OctaneRender™ 3.0 for Houdini™ - production build 3.00

[dinf]

... and I am new to Houdini.

Wich could become a big stumbling block. Plugin installation is easy. Houdini isn't.
Good luck, and have fun

[C-You]

Hi juanjgon,

Thanks a lot for your quick help - you have really fast communication with your user base like face_off - you guys really rock.

I have now used the app folder location - and BOOM it works - GREAT. But I don´t know what was
wrong when I placed it into my user documents folder - that is not working and I think it is a problem
with this special place for the plugin or/and with the german language and I tried a lot there with no luck.
Maybe I should have tried this with the app folder location too and than it would be ok without the need of help.
But anyway - now located in app folder it works and that is all I need.

The only crazy thing I have to figure out before I can dive into the fun with Houdini is the MPlay window.
MPlay opens as a second app window and if I want to change something the MPlay is hidden behind the
Houdini app window if I click into - so how I can keep MPlay in the front like it is shown in the video from BW?
I have found no preferences to set or maybe there is some magic I am missing. In the first time I don´t realized
that MPlay was hidden by click into the Houdini window - then I made a change to material and clicked IPR again.
So a second MPlay loaded up and then I could not close MPlay and have to close the app. And in MPlay there
is no Reload Button like in the other Plugins and I have to go into the MPlay menu - quicker would be a refresh Button.

So only thing - how can I see Mplay render all the time - is there also a way to put it as a viewport?

[juanjgon]

You only need to add the "-T" option in the MPlay profile command line options. Once done the MPlay window will stay always on top, and updating the scene changes. Not all changes can be updated yet, for example if you add a new object (to reload the scene in this cases, you only need to press the IPR button again).

MPlay menu: Windows->Profiles->Command Line

-Juanjo

[C-You]

Hi juanjgon,

Thanks again - it works great - but there is maybe a bug or something I did wrong.

If I click once at IPR Button everything works fine but I have to click twice
into the Houdini window to get this activate for edit. And the issue with
the MPlay window begins with click again at the IPR Button. At that point
I am no longer be able to close the MPlay window and gets the rolling OS X ball.
So I have to click into the Houdini window and close the app.

Seems some things are not working well yet.

And please can you tell me where I find the GPU settings like priority for render like in the other plugins.

[dinf]

And please can you tell me where I find the GPU settings like priority for render like in the other plugins.

In the Octane shelf click on Options icon.
In opening window click on GPUs tab.
HF

[C-You]

Hi dinf,

thanks for your tip at the shoulder, but for me it will be the opposite thing.
I hate lifetime the unix file structure and was shocked first by Apple Shake.
There are so many hidden or virtual paths that makes me crazy and struggling.

Have a long run with design + AS3 so I think will get this baby run quick

In my 3D app their will be upcoming procedurals and still missing correct
working of VDB and lack of fog/fire/smoke. So thats why I found Houdini
now and watched a lot of videos in the last weeks - WOW that monster rocks.

---

Thanks for options tip - found it

[juanjgon]

If I click once at IPR Button everything works fine but I have to click twice
into the Houdini window to get this activate for edit. And the issue with
the MPlay window begins with click again at the IPR Button. At that point
I am no longer be able to close the MPlay window and gets the rolling OS X ball.
So I have to click into the Houdini window and close the app.

Yes, I can reproduce this problem here. I'll try to fix it for the next build.

Be aware that there are really few Octane for Houdini users working in OSX (I suppose that the lack of currently available OSX computers with NVIDIA GPUs is one of the reasons), so it is easy that some OSX bugs have not been found yet. I'll try to fix them ASAP if you found more.

Thanks for your patience.
-Juanjo

[C-You]

Hi juanjgon,

Thank you so much for your quick answers - I really appreciate it.

OK- I hope it will not be so long for waiting, because this is a main thing in working with Octane.
As a workaround I will close MPlay every time I make a object change and reopen for scene reload.

You are right - we OS X users are only a few and every time I have big problems to get my business
work done because all devs focus on Win side of life. So I had many problems with nearly all apps
like Photoshop, After Effects, Red Giant and so on - some heavy bugs there are gone in the last
3 month and for some I cannot work at projects using some really important things I wait for a fix.

So YES - OS X side of life is great and easy using BUT not easy at all ...

[juanjgon]

So YES - OS X side of life is great and easy using BUT not easy at all ...

Yep, even the Linux version has a lot more users than the OSX one currently, but anyway the OSX version should work as stable as possible.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[C-You]

Hi juanjgon,

I have found another little thing ...

The progress sample number in IPR not reach the finished number - there
is missing only a last refresh of the text variable after render finished I think.

So if you set render to 1000 samples the number is displayed stop before 1000.

What would be very cool to have is a progress bar in top area of MPlay sized in
complete width and working with yellow color and if render finished the
bar turns into green color - but don´t know if this would be possible to code.