The lensflare shader worked only with the old mantra3 and not with the newer mantra that uses VEX shaders. Since the old renderer is now removed from Houdini, there is no lensflare shader available any more.
Please see:
http://www.odforce.net/codex/shaders.php?type=atmosphere [odforce.net]
for an example of a lens flare shader.
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Technical Discussion » Where has the lensflare gone?
- old_school
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Technical Discussion » hostname on RH7.3
- old_school
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su
<password>
vi /etc/hosts
Then edit the file:
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain
199..299.12 malabar.foobar.com malabar
etc…
Why does linux use that crappy default… :? The very first thing I change after a fresh install of linux.
<password>
vi /etc/hosts
Then edit the file:
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain
199..299.12 malabar.foobar.com malabar
etc…
Why does linux use that crappy default… :? The very first thing I change after a fresh install of linux.
Technical Discussion » normalmap
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Trivial.
Two simple ways:
1) mantra output driver deep raster and choose N for the Vex Variable and render. In Mplay, just choos N as the view and there you are.
2) in VOPs, just put down a render globals and wire N in to Cf, drag any of the vops on to your object, render, voila.
Two simple ways:
1) mantra output driver deep raster and choose N for the Vex Variable and render. In Mplay, just choos N as the view and there you are.
2) in VOPs, just put down a render globals and wire N in to Cf, drag any of the vops on to your object, render, voila.
Technical Discussion » Bevels
- old_school
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I assume that you are using a bevel profile to give your font a nice profile.
First of all, you have to use the extrude SOP if you are creating bevelled text.
Here are my steps for getting good bevelled text out of Houdini:
Font SOP to have a pretty high level of detail to begin with and leave as polygons. Turn OFF Hole Faces. The Extrude SOP does this for you anyway.
I assume that you have the Extrude SOP in place so press the “Initialize” button with the Fuse Points option set to “Clamp minimal set”.
Next append a resample SOP after the Font SOP. In the resample SOP parms, turn on Resample by polygon edge then reduce the Length parameter for Maximum Segment Length to a small value while you preview the output from the Extrude SOP. With default values for both the font SOP and extrude SOP after the Initialize, I have a value of 0.01 for the Length for the Helvetica Bold font.
Now if you have a custom Type 1 or TrueType font, you may have to tweak or remove some points on the curves after the Font SOP. I have found that any curves that meet at a point sometimes have 10's or 100's of points in those areas. Have to get rid of them. The Resample SOP does a pretty good job but only if the initial point distribution is decent. You can also try a fit SOP to rebuild the curves instead of removing some of the points.
A few years back I cleaned up a nasty font for a customer. The person who created the font (typographer is used loosely in this case) must have been on crack for there was 100's of bezier segments per letter. That reminds me, in the font SOP, you can see the bezier curves by turning on that option, clean up the beziers, then convert to polys before you extrude.
First of all, you have to use the extrude SOP if you are creating bevelled text.
Here are my steps for getting good bevelled text out of Houdini:
Font SOP to have a pretty high level of detail to begin with and leave as polygons. Turn OFF Hole Faces. The Extrude SOP does this for you anyway.
I assume that you have the Extrude SOP in place so press the “Initialize” button with the Fuse Points option set to “Clamp minimal set”.
Next append a resample SOP after the Font SOP. In the resample SOP parms, turn on Resample by polygon edge then reduce the Length parameter for Maximum Segment Length to a small value while you preview the output from the Extrude SOP. With default values for both the font SOP and extrude SOP after the Initialize, I have a value of 0.01 for the Length for the Helvetica Bold font.
Now if you have a custom Type 1 or TrueType font, you may have to tweak or remove some points on the curves after the Font SOP. I have found that any curves that meet at a point sometimes have 10's or 100's of points in those areas. Have to get rid of them. The Resample SOP does a pretty good job but only if the initial point distribution is decent. You can also try a fit SOP to rebuild the curves instead of removing some of the points.
A few years back I cleaned up a nasty font for a customer. The person who created the font (typographer is used loosely in this case) must have been on crack for there was 100's of bezier segments per letter. That reminds me, in the font SOP, you can see the bezier curves by turning on that option, clean up the beziers, then convert to polys before you extrude.
Technical Discussion » Surface normals question
- old_school
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I am not too familiar with that specific technique of creating the pins but normals pointing away from the camera will certainly shade the grid darker where you would expect it to be lighter and visa versa.
Sometimes normals are hyjacked to do some specialized task. Normals are handy to use because you can visualize them in the viewport directly. After you use the normals to the work, you can always put a point SOP at the end to either remove the point normals or rebuild them with a facet SOP.
With the layer SOP you can add any number of Normal layers.
Sometimes normals are hyjacked to do some specialized task. Normals are handy to use because you can visualize them in the viewport directly. After you use the normals to the work, you can always put a point SOP at the end to either remove the point normals or rebuild them with a facet SOP.
With the layer SOP you can add any number of Normal layers.
Houdini Lounge » render problem with houdini 6!!!help!
- old_school
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It sounds like it. You can turn on the verbose level of Renderman to see what is happening. To do this just use:
render -time
See the renderman user guide about command line options to put in the render command to get more specific verbose output. I bet there is a problem with one of the topics I mentioned before.
Linux and Windows both tend to crash when you use up all physical memory and swap. You could increase the swap on your system if you do find that it is a memory issue.
Some tools to monitor memory useage are:
Linux:
top
system useage toolbar application
Windows:
Task Manager (RightMouseButton hold in the bottom toolbar in the windows desktop and select Task Manager)
If this is windows NT, then there is no console so getting this output can be difficult. If you have cygwin installed on Windows and you also installed X in the cygwin installer, you can startx in a cygwin shell and test it out there. Works great for me on WinXP to debug unix tools that error out to the console.
render -time
See the renderman user guide about command line options to put in the render command to get more specific verbose output. I bet there is a problem with one of the topics I mentioned before.
Linux and Windows both tend to crash when you use up all physical memory and swap. You could increase the swap on your system if you do find that it is a memory issue.
Some tools to monitor memory useage are:
Linux:
top
system useage toolbar application
Windows:
Task Manager (RightMouseButton hold in the bottom toolbar in the windows desktop and select Task Manager)
If this is windows NT, then there is no console so getting this output can be difficult. If you have cygwin installed on Windows and you also installed X in the cygwin installer, you can startx in a cygwin shell and test it out there. Works great for me on WinXP to debug unix tools that error out to the console.
Houdini Lounge » houdini demo CD? anyone?
- old_school
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If there are one or two hip files that just don't load and you are interested in the content, I am sure I can find a way to get them to work. I built and maintained almost all the files for many years. Some I even ported over from PRISMS. Goes to show you how time-honored and essential some of these techniques are to aspiring Houdini'ites. 8)
-jeff
-jeff
Houdini Lounge » apprentice challenge /avi resolution
- old_school
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I see absolutely no problem in you submitting your final work in a letterbox format. You are the director of your piece and if you feel this is the way you want to present it, then by all means do so. Given the right work, it can enhance the final presentation.
The resolution is obviously fixed by apprentice.
-jeff
The resolution is obviously fixed by apprentice.
-jeff
Technical Discussion » OTL creation: disabling parameters
- old_school
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There is also a good tutorial on creating a custom object in the houdini help browser.
Technical Discussion » OTL creation: disabling parameters
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The disable field uses a different syntax that goes like this:
You have a parameter called “type” that is a choice with different options from 0 to 5. To disable a parm based on the value of “type” when it is 0 or 3, put this in to your parm's Disable field:
{type 0} {type 3}
Now when “type” is set to option 0 or 3, that parameter will be disabled in the UI.
Dragging and dropping a node in the parameter field of the Type Properties dialog does not currently inherit the disable behaviour.
You have a parameter called “type” that is a choice with different options from 0 to 5. To disable a parm based on the value of “type” when it is 0 or 3, put this in to your parm's Disable field:
{type 0} {type 3}
Now when “type” is set to option 0 or 3, that parameter will be disabled in the UI.
Dragging and dropping a node in the parameter field of the Type Properties dialog does not currently inherit the disable behaviour.
Technical Discussion » licence problem
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Technical Discussion » Node Layout RFE
- old_school
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I will use shift-L to lay out selected parts of my network then readjust the nodes as a block. I have also started to use snapping in my networks and like it. I set the snap grid fairly fine and move the nodes to snap. I use this especially in VOP and COP networks. The horizontal wiring seems to be more critical to layout niceness to me.
There has been some work on the “l” layout code in H5 but there is always room for improvement.
There has been some work on the “l” layout code in H5 but there is always room for improvement.
Houdini Lounge » Question about Poly modelling in Houdini
- old_school
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Everyone would be able to use it, once they installed the custom compiled SOP in a dso/ directory in the HOUDINI_PATH (or if you have set HOUDINI_DSO_PATH but not likely) like $HOME/houdini/dso.
For every major release of houdini, the author needs to compile the custom SOP in order for it to work with that version of the software. If you ran both Houdini5.5 and Houdini6.0, you would need two different versions of the dso. This is one of the reasons why we have a release specific $HOME/houdini5 and $HOME/houdini6 directory.
This is unlike custom VEX tools or OTL's which should be release independent barring any significant change in the tools embedded in your custom operators.
For every major release of houdini, the author needs to compile the custom SOP in order for it to work with that version of the software. If you ran both Houdini5.5 and Houdini6.0, you would need two different versions of the dso. This is one of the reasons why we have a release specific $HOME/houdini5 and $HOME/houdini6 directory.
This is unlike custom VEX tools or OTL's which should be release independent barring any significant change in the tools embedded in your custom operators.
Technical Discussion » light linking?
- old_school
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To expand on Steven's answer, you can create some object groups for your different sets of lights (select lights to group then hit shift-G, then hit “x” key to turn on group list with your cursor in the network).
Now you can use @light_group_name as the list of lights to use. The “@” means group.
As for learning houdini, there are some videos around the web. There are also some nice tutorials. The best way is to get your basic skills up with Houdini then get a job with a shop that uses Houdini. Nothing like learning from an existing user. There is also Side Effects support but you need to purchase some Houdini software to tap in to that. There once was an entire Demo directory that shipped with houdini with many examples of specific operators but no longer ships with houdini due to maintenance issues and the large number of hip files.
There is also this forum.
Mainly Houdini is used in mid to large size facilities mainly in the SFX side of things. It is also used as a pipeline solution. It is also used in broadcast shops but mainly Feature Film production is where Houdini is used. Excluding ILM, Houdini is actually used quite a bit on Feature Films in LA and the UK plus elsewhere in the world where Feature Films need SFX stuff.
Now you can use @light_group_name as the list of lights to use. The “@” means group.
As for learning houdini, there are some videos around the web. There are also some nice tutorials. The best way is to get your basic skills up with Houdini then get a job with a shop that uses Houdini. Nothing like learning from an existing user. There is also Side Effects support but you need to purchase some Houdini software to tap in to that. There once was an entire Demo directory that shipped with houdini with many examples of specific operators but no longer ships with houdini due to maintenance issues and the large number of hip files.
There is also this forum.
Mainly Houdini is used in mid to large size facilities mainly in the SFX side of things. It is also used as a pipeline solution. It is also used in broadcast shops but mainly Feature Film production is where Houdini is used. Excluding ILM, Houdini is actually used quite a bit on Feature Films in LA and the UK plus elsewhere in the world where Feature Films need SFX stuff.
Houdini Lounge » Version Splitting and latest Drop
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All good points.
H6.1 will eventually go in to beta. If you are familiar with SESI and our release cycles, there are no surprises when H6.1 will most likely start to be made available. :wink:
As for the semi-regular drops, it is usualy predicated on demand for fixes. There are some bugs fixed in the later builds of H6.0 so perhaps very soon.
Notifying “Latest Drop” on the Web Site is a good idea. I guess it could be in the Announcement section of the Side Effects Forum. At least that forum would see a bit of traffic then. I will see what can be done here.
H6.1 will eventually go in to beta. If you are familiar with SESI and our release cycles, there are no surprises when H6.1 will most likely start to be made available. :wink:
As for the semi-regular drops, it is usualy predicated on demand for fixes. There are some bugs fixed in the later builds of H6.0 so perhaps very soon.
Notifying “Latest Drop” on the Web Site is a good idea. I guess it could be in the Announcement section of the Side Effects Forum. At least that forum would see a bit of traffic then. I will see what can be done here.
Houdini Lounge » Question about Poly modelling in Houdini
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To do the equivallent of the MJ Poly Tools you would need the HDK as there are no methods to dice up geometry with any of the scripting and programming tools that ship with Houdini.
The HDK (Houdini's Developer Kit) must be purchased. It is the actual soruce tree that was used to build houdini so is quite powerful. There is no API (Advanced Programmers Interface) to bridge the gap that ships with houdini like Max and Maya.
We are aware of this toolkit and see it's benefits.
The HDK (Houdini's Developer Kit) must be purchased. It is the actual soruce tree that was used to build houdini so is quite powerful. There is no API (Advanced Programmers Interface) to bridge the gap that ships with houdini like Max and Maya.
We are aware of this toolkit and see it's benefits.
Houdini Lounge » what directory: MeasurerStarter.hip
- old_school
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Houdini Lounge » OP examples?
- old_school
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Yep.
They are pretty old-school. Old and tarnished. Needs much polishing. Not much appreciated these days. :cry:
Just email the user list and see if someone has an old CD that they can give you. The best vintage is the Houdini 4.0 and 4.1 release as this was the last complete incarnation of the demos and was a separate CD that was a directly readable file system. No installation to go through.
-jeff
They are pretty old-school. Old and tarnished. Needs much polishing. Not much appreciated these days. :cry:
Just email the user list and see if someone has an old CD that they can give you. The best vintage is the Houdini 4.0 and 4.1 release as this was the last complete incarnation of the demos and was a separate CD that was a directly readable file system. No installation to go through.
-jeff
Houdini Lounge » Setting near/far clipping and Variable within Houdini
- old_school
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Yes, when you do File > New, you get nothing. I like having a camera and a few lights in the scene so I don't use File > New. I would rather close houdini and open a new session.
Like all applications, running a continuous Houdini session will slowly accumulate memory as the arena size grows. Best to start fresh once and a while.
Like all applications, running a continuous Houdini session will slowly accumulate memory as the arena size grows. Best to start fresh once and a while.
Houdini Lounge » render problem with houdini 6!!!help!
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There isn't much to go on here.
If your computer is freezing or locking you out, chances are you are running out of memory.
Things that can cause this:
- eyesplits problem. If the geometry is very close to the camera, then you will have trouble with PRMan. I don't know how you are bringing the camera values over ( ro the scene for that matter). Maya's camera settings are in inches and houdini is in millimeters. Getting this wrong can be fatal in that the geometry can get too small in the scene and reyes hates that consuming huge amounts of memory. Reyes is not the best as a macro lens renderer.
- setting Shading Quality incorrectly. In Houdini, the shading quality is the inverse of the setting in the rib. A value of 2 is very high, 1.25 is high, 1 is the default 0.2 is very fast.
- incorreclty setting the displace bounds too high in the object(s)
How are you applying the shaders to the geometry?
Are you using instancing? Rib Archaives? Procedural DSO's?
As I said, not much info to go on here.
If your computer is freezing or locking you out, chances are you are running out of memory.
Things that can cause this:
- eyesplits problem. If the geometry is very close to the camera, then you will have trouble with PRMan. I don't know how you are bringing the camera values over ( ro the scene for that matter). Maya's camera settings are in inches and houdini is in millimeters. Getting this wrong can be fatal in that the geometry can get too small in the scene and reyes hates that consuming huge amounts of memory. Reyes is not the best as a macro lens renderer.
- setting Shading Quality incorrectly. In Houdini, the shading quality is the inverse of the setting in the rib. A value of 2 is very high, 1.25 is high, 1 is the default 0.2 is very fast.
- incorreclty setting the displace bounds too high in the object(s)
How are you applying the shaders to the geometry?
Are you using instancing? Rib Archaives? Procedural DSO's?
As I said, not much info to go on here.
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