maps folder?

[jkunz07]

Does anybody know why Houdini12.5 is creating "maps" folders in the same directory as .hip files? Anyway to stop this?

This has been happening to me both on Linux and OSX.

[lukeiamyourfather]

I have not seen this using Houdini. It might be something unique to the pipeline you're using or maybe a specific node in the scene.

[jkunz07]

Just using Houdini without any pipeline tools or scripts. I think it's the oceanspectrum or oceanevaluate node.

I just reproduced it by doing the following:

Launch Houdini 12.5.371

Save empty scene in a new folder

Click on the "Wave Tank" shelf tool

During the creation of the wavetank, a "maps" folder is created in the folder i've saved the .hip file too

[jkunz07]

Just did some more testing, it appears that creating either an oceanevaluate sop or an oceanspectrum sop will automatically make a "maps" folder in the same directory as the .hip file. I think that even if this "maps" folder is deleted it will be recreated whenever either of these nodes is cooked.

[anim]

it very well can be Ocean Evaluate as it has option for Exporting To Texture and there option to Create Intermediate Directories (by default on) so if you didn't turn it off then the path specified by the output file will be created

[jkunz07]

it very well can be Ocean Evaluate as it has option for Exporting To Texture and there option to Create Intermediate Directories (by default on) so if you didn't turn it off then the path specified by the output file will be created

So I guess the ocean spectrum is doing it too because it has an ocean evaluate inside of it.

Is this something that should be bug reported or RFE'd?

imho, it's not very good to have directories being created anytime somebody opens a file with these nodes in it or uses the nodes

[anim]

Ocean Spectrum doesn't do it since Ocean Evaluate Inside of it has Create Intermediate Directories unchecked

you can post an RFE for Ocean Evaluate to have Create Intermediate Directories unchecked by default as it is the case of File SOP, Mantra ROP, Geometry ROP and many other output nodes, (the other node that has it on is File Cache SOP, not sure why such inconsistency)

it is indeed not wanted behavior to be on by default, however I'm very happy that such option is finally there

for now to avoid it being created every time somebody opens the file or cooks the node, simply turn it off

[jkunz07]

Thanks for your help with this.

I'm not sure why but even in an empty scene, creating a ocean spectrum sop still causes the maps folder to be created

[anim]

you're right

maybe it is creating the directory on creation of the node before it sets that option off since the default is on?

and I also found this

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Houdini 12.5.329: The Ocean Evaluate SOP has Create Intermediate Directories on by default as it by default writes to $HIP/map. It also disables the frame range when set to Render Any Frame.

so it seems that SESI wants it to create $HIP/map for some reason and that actually setting that option to on was some kind of fix not sure why that's necessary