Houdini History

[galagast]

SideFX Houdini - History

Houdini 16.0 2017-FEB-21

New Network Editor Brand new architecture for better performance, user experience and control Completely redesigned look and feel ‘Dot’ connections to help route wires Customizable node shapes Resizeable colour palette ‘Flyout ring’ to quickly access node flags and node info at any zoom level Persistent node info dialog with live links and cut-and-paste capabilities Visual ‘badges’ to indicate certain properties of the node Multi-selectable and multi-assignable wires Ability to knife-cut wire connections Snapping guides for fast and easy node alignment Automatic shifting of nodes to accommodate new entrants Intuitive, gesture-driven network layout tools Quickmark hotkeys to jump between networks or within one network Dimming of long wires to prevent obstruction of nodes Visual indication of non-local dependencies, with handy jump-to controls Background image support for network boxes or the entire canvas Font size, colour and background controls for sticky notes Optional display of the node type Powerful search engine Modeling Fast Boolean with exact predicates and arithmetic 3D and UV smoothing with advanced surface analysis kernels PolyFill with quads, fans, and more Enhanced PolySplit and PolyBevel Redesigned Copy/Instance and Group Intersection analysis and stitching Robust 2D triangulation Selection enhancements Fast tool access via customizable, gestural radial menus Infinite reference plane with rulers Medial axis snapping Vertex normal support in the viewport for cusping Pseudo-bevelling with Normal SOP Aggressive geometry compression Extensive OpenCL support ‘Compiled SOP’ architecture: parallel cooking and memory savings 3D Mouse support Terrain Brand new architecture for procedural terrain generation Based on height-field volumes in SOPs Full and immediate access to Houdini’s modelling arsenal 30+ dedicated surface operators Powerful erosion models Straightforward workflow, similar to image compositing but in 3D Seamless optional leveraging of Houdini’s compositing network (COPs) Ability to mask areas of interest with freeform curves and texture maps Ability to paint and override any attribute Support for geotiff and several Lidar formats Native output to game engines Fully tileable Game-friendly terrain material and specialized shader for VFX use High-quality visualization in the viewport Dedicated Mantra procedural for rendering Very fast: hardware accelerated via OpenCL Native collision support for Houdini’s physical sim environment (DOPs) Look Development Architecture for single-tiered shader creation in VOPs (no SHOPs required) - /MATs Much streamlined workflow to aid both new and existing users Full support for nested, unlimited shader layering Redesigned VOP node tiles Ray-traced SSS BSDF with image-plane outputs Support for unified nested dielectrics Dispersion and absorption BSDFs Redesigned Principled ubershader with extensive features and controls Updated shader gallery with new entries such as skin, wax and mountain Easy OpenGL tagging of shader attributes for viewport visualization Viewport support for metallics, coat, occlusion, reflection and more Texture baking enhancements OpenColor IO support Per-pixel inspection of material stylesheet overrides in IPR Significant performance enhancements to Mantra Fine-grained, intuitive controls for the quality/performance tradeoff Direct rendering of HIP files containing curves and points with no Engine license Character Many enhancements to the Animation Editor Flexible constraint architecture based on VOPs and CHOPs Biped and quadruped auto-rigs Biharmonic skin capturing to diminish the need for weight painting Fast bone placement with medial axis support ‘Invisible rig’ support in Pose tool Spring-based and FEM-based skin & muscle system Significantly improved FEM soft-body solver Optimized for performance Hair & Fur Complete overhaul of hair and fur creation, grooming and rendering Unrestricted layering of grooming operations in SOPs Rich set of dedicated tools such as clump, frizz, curl, trim, extend and part Flexible masking tools to isolate areas of interest Ability to override any attribute via texture maps or 3D paint Total freedom to mix attribute painting with 3D brushing Equal editing access to grooming guides and generated hair Full preservation of procedural graph Built-in simulation controls Easy and accurate retargeting High-quality hair visualization in the viewport Dedicated shelf tools and desktop Very fast: uses OpenCL and the new ‘Compiled SOPs’ architecture SOP-based Mantra procedural that does not consume Engine license Crowd Simulations Viewport visualization of material stylesheet overrides Animation clip layering Enhanced hip adjustment and foot locking Non-bipedal terrain adaptation Intelligent adaptation to real-time deforming terrain Advanced controls for looping, trimming and self-blending of clips Easy attachment of props such as weapons and clothing Support for custom collision shapes Robust and significantly faster computation of automatic joint limits Improved clip selection and randomization controls Clip renaming and unit conversion during FBX import Native support for collision with height-field terrain Ocean Tools Complete overhaul of the ocean FX architecture Unlimited layering of arbitrary wave spectra in SOPs Infinite oceans: tile-free approach that eliminates concern for artefacts Waves can be applied artefact-free even to deformed/warped base grids Art-directable, animated hero waves can be mixed in seamlessly Masking tools to isolate areas of interest 3D particle foam system for a richer and more realistic look Guided sims: seamless blending of FLIP fluid sim with ocean surface Improved boundary layer that preserves boundary velocities Very fast: OpenCL accelerated Layerable ocean shader that lets you plug in foam particles Render-time evaluation of ocean surface via dedicated Mantra procedural FLIP Fluids Physically correct simulation of surface tension Suction force: art-directable fluids driven by animated geometry Waterline feature: wave dynamics that extends correctly beyond boundaries Enhanced viscosity solver with slip controls Fully OpenCL-accelerated pyro pipeline Native support for collision with height-field terrains Houdini Engine & Games HAPI 3.0: no longer Houdini Digital Asset (HDA) centric; packed primitive support Remote debugger: live view and manipulation of game engine scene within Houdini Many UE4 and Unity plug-in enhancements Dedicated shelf tools for games Rigid-body and breakable simulation export to FBX Blendshape export to FBX Simulation export to textures for use in real-time engines Much improved texture baking More robust PolyExpand2D

 

Houdini 16.0		Price (USD) as of 2017-OCT-18
Package	Type	Floating	Floating Annual Rent	Floating Annual Upgrade Plan	Node Locked	Node Locked Annual Upgrade Plan	30-Days Rent	7-Days Rent
FX	C	$6,995	$4,495	$3,995	$4,495 *	$2,495	$625
Core	C	$2,995	$1,995	$1,495	$1,995 *	$995	$255
Engine	C		$795		$499 *		$100 *	$35 *
Indie	LC				$199 **
Engine Indie	LC				FREE **
Education	NC		$75
Engine Education	NC		FREE
Apprentice	NC		FREE *
			* Monthly Renewal		* Limit of 5 Licenses per studio. ** Limit of 3 Licenses per studio.		* Maximum Quantity of 5	* Maximum Quantity of 10

 

 

Houdini 15.5 2016-MAY-19

Modeling New PolyBevel 2.0 SOP New PolySplit 2.0 SOP New Dissolve 2.0 SOP TopoBuild tool (phase II) Variable width offsets in PolyExpand2D Double-click for edge loop selection Double-click for point and primitive island selection Crowds Advanced locomotion controls Direct FBX Imports for agents Vertex normal support for deforming crowd agents New Agent CHOP New Terrain Adaptation SOP Improved crowd steering behaviour Accurate foot planting Mocap Biped 3 with library of motion clips UVs Triplanar UV projection VOP Curvature support for UV Bake Tighter UV island packing in layout Lighting and Rendering Third Party Rendering Support in Houdini Indie - Today: RenderMan, Arnold, and Octane - Coming: Redshift, V-Ray and Maxwell New VR Camera built using new VR lens shader DOF and Motion Blur in OpenGL ROP Overscan rendering support and crop window fixes OpenGL displacement mapping in viewport "Render to Disk in Background" button on SOHO ROPs Photon tracing control in Mantra User Experience Better Euler tumbling in viewport 3D handle enhancements File chooser enhancements Improved geometry snapping Multi row/column pasting in Parameter Spreadsheet Help system enhancements Character "Delta Mush" deformation support Multi overlapping selection in Dopesheet Hair and fur grooming enhancements Performance Faster VEX function loading and more efficient memory use Faster saving of large geometry HQueue performance optimizations Volumes OpenVDB 3.1 Interoperability Many Alembic enhancements

 

Houdini 15.5		Price (USD) as of 2016-FEB-06
Package	Type	Node-Locked	Floating	Subscription
Houdini FX	Commercial	$4,495	$6,995	Perpetual
Houdini	Commercial	$1,995	$2,995	Perpetual
Houdini Engine	Commercial	$499	$795	Annual
Houdini Indie	Limited Commercial	$199	---	Annual
Houdini Engine Indie	Limited Commercial	FREE	---	Annual
Houdini Education	Non-Commercial	$75	---	Annual
Houdini Apprentice	Non-Commercial	FREE	---	Monthly

 

Houdini 15.0 2015-OCT-15

UI GGX and PBR in viewports XML Menus Geometry PolyBridge Block Begin/End Looping Paste at cursor Animation Onion Skinning Character Picker Pane Pose Library Pane Dynamics FLIP handling 2B+ particles Crowds Rag Doll States Rendering Principled Shader (Disney) Shader Layering in VOPs Viewport Normals Material Stylesheets Update IPR Render times info Read PSDs in COPs Bake Textures

 

Houdini 14.0 2015-JAN-15

UI Qt for GUI Visualizer New Color Picker (TMI) Animation Editor (Channel Editor) Workflow Improvements Dynamics Point Based Dynamics (PBD) Crowd Simulation Gas Curve Force Hair Grooming Material Stylesheets Bunch of New Nodes Attributes can now hold Arrays Mantra license now per-machine (previously per-CPU)

 

Houdini Engine for UE4 2015-DEC-03

Houdini Engine for 3dsmax 2015-NOV-06

Houdini Engine 2.0 2015-OCT-15

Houdini Indie 2014-AUG-07

Houdini Engine for Cinema 4D 2014-APR-23

Houdini Engine for Unity 2013-NOV-20

Houdini Engine for Maya 2013-NOV-20

 

Houdini 13.0 2013-OCT-31

Particles Particles as DOPs VEX-based (Faster) Stream Concept Dynamics Finite Element Solver New Fluid Surfacer Debris Shelf Tool Packed Primitives OpenEXR 2 (ILM) OpenSubdiv (Pixar) OpenVDB (Dreamworks) Update VEX/VOP Can now create geometry Linear Workflow Data Tree

 

Houdini Engine Introduction 2013-JUL-11

Maya Cinema 4D

 

Houdini 12.5 2013-MAR-14

FX CloudFX OceanFX OpenVDB Sparse Volumes Primitive (Dreamworks) OpenCL DOP FLIP Animated Densities, Viscosities & Timescales Bullet Concave Geos New Bullet RBD Constraints Lighting Volume Lights Independent Env Light Workflow Alembic Updates Alembic Procedural Shader File SOP/DOP Create Dirs Geometry PolySoup Primitive Remesh SOP Wrangle Nodes UI Group visualization Coincident Points Bind VOP

 

Houdini Master Price Drop - $4,495 2012-AUG-07

 

Houdini 12.1 2012-AUG-07

Edge Grouping OpenVDB Initial Integration Alembic update "Houdini FX" Naming Orbolt Smart Asset Store Tetra Primitives

 

Houdini 12.0 2012-MAR-01

Simulations Faster (Pyro, Cloth, FLIP, Hair/Fur) FLIP Viscosity PyroFX 2.0 Re-written core OpenCL/GPU simulation Clustering Pyro Shader SOP Solver Bullet (now default) RBD Rendering PBR for Volumes IES Lights OpenGL ROP Point Instance Procedural Shader Viewport Rewrite - OpenGL 3.2 Performance Monitor New geometry core (GA library replaces GB library)

 

Houdini Master Price Drop - $6,695 2010-JUN-10

 

Houdini 11.0 2010-JUL-27

Simulations FLIP Solver - See History Dynamic Fracturing (Voronoi) SPH Speed Up Improvements on Fur/Cloth Volume Nodes Shader Building Material Shader Builder Delayed Load Procedural VOP Ptex Uniform Volume Property (PBR/RT) VOPs Shader Effects Collapse/Peg Debug/Bypass Viewport OpenGL Effects (Volumes, Lights, Normals)

11.1 Alembic Support Extended Support for OpenEXR & Field3d

 

Houdini 10.0 2009-APR-16

Simulations Distributed Sims Smoke Up-res Rendering Progressing Interactive Photo-realistic Rendering (IPR) PBR Multi-threading Engine now implemented in VEX Deep Camera Maps Dynamics RBD - ODE Cloth Crumpling/Tearing Misc Stereo Support Sticky Notes Shaking Disconnect Shift/Ctrl movement shortcuts MotionFX

 

Houdini Apprentice HD - $99 2008-JUN-12

 

Houdini 9.0 2007-SEP-20

Fluid Dynamics Solver Liquids Smoke & Fire  (PyroFX) New User Interface Tool Shelf Parameter Interface Mantra PBR & Volume Rendering Volume Primitives Python Support

9.5 Mac Support (2008-JUN-12) FBX Export

 

Houdini Master Price Drop 2007-MAR-01 Floating:        $9,995 Node Locked: $7,995

 

Houdini 8.0 2005-OCT-06

New Dynamics Architecture DOPs Light Linking and Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) Character Workflow Improvements Irix Support Discontinued Disney's The Wild, C.O.R.E. (3 Years - 2006-APR-20)

8.1 Auto Rig Muscle

 

Houdini Master - $17,000 2005-OCT-06
Package	Floating	Node-Locked
Houdini Select	$1,299	$1,599
Houdini Halo	---	$2,999
Houdini Escape	$1,999	$2,999

 

Houdini 7.0 2004-SEP-20

Takes Manager RSL VOPs Channel List / Dope Sheet Documentation File Loading Free HDK Houdini Escape (Model, Anim, Texture, Light, Render) - $1,999 RenderMan Support Character Tools Improvements

 

Houdini 6.0 2003-MAY-08

Digital Assets (OTLs)

6.1 UV Pelt (2003-JUL-23) Syflex Plugin (2004-FEB-09) - $2,200 Character Workflow Improvements

 

Houdini Master 2002-JUN-28

Houdini Halo (Comp) 2002-JUN-22

Houdini Escape (Character) 2002-JUN-22

Houdini Apprentice 2002-JUL-09

 

Houdini - $15,999 2002

Houdini Select - $1,299 2002

 

Houdini 5.5 2002-MAY-14

64-Bit Support [*] New COPs (COP2) Deep Raster VOPs Major new Character Tools Houdini Community Section on website X-Men 2 BAMF - Vijoy Gaddipati, Lead FX TD, Cinesite. (Released 2003-MAY-6)

 

Houdini 5.0 2002-MAR-12

Mental Ray (2001-JUL-11) Viewport Modeling Solaris Support (Later dropped)

 

Houdini Select - $1,999 2001-AUG-13

 

Houdini 4.0 - $17,000 2000-JUL-24 [*][*][*]

Resizable Panes VEX (Mark Elendt) [*] Mantra Updates Linux Port [*]

4.1 TouchDesigner was derived from this version. [*]

 

Houdini 3.0 1999-OCT-02 [*]

Motion Capture (Mouse, Keyboard peripherals) Subdivision Surfaces Higher Order Rational Curve Networks WREN

 

Houdini 2.5 1998-MAR-28 [*]

POPs CHOPS Windows NT Port

 

Houdini 2.0 1997-AUG-05 [*]

UI Enhancements Four View Modeller Advanced OpeGL Display (Transparency & Projected Spotlights) Mantra 4 Fast Motion Blur Lens Flare Built-in Network Rendering Modeling Surface Pasting Animated Trim Curves Nested Intersection Trim Loops Clay Tool Sleletal Capturing and Deformation Tools Operator Subnetworks

 

Houdini 1.0 - $9,500 1996-OCT-02 [*]

First Non-linear 3D Environment (Procedural) 3D and 2D tools Integration Nurbs RenderMan Front-end Scripting and Expression Language

 

PRISMS Short History [*] Execellent Review of Prisms, includes lots of screenshots! [*]
DATE	VERSION	UPDATES
1998	PRISMS 7.0	Final Ship
1997	PRISMS 6.4	SGI O2 Compatibility
1997	PRISMS 6.3	RenderMan Interface
1996	PRISMS 6.1	Optimizations (Houdini 1.0 at SIGGRAPH)
1995-JUN	PRISMS 6.0	Introduction of Sage, the node-based package for modeling. This was the prototype of Houdini.
1995-JAN	PRISMS 5.5	L-Systems
1994-JUN	PRISMS 5.4	MOCA, TIMA
1993-DEC	PRISMS 5.3	MOJO, ICE, Metaballs
1992	PRISMS 5.2	FPaint Added (new C++ UI libs)
1991	PRISMS 5.1	Full-width Graph
1991	PRISMS 5.0	Crystal2 Renderer Eliminated
1991	PRISMS 4.5	Particles
1990	PRISMS 3.0	Mantra Raytrace Renderer Added
1989	PRISMS 2.0	Patch Support, Deformation SOPs
1988	PRISMS 1.5	Initial SOPs, Light Editor
1987	PRISMS 1.0	New motion editor and modeler combined to form action.

 

Installer File Sizes

 

* I set some parts to BOLD to emphasize particular version highlights.
* References: Google, OdForce Wiki, SideFX Press, Houdini Help Docs, CG Channel, CG Press, Nekochan.
* For those interested, I also posted a Houdini FLIP History blog post here.

Edited October 18, 2017 by galagast
added Houdini 16

[galagast]

Yesterday, I got curious and searched for particular features Houdini added to the software for the past few iterations. My goal was to have an idea on Houdini's background and evolution.

 

It started with this thread from SideFX (via google). A link from within it also led to a deprecated site here in odForce's wiki. But I found a cached version here. I also read through the "What's New" sections of the Help docs to pick out features that I think is note-worthy.

 

I jotted all of these down.. and it grew to quite a lengthy one. So I figured it might be worth to share in here. Given my short history in using the software, some of the guys here might help fill some notable gaps.

 

Addendum/Sources:
[2012-FEB-27] Side Effects Software - 25 Years On @ FX Guide by Mike Seymour
[2013-JUN-04] Old School (Jeff Wagner) has posted a bit of history in this post.
[2014-NOV-18] Some good links at the SideFX Forums
[2014-MAY-13] Facebook Houdini History Lesson showing PRISMS on Octance
[2015-MAR-14] PRISMS Review

Edited December 19, 2016 by galagast

[Sierra62]

Thanks for info, it is pretty interesting to see how the software has evolved over the years.

[Mandrake0]

whats also you can get some information about houdini on the archive.org website.

 

H1:

https://web.archive.org/web/19970205095134/http://sidefx.com/press_houdini2.html

Introduction price: 9500$

H2:

https://web.archive.org/web/19980205080226/http://www.sidefx.com/SIG97_houdini2_press.html

https://web.archive.org/web/19980205080211/http://www.sidefx.com/SIG97_houdiniNT_press.html

H4:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010412232931/http://www.sidefx.com/houdini/sales.shtml

 

H7:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050211212321/http://www.sidefx.com/sales/pricing/index.html

Product

Node Locked

Floating

Houdini Select

$1,299 USD

$1,599 USD

Houdini Halo

-

$2,999 USD

Houdini Escape

$1,999 USD

$2,999 USD

Houdini Master

-

$17,000 USD

Houdini Developers Kit (HDK)

Free

Free

 

there are a lot of informations available for a History of Houdini slides.... :-)

Edited February 3, 2016 by Mandrake0

[galagast]

Thanks Francis, I added and updated the post above

[edward]

Houdini 4.0: Resizable panes

Houdini 5.0: Major new character tools

Houdini 7.0: RSL VOPs

Houdini 12.0: New geometry core (GA library replaces GB library)

[edward]

Houdini 5.5: 64-bit support (http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=175&Itemid=55)

[edward]

Linus -> Linux

[galagast]

Lots of thanks edward! I updated the list

[edward]

Houdini 5.0: Solaris support (later dropped)

Houdini 8.0: Irix support discontinued

[Netvudu]

Edward stop. You´re hinting you´re not in your twenties anymore 

[galagast]

• Updated: Added Houdini 15.5 to the list
• Reworked formatting. Added Tables/Coloring.

[sebkaine]

great stuff jeff, that would be fun to get the splash screen / ui / visual elements for each release

this is a great tool to resurect the past :

http://web.archive.org/web/*/sidefx.com

[galagast]

Hi Emmanuel, thanks! I updated the post now with splash screens and UI. But I only have versions 8 to the latest. I'm amazed that those old installers still work! UI grabs are all from windows 10.

* I also added a file size history for my saved installers.

[galagast]

Added short history on prisms from this thread.
Added Info for Houdini 4.1 (TouchDesigner was derived from this version)
Added a few additional sources on the 2nd post.
 

[galagast]

Added current H15.5 prices.
Added link/info to a post on my blog on an unofficial Houdini FLIP update history.
Minor cleanups/corrections.

[lisux]

Wow good old times, I still remember Houdini 5.5 PDF reference manual, and the little tutorials from version 4. No you have Vimeo, things has changed a lot 

[Jason]

I love this post!

Seems like this should be on wikipedia or something...

[galagast]

Haha great idea, I'll look into creating a wikipedia entry with the above info (I haven't done anything of the sort before).

[fox541]

a very interesting topic!

Here are some pic about prisms on SGI.forums.nekochan.net