New Houdini is out and I hate it. Well I greatly dislike it. File Cache node can't load files anymore, it doesn't even see bgeo.sc files which strangely was the sole purpose of that node so that's weird. Also Mountain, everyone's favorite node is ruined in looks and feel. There's ton more issues like what's up with that weird Pyro Solver where everything is out of place.
But one thing that really bothers me the most is the fact that you can't just render stuff off the shelf anymore. Case and point would be fire rendering. It used to be where you can drag and drop stuff off the shelf and adjust shader later but in 19 not just that it doesn't work off the shelf but it doesn't render even after I apply shader. I used Bonefire from the shelf to see it in render and it doesn't render whatsoever. I applied different shaders (flames, fireball and such) I thought would result in fire and it deosn't even appear in the render. I am talking about Mantra of course. I don't know why Houdini is getting worse because I believe in if it's not broken don't fix it and a lot of nodes are now just messed up for no reason, like Pyro Solver. Way to mess up easy to understand node. Or file cache, Mountain and many more as I said. But I can learn new layouts but what I can't learn or even understand is why did fire rendering change? How do we render fire now? It's like I am relearning thus thing no, it's a waste of time why would you do this Side FX?
Anyway I am beyond frustrated with this new release I just want to render fire and it doesn't work.
Any ideas on how "cool kids" render fire in H19 ? Because I am only familiar with ways that it ALWAYS worked prior to new release. Any insight would be helpful thank you.
And I will for sure not use H19 for anything but I do need to know how to render stuff out of it for the client work in case I need to do it still. I work in 18 that is superior in my opinion but if anyone knows how to render fire with H19 let me know please.
Thank you.

Nikodim Fomich
Mountain, everyone's favorite node is ruined in looks and feel

you joking, right?

Nikodim Fomich
beyond frustrated with this new release I just want to render fire and it doesn't work

i fired up (amarite?) the bonfire preset, changed nothing, jumped inside the lopnet that is provided, everything works


docs have improved, if you do not know how how to use a workflow, read docs. Also, Attila has a presentation "Sexy Pyro", as well as explosions stuff from 18.5 on H youtube channel. Watch it maybe?

Nikodim Fomich
Any ideas on how "cool kids" render fire in H19 ?

cool kids are on tiktok, next time ask them directly on that platform

osong

Nikodim Fomich
Mountain, everyone's favorite node is ruined in looks and feel

you joking, right?

Nikodim Fomich
beyond frustrated with this new release I just want to render fire and it doesn't work

i fired up (amarite?) the bonfire preset, changed nothing, jumped inside the lopnet that is provided, everything works

Image Not Found

docs have improved, if you do not know how how to use a workflow, read docs. Also, Attila has a presentation "Sexy Pyro", as well as explosions stuff from 18.5 on H youtube channel. Watch it maybe?

Nikodim Fomich
Any ideas on how "cool kids" render fire in H19 ?

cool kids are on tiktok, next time ask them directly on that platform

Nah, I am using Mantra and if it's not a bug I don't know why is it not showing up in the render. I rendered fire million times in H18 so I know it works there. Hmmm...It could be a bug with my Render View or something. Mountain node, no seriously that node was way more authentic looking and feeling in H18. Now it's just another generic feeling Noise node Idk why would they do that.
Well thanks I will watch "Sexy Pyro", if rendering is the same for H18 and H19 but as I said in H18 I see the emission in the render and fire renders and in H19 it doesnt so I thought that pyroShader have been changed or something.

Nikodim Fomich
Mountain node, no seriously that node was way more authentic looking and feeling in H18. Now it's just another generic feeling Noise node Idk why would they do that.

Mountain sop is nothing more then a Noise sop that applies the noise in the direction of the normal. There was no point keeping that node around only for this feature, and even better, now you can specify any other direction using your custom attribute.
Also this move brings us a step closer to unify "noise pattern" interfaces across the sop tools.

Also the mountain sop was only able to displace the geo along normals, it did not work on unconnected points hence it was limited, the new attrib noise is far better with remapping and more control.

@ati @buki, correct. My bad, I think I was so used to the interface that it made me upset when I loaded H19 this morning and found only interface to be changed around. I look it up and saw that it is actually upgraded (Mountain SOP) in different ways. Thank you for clarifying that. I am just a creature of habit.
Now I only need to learn how does one load cached file sequences into new File Cache 2.0

Nikodim Fomich
Now I only need to learn how does one load cached file sequences into new File Cache 2.0

I believe you have a cache that is generated in earlier version? In that case, just change the "Constructed" entry to "Explicit" and you will have full control over the path as you did before.

If that does not work, please let me know.

We have changed the filecache to accommodate more involved shot workflows which would not be possible with the old style free-for-all file naming.

Omg thank you so much @ati. I was really losing my mind I am thinking "Its a cache node how hard can it be". And I couldn't read my older caches in like you said. Also I couldn't find any tutorial or article about how to load older caches. I am in between 2 projects so I was bummed when I couldn't load those older caches. Well that solves it thank you very much again.

I was wondering for ages about the mountain sop. I thought, why the heck was it called like that? Why not simply "normaldisplace" or whatever :-D It seemed way too specific.

Sygnum
I was wondering for ages about the mountain sop. I thought, why the heck was it called like that? Why not simply "normaldisplace" or whatever :-D It seemed way too specific.

Mountain sop is one of the oldest sop node's, we talking here +20 years of age. I don't even know if it was also in prism avaibale that would make it even more older. That was a node for creating mountains in that time ;-)
But over all a nice update what SESI have done.

Nikodim Fomich
Also I couldn't find any tutorial or article about how to load older caches

We have updated the docs with a great deal of info, which is worth to go through.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/sop/filecache.html [www.sidefx.com]

Alos if you type in youtube, "houdini 19 filecache", it should bring up a pretty cool cgforge tutorial and the hive presentation that explains the node in more detail and what are the benefits using it.