Hi,
I have spent most the last week end working on a bunch python scripts which “exports” houdini data to Cycles renderer xml format. ( standalone version). I had a lot of fun and thing worked out pretty well so far.

But it suddenly occured to me that it might not be ok with Indie licensing. As I can recall, Indie version doesn't not accept third party renderers integration.

There is no real “integration” here; all houdini does is writing some xml files and launching a shell command.

Is what I am doing out of line ?

Good question. But I am going to venture a guess that since you are writing the script, no. I think the limitation is that they are simply not supported. I would say unless you are hacking the software and basically turning it into a crack version that supports all 3P renders, you are OK.

But slap me silly if I am wrong.

Yeah, that was my guess to. All I'm doing is very standard I think.

But I don't want to risk having sideFX SWAT team busting my door open , with vdb smoke bombs and everything

They'd vex you and put you in a bgeo-suit before they copy stamp you all the way back to a maximum security cache some where in a blackboxed hda.

-b

hihihi !!
very nice

my gut says this is OK…but I can't speak for SESI on this issue…
whenever in doubt just e-mail…
talk to you support contact or even just mail info@sidefx.com

I just received an answer from SESI telling me it's ok to do that with Indie.
Very glad to read that ^^

i just seen that my version a very very simple i have done it 1.5 years ago:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&p=147592#147592 [sidefx.com]

if i can give you a tip. make a blender bgeo importer or use the .json export function in houdini to make a blender importer. you will make the blender user much more happy :-)

thanks mandrake0
I will study your otl.
At first glance, it looks like we had the same approach.
I went a little further though, and I am stuck at implementing uv coordinates in the mesh exporter part. It's trickier than I thought.

Did you have any luck with uvs at some point ? ( I see there 's no uv in the otl you linked, but maybe you tried on a later version ^^ )

it was just some spare time with a motivation todo some learning with python.

when you already do some UV stuff you are fare ahead of mine basic script. :-)

well i haven't done any updates but if i would invest some time i would make a importer for blender itself where you can read bgeo or json files. so the main development part would be on the blender side. what also can be done is a script that exports all the scene data and material name's and link it to cycles material.

the xml way i don't know how long it would stay because there where some talks about a json file definition for the cycles render.

Blender Task T38279:
https://developer.blender.org/T38279 [developer.blender.org]

Please keep us updated on this!
I would love to be able to render my scenes in blender, or with cycles!
Right now I'm using obj with mdd cache, but that only works for some things.
I would love to be able to render volumes and changing topology in blender.
Mantra is nice, but too slow for most of my work.
G

@Gerbrand

I don't know if i can make a importer over my spare time at x-mas. if i create one i will update it here.

If I could help I would, but I'm super useless with code, and still finding my feet in houdini.
If you need a tester, I'll help with that
G

i think i need some BEER :-) just jokeing…

i know that there is some files from sidefx for the implementation with python:

$HFS/houdini/public/binary_json/
$HFS/houdini/public/hgeo/

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk12.0/hdk_ga_using.html#HDK_GA_FileFormat [sidefx.com]

must see if i can do it…..

at the moment i play a bit with the houdini json file to get some feeling how the file ist build up. the good thing is it is easy to read.

Are there any full documentation? or is it not public it reduces the: “why do you do it like that moments”

where i have more trouble is the blender api but it will take some time till i get the concept behind it and how to develop in a nice funky way….. :-)

Wish I could help, but if you need someone to cheer you on in the background, I'm available on skype for that
So exited to see what you come up with!
G

Gerbrand
Wish I could help, but if you need someone to cheer you on in the background, I'm available on skype for that
So exited to see what you come up with!
G

thats a small test from last week with just 30 -40 lines of code so not much code….

https://vimeo.com/150172140 [vimeo.com]

at the moment i try to support more poly types like polysoup or mixed primitives(triagulated, quad). support for groups, loading of custom attributes.

the lucky part is the geo file type is easy to read :-)
what i have also done is to have some test files how the attributes / groups / … get stored in the file.

where i'm more stuck is the blender api at the moment i didn't get bmesh to work. but thats important because with bmesh i can add custom attributes on to the mesh.
there are also some strage errors with blender that aren't funny and i find i don't do something wrong. :roll:

EDIT:
just got polysoup to work :-)

wow
Dude, when you figure this out… lives will change!!
I'm checking this thread more than my wife checks on pintrist
Good luck!
G

Gerbrand
wow
Dude, when you figure this out… lives will change!!
I'm checking this thread more than my wife checks on pintrist
Good luck!
G

this forum is better the pinterest :wink:

whats intressting for me is that sidefx have done a lot of work into the file format. i'm at the moment at about 250 lines of code (incl. doc… ) and thats in my point of view not much. okey there are some functions missing but i think i can get the core part under 350 loc (import from polygones all types, uv, groups). when i see the blender dxf or fbx implementation this code looks like a joke or i'm a horrible coder and it realy is a joke :-)

yesterday i have done some test with the uv part and i'm still on it. the group part, code cleanup fixing the uv i hoped todo it this year but beer and the clubbing is in the way. :wink:

what i won't implement in the first run is nurbs, bezier, particles (not 100% sure), vdb and custom attribute.

custom attribute: i can import it not too much diffrent then the uv import but i can't see it in the gui ? i don't know if you know where are the custom attributes viewable?

vdb: the integration is still in development and you can import it as .vdb and in houdini you can export vdb files. so it's not that bad:-)

nurbs and bezier: at the moment no intrest to look at it :-)

particles: i didn't check how the implementation is done in blender when i have time maybe i look into it.

and the rest: NO too all other fancy stuff that you can even imagine :-)

I can't even do a single line..of code.
So your horrible 250 lines is better than my 0.
I wish blender just had an awesome alembic importer.
Then you'd be able to drink much more beer and club hard
I tried vdb in blender, but got stuck behind my own inability to compile shit
Good luck sir!
G