Thanks a lot.
Very interesting use of Houdini for KillZone 2
Hum, at the end it looks like it doesn't make so many video game companies…
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Houdini Lounge » Houdini in the video game industry... ?
- werwack
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Houdini Lounge » Houdini in the video game industry... ?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Hello,
Houdini has incredible capabilities for film, simulation, architecture and maybe some other fields. I was wondering if it was also suitable for the video game industry.
By that I mean is it currently used by some video game companies? Do you know which ones, and for what?
I've heard Valve used it for water flow maps generation… Are they the only one?
Thank you
Houdini has incredible capabilities for film, simulation, architecture and maybe some other fields. I was wondering if it was also suitable for the video game industry.
By that I mean is it currently used by some video game companies? Do you know which ones, and for what?
I've heard Valve used it for water flow maps generation… Are they the only one?
Thank you
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Creating a node to switch between inputs
- werwack
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Thanks to both of you.
Indeed Switch does exactly what I was looking for.
I used wrong keywords when I looked into the doc, apparently, because this this one sounds obvious.
I'll try to dig a bit more, next time.
Best,
werwack
Indeed Switch does exactly what I was looking for.
I used wrong keywords when I looked into the doc, apparently, because this this one sounds obvious.
I'll try to dig a bit more, next time.
Best,
werwack
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Creating a node to switch between inputs
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Hello,
I would like to create a new node which would have multiple inputs and that would output only one of them according to the value of its parameter (a slider or a combo box).
This is to easily switch between a primitove object and its proxy or between several primitive objects (sphere, cube…) in a geometry network.
Should I use a Vex node?
It there an other way to do so than creating a new node?
Thank you very much,
Werwack
I would like to create a new node which would have multiple inputs and that would output only one of them according to the value of its parameter (a slider or a combo box).
This is to easily switch between a primitove object and its proxy or between several primitive objects (sphere, cube…) in a geometry network.
Should I use a Vex node?
It there an other way to do so than creating a new node?
Thank you very much,
Werwack
Houdini Lounge » Is mantra only for rendering balls and cubes?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Hi Rob,
Well, that's the results I also have… :?
I wish MPlay were faster to launch… :roll:
Well, that's the results I also have… :?
I wish MPlay were faster to launch… :roll:
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Cannot create a point group from pattern
- werwack
- 71 posts
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You build up expression patterns with conditionals.
This is confusing for me in the way that the Group SOP has a dropdown list allowing you to enter either a “pattern” or an “expression”.
I kind of understand the expressions so far.
The “pattern” seem to be, as I mentioned, a way to create a set of number, is that it?
You cannot put expression strings in it, is that it?
Thank you,
Werwack
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Cannot create a point group from pattern
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Thank you, that's also what I just discovered ops:
So the current thing is I don't understand exactly what is a pattern.
Is it just a string with numbers and a few special characters to make them interpreted as a range or a set of number?
So the current thing is I don't understand exactly what is a pattern.
Is it just a string with numbers and a few special characters to make them interpreted as a range or a set of number?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Cannot create a point group from pattern
- werwack
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Hello,
I created a line and then added a group SOP for the last point of the line.
To isolate this last point, I would like to use an expression like “put the point in the group if the point number plus one is the same as the total number of points in the line”.
I translated that as: $PT + 1 == $NPT
But this seems to select 2 points: 0 and 1, not the last one :cry:
What do I do wrong?
Beside how can I check the value of $NPT?
Thank you
I created a line and then added a group SOP for the last point of the line.
To isolate this last point, I would like to use an expression like “put the point in the group if the point number plus one is the same as the total number of points in the line”.
I translated that as: $PT + 1 == $NPT
But this seems to select 2 points: 0 and 1, not the last one :cry:
What do I do wrong?
Beside how can I check the value of $NPT?
Thank you
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering issue: Viewport content isn't what is rendered
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Jeff,
while talking about materials, I have a small question regarding the basic_liquid shader. It comes with fluid simulations and gives good visual results.
Regarding the alpha though, it is not transparent… :?
In the alpha channel of the rendered images the whole fluid is opaque. It should be partially transparent where the background is visible through it, isn't it?
Thank you
while talking about materials, I have a small question regarding the basic_liquid shader. It comes with fluid simulations and gives good visual results.
Regarding the alpha though, it is not transparent… :?
In the alpha channel of the rendered images the whole fluid is opaque. It should be partially transparent where the background is visible through it, isn't it?
Thank you
Houdini Lounge » Is mantra only for rendering balls and cubes?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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If you want, you could detach the pane and have a floating window of the Render View. So you can begin to see it's similar to Maya Smile
Rob, small question for you: I detached the Render View window and it did exactly what I want so I saved the desktop.
I closed this window because I didn't need it permanently opened. Hum, how can I call it back?
I don't find it listed anywhere and it doesn't show up when I reload the desktop.
Do I have to create a completely new Render View? Activate the settings and tear the pane off again? Every time?
Thx
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering issue: Viewport content isn't what is rendered
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Thanks a lot.
This scene is just a test I did to learn Houdini but it uses features, the material among others, I will use more extensively in the future.
3dsMax has the second approach and requires a mask to be put in the specular channel.
If this shader had to be modified, it would be nice if it had a checkbox allowing both behavior.
Regarding the background color at render time, thank you for your trick. It is quite heavy though: not only it requires the image to be modified every time we want to change color, which is quite often during the setup phase, but it has to be done every time you need it (I think there is a way to let those parameters permanently on the camera, isn't it?), and on every computer for people in production.
As everything is node-based in Houdini, it would be really great to have the ability to plug a “background image” node into the input of Mantra node. This new node will have the parameters you mentioned above but also a color field for solid background and another one to receive any kind of image from the compositing part.
This would be so useful. Beside every other 3d package has a color background feature, it is at the base of rendering. Is there a reason Houdini does not?
Regards,
Werwack
This scene is just a test I did to learn Houdini but it uses features, the material among others, I will use more extensively in the future.
It seems the default Decal Shader in H10 doesn't hook up the alpha channel from the Decal VOP… EmbarassedWhereas this seems to be a bug (will it be fixed in a next release?), I am not sure for the second one. Indeed there are cases were you want the specular to be visible only on the parts of the object where the diffuse is not 100% transparent (most of the cases), and sometimes, as for glass, you would like it to be visible on the whole object.
3dsMax has the second approach and requires a mask to be put in the specular channel.
If this shader had to be modified, it would be nice if it had a checkbox allowing both behavior.
Regarding the background color at render time, thank you for your trick. It is quite heavy though: not only it requires the image to be modified every time we want to change color, which is quite often during the setup phase, but it has to be done every time you need it (I think there is a way to let those parameters permanently on the camera, isn't it?), and on every computer for people in production.
As everything is node-based in Houdini, it would be really great to have the ability to plug a “background image” node into the input of Mantra node. This new node will have the parameters you mentioned above but also a color field for solid background and another one to receive any kind of image from the compositing part.
This would be so useful. Beside every other 3d package has a color background feature, it is at the base of rendering. Is there a reason Houdini does not?
Regards,
Werwack
Houdini Lounge » Is mantra only for rendering balls and cubes?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Did you know you can store renders in the Render View? (…)Well, no, I didn't. And thanks again for this tip.
In fact if I don't know that, and many other things I am sure, it is because for me there are some major weaknesses in the documentation regarding basic concepts and first steps for beginners. These tips are not mentionned either in the video tutorials I've seen so far because as good as they can be they cannot mention everything.
From a more global point of view, this is quite representative of the current way of learning Houdini (or at least how Side FX lets newcomers learn Houdini - this is not bad-mouthing, this is feedback): basic concepts are just outlined in the documentation and tutorials are given mixed in a big bag, with some general directions but not sorted. Basically you learn on the stack. It is the “you know because you faced the issue and someone told you” way, not because you've found the answer in the documentation or because the GUI is intuitive.
As a newcomer (I must admit I also have a GUI development background) I find some inconsistancies in the GUI of Houdini that don't make life easy when you don't know every tips.
Some of those tips sometimes make some advanced users be kind of proud of what they know and very protective about that and the way Houdini can be learn. This kind of community doesn't really exist with applications that are more accessible (although Houdini is quite technical, I would say that part of the accessibility comes from the content of the documentation).
So my current point of view is: Yes Houdini is a really great application, very powerful, but you have to know why you are learning it or you may give up from the very start. And I find it sad, somehow…
Houdini Lounge » Is mantra only for rendering balls and cubes?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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RMB in viewport of Render View … select Color Correction … you'll see choices at bottomNice
Thx
Houdini Lounge » Is mantra only for rendering balls and cubes?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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I'm still in awe that Houdini launches in ~1 second, compared to Max at ~20 seconds (3 minutes on my more abused Vista PC).True, 3dsMax takes ages to launch and it's getting worse every new release :?
… But this has nothing to do with the rendering, which launches fast and is really easy to tweak for tests and doesn't prevent advanced settings.
Adding a Max style render dialog to Houdini would be like adding stabilisers (training wheels!) to a TT bike.I don't agree. This will be called efficiency.
By the way, I would like to add a few things to my notes above:
- - We are many to prefer MPlay to the Render View because MPlay has these nice buttons allowing you to see every channels of the image independently.
- It would be very nice if MPlay also had the same combo box as the Render View has for choosing the render node and launching a new rendering.
- There is a big missing parameter in Houdini which is the ability to set the background color of the rendered scene. Jeff exposed me a trick to do so but it requires to create an new image for the background everytime you want to change it (which is quite often will setting up a scene, as you probably know).
This is a small feature that could be introduced very easily in the Mantra node parameters, everybody who comes from another 3d package miss it, every other 3d package of the market has it (of course it is at the very root of any rendering), it has been asked several times (see this thread for example: http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=14466&highlight=background+color+colour) [sidefx.com] and still it is put aside… I don't understand. Hope to see it one day…
…And please, you guys how know Houdini well and for a long time, keep being openminded. There are so many things to learn and to take inspiration from outside :wink:
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Converting a mesh object to a wireframe
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Thank you for your answers.
Jeff, I tried your suggestion of using an End SOP before sending this thread. Indeed I found an example file were you used it in the thread named HyperNURBS. It didn't work at the time, very likely because my object was a mesh and not a polygon. The use of a Convert SOP mentionned by Jenny solved that and gives me exactly what I was looking for.
The description of the End node in the documentation is a bit confusing to me because parameters are based on U and V information. I guess these are topological U and V and not mapping coordinates, is that it? Are they refering to a coordinate system relative to the whole object or to each polygon of the object?
With Carve I get a wireframe only with a polygon mesh, not a mesh.
If I introduce a Convert node, are results from Carve and End the same? ie do I get curves in both cases?
Thank you also Jenny for mentioning PolyWire. It is not giving the result I want but is quite interesting.
I will continue my experimentation
Jeff, I tried your suggestion of using an End SOP before sending this thread. Indeed I found an example file were you used it in the thread named HyperNURBS. It didn't work at the time, very likely because my object was a mesh and not a polygon. The use of a Convert SOP mentionned by Jenny solved that and gives me exactly what I was looking for.
The description of the End node in the documentation is a bit confusing to me because parameters are based on U and V information. I guess these are topological U and V and not mapping coordinates, is that it? Are they refering to a coordinate system relative to the whole object or to each polygon of the object?
With Carve I get a wireframe only with a polygon mesh, not a mesh.
If I introduce a Convert node, are results from Carve and End the same? ie do I get curves in both cases?
Thank you also Jenny for mentioning PolyWire. It is not giving the result I want but is quite interesting.
I will continue my experimentation
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Converting a mesh object to a wireframe
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Hello,
I would like to convert a mesh object (in my case it is currently a sphere with a type Mesh) to a wireframe. This would be to apply a Polywire SOP to give thickness to every edges.
In other words I would like to remove all the faces and keep only the points and edges of the sphere.
How can I do that? I tried to delete selected faces but it din't work.
Thank you
I would like to convert a mesh object (in my case it is currently a sphere with a type Mesh) to a wireframe. This would be to apply a Polywire SOP to give thickness to every edges.
In other words I would like to remove all the faces and keep only the points and edges of the sphere.
How can I do that? I tried to delete selected faces but it din't work.
Thank you
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering issue: Viewport content isn't what is rendered
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Great, thanks!!
Indeed I didn't know the particles were also visible in my Roots object. The MMB is of a great help for that!
The alpha transparency of the texture, which is clearly visible in the viewport, doesn't seem taken in account in the rendering. Is there something to activate?
Also can you tell me how th change to background color for the rendered image?
Indeed I didn't know the particles were also visible in my Roots object. The MMB is of a great help for that!
The alpha transparency of the texture, which is clearly visible in the viewport, doesn't seem taken in account in the rendering. Is there something to activate?
Also can you tell me how th change to background color for the rendered image?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering issue: Viewport content isn't what is rendered
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Thank you for your answer. Hum, I don't see what you get, has it been removed?
This is what I would like to have (see attachment).
This is what I would like to have (see attachment).
Houdini Lounge » Is mantra only for rendering balls and cubes?
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Hi,
I appologize for bringing back this quite old and “hot” topic, but I really think there is a point here.
I am currently learning Houdini, which I find amazing, and, as every new software, it takes time, we have a lot of prejudices coming from the other applications we know (I work with 3dsmax for more than 10 years now and have some practical expereince with Softimage XSI and Maya), and it is easy to get frustrated when something doesn't work as we would like and we don't know why.
Although Houdini has quite a good documentation in a day to day reference use, we really miss some information about the general concepts, the philosophy and about some technical stuff here and there… And I must say Mantra is among them.
The feeling we have when coming from other application is indeed that Matra is quite slow. To me this is due to:
I appologize for bringing back this quite old and “hot” topic, but I really think there is a point here.
I am currently learning Houdini, which I find amazing, and, as every new software, it takes time, we have a lot of prejudices coming from the other applications we know (I work with 3dsmax for more than 10 years now and have some practical expereince with Softimage XSI and Maya), and it is easy to get frustrated when something doesn't work as we would like and we don't know why.
Although Houdini has quite a good documentation in a day to day reference use, we really miss some information about the general concepts, the philosophy and about some technical stuff here and there… And I must say Mantra is among them.
The feeling we have when coming from other application is indeed that Matra is quite slow. To me this is due to:
- - the fact that when we start we usually prefer using the MPlay to receive the rendered images rather than the Render View (it is quite useful to be able to compare a result with previous one, in a floating window, and this approach is similar to Maya), and MPlay takes a few seconds to open when we launch a rendering (by the way it would be very nice if it could open right away, it would avoid us to wonder everytime if the rendering has really been launched or not)
- and the fact that the default settings of the Mantra node are probably more suitable for an average complex scene than just the few spheres we usually create to do tests.
I have also been told several times that Mantra is a good renderer and I am sure it is true. The thing is I am not a rendering TD and don't want to spend hours in learning it perfectly just to be able to render spheres.
It goes better for me though since I found this tutorial from Peter Quint named Basics: Mantra :
http://vimeo.com/7612064 [vimeo.com]
For me it is just a matter of putting to the front the right parameters.
Mental Ray has also been quite difficult to use in 3dsMax because nobody knew how to correctly adjust the settings neither wanted to know the documentation by heart.
Since version 2009 they did a great job in providing a user friendly GUI that you always have uder the hand when doing renderings.
And belive me, that helps a lot!! It is know really easy and natural to use, very fast to tweak and at the end makes you save a huge amont of time.
Below is a screenshot of what the renderer window looks like in 3dsMax 2011.
So my request to the Houdini team would be: Please, take inspiration from this approach, take this point as a serious one regarding the general rendering steps and do something to make our life easier. It will provide efficiency for everybody
Thank you a lot for your understanding and your support,
Best,
Werwack
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Rendering issue: Viewport content isn't what is rendered
- werwack
- 71 posts
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Hello,
I have a problem with the attached scene: I would like to render scene as seen in the viewport, with the mesh and its material, but it keeps rendering the partticles.
I should be wrong somewhere in the particles settings but I really don't see where.
Thanks a lot,
Werwack
I have a problem with the attached scene: I would like to render scene as seen in the viewport, with the mesh and its material, but it keeps rendering the partticles.
I should be wrong somewhere in the particles settings but I really don't see where.
Thanks a lot,
Werwack
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