hey, it's really easy to do, but maybe not obvious if nobody told you before!

in your VOP you gotta use a "bind" node. This node lets you bind attributes from your sop level into the material you are building for it.

So, in this case, tab "bind", and change the "Name" to Cd, and change it to 3 Floats (Vector), and then you can use it just like you would expect. So, for what i think you were trying to do, just plug the vector from your Bind into your basecolor, and you're good.

(Cf is not the same thing as Cd, as you have noticed)

Pretty sure the "Cd_bound" value is a boolean, so you can check to see if Cd was correctly bound or not. If it didn't work for some reason, you can set up a default value, whatever you want. (i haven't tried it, but i'm 99% sure that's what it's for)


Have fun!


~Maitland

anybody have the steam version working on wine? (seems to crash on start for me, with current editions) or proton? (i haven't tried)

can we please has a native linux steam version?

hey, does anybody have any tips for running houdini (windows) under wine?

I have the steam version; so, i installed steam using winetricks under manjaro linux, it works pretty well, except there is no Open CL support, which SUCKS

does anybody have an idea how to fix it?

I got houdini working in manjaro linux (sort of) by installing steam for windows under winetricks. then i just installed houdini as usual from the steam library.

there are a couple of open GL glitches which are annoying, but the real showstopper (literally) is that there is no Open CL support. (no idea why?), but that really limits the functionality, for my purposes.

I'm running it on a 4700u AMD laptop. so it's last gen ryzen 7 + Vega 11 gfx (i think).

If anybody has any tips for getting it working better with wine (especially the Open CL issue), I'd love to know, because i really prefer to work in linux, when possible.

My other thought is to install stripped down windows 10 under kvm/qemu and then use that to run steam/etc. i figure that could work better, but i haven't fiddled with setting it up yet. will letCHA know details, if i get it working.

(windows 10 has been naughty, and only deserves to be run as a virtual machine, with linux hypervisor, imo)

Otherwise, sidefx, PLEASE give us linux steam builds!!

MattPuchala
I also think curation is key. I want to be able to find the best tools as fast as possible and when I download them I can trust, with a good amount of certainty, it will do what’s advertised if its a “featured” tool. Along with the obvious something that prevents people from positing duplicate tools. There needs to be some kind of screening process.

i like curation idea. like steam. that would be fun and useful

i'm trying to remember, what was the old hip sharing library thing called? like 10 years ago?

does that still exist?

Wow, that's a significant improvement… I'm tempted to try a dual boot… it's always the danged wifi with linux, tho… I'll just bet, without trying, that my laptop's wifi card is incompatible/not-supported/jiggery-pokey with linux…

any recommendations for a good m.2 wifi card that is linux-easy/linux-ready?

Hi, i was wondering is there a way to install daily builds with the steam version of Houdini Indie?


It's not a huge concern but i always liked having to have a few different versions installed at the same time.. especially to test out new features/etc.. but still keep a production copy rolling.

what about creating matcaps in houdini… what would i have to do?

Like, if I had a nice looking shader set up, how can i bake it out with mantra? like maybe with the games baker tool? and then map it to a sphere? and then render that sphere…

somethin like that? right?

i feel like i'm missing details though… like, what exactly does the exr contain besides for color data?

I used to think the last major revision of Blender was intuitive, but then they changed the interface all around to make it more intuitive… unfortunately, i find the latest revision to be less intuitive.

The nice thing about Houdini, is they never do this type of thing. The whole program is logically structured… it's just super complex… the more time you spend working with it, the easier it becomes to work with.

Every comprehensive 3D package is complicated to fully understand… the difference is that most of them (especially maya) have a ton of books that you can use.

Houdini, you either need to take some classes, or you have to watch a ton of videos in order to learn the interface.

IMHO, what the (Houdini) world really needs to build people's intuition is a nice, glossy UK-style magazine devoted to the subject! (or at least a little Portland-style 'zine)

anybody gots a printing press lying around?

this is probably really simple, but i'm just wondering how do i save out an image sequence (or render an mpeg movie) in reverse from mplay.

(like so, if i used $F3, but the frame numbers would go in descending order)

thanks

you should be able to run houdini ok with your laptop. Maybe you want to upgrade the RAM to 16 or 32 GB if you can.

I've got a 1060 and an i7 over here, and houdini runs just fine… so with your specs, it should only be a tad worse, especially if you are only modeling.

Remember you can always freeze nodes that take a long time to calculate (if you don't need to make changes upstream).

I have a tendency to try things with houdini… sometimes lots of things…


sometimes this leads to a bit of a messy graph of nodes in the network… many of which do nothing but waste CPU cycles…

I wonder if anybody knows some good tips for cleaning up after experimenting?

Is there a python command so that i can delete all the nodes that are currently bypassed?
Also is there a command to delete all the nodes that are orphaned?

(god that sounds terrible)

send them to a nice foster home, rather?


thanks

ahhh! i haven't upgraded to 17.5 yet. What a big update! lot's of good stuff in there! Just yesterday, i was working on a problem that would have been solved better with TOPs/PDGs… but i get lazy to deal with major updates, ha. I guess i should get to it.

Incidently, does anybody know the simple way to transfer my node presets from one major revision to the next?

Hey guys, it's really very easy to get started…

first thing to do is head over to http://openstreetmap.org [openstreetmap.org] and download some data.

find an interesting location, and click the green “Export” button and click “Manually select a different area”



I chose this very interesting area at the corner of 31st and Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica.



now click the blue export button


your browser will save a file called “map.osm” which contains the xml data of the area you selected.

you prolly wanna rename it something meaningful (I called mine “sesism.osm”) and place it in an osm subfolder under your project hipfile.

create a “GameDev OSM Import” node and select your “.osm” file. Then you can wire it to a GameDev OSM Buildings" node which will give you a basis for creating your procedural buildings from your osm file.



OSM files come with tons of data, so you will probably also want to use a “GameDev OSM Filter” node to filter out other data for roads, etc that you will want to handle in a different manner.

RTFM is always a great idea.

I would definitely take a look at blackmagic. they have some interesting video tech and cameras ($1k to $6k range, mostly)..

the free version of their davinci resolve software is all you will probably ever need for any video stuff unless you are doing a bigger production. It has color correction, titles, and nice 3d composting with a node based interface, so it feels good and flexible for a houdini user. Evidently the commercial version (which is $300) is used for a lot of teevee shows, but i'm too busy playing video games to watch that stuff.

These days, decent video cameras are pretty cheap and easy to come by. many people have a camera on their cellphone that takes nicer looking video than a $1000 camera from 10 or 15 years ago… so, i am inclined to agree with Babaj, it does make sense to just start out and make a few videos with something cheap and then see what features that you feel you are missing so you feel confident making a bigger investment.

also, that blackmagic davinci software has some really good nodes for tracking and stabilization which were very effective for cleaning up some up live action jitters when i tried it (at the expense of some resolution, of course).

This is a great thread! I was thinking earlier today that it would be nice to have more wrangle presets (or python, VEXpressions or any code snippets or presets for nodes, really)

I was thinking about the online function of the Game Dev shelf tool. It would be really awesome if there were a way to have more of that type of online modularity in houdini.

Vex wrangle community presets would awesome (or any presets, or even hdas and shelf tools). maybe sidefx forum members could share their best presets public list to a channel. then, anyone using houdini with internet can select a public preset channel and use that person's presets.

I think an online preset ecosystem would be great for everyone:

• Our precious presets can live safe on a cloud with access from anywhere, and safe from hard drive failure and laptop thief
  
• Newbs would have more examples to get to speed
  
• There can be a bit of networking, we could subscribe to each others sidefx preset channels similar to youtube. maybe your next good job will have liked and subscribed to your preset channel?
  
• Maybe sidefx will have less work to do updating the help card examples, if a good community example is a click away
  
• This can encourage all of us to be more organized in our work with houdini (especially me, of course)
  

What do people think of this idea?


–


To keep on topic: my finest attribute wrangle preset:

@N = @N;

Because if you are like I am, you have a lack of normal.
Especially when you dive into your new SOP network..

Many times, you wish for normal, though.

Well, friends, there is no easier way than this to have normal!

you can even choose the flavor of your normal. just select an option from the “Run Over” Menu! Houdini will give you that flavor of normal! Point normal, Vertex normal, Primitive, or even a Detail Normal

But don't choose “Numbers” from the menu. numbers can't have normals, due to math. You can trust me, in school I passed Vector Calculus one time (barely). Besides that, houdini won't do anything, except waste a couple of cpu cycles parsing a do-nothing node. So don't be vexed if you don't see a “number normal” in your geometry sheet or your middle mouse menu. There is nothing wrong with your computer just because of that website you visited.

I hope this preset serves you all well.

Maybe next post, I will make and give to you a preset…
to change your normal into a tangent…!

(which is my specialty, of course)

I just saw this PDG, i look forward to diving in! I remember, before, wiring up some (messy confusing) networks to do some of the stuff i was seeing. And it looks like we can now control other applications, as well!

Maybe in a few years Houdini will be the whole OS?

Maybe in a few years Houdini will be the gaming platform too?

Bill Gates had better eat some more of his No-otropics or he won't know how to TOP this!!

I kid, I kid

houdini just want to send you a friend request! and maybe poke you???

I'm kidding. facebook is kind of a cesspool. i quit using it 6 months ago. and now look at me!! I feel 10 pounds lighter and 10 years younger and the all the ladies chase me everywhere i go!

actually one of the few things i miss about facebook is talking to sidefx friends who were on there regularly… hard at work promoting houdini, of course

Seriously tho, you can probably find a privacy setting on your browser that will allow you to issue a “do not track” request to websites. I think facebook is a login option for the sidefx website, so they probably track everytime their site gets pinged from the login screen here.

Security and personal anonymity are almost non-existent these days; so it's good to be vigilante. If you haven't done so, i would highly recommend that you switch to Firefox Klar/Firefox Focus for your phone browser and F-Droid for your app repository. You will discover another world that is a real breath of fresh air!