Aearon

It will be challenging, mostly because of the requirements of stackexchange. If you come back in a year, chances are you'll see that it has failed - so why don't you just post some questions instead, or at least vote for existing ones. Even if it's voting down. There is nothing to lose.

That is all true, and for a good reason: the things you listed are all typical forums, that don't provide anything different. have an honest look at stackoverflow.com and you'll see that it isn't a forum at all.

That's a valid concern, but what you're describing is true of almost everything on stackoverflow as well. The Q&A system works very well for this, because the votes change constantly, to reflect the current state of the art. In addition to that the answers are edited all the time as well, by the original author or others. There are multiple answers per question as well.

I wouldn't put it like that - I think there's room for both, it isn't a competition. I did explain in my post why I think there is a lot merit to the stackexchange format - while the forum format is good for other things. The ability to search for threads and posts doesn't give you the best answer without a lot of work. Like you I'm used to that system, but there is something better out there... Especially with popular threads, you have to search through multiple pages of stuff until you find the guru who's got the best answer. This is the opposite on stackexchange - the popular questions breed the best answers, and those answers will be right at the top. Also, on stackexchange you're also actually encouraged to keep answers updated, and other people can update your answers as well. On a forum, if that guru later notices that his answer is outdated, he might post again to the same thread - making the correct answer even harder to find.

So I just created a proposal for a houdini stack exchange site. http://area51.stacke...s/57115/houdini I'm hoping for this to be an additional resource for houdini users, one where it'll be easier to find the best answers to specific questions, not just for the person asking but the community at large. This is more specific than, and somewhat different to the open discussion a forum povides. Answers can be edited and voted for by all members of the community, which tends to let the good answers rise to the top, where they are easy to find for everyone. Here are some of the differences compared to a traditional forum system: * Voting - rather than being a forum discussion, the best answers are voted to the top, making it really quick and easy to find what you're looking for. * Gamification - the best contributors are rewarded with reputation and achievement badges creating a competitive element to the questions and answers format that increases contributions. Reputation also unlocks certain moderator-like privileges. * Wiki - editing is encouraged, leading to the most popular questions and answers becoming more like a collaborative wiki to provide the most succinct and helpful answers. To be clear, this is not something "I" am doing, the fact that I created the proposal doesn't even appear on the site, and doesn't give me additional rights. Everyone who joins the site (with their google/facebook/stackexchange account) can shape it's future. The most valuable thing at this point (In the 'definition phase' of the new site) would be to get as many expert houdini users as possible to sign up, and propose some very specific questions (up to 5 per user). The whole point of the definition phase is to find the kind of answers we want, by voting them up and down. Please help! *edit* just realised that this should probably be in lounge/chat, can it be moved?

Any chance someone who has managed to set up a visual studio project post their solution? I'm lacking the good understanding of cl.exe and link.exe eloop mentioned, but i'd still like to use visual studio!

well i was just trying to hack around basically, no specific reason. although i guess in an already established pipeline you would want to use your already installed python so it would just be good to know how to get houdini access from there.

man... why?? you just ruined this for me!

hm possible. maybe it executes blocks of 256 points at a time? interesting! ptnum is just the global var. the two lines are all the code there is.

hm... weird stuff happening now. i have this code: printf("grp%d\n",ptnum); addgroup(sprintf("grp%d", ptnum),ptnum); the printf generates the expected output (grp0,grp1,...,grp1042) i have 1043 points so everything seems correct but the groups created look like this: 256 points in grp0 256 points in grp256 256 points in grp768 19 points in grp1024

ah yeah great, much better thanks guys

is there anyway to cast an integer to string in vex? i'm trying to do an equivalent of the partition sop in vex using something like: string grpname = "grp" + (string) ptnum; addgroup(grpname,ptnum) (this is just a simple example that would create a group per point named grp$PT in expression speak) is this possible? casting to string like that doesn't seem to work.

Thanks again guys, but i don't have much time to answer in detail, or show any more wips, as i have to finish this and some other stuff quite urgently first. but it's gonna be part of my reel so there will be some making-of kind of clips later. here's a quick new test anyway. i implemented a shader for points that calculates a specular based on normals derived from the gradient in the underlying volume, to get a more solid look. i'm still experimenting with getting some otherworldy and unusual 'dark mass' feel. i'm happy for now evilsphere02_points_render.mov

wow, thanks for all the comments guys! there's more to come, but not before a little break.. next week i'm going on vacations for a month sometime after that i will probably do a complete scene with this so stay tuned anyway. i already started modeling a street scene for this.

hey guys, so after sort of finishing (read: while temporarily letting rest) my last project, i started on some r&d for a new idea. see attachments. It's a black-hole kind of sphere that eats everything in it's path. fun stuff here's a list of stuff that is happening. - the boxes are rbd's that get attracted to the sphere using a force which gets exponentially stronger closer to the sphere - the boxes are cut as part of the dops simulation - anything that goes inside the sphere has it's backside stretched back to surface of the sphere - all of the geometries inside the sphere are combined into an sdf volume, which acts as a source for a fluid simulation. this simulation lives in the space of the sphere - the same sdf geometry is used to source particles which are driven by the fluid velocities - velocities are transferred to the fluid simulation from the normals normal direction of surfaces inside the sphere, which makes the smoke rapidly expand evilsphere01.mov evilsphere01_points_render.mov