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Technical Discussion » IK solver trouble
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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Nobody? I can't get anything useful out the FBIK nor out of the solveik inside the rig vop to solve a multi joint ik chain. Is it impossible or do I need to use some node before the solver to achieve this simple task?
Technical Discussion » IK solver trouble
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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P.S.: The "solve ik" seems to come up with totally strange joint orientations after solving, while "fb ik" doesn't seems to respect the joint orientation for its solve. In my case the legs, though in a perfect plane with correctly set transforms, end up with several twists, so it's not in a plane anymore.
Technical Discussion » IK solver trouble
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Hi,
I try to bend my head around the kinefx ik solvers. I'd be glad if the "ik chains" would solve more than a regular leg or arm, since I have more than just an elbow joint. But it doesn't. So there's either the "solve ik" in the rig vop left and the "fb ik".
Unfortunately the solve ik doesn't seem to respect my initial transforms and comes up with something which looks like a curve solver. Up vector present.
While the fb ik behaves like I would expect the ik solvers to behave in general, the up vector is missing.
Bit unpleasant situation.
Put the three possibilities into the attached file.
Is there anybody who found an solution for this problem? How can I tweak the "solve ik" that it respects the neutral joint positions/rotations and is there a way to have an up vector for "fb ik"?
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: As soon as I select a kinefx node, in 25%-50% of all cases I run into python callback errors. They simply don't go away.
I try to bend my head around the kinefx ik solvers. I'd be glad if the "ik chains" would solve more than a regular leg or arm, since I have more than just an elbow joint. But it doesn't. So there's either the "solve ik" in the rig vop left and the "fb ik".
Unfortunately the solve ik doesn't seem to respect my initial transforms and comes up with something which looks like a curve solver. Up vector present.
While the fb ik behaves like I would expect the ik solvers to behave in general, the up vector is missing.
Bit unpleasant situation.
Put the three possibilities into the attached file.
Is there anybody who found an solution for this problem? How can I tweak the "solve ik" that it respects the neutral joint positions/rotations and is there a way to have an up vector for "fb ik"?
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: As soon as I select a kinefx node, in 25%-50% of all cases I run into python callback errors. They simply don't go away.
Technical Discussion » KineFx IK joint stiffness
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Thanks for the clarification. Any chance to add multi joint support for the regular ik chain solver? Would make things probably easier.
Thanks very much for your help!
Thanks very much for your help!
Technical Discussion » KineFx IK joint stiffness
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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Technical Discussion » KineFx IK joint stiffness
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Thanks for the tip!
Currently try it, but so far without success. My IK chain is made up out of 6 joints. Right now I have the impression that the KineFX IK solver puts all the deformation in the UP joint. All other joints seems to be stiff. Is there something wrong with my set up or is the solver not able to distribute the rotation along all joints?
Cheers
Tom
Currently try it, but so far without success. My IK chain is made up out of 6 joints. Right now I have the impression that the KineFX IK solver puts all the deformation in the UP joint. All other joints seems to be stiff. Is there something wrong with my set up or is the solver not able to distribute the rotation along all joints?
Cheers
Tom
Technical Discussion » KineFx IK joint stiffness
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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Is there a way to alter the stiffness of ik joints so that the movement is delegated to certain joints of the IK chain, while others remain stiffer. Is there an attribute for this purpose? Especially for IK chains which a longer than a regular leg.
Cheers
Tom
Cheers
Tom
Technical Discussion » Don't upgrade to NVIDIA driver 496.x- roll back if you did
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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chrism
This has been sorted on our side in Houdini and was later addressed in the latest nvidia drivers. It should no longer be an issue.
Houdini 19.0.498 with 511.65 Studio drivers.
Network view doesn't update when placing new nodes. Need to exit the current node and go back in to see it placed. The issue seems to be still there.
Unfortunately it didn't work to download the old driver. Got stuck in some email advertising stuff without getting through to the download link on the nvidia site.
Cheers
Tom
Technical Discussion » Point snapping not working correctly
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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Going a bit crazy here.
The skeleton node doesn't work in the "tweak mode" correctly with point snapping. I'm sure I tried all possible settings in point snapping and in the skeleton node. What ever I do, it just snaps in screen space with kind of a "random" depth. So it's not only in screen space. But it never snaps to the actual point in 3d space.
Also tried to disable depth snapping and snap first in the RIGHT and then the FRONT viewport. But it still offsets the skeleton points somehow.
This is bloody frustrating. Guessi it's easier to just use some lines as input for the skeleton node than use the node itself for creating a rig.
Did anybody encounter a similar behaviour?
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: Can it be just the transpose tool, which malfunctions? I believe I did have similar problems like that before when an initial placement snapped correctly, but the modifications didn't anymore.
The skeleton node doesn't work in the "tweak mode" correctly with point snapping. I'm sure I tried all possible settings in point snapping and in the skeleton node. What ever I do, it just snaps in screen space with kind of a "random" depth. So it's not only in screen space. But it never snaps to the actual point in 3d space.
Also tried to disable depth snapping and snap first in the RIGHT and then the FRONT viewport. But it still offsets the skeleton points somehow.
This is bloody frustrating. Guessi it's easier to just use some lines as input for the skeleton node than use the node itself for creating a rig.
Did anybody encounter a similar behaviour?
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: Can it be just the transpose tool, which malfunctions? I believe I did have similar problems like that before when an initial placement snapped correctly, but the modifications didn't anymore.
Houdini Engine for Unreal » "No valid Houdini Engine session"
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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Found a video on this subject. Do I need to install an additional license for the engine though I got an indie license?
Houdini Engine for Unreal » "No valid Houdini Engine session"
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
What's going on? Even google doesn't come up with results on this subject.
Assets just don't cook.
There's no error message, but the Houdini icon remains there. Only "Show cook logs" reveals this error. UE 4.26.2 with Houdini Indie 18.5.633. I didn't install anything apart from the Houdini installer which I ordered to install the plugin for Unreal.
Do I need to check for former Engine installs (1.0) or do anything additional? 1.0 just worked flawlessly. : (
Cheers
Tom
Assets just don't cook.
There's no error message, but the Houdini icon remains there. Only "Show cook logs" reveals this error. UE 4.26.2 with Houdini Indie 18.5.633. I didn't install anything apart from the Houdini installer which I ordered to install the plugin for Unreal.
Do I need to check for former Engine installs (1.0) or do anything additional? 1.0 just worked flawlessly. : (
Cheers
Tom
PDG/TOPs » Top geometry inside of a sop network woes
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
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Hi there,
I'm struggling a bit with getting started with pdgs.
In my pipeline I need to run single prims through a for each loop with an hda inside. While the task takes "only" 1-2 seconds, the amount of polygons 100 - 10000 will make it a really horrible thing to wait for.
Since compiling it with a complie block doesn't work and I want to get in touch with pdgs I try to use the top geometry node to make use of all the processors available.
Unfortunately it doesn't turn out to be straight forward. Most of the times I get cook errors, and when it works it takes even longer and the cores don't seem to be under workload.
So, if somebody can shed some light I'd be really glad. Right now I don't need to wedge anything. The prims carry all the info I need for the hda. In my example I just rotate the prims to keep it simple.
I guess it's one of the four nodes which lacks some data or isn't configured correctly. "Top geo", "geoimport", "hdapro" or the "localschduler".
If somebody could either explain or correct the hip file, I'd be really glad.
Please replace my hda with a quick test one of yours in case it doesn't work.
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: I need to include the top into my sop network.
I'm struggling a bit with getting started with pdgs.
In my pipeline I need to run single prims through a for each loop with an hda inside. While the task takes "only" 1-2 seconds, the amount of polygons 100 - 10000 will make it a really horrible thing to wait for.
Since compiling it with a complie block doesn't work and I want to get in touch with pdgs I try to use the top geometry node to make use of all the processors available.
Unfortunately it doesn't turn out to be straight forward. Most of the times I get cook errors, and when it works it takes even longer and the cores don't seem to be under workload.
So, if somebody can shed some light I'd be really glad. Right now I don't need to wedge anything. The prims carry all the info I need for the hda. In my example I just rotate the prims to keep it simple.
I guess it's one of the four nodes which lacks some data or isn't configured correctly. "Top geo", "geoimport", "hdapro" or the "localschduler".
If somebody could either explain or correct the hip file, I'd be really glad.
Please replace my hda with a quick test one of yours in case it doesn't work.
Cheers
Tom
P.S.: I need to include the top into my sop network.
Technical Discussion » Add or edit digital asset parameters via Python?
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Got it solved.
On HDA the syntax needs to be different. No idea where in the docs this is mentioned.
READING: rig.type().definition().parmTemplateGroup(params)
WRITING: rig.type().definition().setParmTemplateGroup(params)
Inbetween everything should be like in the regular parmTemplate workflow. Just type().definition() makes the whole difference.
On HDA the syntax needs to be different. No idea where in the docs this is mentioned.
READING: rig.type().definition().parmTemplateGroup(params)
WRITING: rig.type().definition().setParmTemplateGroup(params)
Inbetween everything should be like in the regular parmTemplate workflow. Just type().definition() makes the whole difference.
Technical Discussion » Add or edit digital asset parameters via Python?
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Michael,
unfortunately _I can't get this to work on an HDA if I want to replace/alter a parmTemplate. In my case I clone the chosen parm template, alter its menu_names and menu_labels, and try to use
parmGroup.replace(currentParm, clonedParm)
rig.setParmTemplateGRoup(parmGroup)
Unfortunately this doesn't change anything. No error message, but the values stay the same.
Any idea how to do this? Since I need to change a lot of entries, doing this manually isn't a real option. Manually I would “enter” the node via the “type properties”. Is that the reason why replace fails? Or is my syntax wrong in a way?
Cheers
Tom
unfortunately _I can't get this to work on an HDA if I want to replace/alter a parmTemplate. In my case I clone the chosen parm template, alter its menu_names and menu_labels, and try to use
parmGroup.replace(currentParm, clonedParm)
rig.setParmTemplateGRoup(parmGroup)
Unfortunately this doesn't change anything. No error message, but the values stay the same.
Any idea how to do this? Since I need to change a lot of entries, doing this manually isn't a real option. Manually I would “enter” the node via the “type properties”. Is that the reason why replace fails? Or is my syntax wrong in a way?
Cheers
Tom
Houdini Engine for Unreal » Import open world roads in UE4
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Hi there,
trying to bend my head around this for a few days now.
Since I'm creating my terrain and roads (using pathfinding and manual approaches) in Houdini, I wonder how to create/import these roads inside UE4.
I've seen a lot the videos on road creation inside UE4 using splines. The basic seems to be to pathinstance and pathdeform small chunks of road. Very memory friendly. But in all cases the splines were created inside UE4. With an open world which might change during the developments every day, this seems to be a very destructive workflow.
Since I already created my road inside of Houdini (as a nurbs curve, primitive curve or as geometry), what do I do with it to finally create it inside of UE4?
Importing the geo seems like a no go, since in an open world this mesh might be really heavy, although it would be easy to create the geo inside Houdini giving me full control over most parameters. Would UE4 slice this mesh in a memory friendly way, so that it can handle it?
I couldn't find anything yet on importing spline components via an assett, to create the streets with a blueprint. I imaginge since UE4 uses instances for these roads which are bend along the spline, that this might be a good approach, but how would it work practically?
Most of the videos covering this subject show the creation of a small racetracks or something similar. A no brainer in terms of performance, since the geo can be easily imported. But in an openworld with 20km of road this seems to be not the right option, or?
If you have any experience on this subject, I'd be glad if you could share it.
Cheers
Tom
trying to bend my head around this for a few days now.
Since I'm creating my terrain and roads (using pathfinding and manual approaches) in Houdini, I wonder how to create/import these roads inside UE4.
I've seen a lot the videos on road creation inside UE4 using splines. The basic seems to be to pathinstance and pathdeform small chunks of road. Very memory friendly. But in all cases the splines were created inside UE4. With an open world which might change during the developments every day, this seems to be a very destructive workflow.
Since I already created my road inside of Houdini (as a nurbs curve, primitive curve or as geometry), what do I do with it to finally create it inside of UE4?
Importing the geo seems like a no go, since in an open world this mesh might be really heavy, although it would be easy to create the geo inside Houdini giving me full control over most parameters. Would UE4 slice this mesh in a memory friendly way, so that it can handle it?
I couldn't find anything yet on importing spline components via an assett, to create the streets with a blueprint. I imaginge since UE4 uses instances for these roads which are bend along the spline, that this might be a good approach, but how would it work practically?
Most of the videos covering this subject show the creation of a small racetracks or something similar. A no brainer in terms of performance, since the geo can be easily imported. But in an openworld with 20km of road this seems to be not the right option, or?
If you have any experience on this subject, I'd be glad if you could share it.
Cheers
Tom
Technical Discussion » Digital asset category in tab menu
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Technical Discussion » Digital asset category in tab menu
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Houdini Engine for Unreal » Animated Instances
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Wished the staff would have answered this post. Having the same problem and CAN'T find ANYTHING on the web. I just need to rotate the instances of the packed geo for cogwheels. The same here. In Houdini everything works great. but no way to rotate something in Unreal. It's 2020. Sigh…
Houdini Engine for Unreal » Instance rotation > Aaaaaaaarghhhhh....
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
Starting to get a depression.
What seemed to be the most simple task turns into a headache.
I instanced cogwheels in my asset which turn nicely. Different sizes, different rpms depending on their teeth/diameter.
Animates brilliantly in Houdini. Since the cogwheels are instances I thought they would turn nicely in UE4, too.
NOPE. I guess it's about that the asset just cooks once and then is “stached” by UE4. No more “Hey, do you have updates concerning the rotation of your cogwheels? I'd like to spin them. If you want to.” questions between the engine and unreal.
It's 2020 and turning objects inside a 3d app isn't anymore state of the art, but I guess unreal makes an exception.
How can I spin a lot of cogwheels in UE4? Just by setting an individually angle on each instance. No collisions or so required. Everything gets calculated by time and diameter. That's all.
If a blueprint is the only way to go, how then do I access the instances in my asset and update their rotations or even positions? Technically? Is there something like “get all instances by name” function which creates an array I could loop over and update values? Looked up the web for half a day without success.
If you have an idea how to do that, I'd be really happy to hear about it.
Cheers
Tom
What seemed to be the most simple task turns into a headache.
I instanced cogwheels in my asset which turn nicely. Different sizes, different rpms depending on their teeth/diameter.
Animates brilliantly in Houdini. Since the cogwheels are instances I thought they would turn nicely in UE4, too.
NOPE. I guess it's about that the asset just cooks once and then is “stached” by UE4. No more “Hey, do you have updates concerning the rotation of your cogwheels? I'd like to spin them. If you want to.” questions between the engine and unreal.
It's 2020 and turning objects inside a 3d app isn't anymore state of the art, but I guess unreal makes an exception.
How can I spin a lot of cogwheels in UE4? Just by setting an individually angle on each instance. No collisions or so required. Everything gets calculated by time and diameter. That's all.
If a blueprint is the only way to go, how then do I access the instances in my asset and update their rotations or even positions? Technically? Is there something like “get all instances by name” function which creates an array I could loop over and update values? Looked up the web for half a day without success.
If you have an idea how to do that, I'd be really happy to hear about it.
Cheers
Tom
Technical Discussion » Slight shelf/python problem.
- Tom Mangold
- 96 posts
- Offline
While this works I still can't call the script by it's very own def name.
on the shelf will finally work BUT it lacks the reload so far.
This seems to be a bit more complicated. So inbetween the lines of code above I add three lines, giving me that:
Well, if there's a more elegant way, I might stumple across it sometime. At least it seems to work now for me.
PYthon is such a great way to push Houdini soooo much further, but the syntax hell is something which needs to be endured…
from tm_rigging import tm_addRig() tm_addRig()
on the shelf will finally work BUT it lacks the reload so far.
This seems to be a bit more complicated. So inbetween the lines of code above I add three lines, giving me that:
from tm_rigging import tm_addRig() import sys reload(sys.modules['tm_rigging']) from tm_rigging import tm_addRig() tm_addRig()
Well, if there's a more elegant way, I might stumple across it sometime. At least it seems to work now for me.
PYthon is such a great way to push Houdini soooo much further, but the syntax hell is something which needs to be endured…
Edited by Tom Mangold - April 27, 2020 10:55:25
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