Greetings everyone,

I have just purchased the new Apprentice HD version and the program will not shut down properly. I ultimately have to enter the task manager and shut it down from there. Because of this every time I start the program it runs the UI cache, which should only be done once. Beyond that I have a few issues where it will freeze when I try to save and when I try to open files. But this is few and far between. The real issue is I cue up a mantra and I try to render it but nothing happens. Even after hours of waiting nothing happens. (Yes I have tried from both the drop down menu and the render pane.) However when I do try to render a montra, it opens one up in the task manager and uses a small chunk of memory.

Any information / help would be appreciative.

Windows Vista,
Core 2 Quad @2.66GHz
Dual Nvida GeForce 8800GT
SLI enabled
Physx
4 GB RAM

I did have dated driversand those didn't work so I installed the most recent ones, and it still does not work.

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When I try to render a mantra node it does not even bring up the mplay screen.

If you start up Houdini, then immediatley close it after the UI cache has taken place, then it wont re-cache on re-start. When Ive re-installed Houdini and gone too heavy with particle sims ect, and Ive had to shut down with task manager, then Houdini has had to re-cache at start up. (this is on the first start after re-installing..)

As for the freezing, ive no idea..

Actually I let the UI run every time I start up. And thus far I have not done anything more than following the tutorial that makes the spoon. No particals, nothing intensive. I can even start it up, then click the X to close, or shut down from the menu, and it freezes and will not close.

But not being able to render anything is the real pain.

This wouldn't be a liscencing problem would it?

I've been having the exact same problem. Every time I render it starts an instance of mantra.exe, but it does nothing.
And even if I just start the application and exit again, it locks up.

Wow - you guys should log a bug or something.

Make sure you don't have any dialogue pop-up window behind Houdini, waiting for input

Exactly the same happens to me.

Thanks everyone, it is good to know I am not alone. I have just submitted a detailed bug to the Houdini team.

I will post here any response I get.

Cancel that. I don't think I will get a responce. Just got an e-mail saying they won't respond to it unless they need more information. Just to check the support area. Great.

This lack of support / information is irksome.

TitanZero
This lack of support / information is irksome.

I'm guessing you're new here, and yes this is a very big problem, basically ruining the reason you bought HD. But the support here is awesome, so don't go beating it down. These forums are great. Also, if they did receive your bug report, who knows, in two days there may be an update addressing it.

Are you using the latest daily build or a production build?
32-bit or 64-bit?
Also, if you have UAC on, try running Houdini as an Administrator. :\

TitanZero
Cancel that. I don't think I will get a responce. Just got an e-mail saying they won't respond to it unless they need more information. Just to check the support area. Great.

This lack of support / information is irksome.

As far as I know, Apprentice/HD users aren't entitled to full support… because the Apprentice product is free. Are you a licensed customer and just posting in the Apprentice forum? If not, you have to rely on community support and unofficial SESI support. However, SESI are fully aware of the forum and will fix problems like this as they arise, especially if they're not totally occupied with issues of commercial license customers.

SESI exhibit fantastic support otherwise

heydabop

TitanZero
This lack of support / information is irksome.

But the support here is awesome, so don't go beating it down. These forums are great. Also, if they did receive your bug report, who knows, in two days there may be an update addressing it.

Several reasons I find it Irksom:
First there are several other posts from people with problems similar to mine. And of course they are left off unanswered.

Secondly I only get a responce when I complain about the service.

And I did pay for the product, albeit the HD version, so some attention would be nice.

I am using the latest production build, runing 32 bit. I have run it as admin, I have run it in compatability mode for XP. I have even tried the fun little drivers available at http://www.omegadrivers.net/nvidia_vista32.php. [omegadrivers.net] I can run Houdini, and run Fallout 3 at the same time, with out errors dramatically reducing the odds of it being my video drivers.

And before someone asks I only have one moniter so I have my video cards set up for singal moniter use.

TitanZero
Several reasons I find it Irksom:
First there are several other posts from people with problems similar to mine. And of course they are left off unanswered.

I'm curious, how is the support for Maya PLE?

But I hear you; it's an unfortunate problem you're having and SESI are not a terribly big company to spare very diligent support (for their unsupported product), so I'm afraid you'll have to do some sleuthing and work with them to solve this kind of sporadic issue. I know it doesn't help to say it's a rare or sporadic issue since this happens to you 100% of the time… but keep tryin'.

Sometimes new daily builds just magically fix issues like this. That and experimenting with different versions of your display drivers might strike gold.

Try running Houdini “as Administrator”.

edward
Try running Houdini “as Administrator”.

I stated that I did, in my last post.

And no it dosen't work.

As for playing around with the video drivers. I already posted that I did. And because I have no video errors with any other programs, I'm relatively sure that it is not a video driver problem. If you read the other posts around this Forum on video driver errors they tend to do more then just crash Houdini, and they have a different, yet specific range of events that I am not experienceing.

Houdini won't close.

Houdini won't render.

Not video driver issues.

And just to be sure Windows Defender was not the problem I turned it off and ran Houdini with the same issues.

Try:
- Turning off UAC
- Delete the “c:\users\userid\appdata\local\virtualstore\program files\side effects software” directory (replacing userid with your own userid)
- Reboot
- Re-install the latest daily H10 build.

Alright. Double checked that the UAC was off.
Deleted the files.
Rebooted.
Reinstalled.

Same problems.

Ok, something else to try:
- Exit any Houdini related processes that you may have. Double-check in the Task Manager.
- Start up the License Administrator (from the Start menu).
- On the Installed Licenses tab, make sure that you have active Houdini and Render tokens. Check the Available column.
- On the Server information tab, make sure that there are at least 3 checkmarks. Note your “Licensing mode”.
- If you've encountered problems so far, go to View > Diagnostic information and attach its contents here.
- If all is ok, then go to File > Change Server. There should be a toggle called “Use Standalone Mode”. If your licensing mode says “sesinetd licensing”, then this toggle should be enabled. Change the value of this toggle and click Accept. If your licensing mode was “local licensing”, then come back and tell us.
- Quit the License Administrator
- Delete all houdini10.0 folders on your system.
- Start Houdini, as Administrator. WAIT for it to generate all icons. On networked systems, I've seen this process take up to 15-20 minutes for the first time.
- Ok, now put down a Box from the shelf.
- From the Render icon in the leftr toolbar, choose View:Mantra. Does this render?

As you can see, I have done all that.

Nothing works.

Still freezing on close.

Still won't render.

On the Mantra ROP, have you tried rendering to disk? Change the “ip” value in the Output Picture parameter to something like “render.$F.tiff”.

PS. When you start Houdini, go to the main menu and choose Help > Version. What does it say there?