Under all permutations of use causes Maya 2016 on Mac OS to hang. This is true if you load Houdini engine at some earlier point in a session and then unload it from Maya 2016. If you try to load and use renderman your toast, i.e. toes up.

WORKAROUND

WORKAROUND: Use hars houdini engine thin client. Start hars without any arguments. Then, load and unload houdini engine with settings set to socket defaults.

VR

Lars

This is likely due to library and symbol conflicts. Also, note that this issue is also very sensitive to the actual platform/OS. It's very possible that this only happens on OS X, or even specific versions of OS X.

These type of issues should go away once Maya has better support for Houdini Engine's thin client. Support is technically there already, but it involves some manual work to use. The Engine server has to be started/managed manually:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hengine2.0/_h_a_p_i__sessions.html#HAPI_Sessions_Thrift_Server [sidefx.com]

awong
This is likely due to library and symbol conflicts. Also, note that this issue is also very sensitive to the actual platform/OS. It's very possible that this only happens on OS X, or even specific versions of OS X.

These type of issues should go away once Maya has better support for Houdini Engine's thin client. Support is technically there already, but it involves some manual work to use. The Engine server has to be started/managed manually:
http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hengine2.0/_h_a_p_i__sessions.html#HAPI_Sessions_Thrift_Server [sidefx.com]

Correct, shared library collisions, basically impossible to resolve without certification by client platform vendor. See above, thin client fixes problem. Suggest thin client should be made default and not in process server. Suggest thin client be made default for Houdini engine and Houdini engine upon load should create hars process in background. I have done this before and it works well and does not rely upon the client platform vendor to comply. This can be transparent.

VR

Lars

FVGDOTCOM
Suggest thin client should be made default and not in process server.

Yes, this is the intend. However, there are numerous issues that need to be resolved before I'm comfortable in defaulting the backend to thin client.

awong

FVGDOTCOM
Suggest thin client should be made default and not in process server.

Yes, this is the intend. However, there are numerous issues that need to be resolved before I'm comfortable in defaulting the backend to thin client.

I have done this for Houdini Engine connected to Mathematica. Mathematica loads Houdini Engine plugin, which starts hars as background process. Plugin is a pass through device, which also cleans up hars background process. Easy to implement. BTW good job on thin client, its only way to go.

PS: More accurately I implemented a thin client using HAPI for Mathematica, but it works similarly to hars thin client. The difference is my thin client multiplexes other platforms, is geared toward Mathematica, automated startup/cleanup and focused on behavioral VFX, i.e. see this: http://fvg.com/behavioral-synthesis.html [fvg.com]

Note: the houdini engine in process server also breaks Bitfrost in Maya 2016 badly for same reason. It may break other stuff. In process servers are bad juju. I stopped using them in 1995.

Like tugging on superman's cape or pulling the mask off the lone ranger. Just don't do it. :wink:

VR

Lars