pretty detailed examples, thanks!!

RBDPointObject is what you need my friend,

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini12.5/nodes/dop/rbdpointobject [sidefx.com]

does basically that.. instances your geometry into the given points and treat them as a rbds. The examples at the end of the help page are pretty good to understand how to use it

Wow.. SESI's fast response never ceases to amaze me!

Awesome!!
thank you very much Mark!

Hi!

When exporting geometry with changing topology through Alembic the geometry is exported fine, but the groups that I created (and change accordingly in houdini) are not exported correctly.

Does alembic only support static facesets? or is this some kind of bug that I should send a report?

I attached a simple scene file to demonstrate the error.

sure

write this into your Post Frame Script on your Rop node

import os

path = hou.pwd().parm(“sopoutput”).eval()
newpath = os.path.splitext(path) + “.bgeo”
if os.path.exists(newpath):
os.remove(newpath)
os.rename(path, newpath)

be sure to change the menu at the right side of the Post Script Frame from hscript to Python.
This will convert your “file.bhclassic” or actually “file.whatever” to “file.bgeo”. If the file.bgeo already exists it will overwrite it. If you want to rename it to other than .bgeo change to desired extension inside the code

cheers

Hi guys,

I am testing exactly the same thing between Alembic and Max right now, and although alembic is already able to export groups as facesets and import the facesets from max as groups correctly, we are having a problem since when the object is exported out from max, processed in houdini and returned to max..
the original material Ids have a different number. The groups are the same, but the original numbers are lost and reset randomly. We are working with material Ids per face.

Anybody run into the same problem?
We are already talking to the exocortex guys but when I saw this thread thought I might as well ask here

Hi guys,

just wanted to share with you a mini short I've been working on with a friend on our spare time.

The UI, force shield, deRez effect and game over animation were done by me in Houdini Apprentice HD. Nothing very fancy but a lot of fun to do it

Hope you guys like it.

https://vimeo.com/71639936 [vimeo.com]

yeap, actually I was saying that about the new versions of Vray, that they support alembic i think its 2.40 and up that supports it.

I read somewhere that vray converts the alembic file into a vrmesh anyway before rendering, so I might as well have a simple post render script on houdini to spit the vrmeshes.

Also my case the render farm hasn't been completely updated to the newer versions, so its a good way to prevent errors.

the best way to learn the different techniques for the effects is to use the shelf tools and check the parameters to see how SESI did it.

In your case you could set up a Fireball from the shelf to check that. to control the fuel source you can key your Scale Source Volume from the Source volume node you're using to bring your fuel.
Also keying the gas release in a similar fashion will help you with the explosive look.

thanks a lot Edward! that did it
I wasn't aware of that extension

for future readers: be sure to not be using convert your polysoups before saving .bhclassic since it won't support it. I know is kind of an obvious thing to say.. but could save someone from asking a similar question.

I tried searching the help docs to read about what H12 stuff we can't save as bhclassic but found nothing on the topic. Any other consideration to have in mind apart from polysoups when saving in that format?

Hi,
I know this is more a Vray issue than a Houdini one but just wanted to ask here in case anybody managed to solve it. (or maybe someone could benefit from knowing it )

I was trying to convert some .bgeo files to .vrmesh for the Max team to render it in vray. It's a fairly straigth foward process… save geometry -> apply ply2vrmesh tool from vray -> read as vray proxy

It all works well with obj but rendering objs in houdini is taking several times longer than rendering bgeos. I read that the tool supports houdini's bgeo and geo format. But I keep getting an error like “Magic number not found” when using geometry exported from Houdini 12.1 or up…. I tried with some bgeo exported from H10 and it worked perfectly. Some of the changes made after H12 must be the problem..

Anybody had the same problem? Any work around?


***
On the same topic in case somebody wants to use this, the new versions of VRay accept alembic files directly as vray proxies. I would loev if we used Mantra here… but there are a lot of Max users in my company …

thanks in advance

that's weird…. I just tried doing exactly that and works perfectly in mine.. I'm using 12.5.427…

Just to be sure you are changing the selected view on your viewport press “n” on top of the view you wanna change before opening the display options. The selected view should have the camera name colored yellow.

If you are already doing that.. then I'm out of ideas

hey ndickson, thanks for your input
yeah a real reference would have been awesome to have but I guess the police wouldn't like if I start destroying their bridges for reference gathering … this was the nearest I found to those type of bricks being destroyed on the web(why did they shoot it upside down beats me…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxeZdnkjIW4 [youtube.com]

I guessed that orange from the bricks would affect the cloud color but maybe I agree with you that I could use some more particular dust flying around also, looks too smokey.. i did put som particles in but i guess they were not enough.. not sure if i'm gonna invest more time on it though.. keep telling myself to let go or i'm never gonna finish any personal project


Thanks angelia, I appreciate it.

Thanks guys!

And thanks for the critics Rafael, I'll take it into consideration and test that when I have a chance :wink:

Just wanted to share an effect I did on Houdini on my spare time.

https://vimeo.com/69938923 [vimeo.com]

Hope you guys like it.


*Thanks to Jonathan Gilbert (itriix) and his FXPHD course Destruction in Houdini 12 from which I learned lot of wonderful tricks and applied them on this effect

oooooh!! that's what “on mouse up” means!!..

haha I feel very dumb right now but couldn't figure out what that meant before..

seems really useful to change parameters on heavy scenes..

I guess no one did since it was happening since a while ago (looking at the date of this thread) and continuing on the most recent build.

So I just sent a bug report with the exact description from my post above. 8)

YEEEEI! that did it!!

thank you very much sanostol!


*for future reference (in case any body is too lazy to follow the link)

problem cause: having a python console in your initial desktop, maximizing any pane corrupts it and gives infinite >>>

solution: remove the python console from your initial desktop configuration. Adding a console after houdini opens doesn't get it corrupted when maximizing panes

hi people,

I know this is an old thread, but has anyone had the same problem of the infinite “>>>” console?

I started having it when I moved to 12.5 and can't seem to fix it. In my case it does't seem to be the scene file since is happening with every scene. Its happening on both work and at home with Apprentice HD.

I work on
Windows 7
16gb RAM
Quadro 2000 with newest drivers (320.00) *(QuadroFX 1800 at work)
Houdini 12.5.416 (but it has been happening since lower builds)

It is not only with the viewport, it happens when maximizing any of the panes (either by button or hotkey).. I learned just to not maximize anything or pull a floating pane (since I maximize the window and not the pane itself) if I wanna see anything big on the screen… but honestly is annoying and I miss the shortcut..

any ideas?

Hi everyone,

I have a problem when animating some RBD_Points and then passing them to the Bullet solver and maybe someone here can help me.

I have some animated points in SOP, with an attribute that will determine if its RBD instance should follow the animated points or if it should be solved by dynamics.

I bring those points on to a DOP net with a RBD Point Object, and control the instances with an Active Value DOP, fetching the SOP attribute value to determine if it should be active or passive.

Up to here it works with both solvers, RBD and Bullet, but just with that my inactive instances don't follow the animated points, so I attached a Point Position Dop and fetch the position for the passive objects. That worked good for the RBD solver, but if I change to Bullet solver the instances stop following the points when they become active but don't get simulated.

Any ideas why is not working for Bullet?

I built an example file to show the problem.

from frame 1-15 the teapots follow the animated points, at frame 15 their attribute changes and they start falling.

It doesn't work properly while is on Bullet, change the solver to RBD on DOPs and it works.

!?