hello.
I'm new to houdini and have installed 9.1.244 apprentice on my pc just now, but got some strange problems (or bugs?):
1. turning on Grid Snapping (pressing x in scene view) makes moving of objects delayed/lagged (50% cpu usage while moving. and it takes <5% when moving object without snapping)
2. pressing left mouse button in Network view or turning on in context menu: Show Groups->Viewing Controls messes it's window. like the viewport decreased in size but pointing there is like it still same sized (moving splitter resolves this problem a little. notice the selection box and mouse position while i trying to select something there)
my pc's specs are:
intel dual-core e2180 2ghz
2gb ddr2 pc-6400 ram
sapphire ati radeon x1950gt 256mb
intel p35 motherboard
windows xp pro sp3, catalyst 8.2
Full Version: some beginner problems or bugz?
Hi,
First of all, welcome to the forum!
The display issues are due to the ATI drivers. They are a bit flakey with OpenGL support. Please search the forum with “catalyst” as the term & you'll find a thread discussing what driver version works well with Houdini.
Cheers!
steven
First of all, welcome to the forum!
The display issues are due to the ATI drivers. They are a bit flakey with OpenGL support. Please search the forum with “catalyst” as the term & you'll find a thread discussing what driver version works well with Houdini.
Cheers!
steven
Thank you! Setting environment variable HOUDINI_OGL_SOFTWARE to 1 resolved both problems. (hey, is there any other interesting variables available?)
But it's a pity that this forces viewports to be rendered in software and loads cpu a little
Also i'm quite sure it's not really ati problem, panning/zooming works fine in this window until you try to select object in graph.
I have been developing some opengl applications before and it looks like glViewport function called with wrong parameters here or there is some different behavior (nv vs ati) of switching from/to opengl's selection mode and getting back to rendering.
Note that errornous viewport becomes 256x256 <- this doesn't look like some random value.
attached image shows which region is updated by yellow square (which is drawn by houdini itself when you do panning/zooming after bugging) and it continues to work properly except of wrong size and unupdated part. Also when you resize this window with splitter (this is the case when most opengl apps call glViewport again) - it restores image to normal.
I think that houdini developers should note this problem. :roll:
i've already encountered some problems with ati in opengl - it was like some unused texture coordinates (e.g. .Z for 2D texture) in vertex shader were not reset to zer0 like nvidia cards do. this was leading to wrong texture placement though it was 2d texture and z coord shouldn't affect it. but in ogl specs it is clearly said that the behavior of unset variables is unexpected (nv resets to zero, ati don't change), that's why ppl shouldn't blame ati here.
But it's a pity that this forces viewports to be rendered in software and loads cpu a little
Also i'm quite sure it's not really ati problem, panning/zooming works fine in this window until you try to select object in graph.
I have been developing some opengl applications before and it looks like glViewport function called with wrong parameters here or there is some different behavior (nv vs ati) of switching from/to opengl's selection mode and getting back to rendering.
Note that errornous viewport becomes 256x256 <- this doesn't look like some random value.
attached image shows which region is updated by yellow square (which is drawn by houdini itself when you do panning/zooming after bugging) and it continues to work properly except of wrong size and unupdated part. Also when you resize this window with splitter (this is the case when most opengl apps call glViewport again) - it restores image to normal.
I think that houdini developers should note this problem. :roll:
i've already encountered some problems with ati in opengl - it was like some unused texture coordinates (e.g. .Z for 2D texture) in vertex shader were not reset to zer0 like nvidia cards do. this was leading to wrong texture placement though it was 2d texture and z coord shouldn't affect it. but in ogl specs it is clearly said that the behavior of unset variables is unexpected (nv resets to zero, ati don't change), that's why ppl shouldn't blame ati here.
stevenong
Hi,
The display issues are due to the ATI drivers. They are a bit flakey with OpenGL support.
steven
I keep hearing this, but so far haven't had any issues with my Radeon 1650 Pro 512Mb card. I do the usual variety of things that one does when learning Houdini including the 3D Buzz videos and the Digital Tutor videos.
Am I just lucky? :?
BTW-I did see the “ATI Drivers thread and tried the fix- ”http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=6564&highlight=catalyst [sidefx.com]"
But it doesn't seem to have changed anything. Is the problem with ATI drivers mainly with laptops?
I'm using an xp home, 3GB ram, Athlon 64 X2 4200 desktop system.
I think we react that way to ati cards because, at least in the last 5-6 years, 75%+ of issues like this are directly related to ati cards/drivers…
arctor
I think we react that way to ati cards because, at least in the last 5-6 years, 75%+ of issues like this are directly related to ati cards/drivers…
Fair enough. I don't own stock in AMD/Ati, just one of their video cards. So it's no big deal, I just wondered what the ATI reference was about. If it's mostly about older ATI cards, I can see it. If it was about newer ATI cards, I wondered if there was something that I should be aware of.
Cheers
Installation of catalyst 8.5 fixed the bug in network pane. 
Still moving of objects delayed when using grid snapping.
PS won't roll back to older drivers because of some required improvements in new.
Still moving of objects delayed when using grid snapping.
PS won't roll back to older drivers because of some required improvements in new.
omg! now it renders garbage with default render settings (picture 1, note 16 bit float by default)
but switching Quantization in mantra settings to 32 bit float, 16 bit integer, 8 bit integer fixes this… (picture 2)
(picture 1, note 16 bit float by default) but switching Quantization in mantra settings to 32 bit float, 16 bit integer, 8 bit integer fixes this… (picture 2)
thanks again stevenong.
But in my case only switching of matra's settings help here.
Either changing brightness in drivers/houdini or setting compatibility mode in mplay doesn't help.
Also houdini writes “UT_NetPacket::write: No error” to its console sometimes, when I render the scene after some changes in mplay's settings.
Though it works pretty well now.
But in my case only switching of matra's settings help here.
Either changing brightness in drivers/houdini or setting compatibility mode in mplay doesn't help.
Also houdini writes “UT_NetPacket::write: No error” to its console sometimes, when I render the scene after some changes in mplay's settings.
Though it works pretty well now.