MJV

The camera node in the screen shot is the camera that is being looked through. The camera seen in the screen shot is nowhere in my scene. I can select it in the viewport, but I can't delete it. Of course. Didn't help.

I used the launcher to install the lab tools multiple times and they are still missing, in both versions. I tried posting the same question in the Houdini forum too but the moderators there haven't yet seen fit to allow it to appear publicly.

Thanks but it's not there.

Nothing shows up in the tab menu. It's definitely missing. All the lab stuff is missing. This is honestly what I hate about Houdini. Unending installation issues and constantly changing installation procedures that mean consulting YouTube videos for help is always useless.

I wanted to play with the tree generator but it seems like most labs are missing since I updated to 19.5. They are even missing now in 19.0

Ok thanks for checking.

I am using Houdini Karma render in R19.5 and I can't find any way to have one dome light for Illumination and a separate dome light for the background. Is it not possible?

Yay I got Houdini 19.5 installed and the first thing I looked at is if point colors are now supported by Karma XPU and they are. Hurray!! If I may I have a few questions though: 1. Why does the HDRI background not show in the MRay Render? 2. Why can't I get rid of the camera object seen in the viewport? It doesn't exist anywhere in my scene. Seems to have something to do with Mantra IPR but I'm not using Mantra and I can't get rid of it. 3. Why doesn't the Mray window give any indication of my zoom size? I can't tell if I'm looking at at the full resolution or am looking at a zoomed view. Thanks.

If the tube has no bends in it then a sweep nurbs would be even easier than the spline wrap nurbs.

R18 can use hair or cloners and effectors, either of which can be used to distribute hair or image sprits or actual geometry depending on level of detail desired.

To be fair, anything that can be done regarding grass in R25 is easily doable in R18. No need to upgrade just for this.

This one is older than the series above, but maybe even a little better. I highly recommend them both. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6prOI2CI0KXnSSdvvutIIYZIPtEKaTId

https://www.sidefx.com/learn/collections/houdini-isnt-scary/

Sharp edges make sense. I would also suggest if not already done to randomize the all the pieces' tilt so that each reflects a slightly different background to mix it up and not have it look like just a mirror.

In R20 it is in the Tools-Execution menu and yes there is no shortcut for it.

I think that might be part of my problem with it. It doesn't seem intuitive to me and it's not something I need frequently anyway, but If one needs it all the time I can see how it could be of value.

😍🤩🥳 Astonishing!

In scenes with a couple hundred deformers, which by nature are very computationally slow, disengaging them frees up navigation and also allows the user to see at a glance the total contribution of deformers in a scene. Same goes for the Generator, Animation and Expression on-off switches. The Generator switch in particular is essential for saving frozen scenes and much more effective than the escape key.

😀 I love those buttons. They shouldn't be hidden under some obscure menu. They are invaluable and should be in everyone's personal layout as pictured in mine..

As predicted:

Sounds like the Use Deformer's active/inactive switch somehow got turned off.

Sorry, not convinced of that at all. Draw mode Edges with Quad Strip Mode is just as precise, except it is intuitive and doesn't result in a giant mess of criss crossed geometry. I admitted that I was wrong about the tool being worthless, but honestly it's still not good in my opinion, as it has way too many settings and options and tries to be all things without being very great at any one of them, and I can't be bothered to watch a series of YouTube videos every time I want to poly model something, and having reviewed it again I think it's not something I'm likely to use in the future either, as I think I can model faster using other methods I am more familiar with and find more intuitive.

I don't understand. Of all the modes you showed earlier, it is the most difficult mode in which to draw a polygon.

No that mode is just useless to me. I don't see why it is the default.

Thanks! That looks very good for:just $199.