SideFX Previewed Houdini 20

SideFX has shown a sneak peek of Houdini 20, the next version of its famous 3D software. We'll see some exciting changes to animation and simulation systems as well as to the Karma renderer.

Karma has received a lot of updates. In Houdini 20 we'll get Karma fur shader with medulla support, hex tiling, physical sky, and distributed multi-frame and multi-shot rendering. Karma XPU, which works on both GPU and CPU, will see a fog box, Nested Dielectrics, Absorption, Dispersion, and Cryptomatte. Moreover, you will find updated render statistics in the tool.

Additionally, SideFX has improved support for MaterialX, the open standard for rich material and look-development content, adding material linker, material catalog, AMD MtlX library as well as thin walled transmission for MtlX Standard Surface.

There are also new animation features in the software, including projectile motion, sticky collisions, a new Selection Sets animation environment, and video reference in the viewport.

Creating simulations is one of the most popular uses for Houdini, so naturally, SideFX has a lot to show here, too. Expect to experience better fluids, fire, smoke, cloths, and more with the following updates:

• FLIP volume combine
• SOP whitewater solver
• Bubble generator
• OpenCL ripple solver
• Redesigned Houdini ocean procedural with support for all Hydra delegates
• Vellum wind shadow
• Feather system
• Feather procedural for all Hydra delegates
• Pyro: density driven gravity

Other improvements concern the tools for making clouds – skybox, noise-driven cloud shapes, art directable hero clouds, the ability to generate cloud shapes from polygons – and the rigid body dynamics system.

Houdini 20 should be released in November 2023. The current Houdini 19.5 version costs $4,495 for a node-locked license and $6,995 for a floating license at the moment.

Find the full list of changes presented in the video here and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.