4 ms·

Is the price really the blocker? How much does it cost? I looked at the indie edition and it seemed affordable. They also have a free edition: https://www.sidef

by memexy 6y ago

Is the price really the blocker? How much does it cost? I looked at the indie edition and it seemed affordable. They also have a free edition: https://www.sidefx.com/buy/#houdini-free https://www.sidefx.com/buy/#houdini-free.

_bxg1 6y ago
Affordable, but a little hard to justify as a casual user who just wants to mess around and doesn't really plan on building anything complete
- dtf 6y ago
  It’s completely free for the casual user who just wants to mess around, as long as they don’t use it for commercial work. Almost all features supported, except external renderers and certain geometry exports. There are some great free tutorials here: https://entagma.com/ https://entagma.com/
ur-whale 6y ago
It's not the price that's the problem. It's that it is closed source, and therefore any work you produce is on a guaranteed path to bitrot.
- memexy 6y ago
  Isn't the final rendered product portable? Also, I'd imagine you could always export the necessary assets into a format less prone to bitrot.
  - ur-whale 6y ago
    I don't know of any format that supports full parametric modeling the way Houdini does. As the OP said, parametric modelling is what makes Houdini so nice. And if you want any chance to rework anything in a project - say - 10 years later, exporting to a "baked" format is a dead end.
    - memexy 6y ago
      What's preventing the development of an open model/data format for parametric modelling?
      - andybak 6y ago
        Because every feature and parameter would have to be baked into the format and every editor would have to offer those same features and no more. There's always a trade-off between editability and fidelity with any format. Non-destructive stacks of modifiers bring that trade-off into sharp relief.
        uglycoyote 6y ago
        Yes.. not only offer the exact same features but any software that tries to implement the format would have to agree on the exact algorithms for the transformations represented by each procedural step. Any error in any one of those algorithms would cascade into subsequent steps and could generate a completely different final product
        memexy 6y ago
        Some amount of variation is desirable in any artistic endeavor.

by memexy 6y ago

_bxg1 6y ago

Affordable, but a little hard to justify as a casual user who just wants to mess around and doesn't really plan on building anything complete

dtf 6y ago
It’s completely free for the casual user who just wants to mess around, as long as they don’t use it for commercial work. Almost all features supported, except external renderers and certain geometry exports. There are some great free tutorials here: https://entagma.com/ https://entagma.com/

ur-whale 6y ago

It's not the price that's the problem. It's that it is closed source, and therefore any work you produce is on a guaranteed path to bitrot.

memexy 6y ago
Isn't the final rendered product portable? Also, I'd imagine you could always export the necessary assets into a format less prone to bitrot.
- ur-whale 6y ago
  I don't know of any format that supports full parametric modeling the way Houdini does. As the OP said, parametric modelling is what makes Houdini so nice. And if you want any chance to rework anything in a project - say - 10 years later, exporting to a "baked" format is a dead end.
  - memexy 6y ago
    What's preventing the development of an open model/data format for parametric modelling?
    - andybak 6y ago
      Because every feature and parameter would have to be baked into the format and every editor would have to offer those same features and no more. There's always a trade-off between editability and fidelity with any format. Non-destructive stacks of modifiers bring that trade-off into sharp relief.
      - uglycoyote 6y ago
        Yes.. not only offer the exact same features but any software that tries to implement the format would have to agree on the exact algorithms for the transformations represented by each procedural step. Any error in any one of those algorithms would cascade into subsequent steps and could generate a completely different final product
        memexy 6y ago
        Some amount of variation is desirable in any artistic endeavor.