There are several changes with the new curve tool that might be a factor. Attached is a file where you can remove or keep the crease node and you will see it subdivides fine. (I added some blast and polycap nodes to avoid triangles though) There are a few checkboxes and output specifications in the revolve node that need to be used to make it work. Personally, I would omit the crease node. Regarding the front view selection, do you have the eye icon turned on when you are selecting?
One thing that was not obvious in a quick look at the tutorial is that he built the wine glass curve using polygon mode. The curve tool defaults to bezier, and for your purposes, I would change it to polygon (the way curves used to work).
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Revolve, Subdivision and Front view selection problems
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How to flatten primitives within a group?
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Houdini Lounge » viewport display issue
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Thank you. That is the viewport display with texture enabled? If so, this would point to some of the Houdini/OSX issues being driver or openGL related.
Addendum: this seems fixed with today's daily build.
Addendum: this seems fixed with today's daily build.
Edited by Island - Jan. 18, 2022 19:06:29
Houdini Lounge » Sluggish viewport on OSX
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Houdini Lounge » viewport display issue
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Can someone test this to see if it is an OSX issue or Houdini issue: create a sphere, add a UV project node set to polar. Add a metal grate texture with scale 0.5. The render is fine but the viewport display with texture enabled is bizarre. The only fix is to see the viewport display lights to off.
Edited by Island - Jan. 18, 2022 14:08:53
Houdini Lounge » Sluggish viewport on OSX
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I understand your frustration. In the old days, I used Windows and had to deal with the time and frustration of the blame game between Microsoft, the software companies, the graphics and sound card driver companies, the antivirus software, and of course - the user. Some companies capitalized on this and made their own certified hardware (like Avid) at a premium price. At least with Apple, there is only Apple, the software company and the user. However, there is not parity of quality for 3D work between Windows and Apple. In the past XSI and currently 3dmax are Windows only (as is Solidworks). The OSX versions of Modo and Maya are less stable than their windows equivalents. In addition, my experience is the hardware reliability, support, and stability of Apple products have seriously declined over the past few years. My Mac Pro has had to have almost all of its hardware replaced for defects, with prolonged downtime in Apple repair stores.
SideFX has a history of rapid fixes of operating system agnostic issues but unfortunately not compatibility issues with Apple. With an older version of Houdini, there was a selection bug where what was clicked on or lassoed had no relationship with what got selected. That took months to resolve and made Houdini impossible to use. The problem is even worse if one is using a third party rendering program, as they tend to only work with production builds and frequently not the most recent build.
Most of the issues between Houdini and Apple, I think, are file permission, driver issues, OpenGL, or Quicktime problems. For instance, when I installed Houdini, the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.sesinetd.plist does not get installed. I have permissions set for full disk and accessibility allowance for pretty much everything Houdini, but this does not allow local licensing on my Mac Pro. I've had two long sessions with different SideFX support people and in the end they said I just needed to use remote licensing.
I hope this will be resolved, but I wouldn't count on anything quick. The fact that Hackintosh systems work would suggest it is a driver or hardware issue.
SideFX has a history of rapid fixes of operating system agnostic issues but unfortunately not compatibility issues with Apple. With an older version of Houdini, there was a selection bug where what was clicked on or lassoed had no relationship with what got selected. That took months to resolve and made Houdini impossible to use. The problem is even worse if one is using a third party rendering program, as they tend to only work with production builds and frequently not the most recent build.
Most of the issues between Houdini and Apple, I think, are file permission, driver issues, OpenGL, or Quicktime problems. For instance, when I installed Houdini, the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.sidefx.sesinetd.plist does not get installed. I have permissions set for full disk and accessibility allowance for pretty much everything Houdini, but this does not allow local licensing on my Mac Pro. I've had two long sessions with different SideFX support people and in the end they said I just needed to use remote licensing.
I hope this will be resolved, but I wouldn't count on anything quick. The fact that Hackintosh systems work would suggest it is a driver or hardware issue.
Edited by Island - Jan. 17, 2022 17:25:24
Technical Discussion » Material Builder Output does not work
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Other than the glacially slowness of Houdini with a simple layer mix, I'm finding that Houdini 19.501 doesn't seem to accept parm outputs if one collapses material nodes into material builder. In the attached example, the nodes without builders work fine ("MyShader") but when I collapse them ("MyShaderBuilt"), the layer mix renders black. Is this a bug or user error? Thanks.
Edited by Island - Jan. 17, 2022 12:51:32
Houdini Lounge » Sluggish viewport on OSX
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The loading of 4k image textures is very laggy too, as is changing color of diffuse. The most laggy is changing color channel values and dragging nodes from the material network onto an object in render view.
Edited by Island - Jan. 16, 2022 23:10:35
Work in Progress » Recreating a complex texture/shader system in Houdini
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I started this project to roughly replicate the Richard Yot Shader Tree Fundamentals Tutorial: https://richardyot.com/shader-tree-fundamentals [richardyot.com] to see how difficult it would be to replace a layer based shading system with Houdini's nodes. For this, I resisted the easier way of just using Substance Painter to replicate how Modo's shader system works, so that I could develop more skills in some of the mathematics behind Modo material nodes. This is on the Work in Progress section, as it is not complete and I still have more to learn about the material nodal system.
Unfortunately, the only way to get the texture files from the tutorial is to purchase the tutorial, which would not be of great value for people not using Modo. But I recreated the model myself in Houdini(see zip attached) and started the process. There are some difficulties with the node based system in Houdini, but here is the result courtesy of some of the help I got on this forum. The render is attached.
Unfortunately, the only way to get the texture files from the tutorial is to purchase the tutorial, which would not be of great value for people not using Modo. But I recreated the model myself in Houdini(see zip attached) and started the process. There are some difficulties with the node based system in Houdini, but here is the result courtesy of some of the help I got on this forum. The render is attached.
Edited by Island - Feb. 7, 2022 12:10:20
Houdini Learning Materials » Direct Modelling Tutorials | Project Cabin
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Technical Discussion » Where to start with rigging?
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Have you looked at https://www.sidefx.com/learn/collections/rigging-series/ [www.sidefx.com] ?
Houdini Learning Materials » material layer masking and compositing
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I did find a couple of articles that make things a bit simpler, but there are still lots of steps that are not clearly spelled out:
https://vfxbrain.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/normal-mapping-with-mantra/ [vfxbrain.wordpress.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fspeu7Q9c1Y [www.youtube.com]
https://vfxbrain.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/normal-mapping-with-mantra/ [vfxbrain.wordpress.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fspeu7Q9c1Y [www.youtube.com]
Houdini Lounge » Complex Shaders and Textures
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The orange Material flag doesn't seem to matter. Here is a simple layer mix of a principled and cloth shader combined with an alpha mask, and you can see that the options are only for the principled or cloth shader, not for the layer mix. In my example, I used turbulent noise as the alpha, but generally in projects, I use a texture alpha image instead.
The composite VOP looks interesting, but a quick try of the various modes show that it must be using a different color space than the usual other programs (Photoshop, etc.). Maybe it is because it is linear, but A over B with a white rectangle and transparency saved as a png is not creating a good alpha mask.
The composite VOP looks interesting, but a quick try of the various modes show that it must be using a different color space than the usual other programs (Photoshop, etc.). Maybe it is because it is linear, but A over B with a white rectangle and transparency saved as a png is not creating a good alpha mask.
Edited by Island - Jan. 14, 2022 19:07:12
Houdini Lounge » Complex Shaders and Textures
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After trying the layer mix (and even collapse selected into material to create a material builder at the end), there are a few problems I'm having with this workflow. It does indeed work fine to reduce complexity. However, it does not show up when one selects "display material on objects" of the scene viewport. It requires dragging and dropping from the material network onto the object, as it neither shows up as an option on a material node or as an options on the objects render material properties. The former limits use to situations where the object has only one material (so one can't use material groups). Theoretically one could use Houdini's procedural features to create masks, but the render viewport is slow anyway (and has the annoying property of not displaying the right brightness when sets the gamma in the mantra render node to something other than 1 (for jpg or png outputs). mPlay doesn't have that deficiency but is even slower than the render viewport. So all that brings me back to using Substance painter or Mari even though one will not get an exact match of Houdini's render. They have fast display when one is adding masks and materials and have the advantage of layer mixing modes which have be be set up with several complicated math modes in Houdini. Am I missing something?
Edited by Island - Jan. 14, 2022 09:43:18
Houdini Lounge » Complex Shaders and Textures
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Thank you. The layer mix helped reduce node clutter. When is the material builder used?
Houdini Lounge » Complex Shaders and Textures
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I am unclear about how to best do complex shading and materials in Houdini.
Sometimes shading and materials can be assigned to polygon groups, but there are situations where the shader and textures have to cross polygons. Of course one can add loop cuts or clip nodes and try to create polygons that match the textures, but that is sometimes not a good solution. I am not sure the best method for handing this. In Modo, it is simple, since shading and texturing is layer based, unlike any other 3D or rendering program (excepting 3Dcoat) that I know of.
The methods I am aware of for Houdini are:
1. Creating a series of textures in Photoshop for each channel (diffuse, metallic, roughness, etc.) using Photoshop's layers, modes, masks, and opacities. This works if the surface is flat, but doesn't work for normal maps or when one one wants to mask based on curvature or normals.
2. Exporting a FBX from Houdini with generic principled shaders and creating the various textures in Mari or Substance painter, where there is better visualization of the effect on the model and the ability to create masks based on curvature or normal direction. Back in Houdini, load these textures in the appropriate channels. This is what I've generally done. It is pretty easy, but one can't visualize directly the look in the rendering engine used in Houdini when working in Mari or Substance.
3. Try to set up nodes directly in the material network of Houdini based on the rendering engine used (Mantra, Arnold, Redshift, 3Delight, Octane, etc) and attempt to simulate layer modes with multiplications, additions, etc of nodes in Houdini. This has the advantage of allowing adjustment directly in Houdini, but gets really complex if one is using masks, layer modes, different opacities, etc. See second attachment for what I mean.
4. Dive into the principled shader itself (as Varomix did to add a bind based on an attribute for compositing after render). This is really complicated with all the nodes.
5. Trying to use a material builder or layer shader. I don't know when these are helpful, so I haven't used these.
An example what I am trying to do issomething like this (grey lines are polygon borders):
Sometimes shading and materials can be assigned to polygon groups, but there are situations where the shader and textures have to cross polygons. Of course one can add loop cuts or clip nodes and try to create polygons that match the textures, but that is sometimes not a good solution. I am not sure the best method for handing this. In Modo, it is simple, since shading and texturing is layer based, unlike any other 3D or rendering program (excepting 3Dcoat) that I know of.
The methods I am aware of for Houdini are:
1. Creating a series of textures in Photoshop for each channel (diffuse, metallic, roughness, etc.) using Photoshop's layers, modes, masks, and opacities. This works if the surface is flat, but doesn't work for normal maps or when one one wants to mask based on curvature or normals.
2. Exporting a FBX from Houdini with generic principled shaders and creating the various textures in Mari or Substance painter, where there is better visualization of the effect on the model and the ability to create masks based on curvature or normal direction. Back in Houdini, load these textures in the appropriate channels. This is what I've generally done. It is pretty easy, but one can't visualize directly the look in the rendering engine used in Houdini when working in Mari or Substance.
3. Try to set up nodes directly in the material network of Houdini based on the rendering engine used (Mantra, Arnold, Redshift, 3Delight, Octane, etc) and attempt to simulate layer modes with multiplications, additions, etc of nodes in Houdini. This has the advantage of allowing adjustment directly in Houdini, but gets really complex if one is using masks, layer modes, different opacities, etc. See second attachment for what I mean.
4. Dive into the principled shader itself (as Varomix did to add a bind based on an attribute for compositing after render). This is really complicated with all the nodes.
5. Trying to use a material builder or layer shader. I don't know when these are helpful, so I haven't used these.
An example what I am trying to do issomething like this (grey lines are polygon borders):
Edited by Island - Jan. 11, 2022 19:43:26
Houdini Lounge » Sluggish viewport on OSX
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Shader Question and Request for Split Poly update
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The DoubCut hda is awesome, Philipp!! The split node was clever. This allows me to do things like drive the percent cut based on box axis scale, which was not really possible (to me, at least) with the poly split node. For procedural modeling in particular, this is great.
Edited by Island - Jan. 10, 2022 16:37:46
Technical Discussion » Is there a better way to mask texture inputs?
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That looks much better. In Richard Yot's tutorial, he is using the layer based shader system in Modo - which is very similar to Photoshop and 3Dcoat. It is easy, for instance to set roughness to a certain value and then add a texture image map set to "add" or "multiply" and add another texture image map mask to control which area is affected. In the Principled shader, there are vector inputs for the rgb vector from an image for base color, roughness, metallic, transparency and several other channels. But there is none for bump, normal, or displacement. There is the baseN and vdisp but no clear way to set masks or blend modes for incoming texture channel data. Your surface color node and mix node look like they will work well as a better solution. I tried it in the model I'm working on and couldn't get it the replace the normal texture input, but I'll play around with tweaking the constants to see if I can fix that.
I was uncertain if I needed to create a material node, add nodes as you have done, or dive into the principled shader itself to make the changes. You've given me a good starting point.
Thank you.
I was uncertain if I needed to create a material node, add nodes as you have done, or dive into the principled shader itself to make the changes. You've given me a good starting point.
Thank you.
Edited by Island - Jan. 9, 2022 23:29:00
Technical Discussion » Is there a better way to mask texture inputs?
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I asked this in the Houdini learning section of the forum, but wanted to see if I am approaching this wrong. I want to drive the normal map by a texture, which is easily done in the Principled Shader. However, adding a mask to this to only affect part of the image and adjust scaling seems complicated. The only way I've been able to figure out how to do it is to create a black and white mask image and connect this to the scaling of the normal via a multiply node to be able to reduce the effect. The effect needs to cross polygons, so doing this with materials and groups will not work. In other programs, this is an easier process (Blender, Modo, etc.). Is there a better way of doing this than this: (the faceplate has the normal texture attached, as I can't figure out how to do it with nodes, only in the principled shader itself. Texture 1 is the mask).
Edited by Island - Jan. 9, 2022 19:25:48
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