Hey guys!

Very novice Houdini/TOP network user, so if my question is basic/wrong, I apologize in advance.

I've been following Kenny's PDG for Gamedev tutorial and wanted to modify some of the logic with my own. In his tutorial, Kenny is using a technique of Wedging multiparm asset paths (HDA outputs) and squashing them into a single file (through Geometry Input top Node)which he projects onto a terrain through the HDA in the HDA processor.

So,I've been trying to achieve the same without squashing them into a single file. To do this, the SOP HDA (referenced in the HDA processor) has infinite (9999 max inputs) which inside are iterated on in a For Each Loop. I get my desired result (outside TOPS), but as soon as I put it into a TOP network, even selecting the HDA Processor freezes Houdini.

Is there a more elegant technique that I'm missing or not understanding? Any resources or guidance is appreciated .

P.S 1. Relevant nodes in the attachment are in encompassed in red boxes.

P.S 2. I've lowered the Max Inputs to 11 in the attachments for debug purposes.

Hi there,

I was able to reproduce the issue. What's happening is the “Number of Inputs” multiparameter is being set to the number of inputs on the HDA (in this case 99999), so it's taking a very long time to construct the parameters for each input (but it did eventually complete for me). You can see this parameter by changing the “Input File Source” to the “Custom File Paths” option.

I have added a fix for this: the “Number of Inputs” parameter will now only be automatically set if the number of inputs on the HDA is less than 100. The fix is available in the next daily build of Houdini 18 (18.0.526)

Hey, Brandon!


Thank you so much for the quick reply and support! I'm downloading the daily build as we speak.

In general, would you say that my approach is viable to process individual multiparm inputs in TOPS?

Have a good day!

Ilia

Yes, you can supply inputs to the HDA Processor through this method. The max limit that I added to HDA Processor (100 or less) is only for the UI. You can still supply any number of inputs to the HDA by setting “Input File Source” to “Upstream Output Files”, which will allow the node to accept any number of variable inputs.