New Operator Types

[Anti-Distinctlyminty]

Hi all,

I'm attempting to make a new operator, and I'm still relatively new to Houdini in this regard, so every time I see this interface

I am always left with some questions, as there seems to be no list in the documentation about why the operators are broken up into these 'Operator Styles' and 'Network Types', e.g.

• Why are these particular 'Operator Styles' the ones available? Are they presets, or are they fundamentally different in some way?
• Is a 'VEX Type' 'Geometry operator' different from a 'Python Type' 'Geometry operator'? And is that different from a 'Subnet Type' 'Geometry operator'?
• 'Python Type' is one of the Styles, but I thought all operators were implemented in Python - does this type mean something else?

The documentation on the New Operator Type doesn't answer theses questions. 

I'm currently trying to write a particle cache exporter, so I though it needs to be an 'Output Driver Type', but if I do that the callback script option is greyed  out. 

[bonsak]

"Operator Style" is basically the type of operator you want to make. "Network Type" is which network (context) you want your HDA to be available in.

-b

Edited January 7, 2017 by bonsak

[davpe]

regarding operator styles:

if you create Object Type, your asset will be treated as an object node

if you create SHOP Type, your asset will be treated as a material node

I guess Python Type means an operator that contains user defined python script (like Python SOP)

etc.

this far I could understand but in general the whole thing around operator types is quite obscure to me as well. It's funny that I could find quite a bit info on how to edit and manage operator types but there is no information in docs on how it actually works and what it is essentially. maybe someone more educated in this will be able to bring some clarity into how it works. 

Edited January 5, 2017 by davpe

[Anti-Distinctlyminty]

Thank you for the replies. I'm glad some are as confused as me  

I spent some time and made every single type and they should be embedded into the hip file attached. They are all laid out, but are also available via Tab>Operator Types in the network view. This was quite illustrative as it showed what options are available for each on the Operator Type Properties window. A few notes:

• All the VEX Typesseem to have the Code tab available to write code that particular return type. So relatively straight forward, but I'll need to search more in order to find what actual code to write in these sections.
• The most complex seemed to be the SHOP Geometry Procedural Shader as this has no option to write code. I found from the HDK documentation that you have to write a compiled plugin with the same name that this shader then picks up. I will not be touching this one for a while
• As far as I can tell the subnet operator types are just the same as selecting a bunch of nodes and collapsing them to a subnet. Except this will be an empty subnet.
• The Object Operator Types are just containers for geometry, camera or light setups. I think. I'm guessing that because they are those types Houdini treats them all slightly differently. 
  The Python Object Operator seems to be the same but some python code that is called for each cook.

If anyone has any other insights then please do let me know.

New_Operator_Types.hipnc