patreon.com/posts/33249763 [patreon.com]

In this video I will show you some of the inner workings of the context-sensitive rule-based hotkey system that I implemented and one I have been using for a while to speed up my workflow inside Houdini.

It's a very light-weight and flexible system that allows an arbitrary number of actions to be assigned to any key, with extensive modifier key and state support (Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Space, LMB, MMB, RMB, selection state). It's deeply integrated into the overlay network editor workflow.

Wow, this is really useful. thanks for sharing your knowledge

Hey animatrix,

This looks really interesting. If I would become a patreon of yours would I be able to use this toolset? Would you guide me if I had any problems setting it up? Im not a programmer but always interested in workflow enhancers.

Cheers
CYTE

Dentonvanzan
Wow, this is really useful. thanks for sharing your knowledge

Thanks a lot Dentonvanzan Glad you find it useful. I feel like not many people have the patience to watch my videos

CYTE
Hey animatrix,

This looks really interesting. If I would become a patreon of yours would I be able to use this toolset? Would you guide me if I had any problems setting it up? Im not a programmer but always interested in workflow enhancers.

Cheers
CYTE

Thanks CYTE, for sure I will help you if you run into issues

I have been using it daily and refining it on the fly and pushing these updates regularly so there are quite a lot of changes since the first release, and there will be more.

For example I have been thinking about a new concept for the hotkey system to allow dual key actions, which means instead of one hotkey, you will be able to configure 2 hotkeys to be pressed one after another to invoke an action.

This is not a replacement for the existing workflow though, just another way to configure invoked actions.

If I implement this, I would probably customize the default VOP actions to use these. So it would be like if you press T then N, it would create Turbulent Noise VOP.

If you use this concept then you wouldn't have to memorize any hotkey at all, as it's much harder to run into collisions with 2 hotkey combo than one, but I still prefer the speed of single hotkeys for the other contexts, but the user would be able to customize their hotkeys any way they want, and even share them

Hey animatrix,

Wow, this sounds super useful! With two keys to define a node you can easily bind all of the sop nodes to hotkey combos! I will become a patreon as soon as this is working for sure. Though I would prefer purchasing on gumroad

Cheers
CYTE

CYTE
Hey animatrix,

Wow, this sounds super useful! With two keys to define a node you can easily bind all of the sop nodes to hotkey combos! I will become a patreon as soon as this is working for sure. Though I would prefer purchasing on gumroad

Cheers
CYTE

Thanks CYTE, you definitely can I will post it on gumroad before I implement the dual key functionality as that will take a bit of time and it's better I address the community needs for availability first before I develop that next major bit

That's good news! Looking forward to the gumroad release!

Cheers
CYTE

Based on popular demand, I finally released my Houdini 18 GUI & Workflow Enhancements on gumroad

Note that this is the latest version that has gone through 2 revisions. It will include all the new features and updates for free.

https://gumroad.com/l/houdinisupercharged [gumroad.com]

Hey animatrix,

I happily purchased your tools on github! Unfortunately, I ran into my first problem. I made a clean H18 user folder and copied all the content of the “supercharge” .zip file into it. When I start Houdini I get this messages:

Cheers
CYTE

Hi I think you are not using the provided desktop at startup. Can you please set Houdini to use VFX desktop by default on startup in the preferences?

I am also recording an installation video where I will show the process easier because there are a few steps

Hey animatrix,

ok, I think I have to be patient a little bit more till things have matured enough. My problem: When I start Houdini with the VFX desk as the startup it is set to fullscreen mode. But the fullscreen mode in Houdini is broken for me. I don't know why that is, but the viewports turn grey and other panels disappear completely. ( Win 10, RTX 2080 ti, latest Nvidia drivers).
So I switched fullscreen mode off and saved the VFX desk this way. But on a new startup, the overlay feature is broken.
Ideally, the viewport/network overlay view would be its own python panel that could be implemented into one's layout.

Or is there a way to only use the context-sensitive hotkeys and disable the network overlay feature?

Thank you for your effort!
Cheers
CYTE

Ok it turns out to be the timer based callback at Houdini startup not able to properly invoke the fullscreen mode somehow. Manually invoking this action works. I have to use a timer based callback for now because deferred execution method doesn't put Houdini into fullscreen mode (Bug pending).

I will add some options in the config file so people can toggle certain parts of the system on and off depending on their preference.

CYTE
Or is there a way to only use the context-sensitive hotkeys and disable the network overlay feature?

Thank you for your effort!
Cheers
CYTE

Yes the context-sensitive rule-based hotkey system is a separate system from the overlay network editor, though some actions are interacting with it, otherwise it can work with any network editor, as it hooks into the event handler of the network editor being worked on.

The setup video is up. I am also posting it here, in case someone can't find it in the proper pages somehow

Hey animatrix,

here is the hotkeys.csv file that won't work for me. Can you take a look?

and this is the resulting error in Houdini if i try to use the “1,2,3,4” shortcuts:


Cheers
Philipp

Hi,

I replied you through messages, but basically you have to restart Houdini twice after you edit the CSV. I talk about this in the rather long video in the first post