I've spent the last week with Houdini, my first dive into it. I came with an open mind after spending 4 years with C4D; Cinema can be clunky with dynamics…

Overall I am enjoying myself, yet I am a bit frustrated with the constant crashes (especially with Crowd/Rag Doll sims.) It can't be my system because it is only a year old and fairly high end. Tech at Side Effects says it might be my drivers–but which one do I install (I've got a GTX780 and the drivers are up to date)?

Also, what's with the arcane error messages like Error Command Exit Code: 1? Hmmm…..Exit Code:1. Gotcha.

Cinema's online community really had me spoiled–with Houdini I've REALLY gotta dig to find enough resources and info online. (Is it me or is Orbolt kinda pathetic?)

I'm not giving up because even though these bugs can be a pain, Houdini still blows away Cinema when it comes to dynamics. I've barely scratched the surface and am not pretending to know a whole lot yet–but its potential is obvious…just hate the bugs…

Don't give up yet. Most of Houdini's crashes, in my experience, are in the unintended activation of the interface. This is why they go undetected by developers. Only when you don't know how to use the interface do you try do unexpected things. I found Houdini crashed quite a bit when I first started using it and then as I got the hang of it Houdini crashed less and less.

They should hire a newbie and let him test Houdini vigorously

tinyparticle
They should hire a newbie and let him test Houdini vigorously

But they would have switch him every 2 weeks or month

I figured there would a 2-3 month period of noob crashes and lameness. I was just reaching out for a little feedback and advice. It seems to me that I need to just figure it out for myself. So be it.

@Enivob–do you recommend the 353.30 driver? I just updated to the newest, but I do know C4D works better with older drivers…

glad your first experiences have been (mostly) positive
crashes that are related to graphics issues are, understandably, very hard to reproduce…so if you do get a crash, please take a minute to file a bug report with as much info as you can.
if you do Help > About Houdini, and turn ON Show Details you'll see a big chunk of info about your system and your Houdini install - sending this along with the description of the crash, a crash log and steps to reproduce (if possible) are really helpful.
thanks

Just as you posted this I sent the files (crash log, tmp file, hip file, and system info) to support@sideffects….hopefully I sent it to the right place.

Thanks.

that should work
there is also this page:
https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=768&Itemid=239 [sidefx.com]

@Tod: I am actually running 355.82. I just have not updated my signature since my last update. I find nVidia drivers work fine with Houdini so if you don't have to update, don't bother.

@Tod - The community here is relatively small compared to others', but everyone is extremely helpful and the advice/help offered is very generous - especially from the more experienced users.

Thanks for the info. I'm really not discouraged–yesterday it started to gel in my head, thus fewer crashes. Support sent me an email about my GPU and driver, possibly disabling my second monitor. I think it just comes down to knowing how to set things up and not piss Houdini off (pretty much standard for all 3D apps, no?)

I am finding Mantra to be a bit tricky only because it seems awfully simple compared to V-Ray, but that's not a complaint…I'm sure there is much to learn with that. Also–what's the deal with trying to render the background? Guess I'll figure it out in After Effects….

PS. The rag doll sims are hysterical…..

tinyparticle
They should hire a newbie and let him test Houdini vigorously

There are interns at Side Effects that get brought in either 3 or 4 times a year. Used to be that they generally had little to no Houdini experience when coming in. I'm sure a good number of RFE's / Bugs get reported as they try to learn the tools.

Mantra is actually pretty vast and has some extreme flexibility with routing data from a scene to various material/shader parameters.

I like the way Houdini handles the background for .EXR output. It is kind of like old school Blender style (pre 2.5).

To see your skymaps in the background and viewport you have to enable that under the Skylight object. I always do this. When I get to After Effects I can choose to Ignore or Use the alpha channel. If I choose to ignore, Houdini has rendered the background into the alpha area and I can use it in my comp. Otherwise I can drop the sky out using one of the other alpha modes. So the background is always there. If you ignore the alpha you can use it.

Tod Ryan
I am finding Mantra to be a bit tricky only because it seems awfully simple compared to V-Ray,

That's the very first time this has been written :shock:

Last time I asked at a V-ray demo if we could count ray hits to create our own render time cut aways he said of course not… V-ray appears to be a push-buttons delight; lots of features black-boxed for the common user.