I know there are a lot of theads about this issue but I think this one is kind of specific, let me know if someone else already post about it.

I am trying to export some geometry from maya 2013 to Houdini 12.0.581 through alembic format which works really fine, everything there is as it should be but, there is always a but, the playback is really slow comparing to Maya which is in realtime, even saving everything as a bgeo it is still the same.

Anyone had this problem? Is it a problem or not?

Thanks.

could be a graphics card issue…
I know that using the H11 settings is slower than GL3.2

Thanks for the feedback,

I dont think it is because I am already using H11 options and everything else except for the playback is working fine, no slow down, if I save to disk each bgeo get to be 19MB maybe a loading issue?

Any Advices in what I should do in Maya before export, maybe some kind of clean up?

Scene with shaders can be a problem?

I did cleaned up my object rig in Maya and now is much better, I combined several objects into one large piece and now after exporting playing it is not so slow, I think it's twice faster than before but when I object merge them and try to save it all as a bgeo it becomes much slower again, Anyone had this problem before?

mzigaib
I did cleaned up my object rig in Maya and now is much better, I combined several objects into one large piece and now after exporting playing it is not so slow, I think it's twice faster than before but when I object merge them and try to save it all as a bgeo it becomes much slower again, Anyone had this problem before?

Hello,

When you import in Houdini cleanup all attributes and then object merge.
another option try the latest Houdini version.

Sunday, May 20, 2012
Houdini 12.0.632: try out this version this might fix some problems



are you using Alembic SOP or Alembic Archive ?

Harsh Mistry

I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

dangerweenie
I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

Try importing like this >> Geometry > Alembic SOP and read alembic file.
another way Alembic Archive (Slow because its going to generate hierarchy)
and
Which version of Houdini 12 are you using ?

Using Houdini 12 production and daily build.

I did the Alembic SOP, it's a bit faster, but I'm still getting about 1-3 FPS in the viewport whereas in Maya I'm getting ~ 10FPS playback in the viewport.

Mac Pro 4,1 16 GB RAM + ATI Radeon 5870 on OS X Lion.

Thanks for the reply.

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

Try importing like this >> Geometry > Alembic SOP and read alembic file.
another way Alembic Archive (Slow because its going to generate hierarchy)
and
Which version of Houdini 12 are you using ?

dangerweenie
Using Houdini 12 production and daily build.

I did the Alembic SOP, it's a bit faster, but I'm still getting about 1-3 FPS in the viewport whereas in Maya I'm getting ~ 10FPS playback in the viewport.

Mac Pro 4,1 16 GB RAM + ATI Radeon 5870 on OS X Lion.

Thanks for the reply.

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

Try importing like this >> Geometry > Alembic SOP and read alembic file.
another way Alembic Archive (Slow because its going to generate hierarchy)
and
Which version of Houdini 12 are you using ?

I am using 12.0.634 and its working fine.
I can easily scrub through timeline

Interesting. Are you on OS X? What kind of machine / video card?

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
Using Houdini 12 production and daily build.

I did the Alembic SOP, it's a bit faster, but I'm still getting about 1-3 FPS in the viewport whereas in Maya I'm getting ~ 10FPS playback in the viewport.

Mac Pro 4,1 16 GB RAM + ATI Radeon 5870 on OS X Lion.

Thanks for the reply.

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

Try importing like this >> Geometry > Alembic SOP and read alembic file.
another way Alembic Archive (Slow because its going to generate hierarchy)
and
Which version of Houdini 12 are you using ?

I am using 12.0.634 and its working fine.
I can easily scrub through timeline

What is your FPS? This is what I have with 12.0.634

see attached screenshot

dangerweenie
Interesting. Are you on OS X? What kind of machine / video card?

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
Using Houdini 12 production and daily build.

I did the Alembic SOP, it's a bit faster, but I'm still getting about 1-3 FPS in the viewport whereas in Maya I'm getting ~ 10FPS playback in the viewport.

Mac Pro 4,1 16 GB RAM + ATI Radeon 5870 on OS X Lion.

Thanks for the reply.

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

Try importing like this >> Geometry > Alembic SOP and read alembic file.
another way Alembic Archive (Slow because its going to generate hierarchy)
and
Which version of Houdini 12 are you using ?

I am using 12.0.634 and its working fine.
I can easily scrub through timeline

dangerweenie
What is your FPS? This is what I have with 12.0.634

see attached screenshot

dangerweenie
Interesting. Are you on OS X? What kind of machine / video card?

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
Using Houdini 12 production and daily build.

I did the Alembic SOP, it's a bit faster, but I'm still getting about 1-3 FPS in the viewport whereas in Maya I'm getting ~ 10FPS playback in the viewport.

Mac Pro 4,1 16 GB RAM + ATI Radeon 5870 on OS X Lion.

Thanks for the reply.

hcmistryvfx

dangerweenie
I am having the same trouble with the alembic octopus example scene - I can barely even tumble the camera in Houdini, yet it plays black smoothly and flawlessly in Maya. I'm using OS X Lion, Houdini 12, and Maya 2012.

Does anyone have any advice?

Try importing like this >> Geometry > Alembic SOP and read alembic file.
another way Alembic Archive (Slow because its going to generate hierarchy)
and
Which version of Houdini 12 are you using ?

I am using 12.0.634 and its working fine.
I can easily scrub through timeline

When i play in view-port its around 9 to 10 FPS.

You can turn off Polygon Convexing (display options, Geometry tab) for models that are known to be properly convexed, and this will improve playback (mileage will vary depending on the geometry). For me, it about doubled the playback rate of the octopus file.

twod
You can turn off Polygon Convexing (display options, Geometry tab) for models that are known to be properly convexed, and this will improve playback (mileage will vary depending on the geometry). For me, it about doubled the playback rate of the octopus file.

Hmm, I turned polygon convexing off, also put LOD down to .1 in the viewport settings, still getting max framerate of ~ 4fps.

Do you think this will get better in Mountain Lion? Or is it time for a new computer?

Hi a little update,

If I import fbx I got a much faster fps on my system, I have a theory, it seems that if you have a lot of pieces, in my case a chopper with lot of separated pices controled by a rig in Maya, if you export as Alembic it is slow because it seems that every piece needs to read the geometry cache in disk for every frame and in fbx you just load the geometry once and the rest is just animation curves, but I can be wrong.

Another issue is if I merge all togheter and try to save a single piece as a bgeo it becomes slower than the fbx again.

Besides that Alembic really works well.

dangerweenie
Hmm, I turned polygon convexing off, also put LOD down to .1 in the viewport settings, still getting max framerate of ~ 4fps.

The LOD only controls tessellation of implicit surfaces, like NURBS, bezier, metaballs and primitive objects (sphere, tube, circle). Since this scene is all polygons, adjusting the LOD will not help.

We are doing some optimization in this area, so don't throw out the Mac just yet