Hi,

I've had this problem for a while, SESI have been very patient with me

Now that 16 is available more widely, I'm curious if anyone else faces issues with the QT5 Windows (Win 10) version of Houdini 16?

Basically, Houdini will start then immediately crash. Or, it will be extremely slow for simple things like adding the Pig's Head test geometry. Like, minutes slow.

The Qt4 version works fine, no crashing or slowness.

I've got an MSI laptop, GE72, Nvidia GTX 960m (but also the stupid Intel GPU too), Intel i6700 quad core (8 with hyperthreading) 16gb RAM.

Clearly something isn't configured right since this is a pretty common config, but something about it make Qt5 unhappy

I've tried a wide range of Nvidia drivers, Windows is up to date (so it claims, anyway) and … I'm stuck. SESI have been great but since they can't reproduce it, and it seems very rare (only me?) I don't expect them to be able to do much. Hoping someone else has hit this and solved it.

Cheers,

Peter B

I am on Windows 10 with updated Nvidia drivers running i7 6700K w a gtx 1080.

My fresh install of Houdini 16 Indie (Which I am paying for) crashes on launch every single time.

pbowmar
Windows is up to date (so it claims, anyway)

Unless you're on 378.66, it's lying. Windows 10's update system was stuck on 376.54 for me, and so was NVidia's update system. That was a bad driver version; lots of people have reported crashes or extremely slow behaviour, (e.g. 40 seconds to put down a box). I had to go to NVidia's website directly to download the latest. Things seem fine with 378.66 so far, and people have reported that everything cleared up after installing it.

Hey Neil,

I just installed 378.66 from a fresh download, and sadly, as soon as I start Houdini 16.0.536 Qt5 it crashes out before I do anything Qt 4 version still fine.

Is there anything Windows-y I should to do “clear” everything and try for a fresh install that might help?

Cheers,

Peter B

@pbowmar were you able to resolve this issue? I have the same problem. All Qt5 versions of Houdini crash on startup for me. All Qt4 versions of Houdini work fine. I've tried different graphics drivers and everything else I can think of but can't figure out how to get around this issue.

Steve

ndickson
(e.g. 40 seconds to put down a box).

I also experience this kind of behavior from time to time, creating new nodes (even from a scratch scene) is super slow sometimes. Have to restart my windows 7 in order to make it work without lag.
I thought it was just my crappy old computer…. but now I'm reading this… mmmhhh

Hi Steve,

So, currently 16.5 Qt5 appears to work on my laptop.

I had to send through some crash logs to SESI, and Edward suggested that the crash might be related to my sound driver (!) and possibly a specific Nvidia driver would help.

So, I uninstalled my sound drivers (Nahmic plus the base one which I forget since I'm at work) and then re-installed from the MSI website which looked like it had been updated.

I also install Nvidia 384.whateverIsLatest since SESI suggest 384 might be better.

I also had to jump through Windows hoops to prevent it auto-updating these things as well, because Microsoft. The interwebs will tell you how to “lock” drivers, I can't remember now unfortunately, it's convoluted

Currently, it seems to work OK, which is the first time Qt5 has been OK on my laptop.

YMMV of course! However, that worked for me, at least so far.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Peter B

Thanks for the detailed information Peter. Glad that you got it all working and it gives me some hope that I can resolve the issue without starting from scratch on my particular machine. Looking at the sound drivers is one thing I wouldn't have expected but I do have some uncommon audio components on my machine. I think I'll try removing the extra audio bits for now to see if it helps.

Thanks for the insight.

Steve

My machine also had Nahimic sound drivers (Product Version: 2.2.2801) and simply uninstalling those fixed my crashes with Qt5 versions of Houdini. It sounds like the newer versions don't have this problem so maybe I'll re-install this in the future when I am feeling brave.

I definitely wouldn't have found this issue without your help so big thanks to you Peter, @pbowmar

I'll send a note to tech support as well in case it helps someone else, at the very least my experience should help clarify that the older Nahimic drivers are an issue with Qt5 builds of Houdini.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Happy to help but really it was SESI's devs that put me on the right track by decoding the crash logs!

Cheers,

Peter B