Korny Klown2

Joker386
Hey Korny Klown2 I read your posts in another Topics before ,You have too many problem with Houdini ,I think you right and you should work with another 3D Software ,Because Houdini is more complex and Hard to work :wink:

But why can't we address these problems, since I'm not the only one having them.
You said you read my posts in other threads before so maybe you've read my thoughts on Why Houdini isn't the leader? [sidefx.com].
Ok, my frustrationlevel at that time was very high so the words I've chosen were probably a bit to rough but in cunclusion:
Could it be that Houdini isn't the leader because it rather let's people switch to other softwares instead of addressing it's problems. Call me a visionary or a fool, that's basically the same thing from diffent points of view, but I see a potential in Houdini which it doesn't fully exhaust at the moment.

I don't wanna frustration you my friend ,Asking too many questions about your problems is very very good for learning ,But I just wanna say that some of the problems that you have ,are unavoidable and maybe all of the Houdini Masters have it.

Like Houdini complex User Interface.

Just don't worry about these and work and work and hard work with Houdini ,Finally you will see that they are solved and you can work with Houdini very easily !

Because I worked with Maya at the first ,The Houdini UI and tools was so hard for me ,But for now ,After too many years ,Houdini is really easier and better than Maya (Of course for me) :!:

Korny Klown2
When I want to create a booleannode, Houdini always forces me through this annoying creation assistend, this annoying yellow bar at the bottom “…select this and that geometry and press enter to continue…” you know what I mean.

Is there a way to deactivate this assistent somewhere in the preferences or so because that bugs me a lot.

You can ‘hide it’ from the viewport by tearing off the viewport pane, and, if you are putting the viewport on a 2nd screen, simply make it full screen and add the playbar to it if you like.

That will mean no assistant in your viewport screen. Combining it with Jeff's tips you can have the viewport you want!

MartybNz
…but have you thought of the negatives? i.e. upsetting your user base of current customers and users…

That's why I'm preaching my philosophy of make optional. This way the current users can keep the software they are used to but new users can set eveything up to their likings.

MartybNz
…using the companies resources on areas that most users might not care about…

I hear a lot, if not most of Houdini users complaining about many things. The difference is that most of those, who complain start to “get used to it” some day and a few others like me don't and say: If so much people have problems with Houdini, why not addressing them. In addition to that I could argument with, that most people seem to do care about this because most people are not using Houdini.

MartybNz
…and thus not implementing new important features to compete with the competition…

What features are that in particular?
From the core technologie I see Houdini outstripping the competition. Pyrosolver, liquidsolver, dynamicsolver are state of the art. An implementation of Python 3.3 may be fine, but appart from that…what kind of features are missing. I think the capability of the VFX software today are totally fine. Go about 20 years back in time and see what great fx were done on jurassic park and consider what technologie those people had.

MartybNz
…and, the technical hurdles implementing such things because of the history of the program.

Tell me about the history, I don't know much in regards of technical stuff.
There is quote from Einstein, which I unfortunattely can't find in english, that goes

Zwei Dinge sind zu unserer Arbeit nötig: Unermüdliche Ausdauer und die Bereitschaft, etwas, in das man viel Zeit und Arbeit gesteckt hat, wieder wegzuwerfen.

Which means:
Two things are crucial to our work: relentless endurance and the willingness to discard something, you've put a lot effort in.

Hey Korny - I read through your post and have the idea that you would get some great benefit reading up on the field of Computer Science. What I had described is not specific to any one company but almost the entire field!

You might be interested to read that the technologies we use to today were all developed many years ago, with many awesome refinements, but the big ideas are all 30+years old.

Pulling apart my post to try to understand it is like pulling apart chocolate cake apart, into it's ingredients, to try find why the cake tastes so good. The sum is more than it's parts

Hope that helps.

MartybNz
Pulling apart my post to try to understand it is like pulling apart chocolate cake apart, into it's ingredients, to try find why the cake tastes so good. The sum is more than it's parts
.

I do get your point but I wanted to answer it individually and since this the Houdini users forum I answered specifically in the matter of Houdini.

All SOP Geometry nodes have an option to re-enter the tool to refine the selection.

Select your node you wish to change the input selection.
Check to see that your viewport is set to that node (upper left of viewport). If not hit Enter in the viewport to enter that SOP's state.
Hit the backquote key to re-enter the SOP. This will unwire the SOP and give you it's current selection to add or remove from. Use Shift, Shift-Ctrl or Ctrl to toggle, add or remove from your selection.
When done hit Enter and your SOP now has your new selection.

Well, actually this is not an option but rather a workaround and unfortunatelly not even the workaround does work for me because I can't find the backquote key on my european keyboard. I tried every key in every logical context but I didn't manage to find it.

All SOP Geometry nodes have an option to re-enter the tool to refine the selection.

Select your node you wish to change the input selection.
Check to see that your viewport is set to that node (upper left of viewport). If not hit Enter in the viewport to enter that SOP's state.
Hit the backquote key to re-enter the SOP. This will unwire the SOP and give you it's current selection to add or remove from. Use Shift, Shift-Ctrl or Ctrl to toggle, add or remove from your selection.
When done hit Enter and your SOP now has your new selection.

Korny Klown2
Well, actually this is not an option but rather a workaround and unfortunatelly not even the workaround does work for me because I can't find the backquote key on my european keyboard. I tried every key in every logical context but I didn't manage to find it.

The backquote key is something that I use frequently when working with specific Group SOPs more so than with other SOPs because the Group lends itself to procedural workflows. This “Restart Selecting” hotkey is a general method to re-define the group field for any modifier SOP.

Yes European Keyboards are significantly different. You can remap this hotkey to another key on your keyboard to see if it is going to fit within your workflow. If not please submit a Request For Enhancement (RFE as it is known in Support) with a nice clear summary in to Support.

The backquote key is bound to the:
/Houdini/Panes/Geometry Viewers/Restart Selecting
hotkey

Launch the Hotkey… Editor in the Edit main menu.
From there navigate the path as listed above:

/Houdini/Panes/Geometry Viewers

And in there find the Restart Selecting hotkey and in the right you will see the backquote key tied to this operation. Just change the hotkey to one that maps on to your keyboard.

Once the Restart Selecting action is remapped to a key on your keyboard, give it a try. Then give feedback and submit any requests.

Korny Klown2
quot

I do get your point but I wanted to answer it individually and since this the Houdini users forum I answered specifically in the matter of Houdini.

I totally recommend getting some real working experience with software developers, once you do, you'll understand that, in general, users on forums act like middle-managers-without-responsible, demanding things of software without any idea of how it can be done, or, what is involved in doing it

Edit: So the big question is do you want to be a manager or a skilled artist?

MartybNz
I totally recommend getting some real working experience with software developers, once you do, you'll understand that, in general, users on forums act like middle-managers-without-responsible, demanding things of software without any idea of how it can be done, or, what is involved in doing it

Edit: So the big question is do you want to be a manager or a skilled artist?

I want to be an artist with a software that is flexible, complete and works and doesn't stand in my way.

I know the basic mechanisms of programming (through HTML, CSS, Javascript, Jquery, PHP, Python and even a bit of Java and C++) and since a friend of mine is a developer and he tells about his work, I think I can extrapolate this quite well.

What I expirienced throughout other softwares and by means of discussions with my friend is that artists are artist and developers are developers, so artist are best in what artists do and developers are best in what developers do. That often means that developers dont't know about the needs of the artists so the artists have to tell them and at the end the artists are the clients.
An analogy to that is the relationship between artist and director. The director doesn't necessarely has to know much about vfx, he just tells the artist what effects he wants and it's the artist business to know how to achieve that. I know that many artists often wish that the director would know more about thier work but that's the way it is.

Once the Restart Selecting action is remapped to a key on your keyboard, give it a try. Then give feedback and submit any requests.

Doesn't work.
I select the group node and go into restart selecting mode. Now it wants me to select prims/edges/points and then hit enter. First of all I can't select anything neither prims nor edges nor points. So I tried taking the selection tool but as soon as I do that I'm out of restart selecting mode. Now I can indeed select components but I can't use them in my group node pattern. I tried the same for the group slot on various SOPs and here I can select components in restart selecting mode but as soon as I hit enter it deletes that node instead of updating the group.

Korny Klown2

MartybNz
Doesn't work.
I select the group node and go into restart selecting mode. Now it wants me to select prims/edges/points and then hit enter. First of all I can't select anything neither prims nor edges nor points.

This would most certainly be a viewport selection bug if indeed you can't select anything in this reselect mode.

Please submit a bug with a repeatable case (hip or instructions) as I can't reproduce it and can use the re-select on Group SOPs. Remember to include machine specs, graphics card driver, etc, typical fare when submitting a bug.

Korny Klown2
That often means that developers dont't know about the needs of the artists so the artists have to tell them and at the end the artists are the clients.

That's a fair call. It's been said that in general they're like two ships sailing past each other in the middle of the night

Edit: Upon reflection it would be silly to suggest that programmers aren't artists. The artistry involved in coding new ideas and concepts is equal to any artist creating visual art. The best artists in any field are usually very skilled at articulating their ideas into any language.

Korny Klown2
Doesn't work.
I select the group node and go into restart selecting mode. Now it wants me to select prims/edges/points and then hit enter. First of all I can't select anything neither prims nor edges nor points.

Can you also test with a GroupSop that has points in it, make sure Display Option/Markers/Points is checked. Just checked here on OsX and it's working. AMD 7950, H13.0.359 - also with H12.5

MartybNz
Edit: Upon reflection it would be silly to suggest that programmers aren't artists. The artistry involved in coding new ideas and concepts is equal to any artist creating visual art. The best artists in any field are usually very skilled at articulating their ideas into any language.

Yes they are indeed artist albeit in a slightly different way.
They are no 3D artists, with the needs of 3D artists.

MartybNz
Can you also test with a GroupSop that has points in it, make sure Display Option/Markers/Points is checked. Just checked here on OsX and it's working. AMD 7950, H13.0.359 - also with H12.5

That one works…let's say until it is fully implemented, this is a good temporary solution.
Thanks