Hi. I've been trying to model a physics-like system in Blender and have found out it has some limitations. Can anyone tell me if Houdini can do what I want?

1. In Blender, I created a “parent” sphere that emitted particles (“children”), where the particles were spheres of the same size as the parent. But, the particles all overlapped. Is it possible in Houdini to create particles that follow Newtonian physics but that don't overlap or where you can adjust their initial positions if they overlap?

2. Also, I'd like to be have the child particles emit non-overlapping grandchild particles of their own, have these grandchild particles emit particles, etc. In Blender, you can get the child particles to emit grandchild particles, but these grandchild particles seem to be created at the same time as the “child” particles. I'd like the grandchild particles to be created only at some point after the child particles are created. Is it possible to get generations of child particles and to set the time of emission of the particles as well as their locations (see above).

3. Also, does Houdini have a scripting ability to write small programs to control a simulation?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice! Right now, I'm stuck with Blender.

Roger

Yes, Houdini can do that.

Just download the free version and start playing around with it.

Enivob,

Thank you! I was hesitant about trying to learn the free version because I spent a lot of time with Blender and only when I learned enough did I learn it couldn't do what I wanted. So, thanks! I'll download it and start learning!

Roger

Houdini is far superior to Blender in most aspects. I mainly use Blender as a conversion tool now. The only thing Blender can really do better than Houdini is to run on lower spec hardware.

Houdini is extremely good with particles. Its also insanely fast. I remember doing a test with particles and the whole screen is covered with particles so I cannot even see the background. And I can still rotate the viewport in realtime!

I hope you like it, I think your time is better spent learning a program like Houdini than open source programs since they are rarely used in production.
/Andreas

Enivob and Andreas,

I really appreciate your help! I posted a similar question on various Blender forums and no one ever bothered to answer; although after what you've told me, that might be because what I wanted couldn't be done in Blender. When I first started my project, someone recommended Houdini, but then others recommended Blender. I should have listened to the first guy!

I downloaded Houdini last night. I may need to upgrade my operating system because it looks like Houdini for a Mac needs OS X 10.10 or higher, and I have the 10.6.8 version. But, if I can control the particle positions so they don't overlap and make generations of child particles, it will be well worth it.

Anyways, thank you again! Happy holidays and new year!

Roger

10.6.8 is pretty old. The last Houdini version to run on 10.6.8 is 12.5.

Before you upgrade your OSX you may want to review the hardware specs. Houdini needs a good graphics card to work correctly and most Mac's don't have the video capabilities that Houdini requires.

I have a MacMini running 10.10 and it will no longer run the current version of Houdini because it no longer meets the minimum requirements for hardware support.

Enivob,

I actually updated my computer to 10.10 2-3 months ago, and it promptly stopped my internet from working. A guy at my gym had a similar problem with another application. The apple store people tried reloading it and then eventually just put back 10.6.8. I guess version 10.10 seems to work better in a newer computer.

I've been looking at Houdini's system requirements and trying to figure out if my computer has the right graphics card, etc. It takes some time to figure out what all the acronyms mean (GL3-compliant, etc.). I think it will work, but pretty soon I'm just going to give it a try and find out. I hope to use Houdini version 12.5 as you point out since they say it will work with my operating system.

Anyways, thank you again for your advice! I may be coming back to these forums as I start playing around more with Houdini!

Roger