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bobc4d
Daryl Dunlap
Yeah man, the only “hint” i've sniffed out, in all of my web surfing, is “end of summer”.

So, if you go by 4 seasons = 4 quarters, then the end of June is the end of summer.

So, I hope we're guessing right Kays.
but then 21 June is first day of “summer”, so . . . .
Sygnum
So… June is over now, what was it we should keep our eyes open for?
habernir
to sidefx …… can you give us something about houdini 18.5? preview? leaked video?
can you give us something about what will come in 18.5 ? please
Sygnum
Foundry, Autodesk, Pixologic and most prominently Maxon came out with some extremely significant news today while Sidefx is unusually tight lipped… this actually is the first time in years to not hear any announcements or sneak peeks of any kind…
kevinthebright
Continued development of a brand new renderer;
dev and integration of a render delegate for third party renderers;
Continued USD integration;
Revising PDG/TOPs to be more accessible;
Rewriting character animation tools;
Deepening use of VDB/sparse tools;
Continued dev of robust professional modeling tools;
countless bug fixes and the usual VEXification and optimization of nodes…

would be a heavy lift for any company but

all while working from home, dealing with the continued Metal/Cuda/OoenCL and GPU/CPU whackiness during a period when its anyone’s guess when film production will crank up again…

I have no idea how you schedule against that and will be happy if 18.5 hits anytime before Hallowwen.
Sygnum
It's the unfortunate consequence of doing it right. They've released on a quite steady rhythm for a long time now. Now we're just wondering when the next update may come which, according to the pattern mentioned above, should be more or less now…
racoonart
I prefer if they take their time and release when they're done. We've had such mind-blowing releases the last couple of years, it doesn't really hurt to wait a bit longer this time .
FDX3245
racoonart
I prefer if they take their time and release when they're done. We've had such mind-blowing releases the last couple of years, it doesn't really hurt to wait a bit longer this time .
It is better they wait until whatever they have is really ready.. but I wish they would be more open about when to expect something. Or if working remotely means they don't know quite when it will be ready, just some idea of the progress that is being made.
Sygnum
FDX3245
racoonart
I prefer if they take their time and release when they're done. We've had such mind-blowing releases the last couple of years, it doesn't really hurt to wait a bit longer this time .
It is better they wait until whatever they have is really ready.. but I wish they would be more open about when to expect something. Or if working remotely means they don't know quite when it will be ready, just some idea of the progress that is being made.

Exactly. Communication is key. I can't count the times where things went sour because people were kept in the dark - not saying this is happening here, not by far! I'm just so damn excited to see what these crazy folks came up with since H18…
habernir
Because of the reputation they have made for themselves the expectations from them about houdini 18.5 are enormous.
i hope they will release something ,even a post in this forum i will say thank you but something . please don't keep us in the dark sidefx.
Midphase
habernir
Because of the reputation they have made for themselves the expectations from them about houdini 18.5 are enormous.

Meh…not really, at least not for a .5 update. Maybe for H19 where users are expecting a production-ready Karma and some yet-unheard-of new tech.

For 18.5 most people are looking for some stability improvements, maybe more integration of DOP setups at the SOP level, maybe some optimization with simulations (make the sparse solver work with GPU for instance), some optimization/workflow improvement of USD/Solaris, and maybe a couple of new toys derived from SFXLabs.

Unless they're skipping 18.5 completely and going straight to 19 (which at this point they might as well).
hMonkey
This all seams unreal.
malbrecht
People, developing software most of the time is a team effort. With SideFX' developers mostly working from home and trying to communicate through whatever technical means they have available can all but slow things down MASSIVELY.
Yet, they have provided us with a “back-port” of some goodies PLUS they constantly push out builds for you to try out or not.

> expectations from them about houdini 18.5 are enormous.

… I don't consider this a fair statement. Not to the least.
Houdini is evolving all the time, if you look back just two years, a LOT has improved, exciting new features have been added - and it has not all been in .x releases, some of the stuff trickles in through production builds.

Be it a .5 or a .0 release, I am certain the changes and improvements coming will be a “game-changer” (no pun intended) for many of us. If we have to wait a few more months for it to happen: So what? It's not like we are in a “typical situation” right now. That virus-thing is still as active as it was in February/March, there's no cure/vaccine to it, Hollywootz is still on their knees and yet, the moon chases the sun as if purple was the new black. Or was it green.

If you're unhappy with the stream of updates AND the “do something constructive/creative” show going on right now here in the forums, buy into an Adobe subscription. That'll teach you patience. Photoshop STILL isn't fully 16bit or, shush, linear floating point capable. And that's about 20 years after most of us in the printing/photo industry have adopted to at least 16 bit color workflows.


Marc Albrecht
FDX3245
malbrecht
Ladies, developing software most of the time is a team effort. With SideFX' developers mostly working from home and trying to communicate through whatever technical means they have available can all but slow things down MASSIVELY.
Yet, they have provided us with a “back-port” of some goodies PLUS they constantly push out builds for you to try out or not.

> expectations from them about houdini 18.5 are enormous.

… I don't consider this a fair statement. Not to the least.
Houdini is evolving all the time, if you look back just two years, a LOT has improved, exciting new features have been added - and it has not all been in .x releases, some of the stuff trickles in through production builds.

Be it a .5 or a .0 release, I am certain the changes and improvements coming will be a “game-changer” (no pun intended) for many of us. If we have to wait a few more months for it to happen: So what? It's not like we are in a “typical situation” right now. That virus-thing is still as active as it was in February/March, there's no cure/vaccine to it, Hollywootz is still on their knees and yet, the moon chases the sun as if purple was the new black. Or was it green.

If you're unhappy with the stream of updates AND the “do something constructive/creative” show going on right now here in the forums, buy into an Adobe subscription. That'll teach you patience. Photoshop STILL isn't fully 16bit or, shush, linear floating point capable. And that's about 20 years after most of us in the printing/photo industry have adopted to at least 16 bit color workflows.


Marc Albrecht
I don't think anyone is truly unhappy. If you look, most of us use words like ‘wish’. It's no great surprise that people are curious, many of us rely on Houdini to do big things in our workflows. New releases can save time and money (especially when we have to buy less software/plugins, because Houdini makes strides in some area). So again, no wonder people are curious what's happening. No matter how open a company already is, it's never a bad thing that they be more open.
Also, you might want to reconsider addressing a group of people, some of whom are definitely men, as ‘ladies’, it comes off as old fashioned. If you want to come off as all high and mighty, perhaps ‘children’ would better suit, but that won't win you any friends either.
I for one, am sick of the whole, Adobe is shit, therefore X. How shit adobe is has absolutely no bearing on this. You don't stab yourself in the leg just to put in perspective a stubbed toe…

And I think you misunderstood the guy talking about enormous expectations. It's exactly because they have done so much great stuff in the past that the expectations are high, not the opposite.
Midphase
I think you're misreading Marc's dry humor. For a better sense of just how funny he is, you should check out his excellent book that is truly entertaining even if you're not a programmer (like me):

https://www.amazon.com/Jerks-Guide-Becoming-Programmer-developing/dp/1983239305 [www.amazon.com]


Regarding the enormous expectations, just like I said in my previous post, I think .5 releases tend to focus on smaller things. 18 brought us Karma, so 18.5 will probably make it better and more reliable rather than push it into a full on GPU renderer. Things like that.

There's a whole wish-list thread on ODForce about what we would like in 19…but everyone has different expectations and interests so it's all over the place.

My understanding from sources that will remain anonymous is that 18.5 has been floating out there for quite some time as a closed beta, so it is a real thing that does exist. My guess as to why it hasn't been released yet is because they're probably working out a couple of egregious bugs.

SIGGRAPH 2020 virtual conference is in three weeks…so perhaps that's when they will announce the new Houdini.
FDX3245
I don't see the humour. But then there's no point arguing over matters of taste.
malbrecht
Dear Mrs FDX3245,

for lack of any information about who you are or are not, I am probably free to assume you are a lady, therefore the addressing. If I should be mistaken, I am sorry - simply trying to give some balance here. I don't consider women less worthy of being addressed than men.

> Also, you might want to reconsider addressing a group of people, some of whom are definitely men, as ‘ladies’,

… Why? Because usually the ladies among us are being addressed as “guys” and that's the “natural” way? I think some of us men need to get used to being “meant inclusively” when someone says “hey, ladies” instead of “hey guys”. As you say, it's a “matter of taste”.

I apologize to anyone who doesn't like to read the brand “Adobe”. I also apologize to anyone who doesn't like to be reminded of development being a lot of work and sometimes things needing longer than anyone would wish for. I also apologize to anyone who is sick of reading my shit here. I wish for an ignore feature on this forum like the next one.
However, I do not apologize for voicing my opinion. THAT is something that some people need to get accustomed to as well: Freedom of speech is not just the freedom of ONE perspective alone. If I consider a statement not fair, I too have the right to say so. And I think I made it clear that I merely expressed my own impression, not eternal wisdom.

Finally, humour *IS* a matter of taste and I consider it possible and not necessarily a bad thing that we do not agree on this either.


Marc Albrecht
FDX3245
malbrecht
Dear Mrs FDX3245,

for lack of any information about who you are or are not, I am probably free to assume you are a lady, therefore the addressing. If I should be mistaken, I am sorry - simply trying to give some balance here. I don't consider women less worthy of being addressed than men.

> Also, you might want to reconsider addressing a group of people, some of whom are definitely men, as ‘ladies’,

… Why? Because usually the ladies among us are being addressed as “guys” and that's the “natural” way? I think some of us men need to get used to being “meant inclusively” when someone says “hey, ladies” instead of “hey guys”. As you say, it's a “matter of taste”.

I apologize to anyone who doesn't like to read the brand “Adobe”. I also apologize to anyone who doesn't like to be reminded of development being a lot of work and sometimes things needing longer than anyone would wish for. I also apologize to anyone who is sick of reading my shit here. I wish for an ignore feature on this forum like the next one.
However, I do not apologize for voicing my opinion. THAT is something that some people need to get accustomed to as well: Freedom of speech is not just the freedom of ONE perspective alone. If I consider a statement not fair, I too have the right to say so. And I think I made it clear that I merely expressed my own impression, not eternal wisdom.

Finally, humour *IS* a matter of taste and I consider it possible and not necessarily a bad thing that we do not agree on this either.


Marc Albrecht

I was not taking issue with your use of ladies because it was in place of ‘guys’. You used it like one would use ‘child’ when patronizing someone.
Again, the fact things are taking time is a non issue, and you'd be taking a rather dim view to think everyone here is asking them to hurry up. People are just interested in the progress of things, as is natural.
And who was arguing against freedom of speech?
You are rather fond of overstatement.
fianna
Hmmmm probably best if we all just chill before this innocent thread gets completely out of hand because text is sometimes hard at capturing tones/personalities, etc etc, especially when you've not met in person and capture full intonations and such. I think it is safe to say that whenever any company makes a public announcement, it is the indication that the message is ready for public consumption. But prior to that moment, there is probably no sense in having any public discussions or messages if there is nothing to say. Repeat patterns could just be high-frequency coincidences. We appreciate the interest and anticipation - stay cool (pun is optional).
Midphase
kevinthebright
I don't know you but this is BS.

And this is why we can't have nice things. Let's see how soon this thread gets locked!
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