Hi

I've recently installed Vista 64 on to a new system. I then installed Houdini 9.1.102 xp64 and everything from what I could tell seemed to work well. Then, a few days later I installed an Apprentice HD licence and again from what I could tell everything was fine. Later, I uninstalled 102 and installed the then current build, 9.1.114. Here's where the problems started.

FWIW I re-tried with the previously working 102 and the more recent 116 and the problems were the same as with 114 - so it doesn't appear to be a Houdini build problem (unless it's HD playing-up?), more likely a Vista or an “I'm a Muppet and don't know what I'm doing with a new and unsupported OS” issue - but I cant be sure which.
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On installing Houdini I get a Console message stating:

Adding 9.1.116/bin/gfont.exe
Font 9.1.116/bin/gfont.exe is an invalid font (or already installed)
Adding -Sq
Font -Sq is an invalid font (or already installed)
Adding -o
Font -o is an invalid font (or already installed)
Adding CProgram Files/Side Effects Software/Houdini 9.1.116/houdini/fonts/font.index
Font CProgram Files/Side Effects Software/Houdini 9.1.116/houdini/fonts/font.index is an invalid font (or already installed)
Saving font table to: CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini 9.1.116/houdini/fonts/font.index

After closing the Console Houdini finishes the installation as usual.

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Opening a fresh Houdini or a .hip file presents me with an Open Dialogue message stating:

Load failed for 9.1.116/bin/hmaster.exe
No such file or directory

But the file appears to have opened fine.

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Creating a Mantra node from the Menu Bar menu gives a Main menu Error Dialogue stating:

An error occurred while executing menu Python script.
Could not open file CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini

Details:
Could not open file CPROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini

No ROP is created.

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Rendering a frame range to disk from a Mantra ROP gives a Console message and Houdini: Fatal Error Dialogue, both stating:

FATAL ERROR: Usage: /PROGRA~1/SIDEEF~1/Houdini <title> <pid>

The frames do get rendered to disk though.

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Rendering a Mantra ROP from the viewport button gives a Houdini Console message stating:

Ignoring unrecognized image file ‘9.1.116/bin/mplay.exe’
mantra: Could not open imager

I'm presented with a Load Image dialogue and an MPlay window. No rendering happens.

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All of the above happens with a clean houdini9.1 dir and with the firewall disabled.The rendering problems were tested with a basic scene consiting of a box, cam and light. I realise that Vista is unsupported, but if anyone has any clues as to what's going on based on the info I've given, I'd be grateful to hear them.

Cheers :?

ps to mod - I'm not sure which forum this belongs in - if I have HD probs I suppose it should be posted in the beta forum??… but I don't know that I have (or haven't). If it belongs elsewhere feel free to move.

Did you get any Vista updates recently? I got a recent update (by accident) and since then, things have not gone well for me at all. Luckily I'm still on winxp 64bit for my main platform.
We're checking it out right now.

Yeah, I've had a few updates. I guess that's the culprit then.

I'm tempted to try my luck again with Linux, but only wish to do so as a last resort (Previously, every attempt to use Linux has ended in me having extremely sore eyes for weeks afterwards. The final occasion I even went for an eye exam thinking I needed glasses, but alas my eyesight was perfect. I must be a freak of nature or something as I'm sure I had everything setup correctly… but maybe it was my hardware and trying again now with a new system will make a difference - I'm just not looking forward to the eye pain if it dosen't).

Thanks for looking into it though.

I just wanted to report that as of H9.1.140 vista ‘appears’ to be working fine for me now - don't know if you guys did anything or if it was an ms tweak or what, but if it was anything you did cheers.

OT: If anyone's interested in my saga I spent the last weeks in linux (ubuntu) after deciding to give that a try again, but my sore eye problem resurfaced. I had installed nvidia drivers with envy and also installed a bunch of fonts but all to no avail. Houdini itself wasn't as hard on my eyes as the rest of ubuntu was though - I use a dark colour scheme for H so maybe that played a part(??). If it weren't for this retched problem I'd love to be using Houdini under linux permanently - my graphics card (8800gt) felt like lightning compared to vista.

Incidentally, under vista my wacom has now stopped working for no reason and ZBrush has decided to lock me out stating that I need to get a new serial number. Oh the joy…