Hello,
I have a scene that has a volume with a fractal applied to it to create a cloudscape. I am trying to optimise the frame render time for this scene but am unsure where to start. I know about volume step size and have tried messing with it but still have huge frame times. To be honest I'm unsure what a reasonable frame time for this type of render would be on my machine (i7 950 3.07Ghz).
Any pointers/advice would be greatly appreciated. I'v attached the file too.
EDIT: added the otl also
Found 103 posts.
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How to go about optimising a volume render
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
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Technical Discussion » Point instances-sprites after caching particles to disk?
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
I'd quite like to know the answer to this as well.
I've got a load of particles saved to disk and then loaded at render time with a “mantra: delayed load procedural” but they render as spheres or points if you turn “render as points” on. I want them to render as sprites though.
Is it even possible to have delayed load particles rendered as sprites?
Can anyone shed some light on this?
I've got a load of particles saved to disk and then loaded at render time with a “mantra: delayed load procedural” but they render as spheres or points if you turn “render as points” on. I want them to render as sprites though.
Is it even possible to have delayed load particles rendered as sprites?
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » DOP group to SOP group
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
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So I have a group in DOPS which is a collection of all the objects that have moved in the simulation. I want to get this group into SOPs so that I can use the data to shade the simulated objects differently depending on whether they have moved or not. How would I go about this?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Sprite scale over life
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
That's one of the expressions I tried. I've just tried it in another scene and it works fine so it must be something to do with the scene.
– I think I've figured it out. I had it only operating on one group. D'oh :roll:
– I think I've figured it out. I had it only operating on one group. D'oh :roll:
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Sprite scale over life
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
How can I make sprites grow over their life time? I've tried all sorts of expressions in the scale fields of my sprite POP but it just doesn't seem to work. I'm obviously going wrong somewhere but I can't find the solution anywhere. I want the sprites to go from 0.1 to 10 over their life time. Any ideas?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Subdivide problems
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Subdivide problems
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Hello,
I want to subdivide an object but have the top face untouched. So, for example a box. I want the top face to remain exactly as it is and the other five face to be subdivided. How do I do this. I've set up groups and tried to get creases working but I just can't get the top face to stay untouched.
Thanks,
Dan
I want to subdivide an object but have the top face untouched. So, for example a box. I want the top face to remain exactly as it is and the other five face to be subdivided. How do I do this. I've set up groups and tried to get creases working but I just can't get the top face to stay untouched.
Thanks,
Dan
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Creating groups in a Python SOP
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Creating groups in a Python SOP
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
I have a Python SOP which creates a lot of data in the form of points and polygons. I need to be able to create groups of this data within the SOP's code so that I can perform different operations on them further down the network. I couldn't find a method that would let me do this. Is is possible?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Camera projected texture baking
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Thanks jimc.
I managed to work it out. It turns out I don't actually need to bake the texture down. I was getting the texture swimming across the deforming geometry it was applied to so hence the trying to figure out how bake it.
What I actually needed to do was apply the UVTexture SOP earlier in the network before the geometry was deformed. I also promoted the uv point attributes to vertex attributes. Now it all works as expected and the projected texture sticks to the deforming geometry.
I managed to work it out. It turns out I don't actually need to bake the texture down. I was getting the texture swimming across the deforming geometry it was applied to so hence the trying to figure out how bake it.
What I actually needed to do was apply the UVTexture SOP earlier in the network before the geometry was deformed. I also promoted the uv point attributes to vertex attributes. Now it all works as expected and the projected texture sticks to the deforming geometry.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » How to play an image sequence on camera background
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Set the camera selector in the viewport from no cam to the camera you want to look through. Then press D to bring up the display options for that viewport. Go to the background tab and turn on Display Background Images then pick your sequence for filename. If you turn on Show sequences as one entry in the file dialog it will put the right expression in for you but if not it should be something like this:
your_sequence.$F.tif
$F gets replaced with the frame number you are currently on so if you are on frame 1 Houdini will be looking for a file called: your_sequence.1.tif
If you need to offset it use something like this:
your_sequence.`$F-1`.tif (those are backticks not quote marks)
This will be your_sequence.0.tif on frame 1
Hope that helps.
your_sequence.$F.tif
$F gets replaced with the frame number you are currently on so if you are on frame 1 Houdini will be looking for a file called: your_sequence.1.tif
If you need to offset it use something like this:
your_sequence.`$F-1`.tif (those are backticks not quote marks)
This will be your_sequence.0.tif on frame 1
Hope that helps.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Camera projected texture baking
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Ok. In Maya you project any old UVs onto your geometry (e.g planar Y). Then you project a texture onto it using a shader with a projection node set to perspective. Then you select the object and the shader and press “convert to file texture”. That's it. Super simple baked texture.
How do you do this in Houdini? I've had look at the odforce wiki but it all seemed very complicated for such a common workflow and I didn't see anything about baking the projected texture. Is there a more simple way of doing it? I used the UVTexture SOP to create a simple projection but I came unstuck when trying to bake the results of this projection down onto the geometry.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
How do you do this in Houdini? I've had look at the odforce wiki but it all seemed very complicated for such a common workflow and I didn't see anything about baking the projected texture. Is there a more simple way of doing it? I used the UVTexture SOP to create a simple projection but I came unstuck when trying to bake the results of this projection down onto the geometry.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » RBD collisions not being detected
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Strange. I applied the changes you had made to my original scene and it made no difference but it is working fine in the file you attached. Not sure what's happened there.
I'll just use your file.
Thanks CeeGee.
I'll just use your file.
Thanks CeeGee.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » RBD collisions not being detected
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Hello
I've got a scene set up to simulate an RC helicopter restraint rig. I'm having difficulty though because pipes that are supposed to collide with each other just pass right through each other. Can anyone help?
I've attached the scene.
Many Thanks
I've got a scene set up to simulate an RC helicopter restraint rig. I'm having difficulty though because pipes that are supposed to collide with each other just pass right through each other. Can anyone help?
I've attached the scene.
Many Thanks
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Speed Limit POP doesn't seem to be working
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Not to worry. Figured it out.
I had preserve group turned on where in fact it needs to be off in this case to get the required behaviour.
I had preserve group turned on where in fact it needs to be off in this case to get the required behaviour.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Speed Limit POP doesn't seem to be working
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
I have a Location POP creating 5000 impulse particels on frame 1 with no velocity or variance.
I then have a velocity node adding velocity to all axes based on the function: (rand($ID)-.5)*20
I then have a Speed Limit POP set to 0 and 1
The Speed Limit doesn't seem to have any effect what so ever which is really anoying because I have had it working before but can't find what's wrong.
I've attached the offending file. Any ideas?
I then have a velocity node adding velocity to all axes based on the function: (rand($ID)-.5)*20
I then have a Speed Limit POP set to 0 and 1
The Speed Limit doesn't seem to have any effect what so ever which is really anoying because I have had it working before but can't find what's wrong.
I've attached the offending file. Any ideas?
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Maya to houdini fbx camera
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Ah, backticks. I knew there had to be something to make it evaluate an expression in place. MEL uses them in the same way. Didn't think of it though.
Thanks for that. I would have been poking around for hours.
Thanks for that. I would have been poking around for hours.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Maya to houdini fbx camera
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
Hello,
I've imported a tracked camera into Houdini from Maya and it seems fine except it has no image plane. How do I set this up? Also to add to the complication a little I need to offset the image numbers being read in by 2509. Is there a way to do this?
Thanks,
Dan
I've imported a tracked camera into Houdini from Maya and it seems fine except it has no image plane. How do I set this up? Also to add to the complication a little I need to offset the image numbers being read in by 2509. Is there a way to do this?
Thanks,
Dan
Technical Discussion » Apprentice unable to renew!
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
That's got it. I ran sesinetd as root, then started houdini using my script and hey presto! One successfully renewed license. Thanks .
Technical Discussion » Apprentice unable to renew!
- lloydwood
- 105 posts
- Offline
I downloaded and installed Houdini apprentice a month ago. I spent ages getting it running on openSUSE 10.3 but I managed with a shell script linked to an alias for “houdini”.
This is the script:
#!/bin/bash
# Sets up the houdini environment
cd /opt/houdini9.0.747
source houdini_setup_bash
#Applies the workaround for the known error with H9 and openSUSE 10.3
export HOUDINI_ENABLE_LINUX_THREADED_UI=0
#Tests whether sesinetd is running and runs it if not
status=`ps -A | grep sesinetd`
if ; then
echo “License server is not running”
sesinetd
else
echo “License server is running”
fi
#Runs houdini
houdini
This got houdini running fine. I thought I'd buy “The Magic of Houdini” and work through it using Apprentice. However, when I came to run houdini the license had expired. This is normal so I tried renew the Apprentice license but received the following error:
Please can someone help. I really want to learn Houdini. This is the output of my diagnostic:
This is the script:
#!/bin/bash
# Sets up the houdini environment
cd /opt/houdini9.0.747
source houdini_setup_bash
#Applies the workaround for the known error with H9 and openSUSE 10.3
export HOUDINI_ENABLE_LINUX_THREADED_UI=0
#Tests whether sesinetd is running and runs it if not
status=`ps -A | grep sesinetd`
if ; then
echo “License server is not running”
sesinetd
else
echo “License server is running”
fi
#Runs houdini
houdini
This got houdini running fine. I thought I'd buy “The Magic of Houdini” and work through it using Apprentice. However, when I came to run houdini the license had expired. This is normal so I tried renew the Apprentice license but received the following error:
Error installing key: LICENSE Generic Houdini-Master-NonCommercial 9.0 1 08-jan-2008 +.+.+.+ linux-pc 31239be0gluEOZ8DyGmk4H1A7YKGGVW1yms8RESxZz5nbXabMiyByXqsVsJgVH1
Unable to read/modify license file.
ERROR: Key installation failed for linux-pc
Please can someone help. I really want to learn Houdini. This is the output of my diagnostic:
Diagnostic Output:
==================
If you are having licensing problems, please save this information and email it
to support@sidefx.com.
License Administrator output:
=============================
Generated on: Thu Dec 6 23:21:03 2007
Local host name: linux-pc
Local server code: d745ac00
Local ip address: 127.0.0.2
Number of servers: 1
License server name: linux-pc (linux-pc.linux)
License server server code: d745ac00
Server ip address: 127.0.0.2
License server is running: Yes
May read licenses from server: Yes
Has SERVER license: Yes
License server version: 9.0.747
May modify server from this machine: No (no license file permissions)
Redundant server keys: 1
Name Code Redundant Connected Transmission OK
—- —- ——— ——— —————
linux-pc d745ac00 no - -
License Administrator version: 9.0.747
Http proxy host: (none)
Can retrieve http://license.sidefx.com/index.php: [license.sidefx.com] Yes
Installed licenses:
LicID Platform Product Ver Avail Expiry
—– ——– ——- — —– ——
6f90f302 Generic Houdini-Master-NonCommercial 9.0 0/0 04-dec-2007
+.+.+.+ linux-pc (license known to: linux-pc)
=== This license has expired ===
3bf63175 Generic Render-NonCommercial 9.0 0/0 04-dec-2007
+.+.+.+ linux-pc (license known to: linux-pc)
=== This license has expired ===
sesictrl -i output:
===================
—– SERVER linux-pc ——–
Lic 6f90f302: 0 “Houdini-Master-NonCommercial 9.0” Generic 04-dec-2007 +.+.+.+ linux-pc
Lic 3bf63175: 0 “Render-NonCommercial 9.0” Generic 04-dec-2007 +.+.+.+ linux-pc
Serv linux-pc d745ac00
redundant: no
connected: no
transmission successful: no
hserver -l output:
==================
Hostname: linux-pc
Uptime: 0:48:38
License Server: linux-pc
Server Version: sesinetd9.0.747
Version: Houdini9.0.747
ReadAccess: +.+.+.*
WriteAccess: +.+.+.*
3125 of 3955 Mb available
CPU Usage: 0% load
0 active tasks (4 slots)
licenses file:
==============
## Side Effects Software License File
#
# For license information, please contact:
# Side Effects Software Inc.
# 123 Front St. West, Suite 1401
# Toronto, Ontario, Canada
# M2J 2M2
# licensemanager@sidefx.com
# http://www.sidefx.com [sidefx.com]
#
# NOTE: This file may be modified by the licensee
#
# Key installed 17:52:11 11/04/07
SERVER linux-pc d745ac00 a6815fbcf2805434c357cb338196e9ef17f953d4b8db32
# Key installed 17:52:12 11/04/07
LICENSE Generic Render-NonCommercial 9.0 1 04-dec-2007 +.+.+.+ linux-pc \
3bf63175 Iy6H@a7y6FQV3SfYh1y0Brc8RuIeiiWdOQeNVuyoaU1dijROaoqFPG0
# Key installed 17:52:14 11/04/07
LICENSE Generic Houdini-Master-NonCommercial 9.0 1 04-dec-2007 +.+.+.+ \
linux-pc 6f90f302 \
YgaC18RVeZqVwIU3cW+3QPhp1Je0ogHlng0ZIrSmf+GUIuDJnyPrv13
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