As the topic says, is it possible to somehow keyframe the Display Flag on a SOP ? One would expect something this basic to be possible, but then, this is the magical world of Houdini.

I need to hide some hair from the render for a certain amount of time but not have it visible in the viewport at any time. The only way I figured to hide hair from the viewport but not from the render is to hide it with the Display Flag from both, and then force it in the Redshift ROP.

This because the "Display As" dropdown menu one can find in a Geo SOP is not available in a Hair Generate SOP, beats me why that is.

But I can't animate the list or forced render objects either.

So I was wondering how to crack this nut.

Thanks.

Houdini 19.5.303 / Redshift 3.5.09

You could use a switch node connected to your render node and a null and keyframe the switch input to point to null.

Use the switch as your render node after.

Nice, that seems to do the trick.

Muchas gracias !

Meh, sorry I cheered too soon.

It only seems to work in the viewport when you're inside the Hairgen SOP. As soon as one exits the Hairgen SOP the switch has no effect whatsoever. You're basically back to square one where the hair only seems to see the Display Flag.

But maybe I misunderstand ?

What I did is add a switch node after the "Hair Output" in the "Hairgen" and connect both, the "Hair Output", and a Null to it.

When I then which from one to the other, it looks as if I can animate the visibility if the hair. But when I render or exit the Hairgen SOP, the switch has no effect whatsoever.


EDIT: I think I got it now. I made the Hairgen SOP "editable", then I can append a switch to the "Render" Switch and connect a Null. This switch then works for both render and view, but I can force it.

Great, sorry about the noise.