Hi!

A couple weeks ago I decided to move from macOS to Linux, and after many frustrated attempts to make CentOS behave, I’ve now switched to Fedora 25 and it pretty much works out of the box on my MacBook Pro. Great, time to install Houdini.

But here comes the catch. The INSTALL file points you to the system requirements page [www.sidefx.com], which has a link to the VFX Reference Platform [www.vfxplatform.com] under the requirements for Linux, but kinda separated from the list and gcc.

It seems that the VFX Reference Platform is for app developers and not end users according to their description, but I decided to try and make my computer compliant with it just in case. It’s becoming more and more tedious, especially when trying to build OpenSubdiv from source. Oh my God what am I doing with my life.

So the question is: is this I’m doing completely overkill for an end user, or does Houdini on Linux actually need all this software built for it to work?

Thanks in advance!

You do not need to build the VFX reference platform yourself. You will need to make sure that you have installed a recent enough graphics driver (supports OpenGL 3.3).

Phew, that’s great news!

Why is there a link to the VFX Reference Platform under the requirements then? Is it correct to assume that gcc 4.8 isn’t required either? As far as I know that’s also for developing.

Thanks!

… with that said: If you aren't going to develop (outside VEX, Python, HScript etc), you don't need a compiler (GCC). I would consider the link to the VFX reference platform just as what it is named: A REFERENCE, not a 1:1 requirement. When in doubt what to go for, you can find “commonly agreed upon specifications” there.

Best thing when trying to switch to Linux, however, is not to have doubts in the first place (says the guy who just wasted over 20 hours of his life installing CentOS for some Houdini tests - what a loss!)

Marc

Yeah I agree about being brave now: fortunately most things you don’t need are super easy to uninstall cleanly on Linux! Or so it seems anyway