SideFX has unveiled a sneak peek of Houdini 19, exciting artists with a range of new features and improvements. This upcoming version promises significant advancements across various areas, including KineFX, Muscles & Tissue, Crowds, Solaris, Karma, Modeling, Pyro FX, FLIP Fluids, Vellum, RBD Destruction, FEM, Grooming, PDG, and more.
What’s New in Houdini 19: A Feature Overview
Here’s a glimpse at some of the exciting features and enhancements coming to Houdini 19:
Solaris: Revolutionizing Layout and Environments
- A unique brush-based framework for large-scale set dressing.
- HDA-driven brush architecture offering endless customization possibilities.
- Full access to verbified/compilable SOP networks.
- PDG-assisted creation of layout asset galleries.
- A new USD asset browser.
Solaris: Enhanced Lighting and Rendering Capabilities
- A comprehensive importer for Houdini scenes.
- Improved motion blur generation.
- The option to pause viewer updates.
- Faster GL rendering of transformable instances.
- Viewport support for camera exposure attributes.
- An updated Karma LOP for quicker render setup.
- USD 21.08 support.
Karma: Production-Ready Rendering
- The beta tag has been removed, indicating production readiness.
- Improved final image quality and performance.
- Enhancements to motion blur for crowd agents.
- A refined holdout/matte workflow.
- Support for deep camera maps.
- Optimized memory usage.
- A redesigned Karma LOP UI.
KineFX: Advancing Motion and Physics
- An evolving framework focused on motion data and physics.
- Support for leading mocap software like Xsens and Faceware.
- Ragdoll dynamics for hero characters, incorporating full-body IK.
- The ability to specify custom collision geometry and rig control geometry.
- Enhanced animation baking controls within Rig Pose.
- Faster joint configuration within the 3D viewport.
- Improved skeleton blending.
- Custom metadata support for crowd agents.
- Direct character import into Solaris.
Grooming: Unleashing Creativity
- A completely redesigned grooming toolset.
- Numerous new tools and interactive brushes.
- Hair sculpting that’s 10-100 times faster with GuideGroom.
- Extensive mirroring capabilities.
- Powerful grouping and masking options.
- Native support for Vellum physics brushes.
Muscles, Tissue & Skin: Streamlined Rigging and Simulation
- A unified system for muscle, tissue, and skin rigging and simulation.
- A SOP-based workflow with built-in Vellum soft-body simulation.
- Non-destructive and fully interactive.
- Natural-looking muscle sliding.
- Full access to geometry and visualization tools.
Pyro: Enhancing Fire and Smoke FX
- More one-click Pyro effects via shelf tools.
- Real-time tracking of burning objects using minimal solver resources.
- Cinematic-quality results in the real-time GL viewport.
- The ability to smoothly and accurately scale simulation velocities.
- Extrapolation of velocity into new tiles.
- A completely redesigned pyro solver UI.
RBD Destruction: Advanced Simulation Controls
- The ability to track RBD age.
- Much faster unpacking of packed elements.
- The ability to set and edit constraint properties.
- Faster and more accurate centroid extraction.
- The ability to convert deforming geometry into animated static packed objects.
- Enhanced visualization of guided and non-guided pieces.
Vellum: A Unified Solver
- Now a fully complete, unified multi-solver.
- Native support for XPBD fluids, rigid bodies, and plasticity.
- Expanded use of OpenCL.
- Real-time grain simulation with minimal Vellum solver.
- Interactive brushes for fluid and grain sculpting.
- A constraint browser for managing and visualizing Vellum constraints.
3D Viewport: Improved Visualization
- Distant light support via cascading shadow maps.
- Light bloom and halo effects have been added.
- Particle sphere lighting.
- Silhouette selection mode.
- First-person (WASD) navigation.
- Faster background texture loading.
- Fast rendering of cutout objects.
Modeling/Geometry: Enhanced Creation Tools
- Redesigned curve drawing with Beizer handles and corner rounding.
- Interactive curve editing embeddable in any HDA.
- Enhanced UVFlatten and UVLayout algorithms and UX.
- Enhanced GLTF mesh and texture export.
- Artist-friendly volume noise tools.
- VDB extrapolation and merging capabilities.
- Dozens more verbified/compilable SOPs.
The information in this article has been sourced from 80.lv.
Further Reading:
- 10 Tricks For Better Houdini FLIP Fluid Simulations
- Modeler 2021 For Houdini
- Houdini Engine For Unreal And Unity Now Free