Houdini 20 First Impressions

Houdini 20 is out and brings a ton of new features. These are my first impressions of Houdini 20. We take a look at some of the cloud tools, new karma stuff, the new physical sky and some of the new features in Solaris.
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[@pojitonov]

Yeah what I noticed is the delay before node appears in the network.

[@Deepin2soul]

😆😂

[@khomatech6428]

the AMD dialogue is for your library's save location. just pick a folder and it will download it there.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Good to know. I'll do that then. Thank you.

[@clausbohm9807]

Love the cleaned up tab menu! Skybox is an example of making Houdini SO MUCH EASIER! Group some of these nodes together and then use sliders to adjust them ... that's the ticket to usability to the average animator. Some of these updates are MHFA.

[@asr59]

7:18 you can just view Karma XPU on the viewport without having to add the karma render setting and output. To play with the settings, press D on the viewport, and you can set settings there for both CPU and XPU. Edit: I've just seen a 2 year old video that showing you could already set this up on the display options, I just didn't know about it lol

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Thats good to know. You'll still need it for export so still good practice to put it down but thanks for the tip!

[@azamagfx]

5:11 which key should I press to make this window appear?

[@JM-am-or-pm]

Are the brief pauses when adding a node something new in Houdini 20? I noticed the same thing trying out Houdini 20 this morning (On my first geo node, first box node, etc)... Seems like they are compiling the first time you use them, or something.

[@PowerfullUs]

Same for me

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Good to know this is not just me. I was having this issue with 19.5 too with a new system so I thought it was me

[@wewatchtheskywaiting]

yes this is terrible and seems longer when no internet connection... tested it in a train & office

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

I have been given the suggestion to install the license locally instead of using sidefx as the license server. I haven't tried yet but was told that it solved the issue. Give that a shot and let me know.

[@wewatchtheskywaiting]

yes I've seen a post from Ronan D about this, bit not sure how to do that, might be a next video for you ;)@@InsideTheMindSpace

[@ivanraimi5524]

How fast is the new Karma compared to Redshift, Arnold, etc

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

I havent been able to fully test it yet but from what I have done it seems to be maybe a bit slower than redshift but pretty fast.

[@migovas1483]

Karma is looking better each time, I would like to know from the POV of power users how karma stacks against Arnold in production environment..

[@Ep19MA]

There are many error prompts in animation functions

[@sridharan5172]

You need to be patient because it's take time to fix

[@elevenlevel1]

I was waiting for texture baking to appear in Karma. But that didn't happen. I am very disappointed.

[@SergeBelkin]

It's slower on M1 Pro, UI wise, and loading time cost more seconds to load up.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Try installing your license locally if you are using sidefx as the license server. I have been told that may speed things up

[@iDronson]

Delay on node create - total shame. H20 release for big vfx company not for individuals.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

That was an issue with the license server I believe. If you install the license locally instead of using sidefx as your license server it goes away. I believe it is a bug

[@iDronson]

@@InsideTheMindSpace of course this is bug. And this bug not on beta or test release. This is gold. Of course sidefx fix this, but this shame. A lot of people talk about this bug.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Its a really easy fix. Additionally it's not impacting everyone. Bugs happen and sidefx has a very quick response to issues like this. I'm sure it will be fixed very soon if it hasn't already

[@Birkkromann]

OMG, why is it so slow!?

[@khomatech6428]

fine here, drivers need an update most likely.

[@kewa_design]

Insanely slow :0

[@migovas1483]

He explained is a license issue, local license solves this issue.

[@kewa_design]

@@migovas1483 ah okay, I wanted to try Houdini apprentice but it's not working at all for me haha

[@philippwelsing9108]

The Physical Sky looks mediocre. At best. Even if you crank it up really bad. Did you like the look yourself?

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Its not horrible. I think its ok for certain things. It's missing some controls I wish it had but it's a good start

[@NewYorkStreet]

This video is like the greatest advertisement against using Houdini ever.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

If you are referring to the node placement delay that was an issue with my system. Not Houdini. Otherwise I'm not sure why you would say that.

[@hyunj16]

I think the video was awesome! Keep doing your thing. I dig it.

[@philippwelsing9108]

Awesome, thanks for this! Okay, Ill say it. As of now, KARMA XPU looks terrible and far from realistic. I was having big trouble evaluating the spec. roughness of an applied material. Almost not possible, and it permanently looks like a Lo Res video game. Worst are those nasty patterns that appear when a light source hits directly, you can see it in your video as well. Even subdividing the crap out of the geo up to an almost hilariuos amount did not make them fully disappear. Wtf? Working with noises and especially building ramps for shading is almost not possible, because the render preview is too slow and I never know how anyting is oriented when working with the rest position. How can we use the regular UVs? Didn't find a way, which is super weird. What am I missing? So as of now, KARMA XPU is good only for MoGraph. If you aim for realistic looks and high detail shading with noises, there's just no way. Redshift does this 100 times better. If I missed something here - please correct me, I WANT it to be really good. 🥲

[@philippwelsing9108]

Okay, I just learned that UVs are not called UVs in USD/Solaris. 🥲 They are called "st". I'll see if that makes it easier. No wonder nothing happened when I tried to read in "uv".

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

It sounds like you might be judging it before you fully know how Solaris and Karma work. I will be doing more with Karma in the future but I personally can't say yet whether or not I think people should keep their Redshift license. I'm also not sure what nasty patterns you are referring to.

[@philippwelsing9108]

@@InsideTheMindSpace I gave it a lot of tries. But probably I am missing something. Do you have an e-mail address or the like? I'll send a screenshot of what I mean with the pattern. Thanks a lot! 🤝

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

The best way is probably just through discord