I'm a new Houdini student and since moving from a Houdini Apprentice license to Houdini Education I've been having issues when orbiting, translating and zooming around the viewport.

It seems after each time I zoom in, the next time I go to orbit, the view will jump and tilt to a different direction, leaving me looking at my scene from a crazy angle.

https://i.imgur.com/3LAJz2k.gifv [i.imgur.com]

I have tried using both a tablet and mouse with the same result.

I have tried changing the ‘Tumbling Method’ in the 3D Viewports Preferences. The random tilt jump will only happen with 80's and 90's style euler tumbling, but the other two options, Standard and Classic won't keep the camera aim pointing up in Y. The camera will still tilt instead of orbit.

Using version 17.5.327
Windows 64bit

Any ideas?

Try some of these hotkeys: space+g sets the camera to home view, and just focuses the object, while space+shift+f does not rotate the camera. Hope this helps.

Redshift by any chance? There's a known bug with the latest trial redshift, fixed in the latest commercial release and latest daily builds of Houdini.

mestela
Redshift by any chance?

Got a similar question from Support and the answer is no. Besides, why would a 3rd party rendering engine interfere with the viewport navigation? If there are links between the two, they should be cut off.

pickled
Besides, why would a 3rd party rendering engine interfere with the viewport navigation?

Why indeed…and yet it happened to me. I thought there was something wrong with my mouse/bluetooth connection, until I found out about the issue on the RS forums. I updated and the issues went away!

I have an issue with the viewport camera when I dive into a (rotated) object network and switch other object so off. This seems to mess up my cameras up-vector or something. I have to realign the camera with Space/Shift/A, the most awkward viewport hotkey in the whole industry.
When I go up to scene level I have to realign again. No idea what Houdini is trying to do here or if it is intentional at all. In any case, the whole viewport interaction is the most tedious of all 3d apps I know. And I know almost all of them

https://youtu.be/EgfCPlnK0Rc [youtu.be]

OneBigTree
I have an issue with the viewport camera when I dive into a (rotated) object network and switch other object so off. This seems to mess up my cameras up-vector or something. I have to realign the camera with Space/Shift/A, the most awkward viewport hotkey in the whole industry.
When I go up to scene level I have to realign again. No idea what Houdini is trying to do here or if it is intentional at all. In any case, the whole viewport interaction is the most tedious of all 3d apps I know. And I know almost all of them

https://youtu.be/EgfCPlnK0Rc [youtu.be]

That's different from the original post. Your talking about local versus world space transformations. When inside an object with transforms and hiding other objects, the camera will be in the local space. This makes it possible to do editing in the local space with respect to a grid for example. Switching the visible objects to show others or moving up to the scene level will revert the camera view to world space. This shouldn't interfere with tumbling. If it does it sounds like a bug.

jsmack

OneBigTree
I have an issue with the viewport camera when I dive into a (rotated) object network and switch other object so off. This seems to mess up my cameras up-vector or something. I have to realign the camera with Space/Shift/A, the most awkward viewport hotkey in the whole industry.
When I go up to scene level I have to realign again. No idea what Houdini is trying to do here or if it is intentional at all. In any case, the whole viewport interaction is the most tedious of all 3d apps I know. And I know almost all of them

https://youtu.be/EgfCPlnK0Rc [youtu.be]

That's different from the original post. Your talking about local versus world space transformations. When inside an object with transforms and hiding other objects, the camera will be in the local space. This makes it possible to do editing in the local space with respect to a grid for example. Switching the visible objects to show others or moving up to the scene level will revert the camera view to world space. This shouldn't interfere with tumbling. If it does it sounds like a bug.

I think all the viewport camera issues are in some way related, which is why I posted here.

Houdini does something I do not ask for and in the process messes up the camera alignment. You can see clearly that the camera doesn't switch to local space but instead is rotated relative to the work plane which messes up all the axes. It only happens when I hide all other objects which makes it impossible to edit the transformed object isolated in-place which is what I want to do. If I want to edit the object in local space I add a transform node.
I want to be able to edit an animated object with the transforms applied. Once again Houdini overrides user decisions and makes the whole thing unusable.

The viewport camera system is over-complicated and badly maintained. This is where all the issues come from. I have had problems with cameras in Houdini ever since I use it.

Here is another report, maybe that is more related to the OP:
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/58198/ [www.sidefx.com]

Okay maybe this is a coincidence but after uninstalling redshift the camera orbit issue and some seemingly unrelated issue that caused top nodes to fail went away!

Hi all, thanks for the suggestions.

Kate Xagoraris
Try some of these hotkeys: space+g sets the camera to home view, and just focuses the object, while space+shift+f does not rotate the camera. Hope this helps.

Thanks, that helps get my view back to how it is supposed to be, but I'm still stumped as to why the view flips out in the first place.

mestela
Redshift by any chance? There's a known bug with the latest trial redshift, fixed in the latest commercial release and latest daily builds of Houdini.

Yes, I have Redshift installed, but unfortunately updating to the latest daily build of Houdini and also latest official release of Redshift doesn't change anything for me

The problem persists:
https://i.imgur.com/3LAJz2k.gifv [i.imgur.com]

That very much looks like the bug that was previously reported. The explanation from support was that sidefx made some subtle changes to how plugins interact with Houdini, how camera updates are reported to plugins like redshift.

You need the latest daily build from redshift, and the latest daily build from houdini; the ‘official’ stable build from redshift still has this bug.

mestela
You need the latest daily build from redshift, and the latest daily build from houdini; the ‘official’ stable build from redshift still has this bug.

Hey thanks for getting back to help me on this one

The latest customer build as of today is v2.6.46 - Did you mean I should try the latest experimental v3.0.06?
Otherwise, I'm not sure where to find their daily builds. I'm looking in the registered users forum. Any idea?

Thank you!

Sounds like you have the correct release then, hmm. I don't use enough redshift to track the numbers, but maybe someone over on the redshift forums can point you at the explicit versions to use?

Hi, I'm totally new to Houdini. Been working in Blender for a bit. I think I have a similar issue (if I'm understanding this correctly). When I move an object (alt+left click) ie horizontally; to view another side of the house, by the time I get to another angle, the view is all wonky. I can't seem to keep it straight. I don't have that issue is Blender or in my Maya attempts. I don't know if I am supposed to adjust settings??
I've attached images, hopefully it works.

Hi plabill23 do you have Redshift installed? The issue for me was I didn't have acompatible Redshift version for the current release of Houdini.

There is a handy page here that tells you which Redshift version will work with each version of Houdini: https://docs.redshift3d.com/display/RSDOCS/Houdini+Plugin+Configuration [docs.redshift3d.com]

Also make sure your .env file is pointing to the correct Redshift version path.

Hi plabill, this is most likely down to the 3D Viewport preferences. If you change from ‘Standard Houdini Tumbling’ to ‘90’s Style Euler Tumbling' it should behave similar to what you're used to.

DaJuice
Hi plabill, this is most likely down to the 3D Viewport preferences. If you change from ‘Standard Houdini Tumbling’ to ‘90’s Style Euler Tumbling' it should behave similar to what you're used to.

@dajuice
you saved my life. that was it. thank you thank you thank you

GlennimusPrime
Hi plabill23 do you have Redshift installed? The issue for me was I didn't have acompatible Redshift version for the current release of Houdini.

There is a handy page here that tells you which Redshift version will work with each version of Houdini: https://docs.redshift3d.com/display/RSDOCS/Houdini+Plugin+Configuration [docs.redshift3d.com]

Also make sure your .env file is pointing to the correct Redshift version path.

I do not have redshift. :-)