I found that when I selected an object in /stage context, Houdini crashes a lot. It doesn't crash every time, but more like 30% of selecting crashes. Especially when Karma rendering is on.

Selecting in /obj context doesn't have the same issue.

I've tested on Windows 10 and OpenSUSE. Generally OpenSUSE is more stable, but for this specific operation (selecting in /stage context with Karma render on), both crashes a lot.

I've reported to the customer support, with crashlog and diagnostic and hip and all, but the support said they can't reproduce it on their side so they can't help.

Just like to see if others' have the same problem and if so bring more attention to the dev.

Crash report from rainc; Houdini FX Version 19.0.451
Uptime 254 seconds
Wed Dec 1 17:29:22 2021
Caught signal 11

Traceback from 21532 ThreadId=0x000012fc
CURRENT THREAD 4860
+0x26c7b250 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libRE.dll
+0x26c27b9a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libRE.dll
+0x26c26eec C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libRE.dll
+0x12eb87f0 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libDM.dll
+0x12eb7ae7 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libDM.dll
+0x12e8fd18 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libDM.dll
+0x12939e59 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libJEDI.dll
+0x1293a7f8 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libJEDI.dll
+0x11a016bd C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libUI.dll
+0x11504a42 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libSI.dll
+0x134a3484 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libBM.dll
+0x12db4b79 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libDM.dll
+0x11a0f4d9 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libUI.dll
+0x119a08cf C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libUI.dll
+0x1199df89 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libUI.dll
+0x1199e46d C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libUI.dll
+0x1155d8b6 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libSI.dll
+0x1155e235 C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\libSI.dll
+0x14000196e C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\houdinifx.exe
+0x14000222a C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.0.451\bin\houdinifx.exe
+0x7ffc945c7034 C:\Windows\System32\KERNEL32.DLL
+0x7ffc94ae2651 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll


Crashlog looks like this.

I'm not crashing when selecting in the viewport in 19.0.454 (Windows), but I did notice that when in Karma mode, I cannot select Leaf Primitives at all. I wonder why this is the case? HoudiniGL appears fine, though.

Also, diving into the SOP Create results in ghosted/double printed offset thing, see pic.

Semi-related & ranty. I really don't think Solaris/LOP is production-ready. I fully understand why it exists. I agree that it's complexity is justified, and it can help even small teams to scale better... if it's correctly implemented.

At this point it's so buggy that I can barely do anything (at least on my machine, I know it probably works well for some others.). Sometimes it crashes. Sometimes the viewport just refuses to update. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

What's the best way to work with Houdini without using Solaris/LOP? But Karma is USD only... can I just install a third-party renderer like Redshift and work in /obj, pretending /stage doesn't exist?

Karma is USD-only, but that can be largely abstracted for you. We provide a Karma ROP which internally wraps up Scene Import etc, so that you can work in /obj but still render in Karma. This is still a new workflow so, given your comments about stability etc, I don't want to flood you with false hope that "yes this will 100% work 100% of the time on 100% of your use-cases", but it might be worth a spin. We'd certainly value your feedback on this.

jason_iversen
Also, diving into the SOP Create results in ghosted/double printed offset thing, see pic.

You're seeing the stage geometry and probably have a transform on the SOP Create LOP which might explain the offset. If you "Hide Other Objects" in the viewport options it'll all disappear.

I've given up hope that it'll get fixed because devs seem to not be able to reproduce it. But just for the record, this happens with Redshift too. Selecting objects crashes every so often for both Karma and Redshift under /stage. /obj works fine, even with Redshift's IRP on.

So at least I know it's not Karma's fault, but Solaris'...

Another weird thing I notice is that it usually silently crashes on Windows (*sometimes* it produces a crashlog). But on OpenSUSE it always produces a crashlog.