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Houdini Development Toolkit - Version 6.5

Side Effects Software Inc. 2004

Houdini

Getting Started

Initially, the toolkit may appear daunting. There's a lot of capabilities for customization, and seemingly a lot of new information to absorb. However, we hope that you'll find the class hierarchy consistent and relatively easy to use.

There is sample source for many different aspects of customization, from custom SOPs to output to a custom renderer and even a sample hscript-like stand alone application.

This sample source can be used as a "spring-board" to creating your own custom tools. The easiest way to start writing code is to grab a copy of one of the samples and start modifying the code. It's really not that difficult.

Things you need to know:

  • The 2.5 version of the toolkit is built using version 7.1 of the SGI C and C++ compilers. We have used the -32 and the -mips2 options to build our libraries.
    You should be using this compiler and these options in order to successfully compile and link with the Houdini libraries, though it may be possible to use the 7.2 compilers (using the options above).
    When developing for WindowsNT, the Microsoft C++ development environment is required.

  • To compile code, you should probably use the hcustom command. This command will set the compiler options to the correct defaults for use with the toolkit.

  • To view header files for classes, use hcbrowse which is a graphical tool for viewing class headers.

  • A toolkit development license is required to compile the code or to use any of the toolkit applications.


  • As well, there is a developer toolkit mailing list which you can subscribe to by mailing listproc@sidefx.com and putting subscribe devkit name in the body of the message. This is a moderated list where you can ask questions and share information with other Houdini Developers.


    Table of Contents
    Operators | Surface Operations | Particle Operations | Composite Operators | Channel Operators
    Material & Texture | Objects | Command and Expression | Render Output |
    Mantra Shaders | Utility Classes | Geometry Library | Image Library | Clip Library
    Customizing UI | Questions & Answers

    Copyright © 2004 Side Effects Software Inc.
    477 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3E7