Perfect, I hadn't realised I could already set the preference for templated geometry via the display options (which I go into at least 20 times in any lengthy session!). When you're aligning boolean cutters, it's useful to have the templated items fully or ghost shaded.

Thanks for that.

To start it must be said that the combination of the new Radial menu's, the improved Boolean tools and 3dConnexion device compatibility makes Houdini a far more pleasant place to do poly modelling, especially boolean based modelling, which is something I would normally avoid wherever possible in any other package. And I say this as a hardcore Modo SubD modelling artist, which has to most independent views, the best in class poly modelling toolset.

The first lesson I've learnt about Boolean modelling in Houdini 16 is that you have to completely unlearn many of the approaches you take when SubD modelling. As long as you keep this in mind, Boolean modelling in Houdini is fast and powerful.

However there are a few FR's I believe would improve the whole experience.

- Include a ‘Lock Horizon’ option for 3dConnexion devices. The tilt mechanism is something that can get in the way when poly modelling. Disabling it in the 3dConnexion preferences is insufficient as any rotations automatically includes a tilt which the artist is no longer able to counterbalance.

- Allow templated geometry to have full shading. It's difficult to gauge positioning of pre boolean geometry in the perspective view with wireframe templates. The constant need to move to an orthographic view becomes cumbersome.

- Provide a preference to set bespoke grid opacity levels. This is especially important in orthographic views where it's impossible to decipher template geometry against the grid. It might also be useful to draw wireframe geometry in orthographic views with a thicker line weight or better still make it a preference an artist can change according to need.

To add to what Matt said, the documentation is the same for all versions of Houdini. The reason it's not available in PDF format is that Houdini has such a rich, diverse feature set, any PDF doc would be many thousands of pages long.

The HTML docs also have hundreds of annotated example HIP files you can load into Houdini to study and the F1 help system will instantly take you to help pages for any parameter you're unsure of directly from the Houdini interface.

Matt's wiki resource at http://www.tokeru.com/cgwiki [tokeru.com] is a fantasic place to learn too.

Forgetting the OpenGL discussion Artye. The Accidental Tech podcast is a fave of mine and I had no idea that the transcript was available. I don't get much time for podcasts these days, and I've seriously cut back on the number of Apple related RSS feeds I subscribe too (too many fanboys not enough objective fans). But John, Marco and Casey can always be relied upon for an objective view.

Having a transcript is so much more useful to scan through for specific nitbits of interest (for me anyway).

And yeah OpenGL on OS X is as bad as it's ever been!

EDIT
My initial excitement got the better of me. It seems transcripts are only for certain occasions (probably when something is going to ‘print’). Oh well, headphones on train journeys it remains then…

If I remember rightly part 2 was never published. It's certainly not on the Vimeo archive if it did appear on the main SideFX site at some point.

I love Redshift in Houdini but Mantra and other CPU production renderers such as Arnold, V-Ray and RenderMan still have a place whilst VRAM is continues to be a limiting factor. The Out of Core support in Redshift almost negates any of it's speed advantages. That's how bad the slow downs are if your scenes need to go Out of Core.

The great thing that Redshift has shown is that you don't have to make concessions on final frame render quality because you wan to take advantage of GPU speed. They're the first GPU renderer that can make this claim. However they still have a long way to go with volume rendering, SSS, procedurals, OSL etc, etc. I'm glad the studios I work with have an open mind and use the most appropriate rendering technology for the brief rather than blindly picking GPU for speed or CPU for assumed increase in quality.

This is a compilation of the excellent series of PDF's put together by Jordi Bares (Creative Director of Glassworks in London) that was originally released as a transition guide for Softimage artists moving over to Houdini. It's a big download but well worth it as it really helps demystify the inner workings of Houdini for artists schooled in more traditional DCC's. The guide on rendering is particularly useful for getting speedy clean animatable frames out of Mantra.

Download here [d.pr]

I also recommend Redshift. It's still early days for the Redshift for Houdini integration but it's being developed at a rapid pace.

Love the new website but more than any design changes it's good to see lot's of fresh news content being updated on a regular basis. The disappointment is that the training videos which have been weaker and lacking in substance since H14 haven't seen any improvements . It's great that you're highlighting high quality community videos from the likes of Peter Quint but what ever happened to depth of curriculum you had with the Ari Danesh content. If you want new artists to start from new beginnings and not pick up on old Vop Sop and HScript bad habits, all of those videos need to be refreshed for H15.5/H16.

My other bugbear is that all the essential utility links are stuck in the footer area of the forum pages. The first action most regulars on the forum are likely to want to utilise will be:

Show recent posts
Show unanswered posts
Show your subscribed topics
Show new posts since last visit

The ‘Show Recent’ on the top right of the forum homepage is inadequate and for some reason usually gives far less results than “Show Recent Post's” in the footer.

If you want to have access to the old VOP SOP, type this in the textport:


opunhide Sop vopsop


Accessing the old VOP SOP in this manner is retained within the session. If a HIP is saved with a VOP SOP it will also still be available via TAB but in new sessions it will remain hidden unless you type the command again in the Textport. Obsolete nodes are never deleted from the system altogether (to ensure backwards compatibility) but they are hidden in general use.

I think the problem here is that SideFX have never updated their in depth training series (put together during H12.5 to H13 releases) for the new way of doing things. It's not just the VOP SOP that's problematic here, the majority of training materials (both free and paid) still uses HScript and this is also considered a defunct way of working.

I shared the director's cut over on the Modo private beta forums and everybody is in agreement that it's not only a great technical feat, it's the most joyous use of CG we've seen a long time.

Sometimes you see something and you're just humbled by the creativity on show. When this popped up on FXGuide over the weekend my jaw properly dropped to the ground.

Such a joyous use of procedural shenanigans.

Found out today that Redshift has their Houdini integration ready for public beta. Just in time for Houdini Indie 15.5

Tendril
Does the Maya Plugin support 2016 Extension 2 yet? If not, is there any ETA?

Thanks!

Autodesk screwed everyone with that unannounced change in the API. With Houdini 15.5 due out before the end of May it might be sensible to maintain an install of Extension 1 as Extension 2 compatibility probably isn't SideFX's biggest priority right now.

Marty/Kevin,

I agree with you both. Modo 901 was a horrific launch that took three service packs before it behaved as it should. But v10 is more stable than 902 SP3 - a v1 version effectively being more stable than the 6th generation of the previous release.

The Modo development team have moved to regular incremental releases so the hell of 901 (and in part 801) never happens again.

But Modo itself is pretty irrelevant in this conversation , however it's OpenGL capabilities, specifically the manner in which it functions on a wider variety of hardware configurations across OS X, Linux and Windows than Houdini (since H14) is relevant. I also mentioned Maya and C4D and the fact that they also play very well on a wider set of hardware configurations. The statement wasn't some kind of fanboy tribalism, just a statement reflecting conversations I've had with a wide set of studios and via my own testing. I don't engage in ‘my toy is bigger than your toy’ conversations, it's a futile pursuit.

Part of the reason that Modo functions on a wider variety of hardware systems is that it provides a range of OpenGL flavours so even if a users hardware can't run the new Advanced Viewport it can run less advanced viewports so all isn't lost. If I had to pick a benchmark viewport to emulate it would be Maya's Viewport 2.0. Even though it lacks the IBL/PBR splendour of Modo's AVP in 10.0 it manages far greater viewport frame rates.

It's a pity that Houdini can't perform at it's best across a range as platforms the way it did in the past (until H13). I acknowledge that much of the reason for these problems lie at the foot of Apple but that doesn't change the fact that the problems still exist. But snide remarks about other DCC's is really adding to the conversation either.

Thanks Jeff. You've just reassured me that me that my natural inclination towards instancing in many situations is sound.

I recently watched this myself as I was looking to see where ‘old school’ instancing sits in a world of packed primitives. Namely are there still advantages to using instancing over packed primitives? And the pleasant answer to my surprise was that instancing is still a great workflow for this type of shot. It's memory efficient, and there's less juggling involved with material assignments/variations.

So my question now is - do the engineers at SideFX see the old instancing system as a deprecated technology? If not what are the advantages of each approach in their ideal usage scenarios.

MartybNz
Yep, the preferences do have a large role to play - just had the tag visualises not displaying any text in the viewport, throwing out the preferences fixed it. Nvidia 980 Web drivers, Os X, H15.0.441

Standard practise these days isn't it.

Between daily builds of Houdini and having 2/3 beta builds of Modo being refreshed every week I've got in the habit of binning my preferences as a standard course of action.

Really doesn't bother me. I rather start on a clean footing; it can save a lot of trouble in the long run.

Modo and Maya require a minimum of GL 3.3 for their advanced viewport features, C4d still works with 2 if need be.

On the interface front Modo uses QT throughout much like Houdini and I believe Maya is pretty much QT based these days.

I understand it's impossible to compare the way that different DCC applications implement what appears on the surface to be similar technologies; and I'm sure you've done everything you can to get these frustrating OS X issues resolved.

twod
Trust me - if I can workaround or fix problems myself, I do. It's much better than leaving it up to Apple, who seems to have very little interest and/or manpower to do so.

I feel a little guilty now about my rant, it had been a long day.

My problem I that I have to I deal with studio's from outside of FX that have warmed to the possibilities of Houdini mainly because of HE for Unity and UE (traditional design visualisation shops). Many of these studios are still OS X centric and tend to eke out hardware investments in 3-5 year cycles. Therefore many of them have just the sort of hardware that has problems with Houdini (custom build i7 iMac's 2012-2014).

I totally get you're doing everything you can. It's just a bitter pill to swallow when Modo, Maya and C4D manage to find a workable solution to Apples shoddy GL drivers.

Let's just hope that the powers that be at Apple wake up to the fact that ‘pro users’ were half the reason that consumers wanted to buy Apple in the first place and return to providing decent pro solutions once again.

Sadly, I think we may be in for a long wait…

Thanks @mandrake0,

I'd be interested to read that post.

Marty, with all due respect. The issues are in no way similar. It's only the advanced viewport with all the settings turned up to 11 that causes problems for people (and then only with on certain GPU's). They still have a fully functioning default viewport to fall back on (and that default viewport is similar in features to Houdini's viewport).

And 20-30 FPS with HDR lighting, screen space reflections, AO and AA is actually a pretty decent frame rate for an old GPU.