OpenVDB to Softimage

[Pedrito]

Im using the main workgroup in SI 2015 Sp2 both in win 7 and 10 whitout any problem... Didn't compile it or anything...just as a normal plugin without problems...😶

[sirdavid32]

No friend. haven´t solved this. In the end, I´ll have to talk to some programmer to help me understand some stuff about VDB. I did ported something from HU to B3D. It worked right off the bat
but not with Softimage.

[sirdavid32]

@Pedrito, the previous question was asking about node export and read. Those are missing. Have you tried to mount a scene on your own?
Samples are broke scenes. Seriously you got everything working?
I´m on win7 x64

[WilliamP]

Im using the main workgroup in SI 2015 Sp2 both in win 7 and 10 whitout any problem... Didn't compile it or anything...just as a normal plugin without problems...😶

I got the workgroup in fine, but if I call compounds out of it in ICE I run into issues. Following the steps here http://cgicoffee.com/blog/2016/06/softi ... b-redshift, if I bring out the VDB_voxelize_geometry, I get the input port, but no output port, I get an error message that says 'Could not find node VDB_MeshToGrid' and if I expand the Voxelize Geometry compound in ICE, it has only one non-VDB node in it that doesn't connect to anything else. Presumably it is looking up sub-VDB nodes that it expects to find somewhere on my computer that it isn't finding.

[Pedrito]

Im sorry to hear that...in fact I never had problems with the plugin and worked with it since few years in 2015 version.... Dont understand what problems are you having....
Maybe you're missing some windows libs? Try installing all the visual distributables(there are some links in the description of the plugin think)

I can confirm everything work (in my video of flex and vdb i used it as always without problems :S) i created vdbs add some velocity and advect some particles, then I created a vdb from the particles and mesh that with the polygonize grid node, in that case I dont write vdbs to file...but im sure I have done that, and any node fails... tomorrow will upload a new sample scene for you guys and you can try that... This is the video


The only thing I can't do is reading current version houdini vdbs, they are not compatible, I am thinking of update the plugin as Oleg shared the sources and I am working more and more with Hou now...

but the last official Arnold is rendering this generated vdbs from xsi anyway...and think redshift also, but need to check

@WilliamP that sounds like the plugin is not loading dlls correctly, just the compounds, not the c++ nodes...chek the plugin manager and see if it's everything ok there.

I can share some captures of it working but... I really didn't have any problem using it as addon or workgroup( never used the shader nodes as the Arnold version I had already brings vdb sopport so I don't copy those dlls yo the sitoa imstallation path, just copy the content of the workgroup inside my addons folder as any plugin ,I prefer a few workgroups with addons that a lot of workgroups, but that is opt to you...

[sirdavid32]

All right. Sounds like we are on track to re enable vdbs implementations on Arnold and Redshift? Woohoo.
Now that you mention it, I think I did a test vdb render long ago but on Modo...unless my mind fails me I tried it on Softimage (I don't remember if it was SI2015) 2014...I will look it up tomorrow. VBDs have been in my pendant list for ICE simulations too long now..
Thank you for your help on this. Will be watching.

[sant0s]

@WilliamP
I think, I just dont understand but what exactly is not working?
Can you see the green vdb pointcloud in Softimage?
But exporting that to VDB is not working?

I also only extracted the downloaded plugin files into my workgroup and it works.
What I sometimes do when nothing really helps, is to rename/backup under "C:/User/[name]/Autodesk" the folder "Softimage_2015_SP2". So when Softimage starts, it will generate e clean folder.
After that, adding only the VDB workgroup and check, if that works.

I use in most cases the way, oleg discribes on page one.
Here is a scene with the setup. Does that work for you?

generate_vdb_from_pointcloud.zip

(346.1 KiB) Downloaded 129 times

[WilliamP]

Im sorry to hear that...in fact I never had problems with the plugin and worked with it since few years in 2015 version.... Dont understand what problems are you having....
Maybe you're missing some windows libs? Try installing all the visual distributables(there are some links in the description of the plugin think)

I can confirm everything work (in my video of flex and vdb i used it as always without problems :S) i created vdbs add some velocity and advect some particles, then I created a vdb from the particles and mesh that with the polygonize grid node, in that case I dont write vdbs to file...but im sure I have done that, and any node fails... tomorrow will upload a new sample scene for you guys and you can try that... This is the video


The only thing I can't do is reading current version houdini vdbs, they are not compatible, I am thinking of update the plugin as Oleg shared the sources and I am working more and more with Hou now...

but the last official Arnold is rendering this generated vdbs from xsi anyway...and think redshift also, but need to check

@WilliamP that sounds like the plugin is not loading dlls correctly, just the compounds, not the c++ nodes...chek the plugin manager and see if it's everything ok there.

I can share some captures of it working but... I really didn't have any problem using it as addon or workgroup( never used the shader nodes as the Arnold version I had already brings vdb sopport so I don't copy those dlls yo the sitoa imstallation path, just copy the content of the workgroup inside my addons folder as any plugin ,I prefer a few workgroups with addons that a lot of workgroups, but that is opt to you...

Which version of the visual distrubutable do you use, and which version of his workgroup do you have? Maybe I'm using the wrong one? I have Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.61030, and I'm using the 1.0 version of the workgroup, not the 0.8 version originally linked to this thread.

[WilliamP]

@WilliamP
I think, I just dont understand but what exactly is not working?
Can you see the green vdb pointcloud in Softimage?
But exporting that to VDB is not working?

I also only extracted the downloaded plugin files into my workgroup and it works.
What I sometimes do when nothing really helps, is to rename/backup under "C:/User/[name]/Autodesk" the folder "Softimage_2015_SP2". So when Softimage starts, it will generate e clean folder.
After that, adding only the VDB workgroup and check, if that works.

I use in most cases the way, oleg discribes on page one.
Here is a scene with the setup. Does that work for you?

generate_vdb_from_pointcloud.zip

Your scene comes in with three pages of errors, some about the Face stuff, but the rest are VDB files that are either missing or not connecting. I've added a screengrab of your ICE tree. You can see where VDB Voxelize Geometry has no out port and so cannot connect to anything.
I have been e-mailing Oleh, and he has suggested it might be a problem with my redistributable. I'm going to add in the 2013 and 1025 versions and see if it helps.

[sant0s]

I see - had that once, too.
Did you try the backup way to have a clean Softimage?
Also disconnect everything else like workgroups and than only connect the VDB Workgroup.

[WilliamP]

I see - had that once, too.
Did you try the backup way to have a clean Softimage?
Also disconnect everything else like workgroups and than only connect the VDB Workgroup.

I have been able to get the 0.8 version to load in, after various attempts. I did drop it directly into the addons folder, but subtracted a couple of the bits pertaining to arnold, as I don't have that installed. I'll be doing my testing in Redshift.

I'm fairly sure I tried this earlier but it didn't work, so I'm not sure why it is working now. Too much adding and deleting out over the past week.

The 1.0 version Oleh links to later in the above thread still doesn't work, even after installing vs 2015, but I suspect that is because I am running windows 7 instead of windows 10.

Anyway, this gives me enough to experiment with, as his clouds test scene loaded in OK, and I should be able to follow along with the tutorials now that the ICE VDB nodes are all there.

Would you know off hand what the difference was between the original 0.8 version and the 1.0 version, or was it just to keep it up to date with the operating system?

Thanks for everyone's input on this! I appreciate the responses.

William

[sirdavid32]

Could you please share all this setup, vdb install and opening the first vdb file test? Please?
I´m also on win7 x64. Thank you very much

[WilliamP]

Could you please share all this setup, vdb install and opening the first vdb file test? Please?
I´m also on win7 x64. Thank you very much

Good afternoon! Just so you know, I am guessing why this particular combination with 0.8 worked and the new 1.0 version did not. As I mentioned, I think the 1.0 version is just for Windows 10.

The downloadable at the head of this chain gives you a file called OpenVDB_to_Softimage_v0.8. Inside that is a file folder called VDB2SI_WG.

I dropped that whole file folder into my Softimage addons folder, so on my computer it was located like this - Computer>Local Disk (C:)>Users>William>Autodesk>Softimage_2015>Addons>VDB2SI_WG
When I started Softimage after that it was right where it was supposed to be and I could access it fine.
(Afterwards I did manually erase three files from the addon, inside VDB2SI_WG>Application>Plugins>bin>nt-x86-64 three files reference shaders that you won't have/need if you are rendering with Redshift, VDB_shaderDefs_ai.pys, VDB_shaderDefs_mi.pys and VDB_Softimage_Shaders_mi.dll)

I did not use the plugin manager. I tried it a couple of times, but nothing seemed to work well using that, and it would forget it was connected to the VDB workgroup.

The visual studio 2012 redistributable that is needed (the link is also included above) you probably already have. My Softimage won't run without it, so I suspect it's needed if you are running Softimage 2015 anyway.

Follow the steps laid out in this tutorial to make sure it's all working - http://cgicoffee.com/blog/2016/06/softi ... b-redshift

The cloud.scn sample scene included with the addon download won't work directly in Softimage unless you are also using Arnold, which I don't have, so I needed to update it to Redshift using what I learned in the cgicoffee.com tutorial to get it to render. The key part of that is hiding the geometry the comes in that scene from the render (like in the cgicoiffee.com tutorial the geometry in the scene makes the VDB files but isn't rendered directly), and then creating the Redshift_Volume_Grid, attaching the Redshift_Volume_Material to that, and pointing the Redshift_Volume_Grid to the vdb file you are putting away as part of the test scene.

What I have not figured out is how to get it to render a sequence from this tutorial. I can make the various noise nodes change over time, and have the Reshift_Volume_grid reflect the updated cloud, and it looks good if I preview it on any given frame, but if I render it as a sequence it is frozen on one frame the whole time. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Good luck!

[Pedrito]

To render a sequence just cache the results before rendering, not at the same time, if in the viewport is actualizing, it should cache a sequence of vdbs correctly doing a play till the timeline end. Then render the results as you are doing with a redshift volumen holder! That should work!

[WilliamP]

To render a sequence just cache the results before rendering, not at the same time, if in the viewport is actualizing, it should cache a sequence of vdbs correctly doing a play till the timeline end. Then render the results as you are doing with a redshift volumen holder! That should work!

I suspected it was something like that. So after I've played it through, I move it over to Read instead of Write so it isn't trying to overwrite what it's put down?

[Pedrito]

I move it over to Read instead of Write so it isn't trying to overwrite what it's put down?

If you are rendering with redshift you dont need to, but just hide the holder to it is not being actualized ,
you can also change it to read but anyway you need to hide that object to not render that with redshift, redshift has its own holder wich reads sequences by namig something like "Root/mysequence.###.vdb"

also when writing the vdb should cache a sequence obviusly :S xD not to ovewrite the same file each frame, maybe that is what is going wrong with your setup?