Hi,

Just to be sure I did not overlooked something, could someone confirm there is currently still no programmatic access to the Houdini main Menu Bar (either from Python or HScript ) and that we can only use the XML definitions for now ?

Thanks,
Guy.

Hi.

I know Clarisse is not well known yet, but a Houdini Engine for Clarisse would be awesome. Please considere it.

Cheers,
Guy.

SYmek
I've read you work on about 20PC for 3d. Are they Linux or Win based?

Dual boot.

SYmek
Are you developing your own tools for exchanging asserts or want to rely on standards?

Own tools.

SYmek
What kind of work is to be reserved for Houdini?

Nothing is “reserved” for Houdini, however Particles is one of the obvious areas where Houdini will certainly be our “prefered” tool, as well as for dynamic and simulation, and procedural work in general.

Another important area for us, is 2D/3D integration. In XSI, you can't talk about the FXTree “integration” inside the 3D environment. We have yet to explore COPs but from what I've seen so far and how it is “integrated”, this seems to be exactly what I was expecting for.

SYmek
../.. where was the origin of houdini's decision? ../..

Mostly for two reasons:

- A technical one, while I still think XSI has a great architecture and workflow, it is still to closed, you feel that you are ‘allowed’ to access only parts ‘they’ want you to access, and this is very frustrating because ‘behind’ what you can access there is a great potential for development - I'm speaking from SDK development point of view here. I wont go into more details, in short features are added to please some demands, not to complete a ‘subsystem’ as a all and make it work smoothly with the rest of the application. Some ‘subsystems’ are filled with ‘holes’, and you don't have enough access through the SDK to fill those ‘holes’. That said, the SDK in itself is one of the best SDK I've seen so far, it is really great, and if you can't access something it is generaly not a SDK design issue, but more a choice at a higher level. And that is the second reason:

- A political one, Softimage attitude is more and more surprising. Despite the fact there are great software engineers there - I know some of them personaly, they love their work, work hard and are brillants - I still don't get the road taken by the Softimage management team. I wont go into more details either here, I'll just said that the road taken by Softimage appears to diverge from what I expected at first.

That said, XSI is still our main platform, the workflow is still unbeated by other applications, it allows us to work very fast, but we can't afford to hit walls anymore, and the fact that we barely can anticipate features develoment anymore leads us to considere Houdini as our ‘Plan B’ in some cases, and as our main weapon in areas where XSI is clearly inefficient.

SYmek
Are there many post-houses with Houdini on board in France?

To my knowledge, only 2 vfx companies have Houdini licence(s) here in France:

- Buf Companie ( http://www.buf.fr [buf.fr] ) - but is not using it, afaik they got it for a job involving sharing datas with some other vfx companies using Houdini and needed to exchange datas.

- LaMaison ( http://www.alamaison.fr [alamaison.fr] ) - we are currently setting up a XSI <-> Houdini pipeline and will use it in production asap.

Hi Sylvain,

you can contact Alain Jouan from AE SARL who is the exclusive Houdini reseller in France. He can organize courses and formations.

http://www.edansla.com/afterproducts/contactus.php [edansla.com]

Hope this helps.

Ok,

it seems that no view is found from the viewls command from the 123.cmd script file at startup time, no view may have been created yet.

The workaround I've found is to use the 456.cmd script filie for this, as it is executed after scene load ( or new scene at startup ).

This way it works and the viewport(s) can be correctly setted to the wanted camera(s).

I guess the viewcamera script portion of the default 123.cmd script file is useless and should be moved to a 456.cmd script file.

Hi,

it seems that the viewcamera command has no effect from the defaultscene.cmd script sourced by 123.cmd.

Either from the native defaultscene.cmd from the HFS location or from HSITE or HOME.

The exact same command(s) work(s) fine in Texport once Houdini launched.

Could it be a Windows specific issue ? ( I have yet to test it on Linux ).

I've tested it on v8.0.474, v8.0.564 and v8.1.613.

Exemple of command I'm issuing:

viewcamera -c /obj/cam_PAL_D1 Build.pane1.world.persp1

cam_PAL_D1 is created earlier in the script.

Also the native script portion ( starting by: set views = `run('viewls -n -t “world”')` ../.. ) doesn't work either.

Any idea ? Is it known to not work ?

Indeed, I can deal with preferences files.

However I was looking after a more interactive way to be able to quickly change preferences ‘states’ without having to quit/restart or go in the settings and manualy do the changes.

May be there is a way to force houdini to ‘reload’ and take into account modified preferences files while it is running ?

Hi,

are the settings available in ‘Settings->Main Preferences…’ editable with hscript ?

I can't find a command for this, but I surely miss something.

Ok, sorry, this environment variable is only understood by iplay.

I just have to use the hscript command instead:
fps 25

That's said I guess houdini shouldn't complain about the FPS environment variable if it is understood by hconfig/iplay.

Hi,

listing all the environment variables understood by houdini from ‘hconfig -a’, I've discovered the ‘FPS’ one.

However, trying to set it - with 25 - from a command file ( in a 456.cmd on our HSITE ) I get the following error in the Textport once houdini launched:

MHoudini/houdini7.0/scripts/456.cmd (32): Invalid variable name (FPS)

And houdini is still setted on 30 fps.

Any idea ?

And now it works.

Thanks a lot.

Can it be a security reason if hcommand works well while telnet doesnt ?

( I'm on w2k btw, I didn't tested it on linux yet, and I've deactivated the firewall )

I mean, if it was a security problem, hcommand wouldn't work as well, right ?

Another thing wich makes me wonder:

If I openport 23 - intentionaly opening the standard telnet port - I can hcommand on this port and it works well, but if I telnet on 23 I get the telnet server, as usual, like if there was no conflict. It doesn't bother houdini to openport on 23 while a telnet server is on. (!?)

I've tried opening ports like 10080, 12345, etc.. same result.
hcommand allways work, telnet never work.

Can someone confirm that, on his side, he can actualy telnet houdini on windows ?

If it's just a windows problem its ok, as we are switching to linux soon, but I'm just wondering.

Hi,

is the telnet abilty to remote Houdini on an openport supposed to work ?

hcommand works perfectly well on an openport, but telnet is not, on my side.

Is there something special to do ?

The ALT+ doesnt work from the Textport, unfortunately ( at least here )

Nevermind, I ended up switching to a US QWERTY keyboard.

Thanks anyway for your help.

Hey Rick!

Thanks :-)

Well, I had the feeling that sooner or later, it would be inevitable..

Cheers,

Guy.

Indeed. My mistake.

Thanks a lot.

ps: any french user arround ? It seems ALT+7 (`) doesn't work in the Textport from a french keyboard

Hi,

I'm trying to setup a script wich create some op and I have to get the result op name in case of duplicatas.

Following the scripting documentation I should be able to do something like this:

set sCam = ‘run(“opadd -v cam MyCam”)’
echo $sCam

and get the name of the newly created op.

However, doing this in the Textport, I get as echo the name of the command - and actualy, the command is not executed:

run(“opadd -v cam MyCam”)

What should I do to have this command executed and retrieve at the same time the actual name of the created op ?

Thanks in advance for any help.