Update Houdini 17.5 is now available. You can find more information about all the new features on the updated Houdini page on the .
The standout feature of this version is the introduction of the Procedural Dependency Graph (PDG) API. According to SideFX, this new technology is designed to “describe complex dependencies visually with nodes; transform that dependency description into a set of actionable, schedulable tasks; and distribute those tasks with the help of a scheduler and compute them in parallel”.
The PDG API is expressed in Houdini as a new operating context called Task Operators (TOPS), but also via a standalone application called PilotPDG.
Due to the scale of this new feature, it consumed most of SideFX’s development resources for this release. However there are still several other useful features, including alpha cutouts for heightfields; GPU accelerated volumes in the viewport; a principled shader with visual parity between apps, renderers and viewports; material based destruction with interactive RDB constraints; per-point friction, fibre constraints, and grooming tools in Vellum; sliced and clustered mode for distributed whitewater; distributed narrow-band sims; surface analysis in Measure SOP 2.0; and the ability to select polygons by pattern and face normal.
To find out more about Houdini 17.5, watch a demo video and a recording of the announcement, visit .
Meanwhile At Autodesk 3ds Max headquarters…
Sorry still can’t help it when Houdini comes up.
You don’t fool me Juang3d XD
I assure you that I’m not “Guest” LOL
Juang3d and I are best buddies, we have weekly parties with Autodesk where strippers show up wearing Houdini bikinis and blender bras. Autodesk keeps throwing money at them to come closer but all it gets is a big tease while we drink beer and enjoy the show.
LOL!!!!
Amazing release, my favourite thing is the final list with all those fixes and new things that are considered second level that could have been presented as a super duper improvement in other companies LOL
It is a clickbait! Not released! Just announced! Why this? Stop this clickbait stupidity!
Thanks for spotting that. I can assure you it wasn’t clickbait though, merely a slip of the keyboard. Corrected! 🙂
released now
Thanks for letting us know. We’ve updated the title and added a link to the What’s New page.
It’s available for download now.
My abusive use of caffeine also makes me very rude and emotional sometimes ..
ok I give up. So if I want to learn houdini ,
1- is there a way to download and install and play with it legally without too many limitations ?
2- what portal would be the best established resource for tutorials for a beginner ? I really would hate to get lost with cluttered, unorganized, unbalanced info bombardment from here and there. if you know what I mean.
3- I am 35. Am I too late ?
1- Easiest one: Just download apprentice. No much limitations except some exporting outside the package, and a small watemark on a side, plus limited to hd for videos, and none external renderers. But for learning its more than enough, totally free.
2- There are very good resources, just the ones on vimeo under “GoProcedural” or the guys from Entagma, are really good, you have for month of training totally free. Then you have the guys from “Rebelway” payd courses, really high quality. Steven Knipping has also very good resources.
3-no
Dude, I am 45 and considering the same; to move to Houdini. You are only too late for everything, the moment you give up to learn something new! Be prepared that in this industry you need to learn something new till you are going to retire 😀
I learned Houdini at 35, after working full time with 3dsMax, and some Maya, for over 12 years. It is hard getting started; relearning how to approach everything. Took me about a year a bit on and off before I finally completely switched to Houdini. I wasn’t really planning to switch software at first though. Just supplement 3dsMax. But the deeper I got, the less I wanted to go back to Max. You definitively need to dive a bit deeper on your understanding of the 3D concepts compared to Max/Maya. Once you break through the learning wall it’s definitively worth it though. Good luck! And as mentioned, Entagma and Steven Knippings tutorials are great resources.
Do you do modeling in houdini as well? I mean not only procedural but the old fashion poly modeling as well
Yeah, I do. Actually just taking a small break from modelling in Houdini right now. For the most part I think it’s on par with Max. It has come a long way just in the last couple releases. I was missing a select by normal/face angle function, and that came in this release, haha. It has everything I need right now. Easy to select loops and patterns, press C in the viewport and you get up a tool menu with the most common tools you’d need (extrude, bevel, bridge, insert loop etc. You do have to do some parameter tweaking in the node/parameter window every now and then, so not everything is doable directly in the viewport. But I think that goes for Max too.
That being said, I do get 90% of my models from CAD, so modelling is really fairly a small part of what I do.
Used 3D Studio since it was DOS and not MAX. Personally, I regret only that I didn’t look into Houdini sooner.
John Moncrief’s Introduction to Houdini 15 is the best starting point I’ve found. It begins with the basics and then provides some illustrative examples of the overall toolset:
https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/introduction-houdini-15-2334/table-of-contents
Good luck.
Ha, I started learning Houdini at 52 (4 years ago), don’t let those youngsters scare you into thinking you’re to old to learn something.
I recomend taking a course rather than boucing around different tutorials. Its what I did and really gave me the push to understand it properly.
2- https://www.sidefx.com/learn/getting_started/
thanks everyone.
by unbalanced tutorials I meant learning complicated stuff without knowing your basics.
like learning how to blow up a complicated building model while not knowing how to do simple UV unwrapping. I see beginners do that all the time that’s why I asked.
again thanks for the encouragement and sources.
I am doing cardan fx houdini course. Very happy so far.
I am currently doing Cardan fx houdini course. Very happy so far : )
Me like Houdini but 3Dmax more fast for getting job done. Houdini artist to technical requirement and to long build solution
good new features 4 houdini but max get job done faster and more profit. houdini artist to slow and need to much time