Houdini – Still the underdog? No! Never has been.

Well, to put it right: NO. Not in a million miles. Houdini is an expensive tool for creating expensive solutions. Mostly.

But what other company would you list that offers the prime product for 99$, without time restrictions and rebates to the next major release?
None. Go ahead and check, I’ve already did.

And as important for refugees from the Softimage XSI camp (I also have a license for XSI 7), that will rather sleep on pin-needles than “upgrade” to the 7.5 release that doesn’t actually do anything other than brand your purchase as Autodesk (hereafter “the mob”) and throwing in an improvement to the UV Unwrapping functions in XSI, that most of the people I know have outsourced to either Blender (*nix guys) or one of the “Windows Only” software packages, that floats around.

Even in times of trouble, I must insist that for a measly amount of 99$ you get access to almost every component of Houdini Master, including fluid effects, particle systems, crowd simulation, and, well anything you would ever want for a unlimited period of time.

Myself has been trying out the Beta of Houdini 10 (goes stable in late april 09) and I can’t push this enough: This is the creme de’la creme of 3D packages around. It has a steep, and I mean STEEP learning curve, but once you get it, you can do what ever your heart desires.
All the talk about POP’s and CHOP’s wil be second nature.

The one limit you get when “converting” to Houdini Apprentice HD, is that you are limited to rendering (without watermark) up until HD resolution, and that goes for me. Another thing is that you will not get the benefit from network rendering or exporting to other renderers than Houdini’s native renderer, called Mantra.

Being a Buddhist, this is no boundary for me. Mantra is a micro polygon renderer that is definitely a world class renderer when it comes to quality.
Just learn it, and you won’t miss a thing. (except that you might miss some off Mantra’s features in your previous renderer.) Here comes stereoscopic rendering, micro polygon rendering, and heaps of cool abilities, that you would have a hard time getting elsewhere without paying a nice amount of dollars, for say a Renderman renderer. (The commercial Houdini, off course exports and is capable of using external renderers as well). But for 99 bucks, you will not find a better deal. I Promisio.

Go for it! Download a completely free and not time restricted Apprentice edition or go for the no-watermark, up until HD resolution Apprentice HD from:

Just as a sidekick, I would like to mention that Houdini runs on Windows, Linux and OS X…

http://www.sidefx.com

Stereo Rendering with Maya on Linux (OpenGL)

Many folks out there get’s a message like: Warning: Unable to get OpenGL visual with a stereo buffer, trying without //.

Yes that is annoying. But, guess what? It is easy to fix. As long as your graphics card supports it, all you have to do is to add these lines to the “Device” section of your Xorg.conf file:

Driver "nvidia"
Option "AllowDFPStereo" "true"
Option "Stereo" "3"


Also, you can’t work with two hats on at the same time, so in order for this to work, you HAVE to disable the composite extension.
Many people don’t know that Xorg has changed a lot lately, so now you must rather exclude functionality you don’t want, as opposed to before, when every module had to be loaded in the “Module” sections. All you need to load is:

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection


All the other extensions will be autoprobed by Xorg and the defined driver in the “Device” section.
This brings us to the point. You must disable unwanted extensions, or they will get loaded by default. If you don’t take my word for it, check your Xorg log file.
This includes basic loading of fonts as well.

So, in the “Extensions” section of xorg.conf, MAKE SURE to have:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "false"
EndSection

If it does not exist, write it.

Now you should see that the driver includes support for stereo buffer rendering, and no more error messages while rendering in Maya.
My Nvidia Controlpanel now looks like this: (after restarting the X server, or rebooting) Also, to be on the safe side, delete the .nvidia-settings-rc file in your home directory with:

cd
rm .nvidia-settings-rc


Notice the stere column in the nvidia controlpanel:

Nvidia with stereo support

Use realtime Linux kernels for multimedia/OpenGL applications

The default kernel installed in most distributions of GNU/Linux is more optimized for server tasks than userspace application that demand realtime feedback from kernel instructions.

Especially when using 64 bit applications for Multimedia/3D work, including simple tasks such as playing streams of data from services like Spotify, YouTube etc, you can benefit greatly if you throw out the default kernel in favor of a kernel optimized for fast redraws in memory allocated to applications that demands functions such as streaming multimedia with pre-compiled static kernel libraries. realtime gives Insanely better performance even in simple tasks such as music playback, not to mention communication on the bus between soundcards and the instructions, decompiled through their respective partners.

If you work with 3D apps such as Maya, and compositing in applications like Nuke, try a side by side comparison after switching to a RT kernel…

You will be amazed.

GC

Definition of the word Maya ;-)

Maya Ma”ya (m[aum]“y[aum]), n.
1. (Hindu Philos.) The name (in Vedantic philosphy) for the
doctrine of the unreality of matter, called, in English,
idealism; hence, nothingness; vanity; illusion.
[1913 Webster]

Installing Maya 2009 64-bit on Linux

Here is a rundown to installing Ubuntu on Linux. This is for Ubuntu 8.10, but other distro’s should not differ much.

If you have access to the openmotif as a package or want to install from source, it’s a good idea to do this, as I feel it gives a nicer UI.

Anyway, here is the drill:

Maya Ubuntu install

Many out there has had some issues regarding installing Maya on Ubuntu Linux
This guide is used on Ubuntu 8.10 x86_64 and installing Maya 2009 (also in x86_64)

First of all, Maya uses some libraries, that you must install before installing the program itself.
The Motif GUI Maya uses is an old GUI type, dating many years back.
The static libraries are installed and can be linked directly from /usr/autodesk/_maya_version/libs to /usr/lib64 and /usr/lib. This is the libXm.so3 file.

If you don’t want to compile and install openmotif from source, install the runtime files from Multiverse, called libmotif3.

Also Maya uses FAM for keeping track on file changes, so you need to install FAM or GAMIN (newer alternative with same/better functionality in Maya) install both the runtime and development libraries of gamin found in the core repository, called gamin, and libgamin-dev.

Maya will try to write files to /usr/temp, so make sure to create the directory and give it write permissions:
sudo mkdir /usr/tmp
sudo chmod a+rwx /usr/tmp/

Now, you need to convert the .rpm packages to .deb.
The installer scripts in Maya requires csh, so you need to install that and the alien package.

If you have the install files on a DVD, copy the Linux-64 directory to a place you have write access, like ~/MayaInstall (make that directory)
cp -R /media/Maya2009/Maya/Linux-64 ~/MayaInstall

I like to give access to the files in this directory and change the ownership:
sudo chown -R _username_ ~/MayaInstall/
sudo chmod -R +rwx ~/MayaInstall/

apt-get install csh alien

cd to the directory where you copied the .install files to (the .rpms)
Type the following in a single line:

for i in *.rpm; do sudo alien -cv $i; done

(the command will take a while to complete!)

Now install the .deb packages with dpkg:

sudo dpkg -i maya2009-0-64_2009.0-102_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i maya2009-0-64-docs-en-us_2009.0-64_amd64.deb

Start the program from a shell, to verify any errors, just open a terminal and type maya.
The license installer will launch and guide you through the licensing process.

My output looks like this:
Starting license manager:

cody@zenmachine:~$ maya
cody@zenmachine:~$ @@@@@@@@ opening log
(enter to get the prompt back, now try executing maya again)

cody@zenmachine:~$ maya
mental ray for Maya 10.0
mental ray: version 3.7.1.26, Jul 30 2008, revision 26576

So, everything works fine. Read on for additional tips’N'tricks:

Gnome modifications:

For Maya to work properly with Gnome, some modifications should
be made to the mouse control. The default bindings of the Alt key and mouse
buttons do not work well with Maya. Turn off the
Alt+mouse buttons. Since Maya uses the Alt+mouse buttons for scene view
tumbling, you need to ensure the bindings don’t conflict.
Different versions of Gnome may have different methods of selecting
the key bindings. See the Gnome documentation for instructions if
the following steps don’t work for your particular window manager.

Select Applications, then Preferences and then select Windows.
In the Window Preferences dialog box, set the “To move a window…”
key to Super.

Modifications and problem solving:

XCursor problem (pointer is a cross)
add the line:
MAYA_MMSET_DEFAULT_XCURSOR=1
in the /home/[your name]/maya/2009-x64/Maya.env file

Fonts, font sizes, and colors can be configured using the MayaScheme file.
This file lets you specify X Resources that Maya uses for configurable text. The default file is found in:

/usr/autodesk/maya2009-x64/app-defaults/MayaScheme.

Edit this file as root (sudo) and change to the preffered fonts and colors.
(make a copy of the original file first, if things turn out messy).

Example of my modified MayaScheme file:
————————————————————————————–MAYA BG COLOR AND FONT PROPERTIES:
sudo gedit /usr/autodesk/maya2009-x64/app-defaults/MayaScheme

*extraLargeBoldLabelFont:    -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*largeBoldLabelFont:         -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*boldLabelFont:              -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallBoldLabelFont:         -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*tinyBoldLabelFont:          -*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*plainLabelFont:             -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallPlainLabelFont:        -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*obliqueLabelFont:           -*-helvetica-bold-o-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallObliqueLabelFont:      -*-helvetica-bold-o-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*fixedWidthFont:             -*-fixed-medium-r-normal–11-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
*smallFixedWidthFont:        -*-clean-medium-r-normal–10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
*basicBackground:            #d9d9d9
Maya*Background:             #d9d9d9
*textForeground:             #000000
*textFieldBackground:        #eeeeee
*readOnlyBackground:         #bdbdbd
*buttonBackground:           #bdbdbd
*scrollBarTroughColor:       #bdbdbd
*scrollBarControlBackground: #bdbdbd
*indicatorBackground:        #cbcbcb
*radioColor:                 #0000ff
*checkColor:                 #ff0000
*blueSelectBackgroundColor1: #3884c4
*blueSelectBackgroundColor2: #81a7c1
*drawingAreaBackground:      #90abb1
*drawingAreaContrastColor1:  #b86b6b
*drawingAreaContrastColor2:  #7894bf
*drawingAreaContrastColor3:  #7ba988
*drawingAreaContrastColor4:  #ab7ec8
*scrolledListBackground:     #bdbdbd
*textBackground:             #b5b5b5
*highlightColor1:            #ff0000
*highlightColor2:    #0000ff
*highlightColor3:    #00ff00
*highlightColor4:    #a01ef0
*highlightColor5:    #ffa500
*highlightColor6:    #00ffff
*highlightColor7:    #ff00ff
*HighlightColor8:    #ffff00
*wMBackground:    #aaaaaa
*wMForeground:    #000000
*wMActiveBackground:    #c6c1aa
*wMActiveForeground:    #000000
*textSelectedBackground:    #e6e6e6
*textSelectedForeground:    #000000
*indicatorLightColor:    #ffff00
*selectFillColor:    #ffff00
*redColor:    #ff0000
*orangeColor:    #ff7e00
*yellowColor:    #ffff00
*greenColor:    #4fe44f
*blueColor:    #0000ff
*brownColor:    #743f3f
*purpleColor:    #ae00ff
*errorColor:    #ff0000
*warningColor:    #0000ff
*informationColor:    #00ff00
*alternateBackground1:    #c1adad
*alternateBackground2:    #a7b7a7
*alternateBackground3:    #bbbbcd
*alternateBackground4:    #9fbfbf
*alternateBackground5:    #87aaca
*alternateBackground6:    #d1d1c9
*disabledTextForeground:    #aaaaaa
*layerAdjustmentTextForeground:    #e56929
*lightRadioFillColor:    #9e9edc
*disabledCheckColor:    #dc9e9e

Maya plug-ins and standalone apps:

To compile plug-ins and standalone applications for Maya 2009 on Linux,
use the released gcc 4.1.2 compiler. Maya has been compiled with this compiler
under RHEL 4 WS. As well, some libraries and symbolic links are installed in
the /lib directory under your Maya directory, and should not interfere with
the normal operation of your Linux system.

Getting Java plugin + applets to work on Linux 64 bit

UPDATED:
Many folks out there are having a hard time getting their 64 bit Firefox browsers to run Sun Java plugin to do home banking via secure applets etc.

So, here comes a recipe that works (for me anyhow).

I use Ubuntu 8.10, but the procedure should not differ much on other distributions.

download the early access java jar file from sun from here:
http://download.java.net/jdk6/index.htmlhttp://download.java.net/jdk6/index.html

By the time of writing the direct url is this:

http://www.java.net/download/jdk6/6u14/promoted/b03/binaries/jre-6u14-ea-bin-b03-linux-amd64-10_mar_2009.jar

Make sure to download the 64 bit .jar for Linux!

Uninstall any Java versions you might have laying around, like openJDK, IcedTea plugin, GCJ etc..

Install a 64 bit version of the Sun JRE from standard repositories, to run the .jar file correctly, and execute the following command from the location of the .jar file:

sudo java -jar [path_to_jarfile you downloaded]

choose to install in /usr/lib/jvm/ from the GUI installer that pops up.
This gives you a new directory below /usr/lib/jvm, in this case /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/
now make all files in the new directory executable (as mentioned on Sun’s site):
sudo chmod +x /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/lib/amd64/*

then link the needed file to the right directory with the following command:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so

This is intended for 64-bit Firefox, using the new plugin format from Sun.

Make sure to use complete file paths when creating symbolic links, or you will get a cyclical link referring back to itself, in other words, it wont work. (too many levels of symbolic links error)

Restart your browser and check with about:plugins in the url field, that the plugin is in fact installed! ;-)

In Ubuntu the Java executable is referenced from /etc/alternatives/java, so we need to update the link to the new version:

sudo rm /etc/alternatives/java

Than we need to symlink the binary from the new installment:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0_14/bin/java /etc/alternatives/java


You can now check that the new version of Java is in use by the system by issuing:
java -version
From a terminal. This should now be:
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_14-ea-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.0-b12, mixed mode)

That should be it!
Happy Java browsing.

Strange fonts after installing Nvidia Linux driver?

Many people ask me about this, and the answer is short and simple:

In the Device section of your xorg.conf file, add:

Option "UseEdidDpi" "False"


Then your fonts should behave like they did before. If not, don’t sue me…

Configuring a newsreader with Stunnel SSL

It seems that many folks out there are having hard times getting their non-ssl enabled newsreader to talk ssl with the nntp server.
The thing is that if you want to use SSL for encrypting your news reading habits (or any other ssl enabled habit) you can use Stunnel to work as a local SSL “proxy” to tunnel different protocols.

Read all about it at http://www.stunnel.org

So. I just wanted to post a recipe for making stuff work. This works for any newsreader, not just Pan. Knode and all the others also works through stunnel.

First of all you need to download and install stunnel. This can be done through your distribution’s package manager, or downloaded and built from http://www.stunnel.org

Depending on what version of stunnel you get or your distributions setup script, you may or may not have a stunnel.pem file lying around in your file system.
This is a SSL certificate file, that stunnel needs. You could use the default stunnel.pem, if you’re not going to use it for anything but getting stunnel up and running. That is you don’t want the certificate to represent any part of you or your organization.

I use an older version 3.x of stunnel, because that’s what my package manager gave me. I didn’t get no stunnel.pem file. If this is also your case, you have to make one of your own.

This is done with the openssl tools. The stunnel.pem needs to be in the right format to be parsed, and have the correct permissions to it, or else things won’t work.
I’m no wizard of SSL, so my guide may freak someone out, but at least I got it working…

I did the following:

openssl genrsa -out priv.pem
openssl req -new -x509 -key priv.pem -out stunnel.pem -days 1095


Now the format of the stunnel.pem needs to be like the following:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIBOQIBAAJBAKF94YxmWBxpQIl1OWAj0VqWSrYgh3LuNtWRN71g6lP4nSYLKqBD
iJemS7yXXxaOQSJzl/iTsnee6x5o0CVMc58CAwEAAQJANViQ9kEkoBYAtKedkW2j
.... (more blabla here)
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIICQDCCAeqgAwIBAgIJANiDZT8yJWiaMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMEwxCzAJBgNV
BAYTAkdCMRIwEAYDVQQIEwlCZXJrc2hpcmUxEDAOBgNVBAcTB05ld2J1cnkxFzAV
... (more blabla here)
-----END CERTIFICATE-----


To make this file, I simply copied and pasted the privatekey from priv.pem into stunnel.pem.

Now you need to save your stunnel.pem anywhere you like. You’ll point to it in the stunnel.conf file.
Allso you need to have the correct permissions for the file, more accurately 600. Issue this command on the file:

chmod 600 stunnel.pem

Now it’s time for the config file stunnel.conf, located (on my system) in /etc/ssl/stunnel/stunnel.conf
If it isn’t there just create it with sudo vi /etc/ssl/stunnel/stunnel.conf
(You need to have root privileges, so use sudo or su before using your editor of choice. I chose vi.)
Then type in these silly lines:

client = yes
key = PATH TO YOUR STUNNEL.PEM FILE HERE

[nntp]
accept = localhost:119
connect = SERVER:PORT OF YOUR NEWS PROVIDER HERE
(mine is news-europe.giganews.com:563)

Now that is pretty much it. Type sudo stunnel, to start stunnel, or as root /usr/sbin/stunnel.
make sure it is running with

ps aux | grep stunnel

You should see a pid there.
Now configure your newsreader to use localhost as server address and 119 as port.
You should be able to connect, knowing that your traffic is now secured with SSL.

Hope this helps.

Baltazaar