I just got back from Siggraph and have been trying to use Apprentice, but am experiencing crashes after almost any action. I also tried to load the rollercoaster tutorial file and it would not load.

Running Win2K on an Athlon 2100, 1GB RAM, GeForce4 4400 using the latest Nvidia drivers.

Any suggestions on how to get up and running?

That's very odd, I have an AThlon machine at home with a 4400 and it works very well. Have you got Service Pack 2 on your Win2k? You say you have the latest Nvidia drivers, did you get them from the Nvidia site? They change very often and the absolute latest are essential… I recommend uninstalling the old video drivers first, rebooting then installing the new ones (sadly, rebooting again). Houdini should fly on that system )

Cheers,

Peter B

Thanks, Peter, the driver re-install seemed to do the trick re: crashes. Now I'm trying to run the rollercoaster but when I open it I get a fatal error (segmentation fault). I suspect the file is corrupt (?) as I am able to open other .hips. If this is the case, is there somewhere I can download a working version?

Ezra

Hi Ezra,
Glad you're on the way! What is the exact filename that's giving you problems? I'll check it out.

Cheers,

Peter B

Peter,

The file in question is 1_final_rollercoaster.hip from the tutorial CD. I've realized that neither that opens nor a couple other files from that CD that I've tried (could be more, haven't gone through them). The only one (so far) that opens is 3_start.hip. Is there some basic method to opening files that I'm missing beyond File-Open?

The other thing I've noticed is that when I start a new file then save, I get a “.HIPNC” file. What are these? They open up just fine.

Ezra

.HIPNC sounds like HIP + non-commercial.
this is the way that you save Houdini Apprentice files….regular .hip files will open in Houdini Apprentice, but when you save they become .hipnc. Also if you open a .hipnc file in Houdini Master, your Houdini Master changes into Houdini Apprentice for that session - untill you close Houdini.

check out this [sidefx.com] for full details.

Hi Ezra,
Both are working fine for me. How are you loading the file? Are you double-clicking on it in the browser, or opening Houdin then doing File->Open, or running from a shell of some kind?

Cheers,

Peter B

Hi Ezra,
I just tried all the .hip files for the rollercoaster on Win2k, and they work fine. I tried on Linux, and they work fine. I was loading directly from the CD. I hate to say it, but it sounds like a system config issue. Do you have SP2 on your Win2k machine? If not, please install it, then re-install the Nvidia drivers and give it a try. I'm running out of ideas )

Cheers,

Peter B

Peter,

Sorry, should've mentioned that I do, indeed, have SP2 - did all available Windows updates, to boot. Also did the Nvidia driver re-install as you specified. I've tried opening the (rollercoaster) file in a variety of ways: File-Open from within Houdini, double-clicking on the file icon with Houdini running and not running. And I've done all the same after copying the file from the CD to my hard drive. I tried merging the file in with an open, blank .HIPNC. I've also uninstalled and re-installed Houdini. Running out of ideas myself!

Is there any chance you could save out the rollercoaster as a .HIPNC and email it to me?

Ezra

Hi Ezra, can you see if you can open use Hscript to open your project file?
In command prompt, just type: hscript filename.hip to see what's up.

Cheers,
Alex

I just tried loading all the rollercoaster hip files here on my home system using Apprentice and they all work as well.

Running Windows XP, 128 Mb RAM on an Intel P4 1.56 GHz, with 16 MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra. (yes, I know the video card is not useable with Houdini but it can load files and let me tumble in wireframe

arctor
.HIPNC sounds like HIP + non-commercial.
this is the way that you save Houdini Apprentice files….regular .hip files will open in Houdini Apprentice, but when you save they become .hipnc. Also if you open a .hipnc file in Houdini Master, your Houdini Master changes into Houdini Apprentice for that session - untill you close Houdini.

check out this [sidefx.com] for full details.

I noticed if I open H4.1 .hip files in H5.5NC that they save as HIPNC but contain nothing when I reopen them