Updated Houdini 18.5 has been officially released. New features include:
- A live bridge between Unity and Houdini vi session sync.
- BSP brush support in Houdini Engine for Unreal, plus PDG, World Composition support and auto-streaming tiles.
- A new services systems for faster task completion.
- Comprehensive performance monitoring.
- A Shotgun asset publishing tool .
- Topo transfer with a conformal mesh solver.
- Attribute from Pieces SOP that provides a new method to create common attribute patterns.
- Chain Sop for quickly instancing geometry along a path.
- Interactive physics brushes for Vellum cloth.
- Several Vellum fabric types ready to use.
- Faster viscous FLIP fluids.
- Interactive Pyro, a GPU accelerated minimal solver for fast prototyping.
- Pyro Burst Source SOP, a new method for sourcing and shaping complex explosions.
- Pyro rt Trail Path SOP, an artist-friendly way to shape complex explosion trails.
- New Pyro tools and shaders plus ready to use sample files.
- Mask By Feature SOP that can create a mask from geometry, shadows, AO and more.
- Scatter and Align SOP, a high-level instancing toolset.
- Solaris Render Snapshots.
- Click to target progressive rendering in Karma.
- Physical lens shaders in Karma.
- KineFX, a new foundation for procedural SOP rigging and retargeting.
Visit the or watch a video of the keynote presentation showcasing new features on YouTube.
The only boring part of being a Houdini user.. No epic lists of complaints or flamewars in the comments! 🙂
10 years to update the shitty default fire/smoke shader! common SideFX!!! XD
Great update.
I don’t know much about Houdini shaders, but if we could do in other software today what Houdini was doing ten years ago, we would still be happy.
Houdini is to complicated to complain about 😉
And oke as always, they are leading the way.
Nice update Houdini👍
Autodesk when he sees them SideFX Houdini, then the developers – cheaters are developing a major update bifrost? or is it moving slowly?
do not provoke the great beast…they can buy and kill every other company.
Excellent. Congrats
Great to see that SideFX moving into animation territory 🙂 now i can see it as real replacement for MAYA in my toolset. Time for some serious learning of Houdini, no more excuses 🙂
yes houdini is to complex for complaints 😉 …in terms of usability and accessibility of tools/workflow there is lot room for improvements. the viewport is clunky to work with (esp. handles,freezing viewport, etc.).
anyway its another solid update!
That is lack of discoverability are the main Houdini problems.
Yes houdini is complex but when you want automate task with external data (csv, database) and much more the alternativ is a full WTF situation.
Awesome update, as always 😀
A group of fools who don’t know houdini at all are pretending here. Please put up your houdini works and have a look.
Here’s a crit.
Houdini should work at a basic scene assembly building setup – no not solaris – that’s a dog’s dinner that’s far too complex and unintuitive. If they at least added Layers functionality – it could be a default attribute, and then a layers manager page.
A few thoughtful additions and this would open up the software to whole new group of users.
eg. CAD / DWG import would be great.
Layers..
Oh I must have hit enter by mistake, didn’t realize I posted ‘layers..’ 🙂 what I wanted to say that ‘bundles’ are the Houdini equivalent of layers with the advantage that an object can be in multiple bundles and not part of a sinlge layee. So a tree can be in both ‘vegetation” and ‘garden’ bundle.
And Solaris is indeed a bit complex but it is insanely powerful, definitely worth learning!
thanks didn’t know about bundles. Wish my IQ was higher so I could get more out of the software!
I’ve requested support for STEP files with SideFX as it’s an open, good format that most CAD programs can export. The more requests they get, the bigger the chance we’ll see it implemented soon. I already have seen a few of my RFEs being implemented just after a few months, so I hope to see it soon.
Only reason I’m keeping max installed right now is to open and export CAD files..
Their Polyreduce tool is already the best and fastest I’ve seen. Works great with CAD models. AutoUV is a dream, and there are plenty ways to fix inverted normals and other common issues.
https://vimeo.com/473201614