SideFX Houdini FX 18.0.499 | 1.4 Gb
SideFX has released a new sneak peek for Houdini FX 18.0.499, the next update to its 3D animation and FX software withen delivers a powerful and accessible 3D experience with its procedural node-based workflow, while providing tools for simulating fluids, destruction fx, pyro fx, grains, cloth and crowds.

Houdini Main Changelogs - version 18.0.499 - Date:June 15, 2020
- Rectangle lights in LOPs now project the texture in GL, either as a 2D texture (spotlight) or a cubemap (omni). In Objects, all area lights now support projection maps except geometry lights. The LOPs restriction for rectangle lights from the USD spec.
- Fixed bugs where closing a pane with a textport or python shell with keyboard focus could result in accessing freed memory.
- Fixed bugs where textports and python shells destroyed feels in an unsafe order.
- Fix for HAPI_GetTotalCookCount crashing when node is deleted.
- Added snippets to the tractorscheduler Python parm.
- Improvements to PDGMQ script - print timestamped logging output and allow the override of the initial connection timeout with environment variable PDG_MQ_FIRST_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT.
- hou.TopNode.getPDGNode() will now cook the TOP node if it is a scheduler node that has never been cooked before (so that the pdg.Scheduler will be created and returned)
- Improved description of CookedCache entries in submit-graph-as-job jobs.
- Changed the default Draw Mode value in the Configure Primitives LOP from an empty string to "default", since an empty string is not a legal value.


SideFX has unveiled the new features in Houdini 18, the next major update to its procedural 3D animation and effects software.
The release will introduce new artist-focused modelling tools, add a new Substance integration plugin, and overhaul Houdini's key simulation toolsets, including the Vellum, FEM, Pyro and FLIP fluid solvers.[/center]