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Houdini for Realtime » Vertex Animation Textures ROP 2.0 Released
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Hey all, I was having issues getting the soft body VAT solution to work between Houdini 18.0.391 and UE4.22, but updating to the latest SideFX Labs Toolset v501 fixed me right up! Thanks for all the detail in this thread to point me in the right direction…
Houdini for Realtime » Maya -> Houdini -> UE4 units
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Gang,
I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but just wanted a sanity check. I'm currently creating some content for UE4 so I'm modeling in Maya (cm) to make it easier to stay in synch with UE4 (cm). I've started feeding some of these models through Houdini for some simulations, and I've tweaked Houdini's units to also be in (cm) which appears to be working fine… HOWEVER, as I've started exporting these new assets from H to UE4 through the GameDev Tools it seems I'm running into some auto-magic behavior that assumes (m) to (cm)… At least that's how it appears.
Which brings me to my question: Is it better for me to adjust incoming geometry into Houdini to be in (m) to avoid headaches when feeding assets to UE4? I'm thinking this is probably the way to go, which is not the end of the world by any means… But please let me know how y'all feel about it.
cheers!
–GY
I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but just wanted a sanity check. I'm currently creating some content for UE4 so I'm modeling in Maya (cm) to make it easier to stay in synch with UE4 (cm). I've started feeding some of these models through Houdini for some simulations, and I've tweaked Houdini's units to also be in (cm) which appears to be working fine… HOWEVER, as I've started exporting these new assets from H to UE4 through the GameDev Tools it seems I'm running into some auto-magic behavior that assumes (m) to (cm)… At least that's how it appears.
Which brings me to my question: Is it better for me to adjust incoming geometry into Houdini to be in (m) to avoid headaches when feeding assets to UE4? I'm thinking this is probably the way to go, which is not the end of the world by any means… But please let me know how y'all feel about it.
cheers!
–GY
Houdini for Realtime » Generating motion vectors from existing flipbook?
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Thanks for the response Mike! I was just watching Mark's video describing some of this process:
https://vimeo.com/242373845 [vimeo.com]
Definitely cool, but it's a deeper rabbit hole than I'd like to dive into at the moment… I'll explore other options and come back to this when I have more time.
cheers!
–GY
https://vimeo.com/242373845 [vimeo.com]
Definitely cool, but it's a deeper rabbit hole than I'd like to dive into at the moment… I'll explore other options and come back to this when I have more time.
cheers!
–GY
Houdini for Realtime » Generating motion vectors from existing flipbook?
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Gang,
There are a variety of options to do this outside Houdini, but I was wondering if there was an easy way to use an existing flipbook (such as an 8x8 animation of smoke) as input into Houdini and be able to generate motion vectors. The idea would then be to use those motion vectors along with the flipbook to get smoother playback in the game engine.
I know I can use tools such as Slate or Nuke to crank out these motion vectors, but I'm hoping I can use Houdini.
Thanks for any pointers!
–GY
There are a variety of options to do this outside Houdini, but I was wondering if there was an easy way to use an existing flipbook (such as an 8x8 animation of smoke) as input into Houdini and be able to generate motion vectors. The idea would then be to use those motion vectors along with the flipbook to get smoother playback in the game engine.
I know I can use tools such as Slate or Nuke to crank out these motion vectors, but I'm hoping I can use Houdini.
Thanks for any pointers!
–GY
Technical Discussion » How do I setup network-distributed IPR in H11?
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Bless you for being so thorough in your explanation Jeff, instead of just telling me to get my head out of my butt! I simply swapped the real names of the hosts on this post out of my own paranoia.
At first, the error messages I received mentioned they could not connect to the remove hserver. So I then started the hserver on each of the machines, and the errors then changed to the ones I included above. When I include my own host as either the explicit name or localhost it works, but I seem to be missing a piece for the remote hosts…
I've been pointed to the following docs on Odforce:
http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/MantraRemoteRendering [odforce.net]
So when I'm back at work on Monday I'll try to add some logging to see if I can better identify what's going on… Thanks again for the help Jeff!
At first, the error messages I received mentioned they could not connect to the remove hserver. So I then started the hserver on each of the machines, and the errors then changed to the ones I included above. When I include my own host as either the explicit name or localhost it works, but I seem to be missing a piece for the remote hosts…
I've been pointed to the following docs on Odforce:
http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/MantraRemoteRendering [odforce.net]
So when I'm back at work on Monday I'll try to add some logging to see if I can better identify what's going on… Thanks again for the help Jeff!
Technical Discussion » How do I setup network-distributed IPR in H11?
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Thanks so much for the pointers, I think I'm very close:
mantra: Host host1: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host2: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host3: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host4: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host5: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: No remote hosts are available for rendering
I'll go through the page you sent me in more detail and turn on logging, I'm sure I'm doing something silly…
cheers!
mantra: Host host1: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host2: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host3: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host4: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: Host host5: invalid version detected 0.0.0 (not 9.0.0)
mantra: No remote hosts are available for rendering
I'll go through the page you sent me in more detail and turn on logging, I'm sure I'm doing something silly…
cheers!
Technical Discussion » How do I setup network-distributed IPR in H11?
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Gang,
I recently started using IPR for some of my PBR renders in H11 and found it quite useful! I have a special ROP that I use with lower quality settings and it's certainly good enough as a preview…
But I just read in the H11 release notes that there's support for network-distributed IPR and I'd love to know more about how to set that up. I did a few searches but I haven't uncovered any details. Do you have any pointers for setting this up?
cheers!
I recently started using IPR for some of my PBR renders in H11 and found it quite useful! I have a special ROP that I use with lower quality settings and it's certainly good enough as a preview…
But I just read in the H11 release notes that there's support for network-distributed IPR and I'd love to know more about how to set that up. I did a few searches but I haven't uncovered any details. Do you have any pointers for setting this up?
cheers!
Houdini Lounge » Alguien De Colombia?
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Que mas Alejandro, todo bien?
Aqui le mando un saludo desde Los Angeles, yo vengo de Armenia, Quindio y trabajo en DreamWorks Animation. Hay varios Colombianos trabajando conmigo. Yo he usado Houdini para iluminacion en varios trabajos pero no tanto para FX, lo cual es muy ironico! Pero definitivamente es una aplicacion genial, lo cual ya sabes me imagino…
estamos charlando,
Aqui le mando un saludo desde Los Angeles, yo vengo de Armenia, Quindio y trabajo en DreamWorks Animation. Hay varios Colombianos trabajando conmigo. Yo he usado Houdini para iluminacion en varios trabajos pero no tanto para FX, lo cual es muy ironico! Pero definitivamente es una aplicacion genial, lo cual ya sabes me imagino…
estamos charlando,
Technical Discussion » Houdini to Maya and back again
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Hey Antoine,
I know this is an oldie, but this new technology looks exciting:
http://www.alembic.io/ [alembic.io]
Definitely keep an eye on it…
I know this is an oldie, but this new technology looks exciting:
http://www.alembic.io/ [alembic.io]
Definitely keep an eye on it…
Technical Discussion » Surface Baking
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Just to get you going it seems that checking the “backface removal” toggle on your object node appears to work:
sphere_object1/Render/Geometry/Backface Removal
I'm not convinced it should be necessary to do this, so I'd like to keep looking into this…
sphere_object1/Render/Geometry/Backface Removal
I'm not convinced it should be necessary to do this, so I'd like to keep looking into this…
Houdini Lounge » User Variables
- gyepes
- 28 posts
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Hey Jeff,
I've been trying to set things up in such a way that I can have the convenience of accessing houdini variables by $NAME in string parameters for things such as $JOB, $SEQ, $SCN, etc…
So I've been relying on my 123.cmd / 456.cmd files using the ‘setenv’ command to set Houdini variables based on values in my Unix environment. No probs there really…
Based on your response to circusmonkey, would I be correct in stating that a larger facility setup would then be using a call to os.environ and circumventing H's custom variables?
I've been trying to set things up in such a way that I can have the convenience of accessing houdini variables by $NAME in string parameters for things such as $JOB, $SEQ, $SCN, etc…
So I've been relying on my 123.cmd / 456.cmd files using the ‘setenv’ command to set Houdini variables based on values in my Unix environment. No probs there really…
Based on your response to circusmonkey, would I be correct in stating that a larger facility setup would then be using a call to os.environ and circumventing H's custom variables?
Houdini Lounge » Some simple PBR renders...
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
That makes a ton of sense, thanks so much for the tips! I'll definitely have a play with straight up PBR…
Houdini Lounge » Some simple PBR renders...
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Hey, nice! From the grain in the second image it appears that you're using micropoly PBR, any reasons for that?
Yes you're totally right, I used micropoly PBR, but there really was no real reason for that. It's hard to see from the stills, but all my tests were motionblurred and I was under the impression the mblur would be less grainy under micropoly pbr. But I have yet to confirm that through more tests…
Are you consistently using PBR over micropoly PBR Abdelkareem?
Houdini Lounge » Some simple PBR renders...
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Gang,
Nothing earth-shattering here, but I did a bit of playing around with PBR in H9.5 I created a very simple scene using a mapped dome, a mapped ground plane, and a motorcycle. I assigned built in shaders from the material palette to different parts of the motorcycle and added a single area light above the motorcycle. Very basic and quick and dirty…
I ran 3 sets of tests, a vanilla raytraced Mantra test (nonPBR) to use for comparison. Then a lo-quality PBR render with very few samples, and then a hi-quality PBR render with loads more samples:
Observations:
- The PbrLo renders were lighting fast, and even though grainy as hell, it was very indicative of the results we would get with the higher quality renders – so it is very feasible to do lo-quality iterations during the day and then run hi-quality overnight with few surprises (tsk, tsk).
- I was pretty pleased with the amount of richness I got out of the PBR renders with the bounce illum from the ground onto the motorcycle as well as the color bleed from the motorcycle onto the ground
- The render times for the PbrHi renders were around 1.5-3hrs a frame, but I have admit I was expecting worse render times. Memory usage was not prohibitive – so I need to investigate perhaps leveraging more from RAM/caching to reduce render times…
- I had a nice hack ready to place geometry around my area light for reflections, but area lights illuminate/reflect realistically which is such a nice bonus…
I'll continue running a few more tests and reporting back if anyone is interested… Also keen to bring H9.7 into the mix since that has some pbr optimizations…
more to come!
Nothing earth-shattering here, but I did a bit of playing around with PBR in H9.5 I created a very simple scene using a mapped dome, a mapped ground plane, and a motorcycle. I assigned built in shaders from the material palette to different parts of the motorcycle and added a single area light above the motorcycle. Very basic and quick and dirty…
I ran 3 sets of tests, a vanilla raytraced Mantra test (nonPBR) to use for comparison. Then a lo-quality PBR render with very few samples, and then a hi-quality PBR render with loads more samples:
Observations:
- The PbrLo renders were lighting fast, and even though grainy as hell, it was very indicative of the results we would get with the higher quality renders – so it is very feasible to do lo-quality iterations during the day and then run hi-quality overnight with few surprises (tsk, tsk).
- I was pretty pleased with the amount of richness I got out of the PBR renders with the bounce illum from the ground onto the motorcycle as well as the color bleed from the motorcycle onto the ground
- The render times for the PbrHi renders were around 1.5-3hrs a frame, but I have admit I was expecting worse render times. Memory usage was not prohibitive – so I need to investigate perhaps leveraging more from RAM/caching to reduce render times…
- I had a nice hack ready to place geometry around my area light for reflections, but area lights illuminate/reflect realistically which is such a nice bonus…
I'll continue running a few more tests and reporting back if anyone is interested… Also keen to bring H9.7 into the mix since that has some pbr optimizations…
more to come!
Technical Discussion » Surface Baking
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Hey John,
I used this technique a few years back and it worked awesome for baking out some GI passes, but I tried it again and ran into the same issues you're having…
Turns out the problem is caused by the surface shader which at some point runs a call to frontface(), which is not desirable for a UV render. Simple solution is just to use a material from the Material Palette, like Plastic or Basic Surface and assign that to your object. Then dive into the vopnet of that material (then shader) and find the Lambert VOP, you'll see an option called “ensure faces point forward”, uncheck that. Then you're set!
It sounds like a bit of a hack, but once you know the issue it shouldn't be much of a pain… I've modified your .hip file to work and I'm attaching a sample render.
hope this helps!
I used this technique a few years back and it worked awesome for baking out some GI passes, but I tried it again and ran into the same issues you're having…
Turns out the problem is caused by the surface shader which at some point runs a call to frontface(), which is not desirable for a UV render. Simple solution is just to use a material from the Material Palette, like Plastic or Basic Surface and assign that to your object. Then dive into the vopnet of that material (then shader) and find the Lambert VOP, you'll see an option called “ensure faces point forward”, uncheck that. Then you're set!
It sounds like a bit of a hack, but once you know the issue it shouldn't be much of a pain… I've modified your .hip file to work and I'm attaching a sample render.
hope this helps!
Technical Discussion » Houdini to Maya and back again
- gyepes
- 28 posts
- Offline
Hey Antoine,
I've been dealing with the exact same issue. I am currently using sequences of OBJs but I would definitely like to move onto a better transport format. TweakFilms and DNeg use GTO as their geometry format between packages from what I hear:
http://www.tweakfilms.com/main/twk3_gto.html [tweakfilms.com]
I know of others like Juck @ TheMonk who are looking into PointOven, but I'm not sure if that supports Houdini out of the box:
http://www.ef9.com/ef9/PO1.5/PointOven_15.html [ef9.com]
We may be looking into moving to a GTO based format ourselves at some point in the future, the idea would be to use that for geometry import/export between XSI, Maya and Houdini… I'll keep you posted if we made some headway.
I've been dealing with the exact same issue. I am currently using sequences of OBJs but I would definitely like to move onto a better transport format. TweakFilms and DNeg use GTO as their geometry format between packages from what I hear:
http://www.tweakfilms.com/main/twk3_gto.html [tweakfilms.com]
I know of others like Juck @ TheMonk who are looking into PointOven, but I'm not sure if that supports Houdini out of the box:
http://www.ef9.com/ef9/PO1.5/PointOven_15.html [ef9.com]
We may be looking into moving to a GTO based format ourselves at some point in the future, the idea would be to use that for geometry import/export between XSI, Maya and Houdini… I'll keep you posted if we made some headway.
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