You'll need a PC because there is no Mac version of Houdini (though I'd like one).
You'll need a decent 3D graphics card. Go with Nvidia. ATI may have some faster cards available for games but almost every 3D program that uses OpenGL plays better with Nvidia. Houdini in my experience is particularly bad with ATI consumer graphics cards (Radeons). You don't need the latest greatest most expensive graphics card, just something decent, a Geforce FX 5900 or 6600 is more than sufficient.
At least 512 megs of RAM, 1 gig will be more comfortable.
My personal preference right now is for Intel CPUs and Chipsets because I've always had stability issues with AMD, but you may get better perfromance out of AMD.
All in all you don't need a very expensive computer to run Houdini, just something dependable.
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Technical Discussion » pc setups for newbies (sorry if this had been listed before)
- MichaelC
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Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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BTW, blue and orange actually do go together. If you draw a color wheel they are opposite each other. Designers use opposite colors for strong emphasis. My complaint is that really I'm used to seeing the multicolor logo and associate blue and purple with Houdini for some reason. Kind of miss it, but I think this looks pretty good. This board could use something other than the default color scheme though.
Houdini Lounge » New Site Feedback
- MichaelC
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If you try to hit the downloads page without being logged in it throws up a crytic php error, probably would be better to have a message telling people how or where to register log, in.
Mozilla 1.7.8 on Redhat 7.3
Mozilla 1.7.8 on Redhat 7.3
Technical Discussion » tumble/pivot camera around an object
- MichaelC
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hit g in the viewstate or space+g if you are in an OP. The camera will focus on your selection.
Technical Discussion » delete houdini apprentice 6 license?
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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Stop the servers and go delete the license file. It's in cwindows/keys I think. Then, restart the license server and acquire new keys.
Technical Discussion » Collision Problem with POPs
- MichaelC
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You could try increasing the oversampling in the collision behaviour pop.
This happens in games alot and I assume the same thing happens in Houdini. Sometimes a particle travels so fast, that it's past the collision object before a collision can be detected. Oversampling, increasing the collision sample rate, will catch more of the missed collisions, at the cost of performance though.
This happens in games alot and I assume the same thing happens in Houdini. Sometimes a particle travels so fast, that it's past the collision object before a collision can be detected. Oversampling, increasing the collision sample rate, will catch more of the missed collisions, at the cost of performance though.
Technical Discussion » Why were Booleans Taken Out of 6.5???
- MichaelC
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Dissolve visible edges is not an option. I was refering to the dissolve tool.
When you do a cookie, it does a good job, but often it won't leave you the the topology of visible edges you want. It may create some edges you don't want or not create edges you do want. You want everything divided and laid out nicely, preferably in quads.
To quickly rearrange the topology of area of the cookie operation you only need two SOPs.
You use the PolySplit SOP to basicly create visible edges, and the dissolve SOP to hide visible edges. If you select a visible edge on your model and do a Dissolve on it, it's the equivalent of hiding or making an edge invisible in other programs.
In a nutshell, Polysplit and Dissolve are your best friends for cleaning up geometry. Use them to rearrange your topology into quads after cookie operations. Facet is also a really good friend. If ever you are modeling and things start getting wonky or you are rendering and the surface isn't shading correctly, append a facet with the options I wrote above and it will more than likely fix your troubles.
When you do a cookie, it does a good job, but often it won't leave you the the topology of visible edges you want. It may create some edges you don't want or not create edges you do want. You want everything divided and laid out nicely, preferably in quads.
To quickly rearrange the topology of area of the cookie operation you only need two SOPs.
You use the PolySplit SOP to basicly create visible edges, and the dissolve SOP to hide visible edges. If you select a visible edge on your model and do a Dissolve on it, it's the equivalent of hiding or making an edge invisible in other programs.
In a nutshell, Polysplit and Dissolve are your best friends for cleaning up geometry. Use them to rearrange your topology into quads after cookie operations. Facet is also a really good friend. If ever you are modeling and things start getting wonky or you are rendering and the surface isn't shading correctly, append a facet with the options I wrote above and it will more than likely fix your troubles.
Technical Discussion » Why were Booleans Taken Out of 6.5???
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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Mark,
Try appending a facet SOP after your cookie. Set make normals unit length, Consolidate points fast, Remove degenerate, and post compute normals, in the Facet Sop to clean up the result of your cookie. To be extra anal-retentive, you might want to either dissolve visisble edges or split faces in the resulting geometry before appending the facet SOP so the faces are all quads. After that you can bevel or subdivide away no problems.
Try appending a facet SOP after your cookie. Set make normals unit length, Consolidate points fast, Remove degenerate, and post compute normals, in the Facet Sop to clean up the result of your cookie. To be extra anal-retentive, you might want to either dissolve visisble edges or split faces in the resulting geometry before appending the facet SOP so the faces are all quads. After that you can bevel or subdivide away no problems.
Houdini Lounge » Normal Mapping in Houdini?
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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http://www.sidefx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2189&highlight=normal+maps [sidefx.com]
If you look in this thread you'll see Simon posted a hip with a nice foundation for doing this in Houdini. If you are using Apprentice, your texture size will be limited though. If you need larger textures, use the ati normal mapper I posted a link to in the above thread, or use Melody from Nvidia. Both are free and work fine with Apprentice.
Melody link
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/melody_home.html [developer.nvidia.com]
Make sure you read the Melody documentation as it has many more features than the ATI mapper.
If you look in this thread you'll see Simon posted a hip with a nice foundation for doing this in Houdini. If you are using Apprentice, your texture size will be limited though. If you need larger textures, use the ati normal mapper I posted a link to in the above thread, or use Melody from Nvidia. Both are free and work fine with Apprentice.
Melody link
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/melody_home.html [developer.nvidia.com]
Make sure you read the Melody documentation as it has many more features than the ATI mapper.
Technical Discussion » Poly Bevel in 6.1.208?
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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It's there under the name PolyBevel. Maybe it somehow got removed from your tab menu? Can you assign a hotkey for it?
Technical Discussion » transparency fade off for overlapping multi-layer shaders
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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Can't see the forest for the trees , huh? You'd use the Color Mix VOP, pretty much just like what was demonstrated in this thread.
The bottom layer goes into the primary input of colormix
The top layer gets premultiplied by it's alpha and the product goes into colormix secondary.
The alpha then goes into bias of colormix.
The bottom layer goes into the primary input of colormix
The top layer gets premultiplied by it's alpha and the product goes into colormix secondary.
The alpha then goes into bias of colormix.
Technical Discussion » Easy Question for once! :) ;)
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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There's no need for the excessive bracing, however what you wrote should've worked fine provided you path to the reference was correct.
ch(“../tz”)*-1
Your expression should look something like that.
Right click the parameter you want to reference and select “Copy Parameter”. Right click in the parameter filed of the parameter you want to control and selected “Paste Copied Relative Refs”. Then, add a *-1 to it,
ch(“../tz”)*-1
Your expression should look something like that.
Right click the parameter you want to reference and select “Copy Parameter”. Right click in the parameter filed of the parameter you want to control and selected “Paste Copied Relative Refs”. Then, add a *-1 to it,
Technical Discussion » Houdini 6.1.208 in Windows 2000?
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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I used every version of Houdini from 6-6.1.200 on windows 200 fine for the most part. They were prone to crashing but they worked.
I only had SP4 installed though so perhaps something in SP5 or 6 is causing trouble.
I only had SP4 installed though so perhaps something in SP5 or 6 is causing trouble.
Technical Discussion » snap
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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You can snap to primitives in Houdini by going into the Snap options and upping the tolerance for primitive snap. The problem is that Primitive snapping does not seem to snap to the center of the primitive. What I usually do in the case where I want to snap to the center of a primitive is, apply an extrude to the primitive I want to snap to, scale it in a tad, collapse the primitive so I have a point in the center, and snap to that point. You can dissolve the point when you're done or leave it there for future use. The other option is to use a contruction plane and snap to it.
Not sure exactly what problem you are haing with curves. I can snap to any point on a curve just fine. Do you have depth turned on in the snap options?
To move an object simultaneously in just two axis, you transform the translate handle form the center in your appropriate orthographic view.
I don't know if these colors can be changed, or not. I use the default colors. You could take a look at this page and see if you can figure out how they changed so many of the colors.
http://visualparadigms.com/houdini/downloads.php?type=scripts [visualparadigms.com]
Not sure exactly what problem you are haing with curves. I can snap to any point on a curve just fine. Do you have depth turned on in the snap options?
To move an object simultaneously in just two axis, you transform the translate handle form the center in your appropriate orthographic view.
I don't know if these colors can be changed, or not. I use the default colors. You could take a look at this page and see if you can figure out how they changed so many of the colors.
http://visualparadigms.com/houdini/downloads.php?type=scripts [visualparadigms.com]
Technical Discussion » setting point normals
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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And in answer to the PS part of your question, are you using the Sweep SOP? The Sweep SOP can be used to align a copied object on a curve. The object will be aligned with it's Z facing down the Curve, and will allow you to twist and roll objects on the curve. You can make adjustments to the alignment by placing an edit or transform SOP between the Geometry's SOP and the Sweep SOP.
Technical Discussion » Metaball and shaders
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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http://s91408461.onlinehome.us/junk/painty2.mov [s91408461.onlinehome.us]
Here's a quicktime. It seems to look best in this case if you use lots of larger metaballs with miniscule weights.
What can I say? It was a good idea and it has millions of uses It''s like a whole new world of possibilities for shader creation has been opened to me.
You can really get crazy with this. You can use custom attributes to index shaders, you can blend them based on weight, and you can pass attributes back and forth with attribute transfer, modifiy attributes based on collision…
It's tons of fun to play with!
Here's a quicktime. It seems to look best in this case if you use lots of larger metaballs with miniscule weights.
What can I say? It was a good idea and it has millions of uses It''s like a whole new world of possibilities for shader creation has been opened to me.
You can really get crazy with this. You can use custom attributes to index shaders, you can blend them based on weight, and you can pass attributes back and forth with attribute transfer, modifiy attributes based on collision…
It's tons of fun to play with!
Technical Discussion » creating a displacement map based off of a sculpt
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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I know there's a way to do this in Houdini, but the solution will have to wait till later today unless someone beats me to it. I need to sleep.
For now, check out ATI's standalone normal mapper utility. It'll generate the maps you need based on high and low versions of a model.
http://www.ati.com/developer/tools.html [ati.com]
Not sure but it may even run under Wine if you aren't on Windows.
For now, check out ATI's standalone normal mapper utility. It'll generate the maps you need based on high and low versions of a model.
http://www.ati.com/developer/tools.html [ati.com]
Not sure but it may even run under Wine if you aren't on Windows.
Technical Discussion » Metaball and shaders
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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Check this out.
Metaballs with blended shaders
Metaballs with blended textures
Made an attribute for the metaballs and used it as a bias for a layered VOP shader. You can belnd as many as you want, but you have to daisy chain your networks in SOPs and VOPs to do it.
http://s91408461.onlinehome.us/meta.hipnc [s91408461.onlinehome.us]
I'm rendering an animation of the paint version. Will post it later.
Metaballs with blended shaders
Metaballs with blended textures
Made an attribute for the metaballs and used it as a bias for a layered VOP shader. You can belnd as many as you want, but you have to daisy chain your networks in SOPs and VOPs to do it.
http://s91408461.onlinehome.us/meta.hipnc [s91408461.onlinehome.us]
I'm rendering an animation of the paint version. Will post it later.
Technical Discussion » transparency fade off for overlapping multi-layer shaders
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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JColdrick
You could do it by combining your two shaders into one - of course you'd need to be comfortable with the VOP editor or VEX programming. If you assigned an attribute to your data, say varying from 0 to 1, paint it up from black with a soft edge, then that attribute could be read by your shader to blend between two chunks of code that are mixes - bob's your uncle.
Cheers,
J.C.
This is pretty damn slick. I always painted a map to do this. I tried this method out and it works great. You can use whatever sort of blending function you want and provide parameters in the shader for the user to manipulate the attibute after it has been painted. Really cool.
Here's an example (using color mix with the custom attribute as a bias) applied to an ear with 2 sets of overlapping UVs..
http://s91408461.onlinehome.us/ear.hipnc [s91408461.onlinehome.us]
Technical Discussion » how to append polygons?
- MichaelC
- 344 posts
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