Yes, what Edward said )
However, unfortunately, the F/B is deceiving. Try it on a Torus, you'll still get points selected you didn't want. The only real way is to use Lasso mode, which is annoying at best for most tasks.
Frankly, box-selected selecting and accidentally getting hidden geometry is one of the reasons a lot of people don't like modelling in Houdini. Houdini is a great poly modeller otherwise…
Cheers,
Peter B
Found 1327 posts.
Search results Show results as topic list.
Houdini Lounge » New, some questions
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Technical Discussion » finding minimum velocity of a particle system
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
There are several ways to do it. Personally, I'd use VEX, and accumulate an attribute that holds the ID of the slowest particle. Then at the end you'd know which one is slowest.
Alternatively, you can read in the whole particle sim into CHOPs (Geometry CHOP using the “v” attribute) and you could see it visually.
What's the ultimate use? When you say “return” where does the min value get used? If you're worried about slow particle, just use a Speedlimit POP )
Alternatively, you can read in the whole particle sim into CHOPs (Geometry CHOP using the “v” attribute) and you could see it visually.
What's the ultimate use? When you say “return” where does the min value get used? If you're worried about slow particle, just use a Speedlimit POP )
Technical Discussion » finding minimum velocity of a particle system
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Technical Discussion » SURFACE FLOW PARTICLE FX
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Particle sliding is the way to go if you want fast setup, Creep POP gives you more direct control but is harder to set up.
Particle sliding also works on polygons. Since sliding came along, I haven't used the Creep POP )
Cheers,
Peter B
Particle sliding also works on polygons. Since sliding came along, I haven't used the Creep POP )
Cheers,
Peter B
Technical Discussion » delete and rename cops, not working?
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
For historical reasons we needn't get into, C and A are always there, no matter what. It's unfortunate, but there you go. It's not SESI's fault, is all I can say )
Cheers,
Peter B
Cheers,
Peter B
Houdini Lounge » Houdini Sales Pitch
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
I'm currently rendering millions of particles in Mantra in a few minutes per frame.
One other important point All software has bugs. The fastest turnaround you'll get on bug fixes is if all your software is written in-house, but for most people that's not an option.
2nd fastest turnaround on bugs is from Side Effects. I ran into a bug in Mantra, and it was fixed in a matter of hours, the next morning's build (which is automatically posted for download!) was available and there you go. I do not know of any other major 3D vendor that can do that without special ($$$$) arrangements. This is standard operating procedure for SESI.
Almost all SESI customers have stories like this…
Your support dollars WILL save you time and money!
Cheers,
Peter B
One other important point All software has bugs. The fastest turnaround you'll get on bug fixes is if all your software is written in-house, but for most people that's not an option.
2nd fastest turnaround on bugs is from Side Effects. I ran into a bug in Mantra, and it was fixed in a matter of hours, the next morning's build (which is automatically posted for download!) was available and there you go. I do not know of any other major 3D vendor that can do that without special ($$$$) arrangements. This is standard operating procedure for SESI.
Almost all SESI customers have stories like this…
Your support dollars WILL save you time and money!
Cheers,
Peter B
Technical Discussion » Kernel Functions, fall off curves
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
As with most things in Houdini, there are ways to get around this. For example, you can create a Soft Falloff tool in VEX (VOPs) and then use an animation channel to create a custom falloff.
If I'm free (hah hah) I will put one together and put it on the Exchange… but it shouldn't be too hard to do.
Cheers
Peter B
If I'm free (hah hah) I will put one together and put it on the Exchange… but it shouldn't be too hard to do.
Cheers
Peter B
Technical Discussion » Graph editor changed? or not working?
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
The graph editor has problems in 7.0.161, likely in 172, especially with spare channels… however, things show up usually, just not the spare channels )
Technical Discussion » SLOPES for Dummies
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
I'd go with the chf() function like Simon says. Basically, you create a channel that's your control channel, the one that you want people to edit, let's call it “control” then you reference it in the animation channel(s) that you want to modify.
So, in your animatin channels, you'd have something like
chf(“control”,XXX) * cubic() or whatever.
where XXX is a lookup value, possibly as simple as $F for 1 to 1 (if that's the case, you don't need chf() you can just use ch().
The default for “control” is 1 at all keys, so if you don't need it, it just mults 1 in, obviously changing nothing.
If you wanted to get trickier, you could set your “control” channel to go from 0 to 100, then you could use this as a percentage of the length of the channels. However, XXX would be a more complex expression (possibly $FF/$NFRAMES) or would have to refer to a CHOP (since I can't seem to find an Hscript expression that returns the length of another channel!!)
Cheers,
Peter B
So, in your animatin channels, you'd have something like
chf(“control”,XXX) * cubic() or whatever.
where XXX is a lookup value, possibly as simple as $F for 1 to 1 (if that's the case, you don't need chf() you can just use ch().
The default for “control” is 1 at all keys, so if you don't need it, it just mults 1 in, obviously changing nothing.
If you wanted to get trickier, you could set your “control” channel to go from 0 to 100, then you could use this as a percentage of the length of the channels. However, XXX would be a more complex expression (possibly $FF/$NFRAMES) or would have to refer to a CHOP (since I can't seem to find an Hscript expression that returns the length of another channel!!)
Cheers,
Peter B
Technical Discussion » Point Clouds, please explain
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Hey Dan,
Yes, the advantage is memory. A Bgeo is loaded whole into memory by Mantra (or Houdini if you're using it internally) whereas the TBF is just like RAT in that only what's needed is loaded…
With a large number of points you should see a lot less memory used. I would suspect the TBF to be slightly slower than a straight Bgeo on smaller sets that can easily fit in RAM however I don't know for sure, Mark E is the authority of course )
Cheers,
Peter B
Yes, the advantage is memory. A Bgeo is loaded whole into memory by Mantra (or Houdini if you're using it internally) whereas the TBF is just like RAT in that only what's needed is loaded…
With a large number of points you should see a lot less memory used. I would suspect the TBF to be slightly slower than a straight Bgeo on smaller sets that can easily fit in RAM however I don't know for sure, Mark E is the authority of course )
Cheers,
Peter B
Houdini Lounge » Need an nVidia card to replace ATI
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
I use a cheesy FX5200 at home, and it's fine with Houdini. About $70 US. However, you get MUCH faster performance using any Nvidia or ATI (fireGL) card using Linux, when using Houdini.
Cheers,
Peter B
Cheers,
Peter B
Houdini Lounge » Am I the only one that can't use Cut/Paste in the Editor
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Hey Edward,
Sometimes it works, but never reliably enough that you can use it. For example, I just spent 2 months creating VOPs, and almost never did the cut/paste work. That's on Linux RH 7.3 but I've never had it work reliably on any platform.
Just keep trying, it'll fail )
Cheers,
Peter B
Sometimes it works, but never reliably enough that you can use it. For example, I just spent 2 months creating VOPs, and almost never did the cut/paste work. That's on Linux RH 7.3 but I've never had it work reliably on any platform.
Just keep trying, it'll fail )
Cheers,
Peter B
Technical Discussion » Bounding box for displacement, VEX
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Am I the only one that can't use Cut/Paste in the Editor
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Uh, hmm. I'm pretty sure this is something different. In the textport, yes, I can see that. However, I often want to CUT and paste, not copy and paste. Also, in 2000+ lines of VEX code, I will not be using the keyboard to scroll through it )
Obviously, I just pop ip VI with Alt e to work around it, but for small things it would be lovely if it just worked correctly.
Obviously, I just pop ip VI with Alt e to work around it, but for small things it would be lovely if it just worked correctly.
Houdini Lounge » Kudos: opmenu and dynamic menus in Assets
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Am I the only one that can't use Cut/Paste in the Editor
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
So, almost 50% of the time, when I try to highlight something in, say, a Type Properties “Edit Vex” area, or an Asset's Edit Contents script section, or really anywhere the “Houdini editor” is used, it fails. It cuts every time, but if I paste, about 1/2 the time, it pastes nothing, and since I cut it, it's gone!
Obviously, I don't use the Houdini editor, but am I the only one? This seems too annoying for others not to have noticed…
Linux RH 7.3 7.0.181
WinXP 7.0.181
Obviously, I don't use the Houdini editor, but am I the only one? This seems too annoying for others not to have noticed…
Linux RH 7.3 7.0.181
WinXP 7.0.181
Houdini Lounge » Houdini and dual Opteron
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Houdini Lounge » Houdini and dual Opteron
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
We have many dual Opterons at work both as workstations and on the render queue. They're damn fast, and very reliable from what we've seen. However, R+H does have a systems dept that tunes the kernel and whatnot so the verison of redhat we're running (7.3) is _very_ different from the “real” Redhat distros.
Houdini Lounge » Let it Burn
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
So, if Maya's fluids are so good, why does everyone write their own? If Maya's fire is so good, why not use it? Why do DD and R+H (where I work) and so many others write their own? Well, because the out of the box “solutions” are limited, closed and hard to modify.
I think there is a reason that the hard stuff (fire etc) is done at large facilities Because it's hard and needs a large team of people to create it. I don't see a lot of flying logos being done at R+H for that reason, because they are (usually) easy and can be done by anyone, anywhere (with creative talent of course).
Instead of bemoaning Houdini's lack of a fluid solver, why not work somewhere like DD or R+H or Sony where you'll be encouraged to use Houdini for what it's good at, with lots of cool extra tools )
Having said that, as someone who also does projects at home, I share your pain…
Cheers,
Peter B
I think there is a reason that the hard stuff (fire etc) is done at large facilities Because it's hard and needs a large team of people to create it. I don't see a lot of flying logos being done at R+H for that reason, because they are (usually) easy and can be done by anyone, anywhere (with creative talent of course).
Instead of bemoaning Houdini's lack of a fluid solver, why not work somewhere like DD or R+H or Sony where you'll be encouraged to use Houdini for what it's good at, with lots of cool extra tools )
Having said that, as someone who also does projects at home, I share your pain…
Cheers,
Peter B
Technical Discussion » gelato?
- pbowmar
- 7025 posts
- Offline
Apparently there is a RIB->Gelato converter and also a PRman Shading Language-> Gelato language (whatever it's called) converter. Not written by Nvidia of course!
So theoretically, you can use it with Houdini now, by converting the PRman stuff.
I talked with Larry Gritz at length at Siggraph about it and it sounds interesting. I brought up the usual “who wants to put 500 Nvidia cards in all their render farm machines” and he says they don't feel this is a big problem. They're also looking long-term, likely taking a loss for a few years until it catches on…
Cheers,
Peter B
So theoretically, you can use it with Houdini now, by converting the PRman stuff.
I talked with Larry Gritz at length at Siggraph about it and it sounds interesting. I brought up the usual “who wants to put 500 Nvidia cards in all their render farm machines” and he says they don't feel this is a big problem. They're also looking long-term, likely taking a loss for a few years until it catches on…
Cheers,
Peter B
-
- Quick Links