Removed Vizualize mode? I know it can be changed in the Vizualizations editor, but it was useful to have it there. Oh well, not a big issue.

Also, what's with the Paint Attributes/Attribute Paint SOPs redundancy? Seems like a mistake.

I started the attribute paint sop tut this morning…not finished going through it…

“…Removed Vizualize mode?..” you can toggle visualization from the attribute paint sop, there's a light bulb icon near top right of the sops parameter window. Is that what your talking about? I never used the old paint sop..so maybe I misunderstand you.

pickled
Paint Attributes/Attribute Paint SOPs redundancy?

“Situation normal.”

I wanted “Tab->Paint<enter>” to get you the new paint sop. So it has to be called Paint Attributes in the tab menu for that. But the natural naming scheme for this is “Attribute Paint” to match the other Attribute prefixed nodes.

Of course, we allow typing names out of order in the tab menu, so whichever you type the other will show up… Best course would likely be to have only the highest-matching variant show up in the menu, but that will require a fair bit of extra metadata to tie the tools together.

BabaJ
I never used the old paint sop

In the old Paint, it's exposed in the SOP parameter window, so it's easier to access. Easy to check it out in 17.5.

jlait
But the natural naming scheme for this is “Attribute Paint” to match the other Attribute prefixed nodes.

You sure it's necessary? Pretty sure everyone is gonna type “paint” when a paint node is needed, regardless of what it will be used for. It got no problem with this, if anything, I'm thinking that the question of “what's the difference between…” from a beginner will needlessly pop-up from time to time.

In the old Paint, it's exposed in the SOP parameter window, so it's easier to access. Easy to check it out in 17.5.

It's also exposed in the new paint SOP parameter window (as I already said - towards the upper right) - again if that's what I think your talking about.

Yea, I saw that icon thingy associated with Visualizers, but in prior to 18, the modes were exposted directly unde the other parameters.
Like I said, not a big problem for me and in fact I get why the new Paint didn't go route - less clutter and a direct connection to the scene Visualizers. A few more clicks, but more consistency and versatility, which will hopefully translate into a less finicky viewport behavior (to be tested) compared to the old Paint sop.

After a bit more testing I've detected a few problems.
On a relatively dense mesh (300k polys), the more you hold L/MMB and draw on the surface, the slower the brush responsiveness becomes, to the point of being unusable very soon after starting the stroke. CPU usage goes through the roof. But it should be noted that it's a bit choppy even from the start. Old Paint sop has great performance during the whole stroke.
Is it because this new one is “stroke based” or is it a bug? If it's the former, can we not have a stroke based new Paint SOP?

The “connected only” option doesn't seem to work. Works perfectly in the old Paint.

Last and probably least, the Surface and Screen brushes viewport display took a step back with that big cross. Dot in the middle was nicer, as in less intrusive and easier to focus on the actual paint stroke and color.

I'm also having issues with painting on dense meshes. After 1 million faces it's practically impossible to use the attribute paint sop. The old paint sop worked well even at 20mil+. The new features seem really powerful and it'd be great to be able to use them on high density meshes.

Changing the visualizer Color Type to “Attribute As Is” seems to help with speed, but it still seems slower than the old Paint Color.

I'm sure some rational is behind this change, but I can't help but ask myself “who ordered this?”.
I'm clearly not seeing the benefits, whichever those might be.

So it appears the old Paint SOP can still be accessed if unhidden in the UI (by running ‘opunhide Sop paint’ in the Hscript Textport), even though it has been depreciated. I'm a new Houdini user, so I'm just wondering how long old operators stay in the software before being completely removed (if ever). Will it always be there for backwards compatibility?

cmoss
Will it always be there for backwards compatibility?

not forever…but it's usually years and years