SideFX has released a new sneak peek for Houdini 17.5.173, the next update to its 3D animation and FX software. Version 17.5 introduces PDG which is designed to enhance SideFX's procedural architecture to distribute tasks and manage dependencies to better scale, automate, and analyze content pipelines for Film, TV, Games, Advertising and VR.

In addition, there have been a number of enhancements to key features such as FLIP Fluids, volumes, destruction tools and more.

Houdini 17.5.173 - Release Date February 19, 2019:

- The BlendShapes SOP now supports optionally having the blend weight slider parameters control the weights per packed primitive input, (when using the "Treat Packed Primitives as Inputs" option), instead of per true input, so that a separate node isn't required in order to control the weights. Using a point, vertex, primitive, or detail attribute named "weight" will still act as multipliers on these parameter weights.
- The BlendShapes SOP now supports receiving packed primitives as inputs in the first input, as long as the first input contains only packed primitives. If you previously had a first input that already contained only packed primitives and the "Treat Packed Primitives as Inputs" option is on, you will need to further pack the first input's geometry to get the old behaviour.
- Add an example for using the Vellum Drape SOP to find a valid starting position for initially overlapping cloth.
- The Alembic Archive Object now warns when unknown nodes are found in the Alembic archive.
- Rename "Houdini PDG" to "Pilot PDG". The executables in $HFS/bin have also been renamed (houdinipdg -> pilotpdg).
- The Wire-over-Packed display option is now saved properly when saving display options as default.
- Added the possibility to specify a column delimiter in CSV Input. This fixes issues happening when the delimiter found automatically by sniffing the few first rows of the file was incorrect.
- Updated wedge shelf tool so that it can create any number of wedge layers.
- Extrude Volume SOP now has options to output the standard polyextrude groups.
- The Extrude Volume SOP's second output no longer has the ghost __extrudefront__ group.
- Added a shelf tool for using the ImageMagick node to convert a folder of images to a different image format
- Houdini now auto-sets the Global UI Scale preference when launched for the first time on a machine. This is most notable on machines with 4k and 5k displays where previously the Houdini UI was too small for the text and icons to be legible.

About SideFX Houdini FX 17.5. The release introduces the Procedural Dependency Graph (PDG), described by SideFX as a potentially industry-changing new technology.

PDG, also due to become available in a new standalone application, PilotPDG, enables users to specify the dependencies between different parts of a project's task graph, making it possible to do anything from running simulations and renders in parallel to 'assetizing' entire sections of a studio's pipeline.

SideFX also expects PDG to form the basis of new machine learning workflows within Houdini.

Other new features in Houdini 17.5 include distributed fluid simulation, a high-quality new GPU-accelerated viewport smoke shader, and updates to the Vellum multiphysics solver.

About Side Effects Software. Side Effects Software is a world leader in the development of Houdini, our advanced 3D animation and special effects software for use in film, commercials and video games. Side Effects Software has been recognized three times with Scientific and Technical awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Houdini family of animation software offers digital artists an unprecedented level of power, flexibility and control based on award-winning procedural technology. The comprehensive feature set includes: modeling, rigging, animation, particle effects, dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. All Houdini applications work together seamlessly and are available for the Mac OS X, Linux and Windows operating systems.

Product: SideFX Houdini FX
Version: 17.5.173
Supported Architectures: x64
Website Home Page :
Language: english
System Requirements: macOsx
Supported Operating Systems: OSX 10.11 and higher
Size: 1.7 Gb