What's new in Houdini Engine for Maya

   22626   21   2
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 17.5.581/18.0.430
  • Added the ability to pass component selections into Houdini string parameters.
    Specifying the new “sidefx::maya_component_selection_type” tag on a string parm will now instruct Maya that it should accept component selections of the given type. The format that Maya will pass back to Houdini is the same as what is expected by the Group SOP.

    One usage of this is to pass a component selection into Houdini as a group. To do this, you would promote the “Group Base” parm from the group node to the HDA. Then in the Edit Operator Type Properties window, add the tag “sidefx::maya_component_selection_type”. (In Houdini 18+ you can choose it from the “Built-in Tags” button). The tag's value should be either “vertex”, “face”, “edge” or “uv”. Make sure that your group is operating on the same type.

    If you are just promoting the “Base Group” parm, you will need to edit the “script_action” tag as well. In the Parameter Description, choose the Action Button panel, and enter:

    import soputils
    kwargs['inputindex'] = 0
    kwargs['geometrytype'] = hou.geometryType.Points
    soputils.selectGroupParm(kwargs)
    

    Replacing hou.geometryType.Points with either Points, Primitives or Edges depending on your selection type.

    I have attached an example HDA that will set the vertex color of the selected vertices, as well as deform them with a mountain SOP.
Edited by johnmather - June 21, 2022 14:09:27

Attachments:
mayaSelectionToGroup.hda (14.1 KB)

User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 17.5.587/18.0.435
  • Parameter help strings are now displayed as tool-tips in the Maya Attribute Editor.
    If you hover over an attribute in the Maya attribute editor and the corresponding HDA's parameter has a help string defined for it, it will now be shown in both a tool-tip as well as in Maya's help line.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 17.5.661/18.0.509
  • Parameters that modify others can now trigger an attribute sync when modified.
    Specifying the new “sidefx::maya_parm_affects_others” tag on a parm will now instruct Maya that it should perform an attribute sync whenever it is modified. This is mainly used when a parm callback modifies the state of other parms.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.0.773/18.5.528
  • Added support for Maya 2022.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.0.828/18.5.583
  • Added the ability to specify the HAPI connection timeout.
    This is useful if Houdini takes a long time to start.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.0.858/18.5.613
  • The Maya plugin will now revert to the unloaded state if a license could not be acquired.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.0.928/18.5.683
  • Parameters can now trigger a full asset sync when modified.
    Specifying the new "sidefx::maya_parm_syncs_asset" tag on a parm will now instruct Maya that it should perform a full asset sync whenever it is modified.
Edited by johnmather - Aug. 27, 2021 16:21:44
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.0.946/18.5.701
  • The PYTHONPATH environment variable can now be cleared before starting.
    Added the option to clear the PYTHONPATH variable before starting the Houdini Engine server, and when the asset is viewed in Houdini via the "View Assets in Houdini" menu item. In certain cases, importing certain python modules in Maya could cause conflicts when the Houdini Engine server starts.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.5.718
  • Maya callbacks can now be executed when parms are modified.
    Added the sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func and sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func_language built-in tags. These tags allow the user to define a Maya callback that should be called when the associated parm is modified.

    To trigger a Maya script when a parm is modified, the built-in sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func tag must be defined on the parm. This instructs Maya which function should be called when the parm is changed. Both MEL and Python functions are supported, however MEL is the default. If you wish for a Python function to be called, you must additionally include the sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func_language built-in tag on the parm and set its value to python.

    In both languages, the callback function must receive a single argument. This argument will hold the source of callback. Eg. if the parm parm on the Houdini asset foo1 is modified, it will pass "foo1.houdiniAssetParm_parm__button" to the callback function specified by sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func. Therefore callback functions should be defined as the following:

    // MEL
    global proc myCallback(string $plug)
    {
    print("Caught message from " + $plug + "!\n");
    }

    # Python
    def myCallback(plug):
    print('Caught message from ' + plug + '!')

    In this case, sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func would have been defined as myCallback, and sidefx::maya_parm_callback_func_language would have been defined as either Python or (optionally) MEL.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 18.5.979/19.0.655
  • Added support for Maya 2023.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.0.655
  • The initialization method for the Houdini Engine for Maya plug-in has been changed to fall in line with the other plug-ins.
    This new initialization method has been specifically designed to reduce errors when starting the plug-in. If you have installed Houdini in the default location, there should be no visible difference. However, if you have installed Houdini in a non-default location, the plug-in will now prompt you to provide two paths in the preferences window. One is the path to HFS, and the other is to libHAPIL.

    You can find further information here [www.sidefx.com] under "Setting the location of HFS and libHAPIL."
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.0.692/19.5.325
  • Added a "Always Merge Geometry Input" asset option
    This option causes input geometry nodes to always be passed through a merge node when provided to a geometry input parm.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.0.1047/19.5.673
  • Added support for Maya 2024.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.0.1153/19.5.787
  • Made certain error messages more descriptive when creating input nodes
  • Fixed an issue with "Always Merge Input Geometry" setting
    The "Always Merge Input Geometry" setting would only affect inputs connected to asset parameters and not asset inputs.
  • Added "Pack Before Merge" setting
    Added the ability to turn the input geometry into packed primitives before merging them together. This mirrors Unity's "Pack Geometry Before Merging" feature.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.5.906/20.0.633
  • Fixed an issue where Houdini Engine output was not being forwarded to the Output Window on Windows
    The output can be used to debug assets.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.5.989/20.0.716
  • Added support for Maya 2025.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.5.994/20.0.721
  • Fixed an issue where the Maya 2025 engine directory was not installed correctly.
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.5.1031/20.0.758
  • Fixed an issue where the Apple silicion builds of Houdini Engine for Maya were not being included in the installer
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.5.1050/20.0.77/20.5.305
  • Fixed an issue where setting certain attributes programmatically would result in incorrect behaviour.
    Setting alwaysMergeInputGeometry, packBeforeMerge or preserveScale on a houdiniAsset will now call their respective callbacks. This fixes issues where programatically setting these attributes would not have the same result as when setting them in the UI.
Edited by johnmather - July 23, 2024 16:51:03
User Avatar
Staff
516 posts
Joined: Aug. 2019
Offline
New in 19.5.1071/20.0.798/20.5.326
  • Fixed an issue where Houdini could not be launched from Maya on Windows if there is a mismatch between the Python version of Houdini and Maya.
  • Fixed an issue where the "Set to Selection" button would not honour the "Pack Geo Before Merge" setting on the asset.
  • Added the ability to globally disable cooking of Houdini assets in Maya.
  • Quick Links