point instancing script?

[foligatto]

I'm trying to figure out the procedural geometry option under the point instancing for the render tab. I'd like to be able to have the script select a .obj file to instance based on point number, but I'm not clear on how to do this at all. The documentation appears to be (big surprise) nonexistant .

Could someone help me figure this out. I also tried using the instance with hscript option, but can't seem to get any results with that either.

Any clues or resources would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

[edward]

There's a Help button in the procedurals dialog.

[aracid]

hey foligatto

what u gotta do is append a attribcreate sop onto ur "points object" - be it from a pop network or a basic sphere

then the settings for ur attcreate

* variable and name should be called "file"

* type to a string, class point

* string entry "$JOB/myfantasticobjects.`$PT`.bgeo" - im sure u know whats ment to go there, just incase u not fimiliar, $PT calls the objects point number and the ` ` is something that calculates equations before passing them through as strings.

then

under ur object, render as procedural, select instance with hscript, then under sop, insert "file".

thats basically it, this will obviously work only if u have as many points as objects, if not, im sure u will get by with some rand command,

check out edwards tutorial/breakdown about hscriptinstance, its a good read. just search for it in the forum.

btw, thanks edward for the tutorial, i couldnt have done this without ur notes.

all the best

aracid

[edward]

You mean Jeff's hscriptinstance tutorial. I can't seem to find that post anymore though.

[aracid]

Hey edward

im sure u wrote a reallly long forum entry bout hscriptinstance and otls

cause i basically just searched for hscriptinstance under all the forums for that last night and believe it or not,

u the man with the solution :whistling:

although it didnt describe how one specifically implement the file sop,

it gave a overall explanation how one would use attcreate too pass info to mantra.

:alien1:

[edward]

cause i basically just searched for hscriptinstance under all the forums for that last night and believe it or not,

13673[/snapback]

What's the link to the post?

[aracid]

hey Edward

the link i'm referring too is

http://odforce.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1446

As a matter of interest,

I find Hscriptinstance really slow, im referencing a file thats fairly big(90mb) and its a very long render, but if i render it using point instancing pointing to a OBJ with a file sop inside - its fast.

now HscriptI uses alot less ram and passing variables to different parameters of OTL's is great, however is it optimal to instance simple objects throught hscriptinstance?

all the best

aracid

[edward]

the link i'm referring too is

http://odforce.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1446

13713[/snapback]

Aha! Notice the first line which read:

From the now defunct Houdini 6.0 Beta forum by jlait:

jlait is the forum user name for Jeff Lait. I was just reposting his post.

[aracid]

yeah, these late nights online make u see what u wanna see.

sorry about that ed :bag:

about my earlier post, for those who are following this hscriptinstance post,

i found that by turning off micro-polygon rendering is the way to go when using hscriptinstance on poly's. as far as i understand, it kicks in scanline rendering which makes poly rendering much faster,.

so now i'm rendering just about any number of instances and mantra doesnt kill my ram. i've tested this with 22500 instances of a 25MB bgeo, and that takes 12 min to render at PAL.

anyways, just thought i'd answer my own question

all the best

aracid

[edward]

If you turn off micropolygon rendering, then you're turning *off* scanline rendering. I suspect that in instancing, you just have so much geometry so all the micropolygon rendering (which is normally faster than ray tracing) bloats your memory, causing you to swap which then makes it slower instead because ray tracing doesn't use as much ram.