The only things Houdini needs are: 1) Rendering on GPU, 2) Keep improving simulations on GPU.

This software is mostly for creating pipeline. I thing that it is the best software on which studio's pipeline can be created. It is very good for VFX, procedural modeling, animation, and rendering. It is not texturing and sculpting software. It is very funny to see people, which compare Houdini with modo, zbrush, and other tools.

Rendering on GPU is the reality for these days. Fluids are already computes on gpu, so the next and the most important step is RENDERING ON GPU!

Aliluia!

Friends, the solution was a little bit stupid!

The problem was in space between hostnames!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mantra -H comp01, comp02 (gives an error)

mantra -H comp01,comp02 (works fine)

Hi,

I have 2 machines comp01 and comp02. Both are visible in the network. One has Ubuntu Linux 64bit, other has WinXP 64bit.

I am trying to render using these machines, but get some problems.

1) mantra -H comp01 (renders OK)
2) mantra -H comp02 (renders OK)
but when I try to use both machines I get an error:
3) mantra -H comp01, comp02 (Error)
In console I get:
mantra: Could not open imager
Error: Failed to create file “null: : Permission denied”.

What can it be?

Sorry

I've just made another test.
Default Smoke Fluids Container (divisions 30x30x30) with a sphere as a source in it.

It takes 6 seconds to simulate 100 frames in Maya 2008.

And exactly the same scene in Houdini takes 40 seconds to simulate 100 frames.

So sad that I want to cry !!!!!

Hello

Maybe I don't understand something, or maybe doing something wrong.
But it seems to me that Houdini fluids are much slower than Maya fluids.

Fluid Container 30x30x30 with a smoke emitting from a simple sphere in Maya simulates in realtime 25fps, but in Houdini exactly the same Fluid container simulates 4-5 times longer.

Maybe someone can explain me why it is so, or what I am doing wrong.

I am a fan of Houdini, but this low speed became a big problem for me when I needed to create a realistic look fire with smoke.

Thanks a lot!

And what about some tutorials about Rendering in Houdini with PRman? Does anybody know few links?

Hi!

Maybe the question is stupid, but I can't understand how to turn on raytracing in Prman in houdini 9. Please, help. In Maya it was very easy, just turned on the checkbox on OK, in Mantra it was easy too. But in Prman I can't understand what I need to do to turn on Raytracing.

P.S. lots of people speak about great Houdini and RenderMan friendship. But I couldn't find any tutorials about rendering with RenderMan in Houdini. It seems that it is so use that there is no need to write about it. Maybe somebody knows any links? Please, post.