Make sure the others also have the matching version of SideFX Labs installed.

Yes, that is a known issue and will be fixed, along with some other minor improvements to the MQ server. Thanks.

Additional changes:
Jobs are automatically placed in a batch with timestamped name. The batch contains 2 jobs with following names:
* PDG TASKS (work item tasks)
* PDG MQ (mq job)
You can change the batch name and job names as you wish.

Removed running MQ as a background process.

Submit Graph as Job will now always use a local MQ (i.e. not a separate MQ job).

Work item tasks are scheduled right away instead of waiting for the MQ connection file first. This speeds up the initial Deadline scheduling time.

Improved cancelling jobs and job failures handling.

The TOP Deadline scheduler has received some changes in Houdini 18.0.399.
You'll find the latest daily builds here: https://www.sidefx.com/download/daily-builds/#category-devel [www.sidefx.com]

New parms for the Message Queue:


The main change here is the Message Queue (MQ) server mechanism we use for reporting results back from jobs running on the farm. After we introduced it, there have been quite a few issues related to it. We made some improvements to address these. Currently we are trying it out with the TOP Deadline scheduler to test it out, and get feedback.

There are now 3 types of MQ modes: Local, Farm, Connect

• Local (default) creates MQ server on local machine (ideal if no firewall)
  
• Farm creates MQ job (with its own job settings) on the farm
  
• Connect will connect to already running MQ server (only for new MQ, see below)
  

Previously the TOP Deadline scheduler always created a MQ server running on the farm, either as a background process, or as a task. Now, it will always default to running it locally on the submission machine (Local mode). This should reduce a lot of the MQ network and job scheduling issues.

If you do have firewalls between the farm machines and the submission machine, then you can use the Farm mode to have the MQ server run on the farm, allowing the work tasks to report results to it. Then you can open up limited ports through the firewalls from the MQ server to your submission machine, and specify those ports on the parm interface posted above. Note that MQ server runs as a job taking up a farm machine slot. To alleviate this, there are new parms to specify job settings just for the MQ job.

The above 2 modes work with the current MQ server. You can simply try that out and let us know how it goes.

If you would like to help test the new MQ server, please continue reading.

New MQ server
The new MQ server is wholly different from the current MQ. It uses a different network protocol, can run standalone, and supports relaying results from multiple PDG jobs. It is packaged as a standalone executable found at $HFS/bin/mqserver. While it is automatically managed in Local and Farm modes, in Connect mode, you'll need to manage it yourself.

To use it, first, set PDG_USE_PDGNET=1 in your environment before launching Houdini. This enables using the new MQ server with the TOP Deadline scheduler.

Now try the Local and Farm modes via the TOP Deadline scheduler. If you have multiple TOP Deadline scheduler nodes, they will use the same MQ automatically (so there should only be 1 MQ job running on the farm for each graph).

Connect is a new mode that is only available with a new MQ server we added. This is meant for connecting to an existing MQ server, and sharing it with other PDG jobs. To use this, you must start the MQ server manually on a machine that all farm machines can communicate with.

For the new Connect mode and standalone MQ server, this requires a bit of setup.

Copy the $HFS/bin/mqserver to the machine you want to run the server from (or launch from your local machine).
Launch it with the following command:
mqserver -p 0 -n 128 -l 3 -w 0 128 result -s

After it launches, you'll see a log such as the following:

The address breakdown is as follows: IP, rpc port, relay port, http port

You'll need to enter the relay port into Relay Port on the TOP Deadline scheduler's nodes parm interface under Message Queue.
Similarly, enter the http port into the Task Callback Port.

Now if you cook, it should use the MQ server. You'll see some logging about clients connecting and disconnecting.

We'll be improving the workflow and UX of this over time. The new MQ was released to get initial testing. Any help you can provide is appreciated. More TOP Deadline improvements are coming as well.

There are PreTaskScript and PostTaskScript in the Job Parms of the TOP Deadline scheduler that you can use. Should run in the task process, but not in same Houdini process.

boycey10802002
Hey Seelan.
I have not. Unfortunately we're version-locked to 17.5.391 for the current show due to version compatibility with other plugins. I guess there's no other work-around?

Ah, that is a really old version. Maybe you can try using parm presets instead?

I tried your HDA. I had to fix up the Python path in the scheduler Python parm to the following:

If you use back slashes, you'll need to double them up (i.e. \\) to escape Houdini evaluation. Or just stick with forward slashes (/).

Make sure your TOP Deadline scheduler settings works normally (i.e not in subnet). If you are still getting errors, paste the Verbose Log output.

Have you tried with the latest daily build of Houdini 18? We fixed some issues with this in the past weeks.

Nothing obvious stands out in the log you pasted. Please describe your setup, and post your hip file if you are able to do so.

How many farm machines are available to pick up this job? Are the same farm machines being used in the normal Houdini PDG cook (ie. not via Submit As Job)?

The purpose of the script is to show how to use the plugin through scripting. Its not meant to be used at runtime, though the fact that it asks to test it in play mode makes it slightly confusing. Regardless, the code it uses works in Editor mode.

The plugin does not support runtime at the moment.

Usually hanging at Rendering could mean that its not finding a farm machine, or waiting on something in Deadline which hasn't been setup properly.

Turn on Verbose Logging on the TOP Deadline scheduler node and paste the output here (it will show up in the Houdini console). You can also check the farm machine deadline log as well as the job output from Deadline Monitor (after cancelling).

Sorry this was a bug with the plugin. It will be fixed in the next daily build (Houdini 18.0.365, 17.5.516).

You can add a tag to your string parm to have the plugin treat it as an object field where you can drag in the material. Use tag ‘heuassetpath’.

See https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unity/_parameters.html#Parameters_String [www.sidefx.com]

Could you paste your env file content here?

What worked for me was something like the following in unity_houdini.env:

HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH=C:/Users/seelanv/Documents/houdini18.0/SideFXLabs/349 (local)/otls;&

Note that you'll need to restart Unity for it to take effect.

2nd options seems the best. Feel free to make the contribution directly here, or via the github page: https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnity [github.com]

Works for me with Unity 2019.3.0f6 using URP and legacy 3D. If you aren't getting errors, make sure you don't have Gizmos disabled at the top of the Scene window. If disabled, it will not draw the curve editor tool.

I have done some investigating on this but the new prefab system has many complexities, and prefabs in general are somewhat the same as an HDA (i.e. both are just templates). Trying to combine the two could be a recipe for headaches

Having said that, what do you have in mind in terms of usage and workflow for HDA prefabs?

Currently no plants to add prefab baking support for PDGAssetLink.

Forum is the best way to communicate unless you have bugs/rfes in which case please submit them through support.

The error with result has been fixed in Houdini 18.0.357.

This means that there are external assets referenced from within the HDA, but they are not found in the asset loading paths. To fix this, you can add the path where the asset resides to the unity_houdini.env file in your Assets/ folder in Unity, like this:
HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH=C:/path/to/hda;&

Create the unity_houdini.env file if you don't already have it. It has to be created manually by the user and is used to set up the Houdini Engine session environment.

Are you using SideFX Labs asset(s) within your HDAs?