I just downloaded the free Houdini 5.5 version and was wondering if someone could help me enter an environment variable into my system that would help the program run faster. I've run earlier versions of Houdini on this laptop, when I had a student license and this same thing happened. I called Side FX and someone helped me type in a variable, then it ran great. I'm using Windows NT 4.0, with service pack 6a installed, on a Dell Inspiron 7500 machine. All of my other programs run fine, but Houdini is just taking way long to redraw. Thanks!
Jorge Elbrecht

Hi,

May I know what graphics card is in the laptop? Also, have you tried downloading the latest graphics drivers for the card?

Cheers!
steven

Thanks for answering me, Steven. I don't remember exactly what kind of card, I think an ATI Rage, I think it was a 16 mb card. Where can I look on my system to find out exactly? Also I looked at the “environment” tab in my system properties and noticed that the Houdini environment variable that was entered in a while back is set to a path on my C drive. I'm running Houdini 5.5 off of my E drive. Nevertheless, it's still an environment variable for Houdini 4.1. What to do???

Hi,

Please go to this link [sidefx.com] for setting the environment variable.

As for the Houdini 4.1 environment variables, you can leave them alone if they are not affecting Houdini 5.5.

If you would like to uninstall them, you can use the Uninstaller (Control Panels -> Add/Remove Programs -> Side Effects Software Houdini) then select to “Uninstall only some Houdini components”. In the next dialog window, please select “Houdini Version 4.1 Environment Variables” then click “Next”.

Alternatively, you can delete the environment variables directly in the environment variables dialog window.

I hope the above helps!

Cheers!
steven