Hello everyone, firstly I'd like to say that I'm extremely impressed by Houdini, it's capabilities and especially its clean concept and according interface. I can say that it's among the best designed software I've ever used.

Unfortunally, I'm a little disappointed by the help, ror I'm probably just missing a crucial point. The Help as provided online and in the built-in server appears rather incomplete to me. am i wrong or is that really meant to be rather a reference than any sort of introduction to the program. I've admittedly not gone through all of the chapters because after my lecture of the first few I failed to see a greater point in doing so, but at certain places essential information just appears to be missing. the whole concept of operators and especially data flow through operators appears to be only marginally documented at best. i can sort of rely on my experience from other node-based software but i think its kinda strange to have no major, decicated section elaborating on that topic.

then, the tutorials proclaimed with “start here” and so forth appeear to be rather aimed at the casual user who already has a fair amount of experience - there seems to be absolutly no introductionary guide whatsoever.

i d just like to give a single example of what appears to be totally neglected as part of a greater topic which hardly exists: what does a yellow chevron pattern or a red stripe pattern mean on top of a node? not that i couldnt find that out on my own, but shouldnt i know such a thing after having gone through the guide (not the node reference)`?

kindly,
MD

i d just like to give a single example of what appears to be totally neglected as part of a greater topic which hardly exists: what does a yellow chevron pattern or a red stripe pattern mean on top of a node? not that i couldnt find that out on my own, but shouldnt i know such a thing after having gone through the guide (not the node reference)`?

Middle Mouse on the Node and it will give you a summary of the error. !

rob

Okay, thanks. Where can I find a documentation on the different output VEX nodes for different VOP networks? In the help on OUTPUT PARAMETERS it only says that the inputs of that node vary with the type of VOP network but even the according VOP networks do not appear to document their output nodes.

PS: I'm trying to use the docs and look at the example but if I want to load an example (or click “contents”) I get a javascript error. there are a lot of 404s in the documentation


then: for 30 minutes already im trying to guess how to create a ramp. this might sound stupid but i just dont get it. I created a RAMP Vex but there is no sign of that ramp editing interface as mentioned in the docs whatsoever. where do i actually see and edit the ramp?

i stubled over it one level up now i ask my self how in the world that works. how does the material know that a ramp inside of it needs a ramp specified…

PS: I'm trying to use the docs and look at the example but if I want to load an example (or click “contents”) I get a javascript error. there are a lot of 404s in the documentation

If there are vex nodes with 404 help , email sidefx with the bug.


then: for 30 minutes already im trying to guess how to create a ramp. this might sound stupid but i just dont get it. I created a RAMP Vex but there is no sign of that ramp editing interface as mentioned in the docs whatsoever. where do i actually see and edit the ramp?

i stubled over it one level up now i ask my self how in the world that works. how does the material know that a ramp inside of it needs a ramp specified…

In vex you use “Pragma” http://localhost:48626/vex/pragmas [localhost] . To create parameter interfaces.

rob

Welcome to the club!

You might want to check out Peter Quints videos. I have found them hugely helpful in understanding things. Also there's some free vids over at 3D Buzz. There's a good set at Gnomon:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/137/Houdini-101%3A-Interface-and-Workflow [thegnomonworkshop.com]

Stuff for modeling, uv-editing, and shader writing tends to difficult to find, if not non-existent. CMIVfx has some new videos though that are nice:

http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Houdini_Procedural_Modeling [cmivfx.com]

http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Houdini_Procedural_Cities [cmivfx.com]

http://cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=HOUDINI_ROAD_GENERATION_I [cmivfx.com]

Great man, thanks, all help is invaluably appreciated! I think this community and houdni have stolen my heart in no time! Now the only thing that I really lack is the appropriate amount of time to dive into this awesome workflow, but I'll keep going I've watched quite a few of PQs tuts already and they have proved very instructive and helpful. I love how he goes into detail at exactly the points where I would like to know more. Sometimes, when I watch I ask myself sort of a “but what if I want to…” question and a split second later he answers just that. No offense to any other instructor - there are so many good tuts, I jjust haven't watched them yet