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Technical Discussion » Identifying the active input in a switch with many inputs
- element33
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I have a switch SOP with a whole bunch of inputs. The input index is defined procedurally, by an expression. I can see the index, but how can I quickly identify the currently active input node? Right now, in the parameters dialog for the Switch SOP, I use the index to count down the list, to find the name of the active SOP, but it's tedious. Is there some "Identify currently active node" function that would do this for me?
Technical Discussion » Auto-save files in a cache node
- element33
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Thanks, I got it to work. Why was this removed from the new filecache? It's very useful.
Technical Discussion » Auto-save files in a cache node
- element33
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Thanks. I switched to the old filecache (without the ::2.0 suffix), but what are the settings that would do it? Under Advanced Tab->Load->Missing Frame, the only options are "No Geometry" or "Report Error", there's no "Save" option. I tried checking/unchecking "Load from Disk", I switched the File Mode to Automatic/Read/Write. But I always have to push a button to actually save a missing frame: either the "Save to Disk" button or the "Reload Geometry" button. Can filecache save geo automatically, if a frame is missing?
Technical Discussion » Auto-save files in a cache node
- element33
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Among the caching nodes in Houdini (Filecache, Labs Filecache) is there one that can be set to "Load from disk" for any frame, but it will also auto-create/save a file if there isn't one for the given frame (without human intervention)?
Edited by element33 - Oct. 5, 2022 14:38:50
Technical Discussion » Remove "diagonal" edges (triangles to quads)
- element33
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Is there a SOP trick that would remove the "diagonal" edges from triangle-divided quads in a poly object? I.e. in the pic below, I have what's on the left and I want what's on the right. I don't want to actually quadrangulate, nor do I care if some quads will become convex, I just want to remove the "diagonal" edges. I could write a point wrangle to loop through outgoing edges and test angles, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel, if it exists.
Edited by element33 - Aug. 25, 2022 14:39:36
Technical Discussion » Real-time object outline in the viewport
- element33
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Thanks, it worked. Interestingly, if I also multiply the inverted outlineNormal, I get the outline of the whole object.
Edited by element33 - Aug. 25, 2022 11:53:29
Technical Discussion » Real-time object outline in the viewport
- element33
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Thanks. The issue wasn't the camera path but the lack of normals (I'm importing an .obj). I got something now. The outline is sensitive to the v@N multiplier (0.001 in your case) and the resample dist (as the resample is done on the tiny pancake near camera). I can't do a proper Boolean cleanup, my model is too dense, Houdini locks up. I'll try a workaround. In the case of the triangular building, I don't think I should see the outlines behind it ("through it")?
Edited by element33 - Aug. 25, 2022 10:36:31
Technical Discussion » Real-time object outline in the viewport
- element33
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animatrix_Thanks. Your post doesn't really show a clear image of an object outline, so it's hard to tell I implemented your code, but so far, all lines are removed i.e. seems like "result" is true for all lines. I'm investigating why. To verify: the result of the first chunk of vex should be a tiny, flat version of the geometry, right in front of the camera, with v@outlineNormals pointing into the camera, away from the actual object? Seems like you're intersection-test both v@outlineNormals and their inversions.
Do you mean this sort of outline?
BTW, it would be nice if Houdini had this as a display option, without the need for extra code, seems like many 3D apps now have this.
Edited by element33 - Aug. 25, 2022 09:54:25
Technical Discussion » Viewport "info" font
- element33
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Does Houdini give users any control over the simple font used to display info (like point numbers) in the viewport? In "Display properties" I set "Guide font" to "Large" but sometimes it's still too small. Can this font be changed or resized in some other ways?
Technical Discussion » Real-time object outline in the viewport
- element33
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Many architectural-type videos show the objects with an outline, sort of like a cartoon shader. I'd like to see this outline in real-time, in the viewport. When I select an object, Houdini gives the object a highlight-type, colored outline in the viewport. So it seems like the mechanism for real-time outline already exists. Is this mechanism available to users? Can I have this outlined look on demand, assigned to chosen objects, in the viewport? If not, is this object "highlighting" in the viewport customizable via some config files?
Edited by element33 - Aug. 24, 2022 21:12:12
Solaris and Karma » Older vex shaders -> Karma XPU question
- element33
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I use Mantra, I'm a bit confused about Karma. I have a bunch of useful vex shaders. As I understand it, they'll only work with Karma CPU. Will Karma XPU ever work with Vex shaders? If not, would the solution be to bake out all textures out of Karma CPU (diffuse, displacement, AOV etc) then combine them with MaterialX and render in Karma XPU? This could work for some things, but not for things like SSS, some unusual reflection/refraction etc.
Edited by element33 - July 20, 2022 07:31:19
Technical Discussion » POP Grains (polyline-connected) "flabby" look
- element33
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Recently, I created a network of connected polylines. I wanted to make them look elastic, so I used a POP Grain on polylines + POP solver, with point attribitues like restlength, targetstiffness etc. It works, but the polylines look very "flabby", like they're made of fluff, not strong rubber. I tried all the things below, nothing changes this flabby look. Any suggestions?
1. POP Grains -> Explicit Constraints -> Stiffness, set it to 100000
2. On points, setpointattrib(0, "targetstiffness", @ptnum, 100000);
3. On points, setpointattrib(0, "constraintstiffness", @ptnum, 100000);
4. On points, shorten the restlength: f@restlength*=0.5;
1. POP Grains -> Explicit Constraints -> Stiffness, set it to 100000
2. On points, setpointattrib(0, "targetstiffness", @ptnum, 100000);
3. On points, setpointattrib(0, "constraintstiffness", @ptnum, 100000);
4. On points, shorten the restlength: f@restlength*=0.5;
Edited by element33 - July 11, 2022 16:39:21
Technical Discussion » Nice rounded corners (bevel) in 2D
- element33
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Thanks, both work. I measured the cook time, the weights seem ~1.5 x slower. I prefer to keep the exact points from the original shapes (outside of the rounded area) for 100% sharp corners, but it's easy to do with nearpoint, snap etc
Edited by element33 - June 16, 2022 10:54:09
Technical Discussion » Nice rounded corners (bevel) in 2D
- element33
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What's the most elegant way to get a nice. rounded corner in a 2D shape, where the sharp corners are? I tried bevel on points (on light green points), bevel on edges (the dark green edges), but the results aren't smooth. The best results I got was with qLibs "Rounded corners" OTL, plus some smoothing (on the right), but it still took some post-processing.
Technical Discussion » Access variables between two Python SOPs
- element33
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Technical Discussion » Access variables between two Python SOPs
- element33
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Is there a way to make variables in one Python SOP available to the Python script in another Python SOP?
Edited by element33 - June 6, 2022 07:56:20
Technical Discussion » primitive order
- element33
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Technical Discussion » primitive order
- element33
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I have a line consisting of many segments, each an independent primitive. I deleted a few segments. This opened up a gap. In vex, with "addprim", I created a new prim to connect the gap. But the new prim is now at the end of the prim list, i.e. its prim ID doesn't naturally fit where it should, between its two neighbors. How do I do this? The Sort SOP has the "By vertex order" option, but it's for points only, not prims.
Technical Discussion » Clear Houdini console from Python?
- element33
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Is it possible to clear the Houdini console from Python? When I debug simulation output, I want to start with a clean screen. Right now I'm hitting "Clear" in the console manually each time.
Technical Discussion » up/N orient info to quaternion
- element33
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I just realized I can compile that little snippet of vex, then do hou.runVex()
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/hou/runVex.html [www.sidefx.com]
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/hou/runVex.html [www.sidefx.com]
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