Hi All,

I am running Apprentice on a Mac Mini that uses an Intel HD4000 graphics card. According to the wiki this graphics card has OpenGL 4.0 capabilities, however, Houdini only recognizes this graphics card as Open GL 1.1 capabilities.

Is there any way to make Houdini recognize/use the other OpenGL capabilities of this computer?

Basically I would like to be able to see shadows in my viewport. At this GL1.1 level I do not get that.

I think it's coming in H14.

Graphics Card requirements for the upcoming Houdini release:
https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=30927 [sidefx.com]


Until then you could always install Bootcamp and run Windows, or Linux. I did! There they have full support for all OpenGL 3+ features! Unfortunately Apple only wrote OpenGL 3+ with the core features, not the compatibility features that Houdini needs.

Hmm… kind of disturbing.

I am thinking of upgrading to Houdini Indie and was thinking about using it on my Mac mini. I also have a Windows box with a GPU that registers as a GL3 compliant viewport device.

Running Windows on a Mac Mini does not make sense, there will still be no GPU no matter what OS I install on that hardware.

I have not decided if I am going to purchase my single Indie license for Windows or OSX. I am leaning towards OSX, however with this news, I could face the possibility of purchasing Indie and then have it not work when R14 comes out.

The Mac mini can not be upgrade GPU wise, it is what it is.

I guess I am wondering…if I run Indie on a Mac Mini, will it still work when R14 comes out? And by work I mean work as it does now with limited viewport options (i.e. no shadows)?

I found another problem with the display on the Mac Mini. The viewport will not display particles at all.

However, if I use an Open GL output node and configure it for GL2.1, which OSX does support, I see that my render does indeed show particles and shadows while the viewport does not.

It seems that Houdini is too conservative in detecting the capabilities of the OpenGL for the viewport. The Scene Renderer for the 3D Viewport only detects GL 1.1 when it should detect GL2.1.

I think this might be a bug.

Can you double check that you're rendering the OpenGl Rop please. That MPlay should say ‘opengl’ instead of ‘raytrace’ I believe.

I am new to this and wondered about the ray trace myself.
I have only a single output node, the OpenGL.
With that node selected I clicked the Render button inside the parameters panel.
I assumed this would issue a render using the node the button belongs to.

Why else would ray trace show up?

Not sure why it's not working for you.

Attached is a setup of what you have described. There is ‘OpenGL’ written in MPlay.

Thanks for the reply, I get the same results with your file. If I leaver shadows turned off, I can get a render out of OpenGL, but as soon as I try to use shadows everything turns white.

I was hoping to leverage OpenGL for faster renders but without working shadow support this option seems very, very limited…

Games and iPad/Phones seem to have better OpenGL support than Houdini, at this time.