H12.5 viewport displays geometry that it's NOT SUPPOSED TO!

[Guest tar]

I'm also surprised that we have so many modes. I think one simple mode as a fallback if things do not work as should, and one expanded would be sufficient. I really curious why we can't have viewport so good like the one in Modo for example. Never had any issues with it and they seems to use quite a lot of cool extensions in it.

It's just the ebb and flow of software, sometimes some are ahead, sometime they are not. Modo's might be good right now, maybe they added tonnes of resources from the Foundry to do it and it cost them a fortune, who knows?, but Nuke's 3d viewport sux compared to Houdini and Modo, and Nuke and Modo are from the same company!

If a company could buy the viewport off the shelf then you would expect everything to be equal, until that happens there will always be differences.

Anyways, I'm still after any issues with the viewport, send them in. So far, these bugs are not very hard to reproduce.

[bandini]

On a mac, using any of the viewport GL settings my dops forces for magnet and field force will always remain visible, no matter what I choose for their display settings. This should be easily reproduced on a mac.

[Guest tar]

Thanks Adam,

I'm not getting any errors here on Os X, AMD and Nvidia cards using magnet and field force in Dops.

Can you post a .hip scene up, and some of the general steps you take i.e.if you move the current time indicator, use the Show All etc. Also the OsX version, graphics card and Houdini version. It's a bit of a pain to do but it's the way to squash the bugs!

A screen recording from a fresh Houdini session is always best though

Thanks!

Edited September 10, 2013 by tar

[bandini]

Thanks Adam,

I'm not getting any errors here on Os X, AMD and Nvidia cards using magnet and field force in Dops.

Can you post a .hip scene up, and some of the general steps you take i.e.if you move the current time indicator, use the Show All etc. Also the OsX version, graphics card and Houdini version. It's a bit of a pain to do but it's the way to squash the bugs!

A screen recording from a fresh Houdini session is always best though

Thanks!

I'll test on my home computer tonight, also, and see if there's some OS-specific stuff going on. If it is old OS issues, I won't try to push this forward as a bug.

-Adam

[Guest tar]

I'll test on my home computer tonight, also, and see if there's some OS-specific stuff going on. If it is old OS issues, I won't try to push this forward as a bug.

Cool, thanks. Good call on the older Os, I want Sesi to develop for H13 not fix archaic/esoteric bugs

[malexander]

It would be good hear from a developer what is up with GE8 series and OGL 3.2/3

The GEForce 8 series is GL3-class hardware. However, you need the driver to support the GL3 features too. Nvidia writes the driver and OpenGL API on Windows and Linux, but on OSX, Apple writes the OpenGL API.

Their original driver supported OpenGL 2.1. Then, with OSX 10.7, Apple introduced a new OpenGL driver entirely - based on the OpenGL 3.2 core profile. As far as I know, Apple is the only one that has implemented a core profile of OpenGL; everyone else has implemented the compatibility profile. The core profile strips out all of the older GL API, not to mention some very useful pieces. Stuff like the fixed function shading pipeline, immediate mode, stippled lines, display lists, etc.

Because all of Houdini is built on OpenGL, it depends pretty heavily on all the features removed by the core profile. So it wasn't possible to use the GL3.2 driver (and still isn't) on OSX, and Houdini still uses the GL2.1 driver on OSX. This is basically GL2.1's sole reason for existing - OSX. And it's also why the GT8800 on Windows reports GL3.3 (and many extensions), while on OSX it reports GL2.1.

The GL renderers themselves are the front-end rendering portion of the new viewport. The back-end is common. The GL1 renderer is basically the GL2 renderer without shaders (both share 95% of the same front-end), while the GL3 renderer incorporates all the modern features (including some GL4 features). The GL1 renderer was basically for running Houdini on Intel GPUs and software rendering. Now that the newer Intel GPUs are shipping with OpenGL 3 drivers which actually work, the GL1 driver may be retired.

So, in short, if some people wrote better drivers and kept up to date with OpenGL features, we'd only have 1 front-end renderer.

[Guest tar]

So it wasn't possible to use the GL3.2 driver (and still isn't) on OSX, and Houdini still uses the GL2.1 driver on OSX.

Does this include Mavericks, Os X 10.9? Any hope for GL3 viewport on Os X soonish? Was hoping to format my Windows partition into 10.9 for OpenCL and Gl3 viewport.

[malexander]

Does this include Mavericks, Os X 10.9? Any hope for GL3 viewport on Os X soonish? Was hoping to format my Windows partition into 10.9 for OpenCL and Gl3 viewport.

Given Apple's history of backwards compatibility (or lack thereof), I would find it pretty unlikely that they would add the compatibility profile to their new driver. If we wish to see GL3 on OSX, then I believe it's pretty much up to us to make it happen. In that respect, by not relying on a third party to make it happen, there is hope

[bandini]

Cool, thanks. Good call on the older Os, I want Sesi to develop for H13 not fix archaic/esoteric bugs

Checked on my home computer. New macbook pro. NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card. OS 10.8.4. Houdini 12.5.427

You can see in the video that the source geo for the magnet force is always visible, even when the display options are off. hip file enclosed.

magnetforce_display_error.mov

magnet_display_error.hipnc

Edited September 11, 2013 by bandini

[Guest tar]

Checked on my home computer. New macbook pro. NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card. OS 10.8.4. Houdini 12.5.427

You can see in the video that the source geo for the magnet force is always visible, even when the display options are off. hip file enclosed.

Cool, thanks - very clear examples - I'll submit that one - it happens on AMD as well.

[malexander]

Garbled Point Number Display confirmed for GL1 & 2 but not 3 - see attached screengrab

Edit: 2 x bugs reported to Sesi today; the garbled Display Number Point

This is fixed in 12.5.521 (Sep 12's build).

[Guest tar]

Checked on my home computer. New macbook pro. NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card. OS 10.8.4. Houdini 12.5.427

You can see in the video that the source geo for the magnet force is always visible, even when the display options are off. hip file enclosed.

Cool, thanks - very clear examples - I'll submit that one - it happens on AMD as well.

Adam, you might want to send an RFE; Paraphrased from Support; the DOP simulation is working as expected as all geometry is now displayed. The geo is from the "sopgeo1" upstream and you can turn on the brown hide flag to make it disappear.

This is the support ticket number if you need to reference it #14965.

[Guest tar]

GF8800.

Another issue I sometimes have is picking problems in ogl3 mode. You can't select anything in viewport and have to switch to other mode. I know at least one person here on odForce that had the same problem, but I don't know was it ogl3 mode too.

EDIT:

Very often it is when I create node in network view first and then press tylda (~) key in viewport to change selection and it doesn't allow to make any selection. I have to create node from viewport first and select.

Can you upload a screen recording of this happening in GL3 mode? I could only get the the problem in the link to happen, i.e. selecting points from the scatter node, in GL2 and from Support this is not supported in that mode

EDIT: Testing in Windows 7, AMD & Nvidia, GL3 mode and I can select after Scatter SoP and using reselect mode (~). Houdini 12.5.517

Edited September 11, 2013 by tar

[bandini]

Adam, you might want to send an RFE; Paraphrased from Support; the DOP simulation is working as expected as all geometry is now displayed. The geo is from the "sopgeo1" upstream and you can turn on the brown hide flag to make it disappear.

This is the support ticket number if you need to reference it #14965.

Thanks, Marty! I just learned something new. Not a bug, then. Just a small misunderstanding on my part.

[Guest tar]

Geforce series 8 have full support for OGL3.3 so I don't see any problems. Beside, supporting only latest hardware, in the PC market where you don't upgrade anymore computer each year (or half) like couple years ago would be stupid.

Running old hardware is like running old software in business - you can but you can't effectively compete in the marketplace.

For example HoudiniFX annual maintenance is worth every dollar, it's also good to invest in hardware each year. Keeps everything running super smoothly.

[Guest mantragora]

Running old hardware is like running old software in business - you can but you can't effectively compete in the marketplace.

For example HoudiniFX annual maintenance is worth every dollar, it's also good to invest in hardware each year. Keeps everything running super smoothly.

I don't know of any company that changes it's hardware each year.

Beside, Houdini viewport is bad so there is no excuse to force upgrade on anyone. I'm not the only one here that have problems with it. Many guys here have recent graphic cards (even quadro) and they still have problems. If it's bad, changing hardware will not solve the problem.

Modo viewport works good for the last three-four versions (that's about 5 years). If they could do this when they where not part of The Foundry, I'm sure SESI can too.

As for reselect mode, I'm not in Houdini this week so can't test but I will in look into this later this week.

[Guest tar]

I don't know of any company that changes it's hardware each year.

Beside, Houdini viewport is bad so there is no excuse to force upgrade on anyone. I'm not the only one here that have problems with it. Many guys here have recent graphic cards (even quadro) and they still have problems. If it's bad, changing hardware will not solve the problem.

Modo viewport works good for the last three-four versions (that's about 5 years). If they could do this when they where not part of The Foundry, I'm sure SESI can too.

As for reselect mode, I'm not in Houdini this week so can't test but I will in look into this later this week.

What is wrong with the viewport? Please post any and every problem as there has not been a single issue that has not been addressed so far.

I totally agree that companies don't upgrade their equipment enough.

[Guest mantragora]

What is wrong with the viewport?

Just launch Modo and then Houdini viewport. Do you see difference? They don't have million switches and it just works. I never had to log any bug for it. That's all I wish from Houdini viewport for the last 1.5 year. That's a graphic software not debugger.

[Guest tar]

Just launch Modo and then Houdini viewport. Do you see difference? They don't have million switches and it just works. I never had to log any bug for it. That's all I wish from Houdini viewport for the last 1.5 year. That's a graphic software not debugger.

You're kidding right? The bug list for Modo is crazy - check it out. examples:

http://forums.luxology.com/topic.aspx?f=33&t=76821

Topic - Big slow down when viewing UV maps 701 sp1

Yes, it's true. Viewing, selecting and deforming UVs are unbearably slow and like you said it's a pain. I don't get why Luxology has such a problem solving their UV issues. Come on guys! This is Modo 701 and still can't solve the UV problems?

http://forums.luxology.com/topic.aspx?f=137&t=79969

"I was wondering how is Modo for Linux working for you? Have you experienced instability issues? I ask because I have a friend who is running Modo on a Linux box and he says that he had quite a few crashes."

[Guest mantragora]

I would love to have such issues with Houdini viewport . They may have long bug list but I never had to log one myself. Can't say the same about Houdini.

I'm a Windows user. I try to avoid Linux as much as I can. My Wacom refuses to work with it (on latest OpenSuse) so I refuse too. But from test I'v done it wasn't so bad.