Hi there,
i installed apprentice version 6.1.208 on my new machine
P4 3,06 GHz Wildcat VP880 pro with Windows XP Pro and noticed that the parameters pane isn't updating right.
I always have to use the scroll to see the correct contents of a tab.

Is that a common issue?


Cheers

Try removing the files in your $HOME/houdini6/desktop directory

Nope, that didn't work.

How is it not displaying right? It might be video drivers?

Hi edward,
i updated my videocard drivers and have the newest 3dlabs VP drivers installed, but the problem remains.


Cheers NatX

I believe that it's Wildcat's WinXP driver problem, cause I had the same problem on my second machine P4 2.6GHz 1GB RAM Wildcat VP560 WinXP. When I boot W2k on that machine there was no such issiue. So, my solution was to scrap WinXP and go back to Win2k.

D'n'D
I believe that it's Wildcat's WinXP driver problem, cause I had the same problem on my second machine P4 2.6GHz 1GB RAM Wildcat VP560 WinXP. When I boot W2k on that machine there was no such issiue. So, my solution was to scrap WinXP and go back to Win2k.

Hm, that would definetly suck.
Did you have similar problems in other applications aswell?
Cuz i need XP for Premier Pro and don't like dualboot.

Yes, I did have other issues with my CAD apps under WinXP. Sudden crashes, disappearing lines and wrong shown textures in OGL are among them. I cannot say they are all gone under Win2k, but much less troubles come about.

There is another issue with Houdini OGL itself though. For example, I created a reference for modeling (3polygrids), applied UV_Projects and VEX_Decal shaders, and merged them. On machine1 P4 2.6G 512Mb RAM Win2k GeForce4 Ti4600 (SoftQuadro) Houdini 6.1.2xx, I could not get my side texture shown correctly. In GL it was always shown offset by about 0.2 in U. On my second machine P4 2.6GHz 1GB RAM Wildcat VP560 WinXP/Win2k Houdini 6.1.2xx, I had the same problem with TWO textures (top and side). At the same time, the rendered reference looked Ok.

I tried TIFF, TGA, PIC and JPEG with no success. Then I used RAT and bingo…the problem was gone.
Why does the type of an image file make a difference in how it's shown in GL?

Here are the illustrations to the problem.

TIFF textures



RAT textures

DnD:

what are the dimensions of your images (pixels)?

if either width or height is an odd number, change it to an even one..

i.e. if its 235x469, change it 234x468 or something…

i can't promise you it will work, but am curious to see if it does..

i personally have had a similar problem and that fixed it… i have also known other people to have really wierd issues when their textures are in odd dimensions and changing them to even fixed it..

dave

Noop, it didn't work.

Sizes are proportional to those of the real chopper:
Side - 1387x411
Front - 328x411
Top - 1387x328
Changing them to 1388x412, 328x412 and 1388x328 gave me exactly the same result.

3Dlabs knows about the parameter pane bug on their Wildcat VP cards, it doesn't hurt to ask them for progress on it though…

Take care,
George.

So, it doesn't hurt to ask SESI people either. I never had such issue with Maya, therefore, I'm really curious about this.

Why does the type of an image make a difference in how it's shown in GL? GeForce or Wildcat VP makes very little difference.

Why would the even dimensions make a difference (sometimes?) versus the odd ones?

Changing them to 1388x412, 328x412 and 1388x328 gave me exactly the same result.

when you changed them, did you resave it back to the same filename or did you change it to something new? if you resaved it back to same, try to save the even pixel dimensions as something different (from anything you might of named it previously)…

I saved them as “Name_Even_Copy.tif”, fired up Houdini, and built the template the same way from scratch. But…

I never had such issue with Maya, therefore, I'm really curious about this.

Houdini uses OpenGL for both its 3D viewports and its 2D UI elements. It is generally more demanding of 2D OpenGL support on video cards than other software.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Side Effects is not working on this issue, there is an active bug reported for it.

Thanks,
George.

aha.
another issue i'm having now, since i got my second monitor for a dual screen setup is, that the one on the right isn't updatin the panes anymore.
Might be a graphicscard thing and i just started doing a search.
If anybody knows something would be nice, if you could help.

Cheers

i have this issue as well and spoke about it quite some time ago on odforce as well as here… i did get some pointers so check out the following threads and do a search on odforce when it get back up and running.

for me it turned out to be a couple things.. i kinda have a wierd setup. i have a ti4200 running a primary 19“ monitor and a tv. i then have a cheapo Vanta pci card running a second 19” monitor (same model). The problem is the cheapo pci card can't run anything from houdini for some reason. now if i run the ti4200 on both monitors, houdini runs with no problem. but if i only use one of the monitors and hook up my tv with the 4200, houdini will only run on both the tv and monitor if i use the Nvidia N-View settings (which i don't like at all). if i use the windows multi-monitor manager, the tv will lock anythign up from houdini. its odd, because any monitor/tv config i throw at 3dsmax, it's fine. my want is to just get a good pci card to run the tv and then just run the good agp card on my primary and secondary monitors. i also have a lcd drawing wacom tablet that i have to switch in and out with the tv and would not like to do that anymore. until then, i have a 3 monitor desk setup and can only use one of them while working in houdini.. drives me nuts.. another thing i don't understand is why there isn't a single motherboard manufacturer that has made a multiple agp slot mobo. it makes sense to me to have something like that.

anyways, that was my afternoon rant.. here is my old thread with another thread contained inside of it that was really helpful…

http://www.sidefx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1697 [sidefx.com]

hope it works out for you,

dave

Think i found it, i had to go deeper into the driver settings for the wildcat and there was an extra option for activating OpenGL for the second Monitor aswell.
Now it works. Wonderful