Exporting Houdini Particles to Maya
34993 24 4- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
AllegroI don't have time at the moment to compile for H10, but here's the PDC importer/exporter I wrote:
I'm trying to do an effect right now in Maya using the Binary Alchemy shader which requires a maya particle cache (.pdc), and am curious if anyone has any methods for bringing Houdini particles into Maya with radiusPP.
http://digitalcinemaarts.com/dev/SOP_PDC/ [digitalcinemaarts.com]
Mark
========================================================
You are no age between space
You are no age between space
- jason_iversen
- Member
- 12469 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
Time for a port to Python, Stephen? Or a standalone GEOio thing?
Jason Iversen, Technology Supervisor & FX Pipeline/R+D Lead @ Weta FX
also, http://www.odforce.net [www.odforce.net]
also, http://www.odforce.net [www.odforce.net]
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
AllegroSorry, was in a hurry, the source code is up there now. Refresh your brower, same link as above. I'll look into making this a stand alone later this week if no one wants to write a Python version. Big PDC files would suffer a bit from a non machine code procedure.
Seems like the archive only contains linux x64 and linux x86?
========================================================
You are no age between space
You are no age between space
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
Great, thanks Mark.
I'm certainly content to wait for you to work your magic, but is there some documentation somewhere that would tell me how I could compile this for windows? What did you use to do this? HDK? I'd like to learn how to handle this sort of thing, but I don't even know where to start.
I'm certainly content to wait for you to work your magic, but is there some documentation somewhere that would tell me how I could compile this for windows? What did you use to do this? HDK? I'd like to learn how to handle this sort of thing, but I don't even know where to start.
Stephen Tucker
VFXTD
VFXTD
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
Yes, it's all HDK code.
SESI HDK docs:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk10.0/ [sidefx.com]
odforce HDK forum:
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/forum/23-hdk-houdini-development-kit/ [forums.odforce.net]
A thread about the current WIN compiler situation (and why some of us avoid WINdOzE):
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/9790-visual-c-2005/ [forums.odforce.net]
A little HDK wiki goodness:
http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/HoudiniDevelopmentKit [odforce.net]
SESI HDK docs:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk10.0/ [sidefx.com]
odforce HDK forum:
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/forum/23-hdk-houdini-development-kit/ [forums.odforce.net]
A thread about the current WIN compiler situation (and why some of us avoid WINdOzE):
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/9790-visual-c-2005/ [forums.odforce.net]
A little HDK wiki goodness:
http://odforce.net/wiki/index.php/HoudiniDevelopmentKit [odforce.net]
========================================================
You are no age between space
You are no age between space
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
- Ratmann
- Member
- 110 posts
- Joined:
- Offline
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
- Ratmann
- Member
- 110 posts
- Joined:
- Offline
Alright gang, it seems to be working for me, at least in Houdini export/import.
So this is compiled in Windows7 in Houdini 10.0.374, which is the latest production build, all you gotta do is unzip this file in your:
$HOME/dso
Generally $HOME is your “houdini10.0” folder in “My Documents” or “Documents and Settings”, unless you're in Vista (I think) or Win7, which would be as:
“C:\Users\USER\Documents\houdini10.0\dso
It seems you're gonna get an ”error" when you load the Maya PDC Importer in Houdini, but from what I saw is that it's just telling you that you're missing a PDC file, so you gotta import something and you'll be fine, also make sure you turn on your point display or check your details view, or else you'll be trying to figure out what's broken(like I did for 10 minutes B-D ).
Let me know if something doesn't work for someone!
Cheers!
-Rick
So this is compiled in Windows7 in Houdini 10.0.374, which is the latest production build, all you gotta do is unzip this file in your:
$HOME/dso
Generally $HOME is your “houdini10.0” folder in “My Documents” or “Documents and Settings”, unless you're in Vista (I think) or Win7, which would be as:
“C:\Users\USER\Documents\houdini10.0\dso
It seems you're gonna get an ”error" when you load the Maya PDC Importer in Houdini, but from what I saw is that it's just telling you that you're missing a PDC file, so you gotta import something and you'll be fine, also make sure you turn on your point display or check your details view, or else you'll be trying to figure out what's broken(like I did for 10 minutes B-D ).
Let me know if something doesn't work for someone!
Cheers!
-Rick
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
- Ratmann
- Member
- 110 posts
- Joined:
- Offline
Allegro
I've got access to Maya, so I'll be sure to test :-)
Thanks Rick and Mark
edit: Except I'm on the 10.0.295 still :*(
Well you're in luck, cuz I just downloaded the silly thing and compiled it for you :-P
Let me know if this works for you, I won't have access to my machine all day since I'll be at work , so if something doesn't work I won't be able to update until tonight.
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
Seems to sort of work… but it appears to only bring in position values. Is there a specific version of Maya that these .pdcs should be working with? I'm using 2008.
- I first tried exporting the particles from houdini, and then in maya created a particle and told it to read the cache from houdini. In the component editor there were no attributes present except position
- I then tried caching out the particles from maya first, and then writing the particles from houdini to overwrite the particles from maya. This results in the first few particles having vel, mass, lifespan, and radius that matched the settings in maya on the last frame of the cache, and the remaining particles that did not exist in Maya having no values for these attributes.
- I've tried both using pscale, and radiusPP, and trying both as point and then vertex attributes. All to no avail.
- I first tried exporting the particles from houdini, and then in maya created a particle and told it to read the cache from houdini. In the component editor there were no attributes present except position
- I then tried caching out the particles from maya first, and then writing the particles from houdini to overwrite the particles from maya. This results in the first few particles having vel, mass, lifespan, and radius that matched the settings in maya on the last frame of the cache, and the remaining particles that did not exist in Maya having no values for these attributes.
- I've tried both using pscale, and radiusPP, and trying both as point and then vertex attributes. All to no avail.
Stephen Tucker
VFXTD
VFXTD
- Allegro
- Member
- 696 posts
- Joined: March 2006
- Offline
- xiondebra
- Member
- 543 posts
- Joined: July 2005
- Offline
AllegroOK cool, I'll look into it.
Houdini seems to import the variables fine. But there's something missing in the export.
I imported .pdc files from Maya, edited the radiusPP, exported back to Maya, and it seems that none of the attributes except position are taking in Maya.
Do you happen to know if the “PLE” version of Maya can imprt/export PDC files? I thought that was the issue when I was asked to write these last year. If so, I'll grab a copy of Maya and test myself.
Basically, I built this from the file spec alone, had other users test it, so I'm not surprised there may be some more work to do; it's clearly alpha/beta/WIP code. More surprising is why isn't PDC files already supported in Houdini. patents maybe? Oversight? The usual 3D file exchange confusion?
Mark
========================================================
You are no age between space
You are no age between space
-
- Quick Links