Houdini is a 3D animation and special effects application developed by Side Effects Software, a twenty-five-year-old company based out of Toronto. Houdini was designed for artists working in 3D animation and VFX for film, TV, video games and virtual reality. Houdini brings these worlds together into a single powerful platform.
Side Effects' former flagship product was PRISMS, a suite of 3D graphics tools that served as the basis for the development of Houdini.
Unlike other 3D animation software, Houdini uses a node-based procedural workflow that makes it easy to explore iterations as you refine your work. Programs like Maya or Blender store changes in a user history which makes it difficult to return to a previous version of your work. Houdini's unique node-based approach allows for multiple iterations so that its easy to make changes and develop your animations and effects.
SideFX is pleased to announce the release of Houdini 18. This release introduces SideFX Solaris, a USD-based context for lookdev, layout and lighting that brings procedural tools to this important part of the pipeline and SideFX Karma Render (beta), a new HYDRA-based renderer that integrates into the Solaris environment. This release also includes SOP-based tools for configuring Destruction and Pyro FX shots and a focus on UX and optimization throughout the software.
Houdini 18 Sneak Peek






Side Effects Software. is a world leader in the development of Houdini, our advanced 3D animation and special effects software for use in film, commercials and video games. Side Effects Software has been recognized three times with Scientific and Technical awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Houdini family of animation software offers digital artists an unprecedented level of power, flexibility and control based on award-winning procedural technology. The comprehensive feature set includes: modeling, rigging, animation, particle effects, dynamics, compositing, integrated rendering, and more. All Houdini applications work together seamlessly and are available for the (Mac OSX), Linux and Windows operating systems.
Product: SideFX Houdini FX
Version: 18.0.597
Supported Architectures: x64
Website Home Page : www.sidefx.com
Language: english
System Requirements: PC *
Size: 1.4 Gb


Operating System - 64bit only - Windows 10 (64 bit)
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 8
- Windows 7 SP1 (future versions of Houdini will not be supported on Win7)
- Windows Server (any version) is NOT supported
Memory- 4 GB required
- 8 GB or higher and 64GB strongly recommended for fluid simulations
Processor
- Intel or AMD x64 CPU with SSE 4.2 required. Houdini 17.0 will not run on a system with an instruction set lower than SSE 4.2.
Disk Space
- 2GB required for installation
Input Devices
- 3 Button mouse required
- Scroll wheel used where present
- Wacom tablet recommended for Houdini's brush-based tools
Graphics Cards
A GL4.0 compliant graphics card is required. GL3.3 cards will have missing features and lower GL versions will not run Houdini 17 at all.
4GB VRAM or more is required. Less than this can result in display errors such as blank windows. High DPI displays (4K, 5K) or multiple monitors require a minimum of 4GB.
Graphics card must support OpenCL version 1.2.
The OptiX Denoiser requires a Kepler or later Nvidia GPU (K, P, M, V prefixes).
It is VERY important that you install the latest driver for your graphics card. Failing to do so may result in display issues and/or slow performance:
Windows
- NVidia GeForce GPUs: 390.77 or higher (don't use 376.xx - you'll have slow performance and crashes)
- NVidia Quadro GPUs: 390.77 or higher
- AMD: 19.Q1 or higher
- Intel 10.18.10.3958 or higher.