This seems to be a problem unique to Houdini in my bag of 3d applications. I have MODO, Maya, Softimage, Lightwave, Blender, ZBrush, 3dCoat, Mudbox, etc… and I just don't see this type of issue in these other apps.

This really puts a damper on my wanting to learn Houdini.

Win 8.1
Radeon HD6950
I have the latest Catalyst drivers.

Even I have faced this issue but restarting houdini fixed this.May be a glitch with openGL.

This happens to me in both Linux and Windows 8.

I've restarted Houdini many times and at first it's fine, but after a few minutes the menus become garbled randomly. Some will self rectify only to become garbled again. Then I'll minimize Houdini and watch some videos on Youtube and come back and Houdini is all better again only to become garbled in a few minutes. I know it may be due to the graphics card. My Quadro 4000 on Win 7 Pro at work doesn't seem to display these issues.

I have the same issue with my AMD HD7950 on both H12.5 and H13 and at work I have GTX660ti and no such issue.
This still exists in Houdini13 althou the AMD card performs far better compared to H12.5

tricecold
I have the same issue with my AMD HD7950 on both H12.5 and H13 and at work I have GTX660ti and no such issue.

That's strange behaviour, I was testing 7950 in Linux, Windows and OsX and no issues. The only time I ever saw text garbled was with 2 monitors one being driven by AMD and the other by Nvidea, then draggin windows from AMD to Nvidia

Aha, I am running two monitors aswell. but only with the same graphics card and driver. I will try and setup a dual head config in xorg instead of a virtual screen and se how that effect things.

MartybNz

tricecold
I have the same issue with my AMD HD7950 on both H12.5 and H13 and at work I have GTX660ti and no such issue.

That's strange behaviour, I was testing 7950 in Linux, Windows and OsX and no issues. The only time I ever saw text garbled was with 2 monitors one being driven by AMD and the other by Nvidea, then draggin windows from AMD to Nvidia

Hmm I am also on Dual Monitor, but same card on windows

If you guys are using HD7950 try and set your 3D viewport pref to GL 2.1.
This made menu-texts to render nice and stable running build 13.0.237.
Tested both on Linux Debian 7 and Windows 8 using Dual Monitor.

Just wanted to say that I'm also having this problem.
I have a Mobility HD 5800 series.
Yes I'm working on a laptop (student).

I'm working on a Windows 7 machine with a dual monitor setup.
Currently running Houdini version 13.0.198.21, but I also had this problem with older versions of Houdini.

I have tried the latest catalyst drivers (13.11), but with no success.
Also downgraded the drivers to an older version, again no success.
(now running the latest catalyst driver again).
Also played with the 3D viewport pref (GL 3.3 and GL 2.1), but so far the problem keeps coming.

The unreadable texts starts being an issue when my project finishes cooking. At this point there is a chance that it kicks in.
Very annoying bug.

I've fixed a potential cause of this in H13.0.259. Please let me know if this resolves the problem.

twod
I've fixed a potential cause of this in H13.0.259. Please let me know if this resolves the problem.

Glad to hear that because yours Techsupport sad they won't fix that issue and I need to replace my new Radeon R9 280X


"Your ATI Radeon card does not meet our system requirements. So graphics issues like this are not unexpected.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=415&Itemid=269 [sidefx.com]

You can try and set your viewport to a different scene renderer under
Edit -> Preferences -> 3D Viewport -> Scene Renderer

All the best,
Support."

twod
I've fixed a potential cause of this in H13.0.259. Please let me know if this resolves the problem.

Just installed latest build - same issue. Tried to reboot and many other options.

Ati Radeon R9 280X card. Win 7 64bit

Problem appears inside Render Tab, there are all of menus grabled and with fullscreen node scene view too. Hope that can help

UPDATE: I solve this problem with some manipulation - Unplugged and plugged back videocard, Changed everything inside AMD Catalyst Control Center, played with some AMD Override, Changed 3d viewport for GL 2.1, than rebooted and problem solved.
Now I reset my Catalyst Control Center to Default and switched back to GL 3.3 and it works fine.

don't know which part of it helped actually…

It sounds like maybe a driver texture setting might have been overriding Houdini's normal behaviour, but that's just a guess. Certain driver options, like “Force 8x AA” for example, will cause fonts to appear blurry, but I've never seen it garble menus.

I'm glad you were able to work it out, though

twod
It sounds like maybe a driver texture setting might have been overriding Houdini's normal behaviour, but that's just a guess. Certain driver options, like “Force 8x AA” for example, will cause fonts to appear blurry, but I've never seen it garble menus.

I'm glad you were able to work it out, though

Great, thanx for answer
and now things are clear. Here is solution for I suppose all Ati cards with Catalyst drivers.

Inside Catalyst Center - Gaming -set Anti-Aliasing Mode to Override aplication settings, Antialiasing samples to None and, Morphological Filtering - Off
You can add this rules only to HoudiniFX.exe by pressing +Add button under Application settings control

Hope it helps someone.

I believe I have found another possible solution. I'm still using the 13.0.198.21 build. I was running into performance issues in Lightwave and it was suggested to go into AMD Catalyst Control Center and add Lightwave to create a custom profile setting.

Under “Frame Rate Control”
Wait for Vertical Refresh: OFF
OpenGL Triple Buffering:ON

I used the same settings for Houdini's custom profile and it seems to be working so far.