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This is probably a good start https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/houdini-foundations-book/

Lots of beginner tutorials here https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/level/beginner/

I'm only a hobbyist but I found Houdini to have an incredibly high learning curve.

Also, lots of links in the sidebar ------------------>

Welcome to the bandwagon.

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/

Please use the search function as this question is asked fairly often: https://www.reddit.com/r/Houdini/search?q=learning&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=all

You can use an HScript expression to get the attribute.

It will look like this:

point("../measure1", "perimeter", 0)

Check out all the HScript functions here: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/expressions/index.html

You can also use a python expression if you are more comfortable with that.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/expressions.html

I'm switching from modo. I like being able to turn off bevels and such to get a low poly without having to retopo a whole new mesh. Procedural UVs are another benefit. Rohan Dalvi, Gianvito Serra, Indie-pixel and my favorite, Richard Banks, have some great tutorials. There are also add-ons like https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/53249/. I do miss the preview renderer dearly though.

$F is a variable from HSCRIPT, which is a "legacy" language that can be used in simple input boxes. In a wrangle node you write VEX.

TL;DR you are looking for `@Frame` attribute:

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vex/snippets.html#accessing-globals

PS: you can also use VEX in simple boxes, you just have to put it in backticks like `@Time` or something.

Okay, so what's happening here is that you're confusing the use of MOPs with packed primitives / instancing, versus MOPs applying to polygon points. You're using the Instancer to create your initial point grid, but the Instancer creates packed geometry out of your input points unless you specifically tell it not to (Instancing > Global Options > Points Only). So what you were getting was packed points with no real renderable information in addition to polygon geometry for the wires that all needed to be mashed together at render time.

Here's your file back... I also removed the Shape Falloff because it wasn't doing anything, and remapped your Noise Modifier so that it's only modulating along the Y axis, just to show you some different ways to control these things.

https://www.filemail.com/d/sqotalfkpkdmzmk

One last thing... enabling rendertime tessellation is going to potentially increase your processing time by quite a lot. Be prepared to wait a bit for IPR if you leave this enabled.

>Hi, I'm pretty new to houdini, and this might be way too much for me.

Give it a month and you will know your way around, people hype the difficulty of Houdini up to much. Sure it CAN get complex but the basic concept´s are not. You are already on a good way because you ask the kind of question not even google can answer. Thats how you know you are a pro !

As for your issue, the quick and dirty solution is to use an Attribute Randomize Pscale and then this VEX code

"v@P = v@P*f@pscale;"

What this does is scale the position Vector by the scale. Which of course means all the small points are near the centre.

You can fine tune this code with something like this:

"v@P = v@P*f@pscale*chf("Fine");"

But in all honesty, you get overlaps and the whole thing does not take into account the bbox.

I also dont really see a fancy way of quickly doing this in Vex. My other approach would be to sim it. There is this example file which shows you how to make attracting / opposing Force Fields. You can apply the same logic to your issue. Create a force field for each piece and sim it for a few frames. If you have collision it will all just settle in place by itself.

According to a post on the Houdini Forums:

"Click d in the viewport (display options) and check “Remove Backfaces” in the Optimization tab."

I haven't tried it myself, but I had a feeling this was possible.

Link to Forum: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/25687/

What makes Houdini great is its node-based procedural system. I wish every software had something like it! So when I stumbled upon Substance Designer a few years ago, I was so happy to see a second software tool using this approach that I bought it despite not being a texture artist, just to encourage them. I'm glad they finally made a plugin for Houdini, it sounds like a perfect match!

I only yesterday went through the new nodes in H19 and maybe this one helps:

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/cacheif.html

"Cache If" is a new node to prevent recooking based on user-defined conditions. The most common seems to be to check for changes in attributes. If it can't find them - it won't recook/recache.

At least that's what it seems to do ( and might be a little gem if it's working).

I haven't tested it yet, but sounds like it might be what you need? Worth giving it a try. (Please report your findings.)

You could try using a random_shash. It's not always a perfect conversion (ie there's a chance that two different strings will return the same value), but i've personally never had to deal with that.

The ParmTemplate will contain that information. You can get an instance of a ParmTemplate from a Parm object via hou.Parm.parmTemplate().

In simple terms: Houdini core is meant for lighting, Houdini FX for actual FX work.

You can still run FX in core (but not change or create it) and of course you can light in FX. But if you only use a Houdini session for lighting, then you can save a lot of money.

All of this only matters if you are a 100k+/year company. For single users - you don't buy any of the two - you buy Houdini Indie, which is like Houdini FX, but much, much cheaper.

https://www.sidefx.com/products/compare/

There is a comparison chart here:

https://www.sidefx.com/products/compare/

As far as I know, everything should be in there. Depending on what version the tutorial was using, there could be nodes that have been deprecated, renamed, combined etc.

I would recommend searching the documentation and it will tell you if a node has been removed or replaced.

Thats the documentation. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/

There is a question mark on every node (in the parameter window), where it opens the help for the node.

It's not a pdf, because it changes so often. It would be outdated after a maximum of 6 months.

You should ignore most of the answer in this thread. They are simply wrong.

Houdini has an extensive SDK, known as HDK. Anything in Houdini can be done using the HDK.

That said, you'll be wasting enormous amounts of time to do everything using the HDK. Houdini obviously has tons of functionality already built for you, it makes no sense to not use it.

did you try searching the manual? :) or create a mantra node, hover your mouse above images/output/output checkpoint files, read the desc or press F1

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/props/mantra.html#output

- Output Checkpoint Files

When enabled, image tile data will be frequently written out to a checkpoint file in the same directory as the output file. If the process is terminated before completing the render, it can then be resumed by turning on Resume from Checkpoint Files and restarting. To specify an alternative checkpoint file name, enable __Checkpoint File Name___.

- Resume from Checkpoint Files

When enabled, before rendering, Mantra will look for a checkpoint file corresponding with the current output file, generated by a previous partial render that had Output Checkpoint Files enabled. If possible, Mantra will only render areas that are needed for remaining regions of the output image. To specify an alternative checkpoint file name, enable __Checkpoint File Name___.

If both Output Checkpoint Files and Resume from Checkpoint Files are enabled and a valid checkpoint file is loaded, any additional image tile data rendered will be appended to the checkpoint file.

No requirements. Download the apprentice version, find a tutorial about literally anything, follow along

If you're a reading person, SideFX provides some PDFs like "starting with Houdini"

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/houdini-foundations-book/

Not really https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vex/functions/radians.html

Despite what the doc says, I feel people doing VEX are more keen to work in multiples of PI (using radians) than degrees.

This helps.... https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/houdini-flip-quick-tip-abusing-reseeding-for-better-small-scale-viscous-sim-meshing/

nothing insane actually.you can built this in Houdini out of the box.

For OP

-dense particles sim and calculate a density/proximity attribute which give you a hot core and fathering(look up how to use pcopen)

here is a quick search i did https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/26762/?page=1#post-269758

int pc = pcfind(0,'P',@P,ch('maxdist'),ch('maxpt'));

@Cd = float(len(pc))/ch('maxpt');

-turn the dense particle sim to volume and now you get density similar fashion to particle method but now use volume shader or pyro shader to get a nice range of fading and fathering

If I have to setup that shot

1.I will run a simple particle sim that doing a general flowing motion for timing first.

2.I will do a low res-ish volume sim from my first particle source for some organic fluid flow for later particle advection.

3.now mix step 1 sim with step 2 volume velocity advection for leading particles sim .This particles will get replicate and trailing behind again to achieve a skinny trail-ish looking energy flowing dense cloud.

4.now output point density pass and volume pass you get from converting point to volume.

5.to make comper happy but might not need it.you can also try rendering curves generated from a few center point in the sim by selecting @density is greater than .9 or something.same approach generating velocity curves for sparks render pass instead of trying to crank motion blur in render setting.blur it in comp and add some glow.

6.also render the step 2 volume sim with super low density to just make comper super happy and a hint of fluid flow.

> how i might 'rig' stuff

It's a fundamental look at creating a custom rig; beginner to intermediate-ish. I didn't want to go too far down the rabbit hole, but in Houdini you could go crazy adding all manner of procedural generated motion - using CHOP networks, or even simple channel expressions. For things like bags, backpacks, and lo-poly game hair the core principles taught should remain. If you have a grasp of the core concepts, adding supplementary bones for props should be a breeze.

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If you wanted to procedurally automate the process of secondary motion, that is what CHOPs do best!

​

Channel Operators (CHOPs) are scary powerful in a rigging context - but are very much an intermediate / advance-ish topic. But well worth researching for someone interested in rigging.

MotionFX (CHOPs)

​

Using a similar technique you could link up bag/hair bones to other parameters (a position in space) - or even add pre-defined CHOP nodes like lag.

I ran into this issue a while ago and couldn't find anything inside Houdini to change it. There is this software though:

http://neatdecisions.com/products/neatmouse/

It should let you bind the middle mouse button to a key.

Yes there is, submit a Request for Enhancement: https://www.sidefx.com/bugs/submit/

I submitted a RFE for horizon lock last year and support logged it as RFE #106266, if you would like to reference it. The more people request the feature the more likely it will get some attention.

It's not impossible to use the spacemouse without axis lock, but it sure is a lot more... loosy goosy and challenging. The Unreal implementation feels so much more natural.

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The other RFE I submitted is for a proper flythrough mode where you don't have to contend with the viewport pivot, which essentially stops you in your tracks when you approach the pivot. RFE #106265

houdini 19 is released to the general public. don't make a headache for yourself with steam, go for the proper one.

https://www.sidefx.com/download/daily-builds/

Great! Glad to have been of help. You've done a good job the procedural model is nicely done.

No problem, I wouldn't worry too much about what I was saying with regards to normals. Houdini can be a terrifying package to learn but the beauty of it is you can do most things without needing to know the complicated math/jargon under the hood. When you get more comfortable thats when you can pick up all the advanced stuff and go nuts.

Regarding destruction there are a million tutorials you can find on youtube and on professional courses. After a quick search this is a good short beginners tutorial to get one started...

There is a tonne of learning resources on SideFX website too.

I just Googled "Houdini supershape" and saw a few different resources as top links. I'd start there. Look through the forum links and you will probably find a .hip with the source or at least some comparable code from something like Processing.

For example: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/24542/#post-114121

That post is 9 years old but might still be relevant.

Highly recommend you to watch this playlist from Paul Esteves. the videos are very short and give you an overview of vellum setups .
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/vellum-nodes/
He actually does a similar effect with the pighead in the "07 Strut Softbody" video

Gotcha, I think the entire licensing component is pretty jank and unreliable, but if it helps at all I had success installing everything including the licensing stuff via the Houdini Launcher.

there is no way to represent hda as code, but you can actually just grab asset definition and save it to another hda file:

from node you get node.type().definition()

and use one of these methods https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/hou/HDADefinition.html#updating-and-saving

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but if you want to convert noncommercial hda to commercial this way - you will not be able to do that this way

Not sure exactly what you mean with "atmospheric pressure". If you mean gravity, you can just turn of gravity or compensate the velocity, it's a simplistic 9.8~ downwards velocity. If you mean actual atmospheric effects, there's nothing of that in Pyro, you need to implement it if you want.

The only actual pressure calculation in pyro is for making the fluid non-divergent. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/pyro/background.html#projection

i can't solve your network issues without any detail, but if you can't connect directly to sidefx's server to get a free learning license, generate a license on their website: click your user in upper right corner, services, Non-commercial Licenses

https://www.sidefx.com/services/non-commercial-license/

get the server name and code from your license manager, and enter the license data there too.

You just need another static object node merged with the other solvers you have inside your Dopnet and set it up like you want. There are plenty of tutorials about colliders on youtube. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/dop/staticobject.html

Note: merge node goes from left to right inputs, either input the static object to the most left or change Affector Relationship to "mutual". Also you don't need to put a static solver anymore, the static object itself is enough.

Edit: for example this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtmwWhnsWA8

Everything you need for your first attempt can be found in the Side Fx Tutorial page under the crowds category. Further research might be helpful for more complex systems

Yes I have, it renders stereo equirectangulars for top/bottom or side/side format. It works with Karma and lens shaders. I made a post on the sideFX forum with an attached .hipnc file. Mantra works out of the box with the VR camera as I believe you've already discovered.

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https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/70929/?page=1#post-325764

If it's a simple plugin it's fairly easy.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk/_h_d_k__intro__compiling.html

Check the compiling with hcustom section.

Actually, there's a Makefile already, you probably can just use that and follow the "Compiling with Makefiles" section.

in this example i've used a manual selection (in the viewport) to create groups, but you could also create groups procedurally. here's the docs on grouping: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/model/groups.html

What about the help?

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/character/muscles.html

Haven't read it, let alone use it. But seems long and detailed.

I was really curious about this question, so i did come googling and this thread has just about everything you would want to know...

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/21036/

Happened to me the other day! If you want to reset your layout to default use Reload Current Desktop (either under Layout menu ("Build" by default) or in Window. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/panes.html

Look into the Houdini Take system That would be like the overall layering system

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https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/basics/takes.html

I don't have Houdini open in front of me right now, but I think there's a flipbook session label you can use. Right click the flip book icon for the settings and type in a unique string for a new session.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/render/flipbook.html

You create an asset and embed it into your scene (just define the folder as "Embedded"). Then you use the same asset for all your clones.

And everything you change in one version of the asset will happen to the rest... but the asset lives inside your scene.

Also it has the advantage that you can even build in slight adjustments to every variation.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/assets/create.html#embed

Don't get me wrong - a year ago I was looking for exactly what you build,... it's a neat idea!

Alembic is loaded as packed geo by default, obj isn't. So they are not the same if you just import.

You can read more about it here: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/model/packed.html

But the main thing is that for your shader to work your need to target the correct primitive and if it's packed that path isn't very obvious.

This series by entagma is good for getting your feet under you once you know your way around in 3d.

https://www.sidefx.com/learn/collections/houdini-in-5-minutes/

I would not start with Houdini. It's complicated and a lot of tutorials are predicated on a knowledge of working within other 3D DCCs and how the way Houdini does things is different, rather than 'here is a basic concept'

I just created a vicious fluid sim , the colour of the particles is based of grabbing the Cd attribute from the particle sim. I based it from this class by u/MAXDEPTH_TV

In Houdini, C++ is for plugins/extensions, not for controlling the workflow or automating tasks. As you mention, it's extremely procedural, so you can do most things without any code whatsoever. But, if you really need to automate something, it uses Python as a scripting language.

If you're talking about integrating Houdini into another system, you can try the Houdini Engine. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/hengine/index.html But that's a limited sub-set of its functionality.

For generating levels, the workflow is mostly in Houdini itself. You export a parameterized asset -- an "HDA" -- and import it into your game engine editor using the Houdini Engine.

Edit: Ooops, I was wrong. You actually can do automation with C++: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk/_h_d_k__intro.html

I must tell you that what you mentioned are all different parts of Houdini, and that each individual segment (fluids, pyro, particles, vellum) are going to take some time to master and bring to production value. Again, go slow and cover the fundamentals first with resources mentioned in the thread, and if you feel positive this is what you want, enroll in a full-fledged course such as this one:

https://www.cgspectrum.com/courses/houdini-fx-diploma

Otherwise, individual premium & free courses and tutorials are available here on SideFX's Tutorial page: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/ where you can filter them by various parameters (price, field of study, level and author). This is basically the resource if you just want to kill some time and explore Houdini, but there's also a LOT of similar courses in there and some of them are just not good (in pedagogical terms)

ragdoll is a physics collision tool used for characters, it isn't a physical material property: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/crowds/ragdoll.html#ragdolls-in-dops

you're looking at either vellum, grains, FEM or custom solvers: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/shelf/vellumsoftbody.html

Be aware that "rubbery, viscuousy, watery" and "without having to do too much" are pretty opposite terms. It's a little complicated to achieve these effects.

Side effects documentation is great If you open your Houdini In the top left there should be Help and in the drop-down Contents. Click on that and there you have all the documentation on everything in Houdini. scroll to the bottom and click pyro and get learning. (you can also open it in your web browser with the same link)

Also for videos

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/ Search pyro and you'll find some good tutorials

Are you familiar with a PBR workflow? If not, you might want to read about it. It's pretty ubiquitous in CG by now

Anyway, you can limit the specular by plugging a map in the roughness and or specular inputs of the shader. It's a simple greyscale map

I don't understand your second question. But yes, you can mix things. There's a mix node

The masterclass is fine. There's also the docs https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/shade/build.html#overview

Yep, I’ve had this happen a lot. It can usually be fixed by deleting your license files. See this link to find where the license files are stored on your platform:

https://www.sidefx.com/faq/license-management/#faq10

Once you’ve done that, run Houdini again and reinstall the Apprentice license. Click “View Licenses” instead of “Run” and check it all seems okay. Then relaunch Houdini, and it should work.

Hah, I was literally looking for this same thing today... I don't believe you can do this in Houdini. I ended up downloading Magnifixer to hack my way around it, which was good enough for my purposes. You should definitely submit a RFE though https://www.sidefx.com/bugs/submit/

I'm still learning myself, but I made the same mistake you did. The noise field is supposed to be plugged into a another node like vortex or force field to provide noise for those. It doesn't work by itself like you have it wired up. It's essentially a modifier for other force nodes.

This post goes into a bit of detail about it.

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/22745/

Are you exporting alembic? If so look into alembic path attributes. Basically you can create a hierarchy which corresponds to object level hierarchies in other software.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/io/alembic

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/luiz-big-list-of-games-tutorials/

This is something that I put together in hopes to organize things a little for new users. It's mainly games focused and there are some paid stuff there, but the majority is free.

Hey mate I'm quite new to Houdini as well, I was lucky in that I got a start in Houdini surrounded by geniuses at a vfx house in Adelaide, Australia. They showed me the mindset of Houdini is a different thing to most 3D pieces of software. A good intro to this are these two videos, the second one especially.

Houdini for absolute beginners

entagma's cuisine a la Houdini

You should maybe look into the sidefx internship program. Your reel is a little rough still, but it definitely shows that you're competent with Houdini. The sidefx internship program is a great place for new artists to develop their skills, work with other Houdini artists and make industry contacts. We've hired quite a few of sidefx's la interns over the years, and had great luck with them.

You might be able to get a jr fx job with your current reel but if not the sidefx internship will give you a huge boost.

https://www.sidefx.com/education/internships/

To add to what other users have said, if your scatter base geometry deforms, you might need to use 'attribute interpolate' so that your point ids don't jump on every frame:

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/attribinterpolate

For those who don't want to pause.

• Edge Slide
• Houdini Engine 2.0
• Flip fluid lava
• Layered Materials
• Onion Skinning animation POP
• Poly Bridge
• Poly Expand 2d
• Ragdoll
• Renderman 20
• Retopo Tools

https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=41009

Notably, all these images are listed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, so they are free from any kind of copyright restrictions. Till now, these images were provided only upon requests for limited usage.

another article

Use velocity to shape the fluids, I googled again:

https://youtu.be/Fm7q1i1-SZo

To get an idea of what is going on in a fluid solver, I’d recommend getting a copy of this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Simulation-Computer-Graphics-Robert-Bridson/dp/1568813260

autohotkey under windows maybe?

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https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/24260-alt-lmb-as-alt-mmb-alt-mmb-as-mmb-alt-rmb-as-ctrl-alt-mmb/

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I'd suggest its easier to just get a new mouse.

If your old school like me and want to study a good book, this is a great resource:

https://www.amazon.com/Math-Primer-Graphics-Game-Development-ebook-dp-B08LDR8QFF/dp/B08LDR8QFF/ref=mt\_other?\_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=

Try using @pscale as the per-point scale attribute. It will propagate in the same manner as the Copy sop.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/copy/instanceattrs.html

I don’t know how reliable it is to feed attributes into parameters, especially when they’re ‘uniform’.

Just as a clarification- you can work around this and have hard transitions between polys with point normals but you need to duplicate the points so each poly has it's own copy of each point at the transition.

For Houdini this can be done using the Facet SOP with the 'Unique Points' option selected which will do this duplication for you.

The Houdini page on Points and Vertices does talk about the difference between the two types of normals and between points and vertices themselves, but not in much detail.

You will probably have to mess with the settings I assume that just plugging it in will not work. Im not at a computer rn but this may be helpful.

This is the official documentation for the node https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/attribblur.html

Houdini 19 is not yet available natively on M1 yet as per the System Requirements page:
https://www.sidefx.com/Support/system-requirements/

"macOS:

Requires 64-bit Intel-based or Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 10.13 and higher

Note: on an M1 mac it is NOT supported natively yet. You can run via Rosetta and therefore the performance won't be as good as it will be once native support is added."

Try using groups to specify what in the specific node you want to effect what and you can do more specific stuff but I'm not at my work machine and I've not done it in some time I believe it's covered in one of the videos of the vellum nodes course (sadly I cannot remember what one) but go through them all anyway as there is some really useful information in there:

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/vellum-nodes/

Is it documented? I searched for a while but I only found this https://www.sidefx.com/docs/hdk/class_o_p___parameters.html#abd6a9acccc5342391c7bd13481ad43df does it mean I need to write C++ plugin for it...? No Python API?

(actually what I'm trying to do is not catch when a parameter changes, but when a node is re-cooked)

You have the winning answer.

Weird, because I looked in the docs for local variables, and the only thing it said was 'N':

N
The number minus one of points or primitives, depending on the “Entity” choice.
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/delete.html#locals

Ah alright got it. Just one more thing to add :

lets say I created an Add SOP (As suggested in the thread), then enabled "Add Particle System".

According to documentation, this will create a particle system primitive. Does it mean that the primitive contains all the points? How does that work with your reply : "..instance our primitives on the points.."?

I would say it is fine and worth it.
As Sukyman said, it is a matter of how long your drive will last. So you are trading speed for longevity. And by the time your drive wears out, SSD's has likely gotten cheaper and better.

And +1 for ubuntu. I switch my work desktop to Ubuntu MATE for 1½ years now and run houdini, unity and blender. I'm very happy with the stability.

linuxtip: flameshot! https://flameshot.org/
Great screenshot tool where you can write little notes or pin a screenshot to screen for comparing simulations or renders.

Although Houdini docs could be better, all docs could, I think you're blowing it out of proportion.

The curveu description you quote is fine. If you put the node down and see what it does the explanation is obvious.

For example, I go the Unreal docs and search https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/bing-search?keyword=get%20normal%20from%20mesh&offset=0&filter=Documentation, which is very basic, but the 3 first links are useless. I don't think any of the links say how do I get the normal from a mesh.

So yeah, Houdini docs are far from bad.

I'd check out meetup.com to try to find a local meetup for you. Try to look up companies you might want to work for and follow their employees on twitter, it's a bit stalkery, but it's not a bad way to start getting a feel for the local community.

From your description it does make sense to have a single input instead of many. Like others suggested use an attribute to separate between the objects. That's perfectly reasonable, many other tools in Houdini use this design.

But, if you really want to have variable inputs, you can do a callback that adds a new input every time you connect something. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/hom/hou/nodeEventType.html

It's got the nc extension so I don't think so but you might be able to convert it using the stand alone utility iconvert. https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/ref/utils/iconvert.html

However it seems some of these utilities don't work, Im not sure about this one.

Oh, this is my own building generator. Their version is nice for modular building sets, instanced geo and all that more game friendly stuff, but the end results dont work great for destruction sims.

They do have a decent video series on it though, i think it was the real-time or unreal city generator video somewhere in here: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/

Alembic is the "industry standard" way to go. You can bake the animation with a lot of bones, but if you're doing a muscle simulation, presumably you want high quality and therefore bone deformation won't be enough. If you want to try, there's a GameDev tools that basically does that https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/game-tools-skinning-converter/.

You can also do something like this as one-liner that uses relative bbox in X in this case:

@P = lerp ( @P, v@opinput1_P, float ( chramp("blend", relbbox ( 0, @P ).x ) ) );

Also if you want to do non-linear blending, you have to do something like this:

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/80214/

Just a quick follow up to say that this was the correct suggestion and was easy to set up. Thanks again. In case anyone ever sees this post, check out SideFX's page on OCIO and grab the relevant configs from here.

You can check all Houdini changes in the changelog. For rbd in 19 it would be something like this https://www.sidefx.com/changelog/?journal=&categories=&body=rbd&version=19.0&build_0=&build_1=&show_versions=on&show_compatibility=on&items_per_page=

I've peeked at their free stuff before. Unfortunately I haven't seen them update in years. They had a lot of potential I thought! If you subscribe don't expect any new content. Check out https://gumroad.com/discover and search for Houdini. There's some good ones in there!

If anyone else if having trouble with this, I found the method to transfer the velocities from the ocean waves to the beach tank in this tutorial: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/crashing-wave/

I got the exact same issue, also with the latest Nvidia drivers.

I looked through the daily builds of Houdini and noticed that the version 19.0.421 had "Added a workaround to an Nvidia compiler...should fix GLSL compiler errors causing missing geometry."

I tried installing the latest daily build (at this time that is 19.0.439 on Windows) and I can confirm that it works without GLSL errors now. :)

If you download and install the Houdini Launcher you have an easy way to install daily builds and also to manage multiple installed builds/versions of Houdini. https://www.sidefx.com/download/daily-builds/?show_launcher=true&daily=true&python3=true

Have you tried downloading the latest daily build?

I've noticed quite a few license fixes on the versions over the past week: https://www.sidefx.com/changelog/?journal=&categories=&body=license&version=19&build_0=383&build_1=&show_versions=on&show_compatibility=on&items_per_page=

Yes it shouldn't be too difficult to massage the csv file into what you want:

https://filetransfer.io/data-package/qfNFNAIw#link (i would use houdiniblueprints but it seems not to work)

preview: https://i.imgur.com/ibhS9Zt.png

(notice that I used i@name-1 because your index table starts at 1 and usually indexes start at 0 in houdini and programming in general)

Here's a couple of frames from my render. (http://imgur.com/a/vo47X) You can see that they're also a bit pixelated, but I assume that can be resolved by upresing the sim?

Here's my hip file incase you want to have a poke around. Thanks!

Edit: I've been playing around and it's looking much better. Only issue I face now is that my smoke is very dark.

I think the material Gnomon has on Houdini is pretty bad to be honest. Theres much better resources out there. The price/content ratio for this Intro course is almost unbeatable: https://sellfy.com/p/uOWc/ Its from a guy at ILM.

Hi, sorry, with PopOS you don't need to install the graphics drivers. It's already included if you get the nvidia distro when you download. Pop OS is based on Ubuntu, btw.

I'm not very experienced in Linux but all I did was:

1. Installed PopOS from bootable USB. Nvidia drivers are already included.
2. Update system through Pop Shop (or you can use apt-update whatever)
3. Installed Houdini

... and it just worked!

I also installed Blender, Krita, etc. All working and running as fast as windows (Houdini runs even better than windows).

Sorry I have no idea how to install it manually, thats why I gravitate towards Pop OS.

Looks like it might be coming:

>The system requirements of 19 state this: “Note: on an M1 mac it is NOT supported natively yet. You can run via Rosetta and therefore the performance won't be as good as it will be once native support is added.”
I guess we can interpret this that native support is being worked on.

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/74322/?page=2#post-350403

I am also learning cloth recently.

The tut of sidefx mainly introduce the simulation based approach, i.e., using vellum drape, such as VELLUM CLOTH WORKFLOWS and VELLUM DRAPE | H17 MASTERCLASS. But the difficulty is that it is not easy to draw a appropriate planar cloth patch that after simulation will produce a fit and nice clothes, because this problem will boil down to how to make cloth in real world, maybe you need to be a good tailor to know this. Just look at the most simple T-shirt you wear, it is composed of 4 pieces of planer cloth, you need to draw the curve just like how the tailor will cut out cloth patch in real world. Otherwise there will be wrinkle and bump on the clothes. But this method is good when there is a knot or some really complex ornament on your cloth, as in the first link I provided.

Another approach is just modeling. You make the clothes using polygon modeling just like modeling anything else. Maybe the clothes you finally come up with is not possible in the real world, but you have the full control of how the clothes like when the character puts it on. But you need to be a good modeler to model the clothes by yourself.

You can’t use $F or $FF or $T in a wrangle, as they are hscript variables. You need to replace $FF with @Frame. You can find more about it here https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vex/snippets.html#accessing-globals

From the Houdini Documentation:

>int neighbourcount(geometry, point_num)
>
>When running in the context of a node (such as a wrangle SOP), this argument can be an integer representing the input number (starting at 0) to read the geometry from.

In this case, the 0 would represent the incoming geometry from the first input of the node.

I like the new Attribute From Pieces SOP for this - https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/attribfrompieces.html Which will allow you to take an attribute from a group of inputs and will randomize on the points... it has a way to do it by weight

It’s a geometry node, not related to an attribute vop.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/attribpromote.html

It basically transfers an attribute to be applied to a different class, so if you want to transfer normals, or color, or anything from point data to primitives you can use that.

What I’m suggesting is you chain two of these nodes in succession. The first one set it to transfer your Cd attribute from prim to detail. In the options inside the node, you can set it to average. This should give you one value that averages all of your primitive color values, because a detail attribute is a single piece of data that is applied to an object.

Once you have a single averaged color stored in a detail attribute, you can use a second attribute promote node to then transfer that single value back onto your primitives.

you can cast things from one type to another. to cast an int to float you'd say

myfloat = 0.69 myint = 2 my_cast_to_float = float(myint)

the other way around

my_cast_to_int = int(myfloat)

more info here https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/vex/lang#type-casting

I'm trying to work with 'contained' scenes. See the link:

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/80993/?page=1#post-348655

It's not nice to have all the scenes visible at once. It's also not nice to have to constantly change the visibility of the scene's, according to which one you are rendering.

That's the context..

Hey, I went through something very similar. Have you followed this tutorial ? https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/vertex-animation-textures-for-unreal/

If I remember correctly, in the material instance you create from your material with VAT in it, there's options to control the playback speed.

I don't have Houdini on right now but I think you can use a point expression https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/expressions/point.html
I don't know if your attribute is a point or primitive but you can always use attribute promote if needed.