I have installed houdini 6.1 on both of my computer, and I make sure that
the hserver is runing.
When I use “mantra -h boyzzz,powerfox”(the “boyzzz and powerfox”are the hostname of my two computers) in the mantra command.but it didn't use netrender, only render on boyzzz!!!!

Hey all
I was wondering if anybody had problem with multimahine rendering.
I set up all network and invironment setings corectly but when I try to sen render houdini just hangs up.
I'm using HO 4.1
I read something about problem with Hserver on win 2000.
Could that be the case ore there something I'm doing wrong.

By the way how do you set up bach render ??
The only help I have is some c scripting on unix.
which I'm no to familiar.

Cheers

I am using the attractor POP to make particles form a hammer. This method is working fine until I have the hammer move, then the particles will no longer stay in the form of a hammer.

Here is a link to my animation:

http://studentpages.scad.edu/~lcampb22/particle_hammer.mov [studentpages.scad.edu]

At the very end, the particles are supposed to explode. It is when the hammer starts to tip over that the particles start to lose the form of the hammer. I want the form of the hammer to stay in tact.

What has been tried to fix the problem is upping the attractor strength, but that caused the particles to go crazy.

Any ideas?

-vrljc

I have been working on a file where I have been getting frequent crashes with “Fatal Error: Segmentation Fault” popping up. Any thoughts? Or is this error pretty much representative of many possible errors?

I have noticed that there is something that has to do with SHOP and VOP viewer. When I move the preview sphere around I get a crash within 10 to 15 seconds. I am not sure if it is my display setup, because I have a bunch of other 3D apps that run without any issues.

I am running version 6, Windows XP pro, Nvidia Quadro 750, 2 gig of RAM, dual xeon 2.4

Appreciate any assistance.

thanks

I try to use vex_glass shader and it worked just fine up to the time that I want to render transparent shadows with it. I did a bit of research in VEX and I found out that in order to make refraction the opacity is set internaly to 1. Now can someone please tell me how can I use it along with texture filter shadows. I try to put another paremeter for the opacity and turn it down but now the glass obj, looks washed out.

many thx

Hi all.
I'm trying to make a ‘fog sea’ with particles, i need to fill a great enviroment . Now i have an average of 80.000 particles in scene per frame.
I found some troubbles.
1-Can houdini make perform parallel in a dual box when cookin a POP net??
By default it can't, i think this would be very important to save time.
2-If i am in POP it needs to cook, then i go to SOP to change the shader, and at least i go to OBJ to see the final scene, in every step houdini needs to recook all the particles, even if i use CHANGES in the cook options, i don't understand why too many recooks.
3-If i am dealing with a large scene in what way can i optimize the workflow?
Baking particles with a Geometry ROP is one option, but if you are changing the animation of the particles this method doesn?Lt work. The cache option kills your memory for large heavy scenes. Any other options????

Thanks

I have a desktop which I use in only one project. One of the panes
in this desktop is set to show ebedded browser which in turn has an PDF document loaded in to it. The question is, how can I force this PDF to be loaded every time I switch to this desktop? Currently, it shows the home page.
Another question, is it possible to somehow use Houdini Variables in
the embedded browser so I don't have to type in Cblah,blah,blah
every time. Sometimes the “blah” part gets very long!

Dear Sir :
Ask A somple question a . I wish I will not bother you so much.
Does any shader in SHOP is similer with the dent texture in older version ?
I know I should create in VOP by myself .But you know I am not very good at in VOP .So does any shader in shop is similer with Dent ,I want to map in Geometry to look like fire .

Thank you very much .


Best Regards,

Winnie

If you have the Houdini displayList environment variable disabled to allow you to work with your Wildcat VP, the new drivers seem to fix this. The parameter tab update problem is still there, however.

The added plus is that the new driver also allows you to play with their OpenGL 2.0 demos! (Can't wait until I can use OpenGL 2.0 shaders in Houdini!)

Here is where you can get the driver:

http://www.3dlabs.com/support/drivers/wildcatvp_drivers.htm [3dlabs.com] (Version 3.01-0621)

By the way, this isn't their “Certified” driver.

Cheers,
Craig

I'm looking through the file $HD/OPspecific/CHOPs/MotionComp/motioncomp1.hip.

In the prepare chopnet all the fetch chops are referencing “ /none/obj1/none ” and obviously I'm getting errors all over the place. Can someone please explain this?

Thanks

I'm in some sort of a trouble understanding how parenting at the /obj level works. I have one null parented to another one. the translation attr. of child null are use to modify some points in another object (something like a cluster). Now, my problem is that when I move the parent null the child null moves with him but not the points from the other object. Maybe that it's solvable using channel reference between the parent and child but what about the case when I need to constrain the child null to another 2 nulls with a blend op. which channel from blend op needs to be referenced so that my child null will drive the points from the other object.
for ex. null1 and null2 goes into a blend op with weight 0.5 and the null3 is a child of blend op. now the null3 moves along with the blend but the points not ((((
plz. can someone explain to me how I can solve this out.

thx

Hi everybody.
I'm a little confused by the info in Shaders.pdf file concerning the
VEX directory structure. I suspect that the whole concept of creating and
storing of custom shaders and VEX operators has changed but the info on
how to do it the old way hasn't been removed from documents.
The thing is, I like doing it the old way! So, I created vex and shop directories (with all the rest of the
directories inside them) in $HOME/houdini6.1.
Created all the index files and pointed them ….. well there is nowhere to point
them to so now, as a resault, every time I start up Houdini, Console
comes up stating that the files to which index files point do not exist.
Anyway.
My question is… is there a way to go about this the way it used to be?

I'm trying to animate a car running down a track. I use path obj. for the car to move but now I have to turn wheels as well. The parameter orient along path keeps the vehicle tangent to the path. How can I use this to rotate my wheels along Y, or something else?

thx,
calin

I posted this over at 3dBuzz but thought I would like an answer from Sidefx or anyone who has an answer.

I had a file (a boat transformer) that I haven't worked on for about a month and tried to open it in version 6.1 and got a few errors on loading and part of my model was gone. So, it was suggested that I load it into the build that I initially worked in (which is 6.0). I decided to go back into the first build I had, 6.0.249, to make sure it would work half way decent. I still got some errors/warnings (different ones though) but I had some display flags off so I turned them on and saved and came back in and no errors/warnings and everything showed up. I know I have loaded a file with display flags off in the past with no problems!!!!! Another problem crept up though; I had grouped some primitives that had a transform appended to it for the animating, and the xform didn't recognize the group attached to it. I don't understand how this happened when it all worked long ago when I last worked on this. I had already started animating my boat and everything was working fine. Now I am going to have to really look at my file and fix things when I get back to it. I think this is a downfall of Houdini if you can't work on files made in an earlier build. What happens if you share your file with someone who has a later build? I can see if it was a totally new version (as version 5.5 is different than 6.0, I guess 6.0 is different than 6.1). Also, how can a file get ruined when it is just sitting minding its own business in your directory! I tried all my backup files in the 6.0.249 build with the same result. Maybe there is a problem with more than one build on your computer. Sorry for the rant but this is a major pain in the ??? in my view."

Now the continuation:

I took another look at my file and noticed that all my xforms that I had a group in front of, didn't work anymore. I will need to regroup everything (after I figure things out again; it's been awhile since I worked on this project) and re-align the transform sop etc. I am using the xform to animate the group and it doesn't anymore.

Does anyone have any idea what is happening here? If I finally get it working on my end, how will I know that it is going to work on Buzz's end after I hand my project in? After all, everything worked fine with it when I last worked on it (about a month ago) and now it doesn't. As I said, I get the same error on loadup with backup files I had on my other hard drive before the animating process. Could it be that there is a conflict with the different builds? I keep my files for version 6 in the same files directory (not version directory, I install the different builds in their own directories); I don't separate the files into different builds. Maybe I should separate them into different builds?????

Hi there,

I tried to use CHOP Mouse Record, I can move my obj with CHOP Mouse moving, but everytime when I play the time bar, turn on the ‘Scroll Lock’ and keyboard ‘1’, the obj won't be moved any more. anybody know what happen?

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards,
Pam

Lets see if we can not get some others to post their WIPs in here I always love to see other peoples work. Oh here is a link to my character modeling for my second character in my fight animation. I will model him up all the way during christmas break dont have time now with the current animation schedule. I am going to attempt a 30 second long fight animation.

http://odforce.net/forum/index.php?s=041996dd58d9bf656356c616deb92e07&act=ST&f=19&t=941&st=50 [odforce.net]

Cheers,
Nate Nesler

Hello there.

Im trying to put together an otl that will behave like a simple cluster. The problem Im running into is that at the object level I can only make otl's as subnetwork. This means that my capture region sop is under 2 levels of objects and when I create several as children of a null (like you do with bones) and apply that hierarchy to the deform sop on my mesh,the deform cant find the capture regions.
Basically what I need to make is something like the built-in bones. An object level with a direct 1st level sop network where I can place my capture region.

thanks a lot
RC

Hey All,

I was wondering if SideFX was going to make their Demo Reel from Siggraph 2003 downloadable. I would like it if they did because I have to give a presentation to the intro animation class on wednessday. I figure I will talk about houdini for about 2 hours. I have several animations to work with and houdini is very complex so … the time will fly no doubt.

Cheers,
Nate Nesler 8)

Hi!

The “Generic Image 3D” SHOP has only a single field, “Mantra”, and there's no help file (at least on Linux).

How does one use it ..?


–Mark

FYI:

–Mark

==============================================================================

Student Animation Competition & Exhibition
——————————————

The Graphics Research Group at Western Connectiocut State University is
sponsoring a student animation competition and exhibition. We welcome
student projects in the following categories: story-telling, character
animation, special effects, art or ambient animation, games, and commercial
or educational work. Entries should not exceed five minutes in length.
Selected work will be on exhibit at AniFest 04, April 27-29, 2004.

This juried competition provides an excellent opportunity for students
working with animation to exhibit their creative work. It is open to all
students currently attending colleges or universities in the Northeast (CT,
MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT). We encourage professors and teachers to have their
students enter this prestigious competition.

For more information, contact …

William J. Joel, Director
Graphics Research Group
Western Connecticut State University
181 White Street
Danbury, CT 06810
(203) 837-9353
joelw@wcsu.edu

or visit our website at …

http://cs.wcsu.edu/grg [cs.wcsu.edu]

==============================================================================

Faculty Work for AniFest 04 Animation Theater
———————————————

Faculty at all post-secondary institutions are ivited to submit their work
for possible inclusion in the faculty portion of the AniFest 04 Animation
Theater, April 27-29, 2004. This is an excellent oportunity for faculty to
exhibit their creative work. Animations in all areas are invited. Final
submissions, no longer than five minutes in length and sent via CD or DVD,
are due no later than February 28, 2004.

For more information, contact …

William J. Joel, Director
Graphics Research Group
Western Connecticut State University
181 White Street
Danbury, CT 06810
(203) 837-9353
joelw@wcsu.edu

or visit our website at …

http://cs.wcsu.edu/grg [cs.wcsu.edu]

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Cg-educators@lists.siggraph.org
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