Three (or more) Q's:

1- are the HW req for 9.5 decided already? and they are?

2a- are current generation consumer level ATI cards and drivers (namely: 38xx and 48xx) working better w/ H?

2b- will the “new” XGP (AMD's external graphics for laptops) compatible w/ H? they claim 4Gb/s external PCIe w/ first generation only powering external screens.

3- will 9.5 and/or near term future generations use GPGPU (CUDA, Steam)? again, thinking more on a consumer level here - for those of us that can't afford the best machine, but still looking for a good boost in perf for the buck, but any info on what's happening at the apex ( pinnacle / acme ) of Houdini goodness appreciated as well.

4.2- what are the specs for the laptop used in recording the *very* helpful and appreciated sidefx video tutorials?

thanks in adv.

1- are the HW req for 9.5 decided already? and they are?

The same as the hardware requirements for H9.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=415&Itemid=269 [sidefx.com]

2a- are current generation consumer level ATI cards and drivers (namely: 38xx and 48xx) working better w/ H?

This still seems pretty hit or miss. Some users have no problems, others have crippling issues. I can't say I'd recommend an ATI consumer card.

2b- will the “new” XGP (AMD's external graphics for laptops) compatible w/ H? they claim 4Gb/s external PCIe w/ first generation only powering external screens.

As long as it behaves like a normal PCI-E device, I don't see why it shouldn't work. However, given that it's the first generation of its type, it wouldn't surprise me if there were some issues.

3- will 9.5 and/or near term future generations use GPGPU (CUDA, Steam)? again, thinking more on a consumer level here - for those of us that can't afford the best machine, but still looking for a good boost in perf for the buck, but any info on what's happening at the apex ( pinnacle / acme ) of Houdini goodness appreciated as well.

We're looking into technologies such as GPGPU to see where they fit well with our architecture. It's not a silver bullet - it doesn't speed things up in all cases. While it may be faster at certain tasks than the CPU, the roundtrip time of all the data from the CPU to the GPU and back can end up taking more time overall.

Also, the fact that Nvidia has CUDA and ATI has steam means that three implementations need to be coded & tested - CPU-only, Nvidia GPU & ATI GPU. This tends to slow things down a bit. Using OpenGL and GLSL for GPGPU works, but incurs GL overhead that hurts performance. A unified GPGPU standard would be nice

4.2- what are the specs for the laptop used in recording the *very* helpful and appreciated sidefx video tutorials?

I don't know the answer to this one; I'll leave it for someone else.

houdiniuser42
4.2- what are the specs for the laptop used in recording the *very* helpful and appreciated sidefx video tutorials?
thanks in adv.

I'll answer this last one since the majority of the videos are mine.

I'm using an Acer Aspire 1720 laptop. It's a 12 pound monster and coming up on 5 years old. I wanted a laptop that had full sized components, so I could upgrade pieces easily. It was meant only to be semi-portable.

So, Intel P4 chip, nvidia graphics, 2gb ram.

I run Ubuntu exclusively, on this one version 7.04 32 bit which has been bullet proof.

For recording I use RecordMyDesktop, which behaves much like Camtasia does. The limitation with this software is that it only records to .ogg format, which isn't a big deal but it does mean I convert the files to either .avi or .mov.

There is a great tool call AlltoAvi which, as the name says, converts to .avi format. Works great.

I'm also now using Prism Vidio Converter, which can convert to .mov. That function was a bit tricky to find. Linux isn't big on quicktime.

When doing still image screen captures I use the “import” command from Imagemagick. Using the “-pause” switch, it works really well.

I run most of my tools from the command line, it's much quicker.

Because of Houdini's dynamics tools and that I'm travelling more, I've bought a new laptop. HP 2500, AMD 64bit, 2gb and running Ubuntu 8.04, which is the newest LST version of Ubuntu. I haven't recorded any videos on it yet but the tools will be the same.

thank you both for such detailed replies.

Rather than commenting further and saying things like: After I'm elected president - my platform being unified GPGPU - i'll make certain to make it happen. or commenting about how hiring me would be the best investment ever, or even how sidefx should simply buy Intel, kidnap the inventor of the Connection Machine and come out w/ the “Houdini Box” (don't forget to use lots of LED's) …

“one processor for each particle.” http://www.karlsims.com/particle-dreams.html [karlsims.com]


Yes, rather than saying anything like *that* :wink: I'll simply state that it is possible to run H9 w/ 512mb of ram. (not that one wants to! but…)

Oh and for probbins, on the laptop(s) was the Nvidia graphics a consumer level GPU or was it a Quadro? with dedicated ram?

houdiniuser42
Oh and for probbins, on the laptop(s) was the Nvidia graphics a consumer level GPU or was it a Quadro? with dedicated ram?

Nope, just a consumer Geforce 7150M

Yes, rather than saying anything like *that* Wink I'll simply state that it is possible to run H9 w/ 512mb of ram. (not that one wants to! but…)

It's possible, however, your experience with Houdini is likely to be pretty poor. Anything remotely complex would start swapping, and you'd end up spending more time waiting for Houdini rather than working with it. I don't know about you, but that'd be pretty frustrating to me.

Laptop memory can generally be upgraded for only slightly more than desktop memory, especially if you can install it yourself. You'll find that a laptop becomes a lot more responsive in general with 1-2GB of RAM, and this can extend its lifetime a bit.

i'm on a desktop… considering a laptop to *ahem* be able to “get away” and find a “quiet corner.” (background music = crying and being told my computer isn't mine even though it's older than this little, but cute 22mo old person)

of course that doesn't guarantee i won't get distracted and/or procrastinate somewhere else.

back to the topic, DDR is more expensive than DDR2. would make some sense to apply that money to a faster pc w/ cheaper (but faster) and therefore *more* ram.

ps - shortly after my first visit to Sidefx (LA), i found out i couldn't run H8… 512mb ram, but IGP… opted for a dedicated GPU to regain the whole 512mb rather than up the ram. i still stand by the decision, it is just taking me a long time to decide what to upgrade to and how to protect it from little hands. :wink:

pps - when starting this thread, i was considering starting a technical thread, as well, about how to speed up rendering - caching, saving geo out and loading back in, mantra tweaks, etc. but for now, I'm leaning more towards getting a qualifying pc. ops: :wink:

ppps - any donations and/or free babysitting *greatly* appreciated!

twod: re: multi-GPU solutions

your knowledge and ability to be succinct far surpasses mine, but that won't stop me from blabbing further: I once saw a ppt online that talked about GPGPU, of which I cannot find (of course).

anyway, wikipedia (“BrookGPU”) goes along with everything you said and adds 2 “gotchas”:

1- it appears to be ATI only which unless the driver issues get resolved might be diminishing returns even on those that could supposedly use it.

2- currently, at least per wikipedia *ahem*, the DirectX implementation is more efficient than OpenGL.

on the other front, how many Tesla's are you tinkering with?

Well, I can't elabourate too much on development in progress, but I can say that we've run into our share of gotchas.

For more information, you can also see this topic on od:force.

http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?showtopic=6421&hl=GPGPU [forums.odforce.net]