The copy SOP offers a lot of flexibility in changing parameters and attributes but I want to avoid heavy geometry so I want to achieve the same using instancing.

As I understand instancepoint() can only be used to change shader parameters.

The render attributes pscale and orient allow me to change uniform scale and rotation.

But with the copy sop I can make a variable and drive the switch. I love that!

How could I switch instances randomly?

this is a very good information provided by you thanks for this good information and about your problem search it on the internet or talk to any man that ihave good knowledge about this.


thanks

Soothsayer
The copy SOP offers a lot of flexibility in changing parameters and attributes but I want to avoid heavy geometry so I want to achieve the same using instancing.

As I understand instancepoint() can only be used to change shader parameters.

The render attributes pscale and orient allow me to change uniform scale and rotation.

But with the copy sop I can make a variable and drive the switch. I love that!

How could I switch instances randomly?

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini10.0/copy/instancing [sidefx.com]

last two lines have answer to your question

so basically use
either delayed load shader
or one subnet OBJ with different OBjs inside and use pointinstance() to control their display parameter to randomly display only one of them

example file for the second method