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Houdini 20.5 sneak peek

Houdini 20.5 sneak peek

by Paul Roberts
June 14, 2024
Reading Time: 1 min read
24

SideFX has released a preview of the upcoming features in Houdini 20.5 ahead of a 2 day launch event taking place on June 18. Both days of the event will be recorded, with the launch presentation set to be published on YouTube and Vimeo shortly after the event and others to follow later. 

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For more information and to book a place, visit the SideFX website.

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Paul Roberts

Paul is the owner and editor of CGPress, an independent news website built by and for CG artists. With more than 25 years in the business, we are one of the longest-running CG news organizations in the world. Our news reporting has gathered a reputation for credibility, independent coverage and focus on quality journalism.

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Guest (the original)
1 year ago

Who’s here for Autodesk? 🙂

Reply
Steve Burke
1 year ago

Every product launch for Houdini just makes me remember why I fell in love with 3D graphics to begin with. Such an amazing assortment of new toys to play with.

Reply
focegi
1 year ago

Autodesk needs to buy SideFX, and add Houdini to the group… 🙂

Reply
LL1
Reply to  focegi
1 year ago

Hehe, do you want give an heart attack to many here?

Reply
damm
1 year ago

Still this outdated look from version 9…
Time to modernize

Reply
Nossgrr
Reply to  damm
1 year ago

Houdini’s interface aged pretty well I think.. When I use it I dont find the interface outdated.. But it’s just me..

Reply
Damm
Reply to  Nossgrr
1 year ago

Open it next to Embergen and you will taste how outdated it looks compared to a modern user interface ( and how slow the user interface is too ).

Reply
Tack
Reply to  Damm
1 year ago

The UI could of course get a slight rework, but if it is bothering you that much you should stay with Embergen. I would not count on a redesign for the forseeable future.

Reply
ralph
1 year ago

Very Houdini release with its huge list of development reminds Autodesk customers that their new release launch is an invitation to a street mugging where they are the victims. Its truely shocking to see what Autodesk customers get fort there money in comparison to SideFX customers.

Reply
ralph
Reply to  ralph
1 year ago

Every

Reply
Nossgrr
Reply to  ralph
1 year ago

Not sure if you’re old enough but remember the Softimage, Maya releases pre Autodesk? Just Amazing.

Reply
Marcin
Reply to  ralph
1 year ago

Amazing work by SideFX.

Waiting for the Going-down-with-Max buddies to tell us you could do this in Max decades ago and to stop talking about Blender.

I don’t get how people still feel it’s been a good ‘release’ in Max with one modifier (new or revamped) per cycle and ‘all those small improvements’. Most Max users had a nervous breakdown a long time ago, and now it’s just coping by denial.

Reply
Guest (the original)
Reply to  Marcin
1 year ago

I’m a max user and im coping by denial, i am already learning a million other things in this everchanging tech world, but I can’t switch to Houdini, there are things in max that i can still do far faster than anywhere else. I am taking iodine pills to counter the exposed Autodesk radiation.

Houdini is not the all be all answer unless sidefx matches a lot of that fast ease of use turnaround results max users get from tyflow and character animations etc . (As neglected as the latter is) .

Blender and sidefx both have a user friendly interface problems and lack of intuitive feature set issues.

Max was unique because it was designed at a time by artists for artists during productions that required in ovative things fast and with a very user friendly approach. No other software was designed this way, not lightwave with its two module system, not softimage with its windows nt interface, not even Maya.

Sad to see it all under the claws of a company that doesn’t care one bit.

Reply
Dante
Reply to  Guest (the original)
1 year ago

Totally agree with Guest.

Reply
Jumamu
1 year ago

How they do that? Every single release is huge list of new things that are more than welcome.

Reply
Philipp
1 year ago

Old time max user here – in fact I started using max with R2.5 (Kinetix) and it was my main driver over many years. I loved how fast and efficient I was compared to others and although I’ve touched nearly every program over the years (Lightwave, Softimage, XSI, Maya, Cinema) I always came back to Max for projects where I was able to choose my workhorse.

I am still here to read the news because, as you can image being that ‘old’, I am still sentimental when it comes to this community, coming from maxunderground and other sites.

I’ve left max in 2017 completely after a long and hurtful transition to Houdini – it already looked like there is no big future for this software back then. That’s now 8 years! To be honest, I am impressed, max still exists – but also sad, to see its state and ‘development’.

For me that was a really huge decision – but one of the best I’ve made. Houdini made me grow in ways I could never imagine before, understanding CG topics much more deeply and enabling me to do things I would have never thought of with other software.

This piece of software is an OS for CGI and not a simple ‘DCC’. Never looking back and super grateful for SideFX and their work and business ethics.

Reply
ralph
Reply to  Philipp
1 year ago

I started with 3D studio on Dos all those years ago. Like yourself, I hung in there wanting to believe what they were telling us with the development of Max. Each year ticked by and nothing much happened. In 2014 I to move to Houdini. It is so much better once you get your head around it. It demands a good understanding of how CG software works, that knowledge make you a better 3D artist. SideFX puts in a lot of work for each release. Well worth the money.

Reply
Philipp
Reply to  ralph
1 year ago

Ah beat me 🙂 I would have loved to get my hands on a DOS version back then, but unfortunately those disks where not shared at my school. My i486 would have been probably too slow also 😀
Funny thing is, Houdini made so much easier for me. I thought MaxScript is hard and SDK C++ plugins are out of reach, I am just an artist. Houdini showed me how much fun it is to understand things and make stuff with ease and so much performance. It’s just all about concepts and I love how unimportant and easy the UI is. ok – enough Houdini fanboy talk – back to work! 😀

Reply
Artur Mandas
Reply to  Philipp
1 year ago

Similar to raph, 3ds dos old timer here, also realsoft3d, LW/modo/maya, then 3ds max which I liked for speed of modeling, cat and curve tools. Houdini/Blender since around 2010, great combo. Professionally now a programmer/technical artist [Houdini/cpp/c#, proprietary DCCs], but doing pure 3d graphics whenever I can. I love how Blender evolved, sad to see 3ds max go in the direction of sheer oblivion.

Reply
shineoooo
1 year ago

Glad there is still a company in the 3D world to insult Autodesk and their developers once a year at least.

Reply
Tack
Reply to  shineoooo
1 year ago

More like twice a year.

Reply
Ruteger
1 year ago

20.5 has been released!

Reply
scribble line
1 year ago

Unfortunately, I’m still in a unstable toxic relationship with Maya, while Houdini is currently my mistress, where I’m having all the fun. Hopefully, I’ll be able to divorce Maya very soon!

Reply
scribble
1 year ago

Unfortunately, I’m still in a unstable and toxic relationship with Maya, while Houdini is currently my mistress and love of my life. She’s giving me all the the fun. Hopefully, I’ll be able to divorce Maya very soon.

Reply

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