Houdini Engine 3ds Max

[Ace_Of_Hades]

I have Houdini Indie but not a steam client, standalone from sidefx.

I tried to install Houdini engine for 3ds Max but my 3ds Max version is 2020.

Now my 3ds max won't even startup at all. It shows splash screen, initializing and then disappears every time. I have restarted CPU and same issue, 3ds Max won't run.

I installed the Houdini engine for Maya and it appeared fine in the plugin manager no problems.

I have uninstalled Houdini entirely 17.5.327 and still 3ds Max won't run!!!!

Help me to fix this mess that your stupid borked installer has done to my install of 3ds Max!!!

Thankyou. Not happy.

Also your latest version of game dev tools is back to crashing Houdini Indie everytime I close the program down. The only remedy is to uninstall the game dev tools and it is fixed.

[Ace_Of_Hades]

So I uninstalled 3ds Max 2020.

I have tried to reinstall 3ds max 2020 and it fails every time to reinstall. Never had a failure installing 3D software ever period in my life and I have been using computers for decades.

So. Your product installer has destroyed my 3ds Max Install on windows 10 and I am completely screwed now and out of pocket.

This is a serious problem caused by one of your installers and I'm serious about getting this resolved ASAP!!!

[Ben (SideFX)]

Sorry to hear you're having problems with 3ds Max. Since this is not a Steam-specific problem please email [e-mail] to get help with this issue.

[Ace_Of_Hades]

I've had to do full clean reinstall of both 3ds Max and Maya and now they work again. This means a complete strip of trace folders and files and is a right pain in the backside to have to do going through all program files/program data, user folders and all autodesk folders.

Sorry to say I won't be touching Houdini Engine again!!

I'm all good again but just wasted hours that I shouldn't have needed to.

Cheers.

If the plugin is non compatable with 3ds Max 2020 then program an ignore in startup or message instead of killing the load up of 3ds Max because that is what it did. I couldn't run it at all. I've no idea what the installer put into my 3ds Max config so i couldn't manually remove or disable what I didn't know was what. Also the uninstall of Houdini didn't remove any trace of plugins from the Houdini Engine so it's quite intrusive and potentially damaging to an install.

Just wanted to feedback this, I know this a non-steam issue. :D

[Ben (SideFX)]

Sorry for the very delayed reply. Unfortunately the Houdini Engine plugin for 3ds Max does not currently support 3ds Max 2020. There is a plan to support Max 2020 but there is not a solid timeline for it yet. The documentation for the plugin is here: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/3dsmax/

In the meantime I'd recommend that you do two things:

1. Submit a feature request (RFE) here and ask for Houdini Engine to support 3ds Max 2020. This will help SideFX to gauge interest and hopefully get them to update the plugin soon. https://www.sidefx.com/bugs/submit/

2. You can also post in the SideFX forums here and request that Houdini Engine be updated to support 3ds Max 2020. https://www.sidefx.com/forum/74/

I talked to the SideFX developer who works on the Max plugin about your issue and he said "We don't even attempt to install the plugin into 2020. We only install the plugin into supported versions of 3ds Max. It seems very unlikely that we caused it." So it seems that something else caused the problems with your install of 3ds Max.

[Ace_Of_Hades]

The problem was caused by the Autodesk Genuine Service. Sometimes it occasionally glitches like your houdini license server which is not running on windows startup sometimes and which needs a computer restart and then all is good.

I still stand by the fact, the installer leaves residual components and files in your autodesk folders, even after uninstalling.

I had this issue after installing the plugin so it seemed likely the cause but maybe I was quick to think it was Houdini. I still have no idea why I ended up needing a clean full install of 3ds Max to get things running again.

Cheers for getting back and apologies for my misdirected blame.

PS. I have no intention of using the Houdini Engine in 3ds Max, but thanks anyway.