Command line tool shows license error when running hdk sample

[RGB127]

I followed the HDK tutorial and successfully build the geoisosurface.exe (copied from
/toolkit/samples/standalone) with hcustom.
But when I run it with hcmd, it shows error:

No licenses could be found to run this application.
Please check for a valid license server host
No licenses could be found to run this application.
Please check for a valid license server host

I added some printf to the code and rebuild an exe, found out that this error comes with the line:
gdp.save("sphere.bgeo", NULL);
The result "sphere.geo" file was created in folder but only contains "NSJb" (opening in text format) , the correct result should be around 38kb.

I tried several limited-commercial houdini version and they all have the above error:
[17.5.340] same error, the license error when starting up is fixed.
[17.5.327] same error, and another license error occurs when start up.
[17.5.293] same error to 17.5.340

Hope the command line tool trouble can be fixed.

[RGB127]

I just find that if I run the geoisosurface.exe directly from the /bin folder like:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Houdini Indie\bin>"E:\test\hdkTest\geoisosurface.exe"

The sphere.bgeo can be created correctly in /bin folder and with command line output:

Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 502570
Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID: Caching Steam ID: xxxxxxxxxxxxx [API loaded no]

So opening another command line window and run the target exe from bin folder, and use full output file path(otherwise the result file will be saved to /bin folder). This can avoid the 'no licenses' problem.
But it is better if I can use it in a normal way like non-steam version.

[DamienSideFX]

Hi,

That's actually expected, and is a side effect of how steam licensing works.
Your executable uses the HDK, and therefore requires a valid houdini license to run.
However, it is not telling steam what its appid is (since your not launching that executable from steam), and cannot succeed the license check.

When failing to acquire a steam license, we still try to get a regular Houdini license, which gives you the license server error you got.

When launched from the bin folder, your application actually uses the steam_appid.txt in that folder to help with the identification/licensing process.

If you copy that file to "E:\test\hdkTest\", you should be able to launch your test programs from there.

[RGB127]

Coping the "steam_appid.txt" file to the target folder perfectly solve the problem. I never know steam check license according to a text file.
Thanks very much for replying!
Best wishes