Is there a way to isolate objects in the viewport that disables the simulation of hidden object.

When I use the “viewportisolator”, the simulation of all hidden objects is still active. Just as when I use the “visibility” node for an object it still calculates the simulation, or loads the cache of the hidden object.

Which renders both kind of useless.

So I was wondering if there's an alternative way that prevents simulation or cache loading of hidden objects ?

Thanks,

R.

bump !

I keep running into this problem. Maybe I didn't explain very well.

I know I can hide an object by disabling “display/render” on the SOP node, and that actually speeds up the playback rate. But that way I keep hiding and unhiding objects when I need to render something or need fast playback.

I was wondering if there's a way to hide something like in in Softimage or even Maya where you can hide something just from the viewport and it actually speeds up the scene playback rate. But when a frame is rendered the object is still visible.

It amazes me basic workflow stuff like this still seems to be missing from Houdini.

Or does someone know way to do his ?

R.

Hey toonafish,

What about setting in the objects the display flag to a null or lowres version and the render flag to the actual geometry?

Cheers
CYTE

Thanks, but that's the thing. Even when I set it to bounding box or hidden, Houdini still makes the same calculations as with full geometry. It also loads the cache, even when the display flag is set to hidden.

Besides, how does one change the display flag of a hair SOP ? I'm currently working with some simulated hair and I cached the strand simulation. But there seems no way to hide the actual hair from the viewport to speed up playback without hiding it from the render as well. So if I don't want a super slow playback rate I have to hide it manually, scroll to the right frame, unhide, render, rinse and repeat…


R.

Hey toonafish,

Maybe you dont know the render flag? You set in sop level by Ctrl clicking on the blue display flag. So you can have a display flag and a seperated render flag inside your object.

Cheers
CYTE

CYTE
Hey toonafish,

Maybe you dont know the render flag? You set in sop level by Ctrl clicking on the blue display flag. So you can have a display flag and a seperated render flag inside your object.

Cheers
CYTE

Hey thanks. I didn't know about this hidden feature.

It sounds like this is what I need, but I can't get it to work the way it would be useful.

Unfortunately this seems not available for a geo node. And when I Ctrl or Alt click on any SOP node in a tree nothing happens. I have to disconnect all nodes from the first one, and then RMB click on the SOP node and deselect “display” or “render”. Then I can hide it from display, but it still renders. So that way it seems to work.

But if that's the way should work, it's even worse than hiding and unhiding a geo node. I have to dive into a geo node, disconnect everything from the first SOP node, and then I can hide it from display.

But I must be doing something wrong here ?

Edit : Ah, finally got it working. Forget the previous rambling. I figured out you have to first add a second SOP node like a Null in the GEO node that can then turn the display flag to “visible”

But strangely enough Ctrl and Alt Clicking still does nothing here, only the RBM works.

But this is the solution, thanks !

R.

meh, sorry, cheered too soon.

It worked for a hair groom SOP, and then it broke.

Now it only works when I dive into the geo node of the hair, but as soon as I'm out on Objects level the hair is visible again, even though the display flag on the SOP node is still disabled.

Coming from Softimage, working in Houdini feels like switching to an old rusty Trabant with a high tech Tesla engine :-)

R.