Hi I've used Sketchup for a few years and I'm thinking of using Houdini indie.

I'm building a terrain height map for a scene thats about 25 miles square (5x5). Is that workable in Houdini indie. I've tried it in Unreal engine and it's fine. But I'd like the superior aesthetic of Houdini with it's realistic rendering. I have 32 GB of ram, a skylake CPU and a Titan x card.

Also rendering in my last software, (Sketchup using the Thea render plugin) was very beautiful but very slow. In Houdini indie can rendering movies be done in my computer or would I need a render farm.

Thanks

Jake Lara
I'm building a terrain height map for a scene thats about 25 miles square (5x5). Is that workable in Houdini indie. I've tried it in Unreal engine and it's fine. But I'd like the superior aesthetic of Houdini with it's realistic rendering. I have 32 GB of ram, a skylake CPU and a Titan x card.

You could try build something quick with Houdini Apprentice, which is a free learning edition. That might give you a sense of how Houdini would perform.

Jake Lara
Also rendering in my last software, (Sketchup using the Thea render plugin) was very beautiful but very slow. In Houdini indie can rendering movies be done in my computer or would I need a render farm.

The render speed really depends on your final scene. If rendering turns out to be too slow on your computer, you can always try using Amazon Cloud.