an option for sure, but one that defaults to “off” since that's what most people expect coming from other packages…

Hi,
Thanks for all the answers, very useful
The F/B Button was the thing I was looking for.
Ok, because of the unique way of Houdini, I will try some more
modeling. I guess, it's a really great application.
First it looks very complicated because in all other 3D Progs you
select first the geometry than the tool for deform.

The Program reminds me like a compositing tool , Shake or Digital Fusion.

Ok, now I will try some texturing stuff…

Greets
Tom

TOM_TM
The Program reminds me like a compositing tool , Shake or Digital Fusion.

And you are right because they likely copied from Chalice which copied from Houdini/PRISMS.

…which was copied from Eddie *COUGH*



I remember using Eddie, from Animal Logic I believe, and it was the first node-based compositor *I* recall, anyway. And to be fair, Edward - Chalice wasn't really copied from Ice, it was sold.

Hmm…Edward….Eddie….is that YOU?

Cheers,

J.C.