Gpgpu In Hdk?

[David Illes]

Hi,

I would like to implement a GPU-accelerated Houdini SOP that calculates ambient occlusion using GPGPU techniques (drawing a full-screen quad for pixel-texel mapping, using CG shaders etc). Is it possible to start glut from a Houdini plugin, or use the viewport for GPGPU calculations?

Thx,

David

[rjpieke]

I would like to implement a GPU-accelerated Houdini SOP that calculates ambient occlusion using GPGPU techniques (drawing a full-screen quad for pixel-texel mapping, using CG shaders etc). Is it possible to start glut from a Houdini plugin, or use the viewport for GPGPU calculations?

You can use GLUT (I used freeglut in Linux) to do your work in a new "window" (either on-screen or off-screen). In Linux, at least, you have to watch out for which context is being used. I found you had to do something like:

oldContext = glXGetCurrentContext( ... );

glutMainLoop();

glXMakeCurrent( ..., oldContext );

Otherwise the Houdini viewport would get all messed up.

Cheers!