Have you got a DSO error message related to V-ray 5 dll file? Here is the "weird" solution.

After installing V-ray 5 on Houdini 18.5.408 production build, I've got a 126 DSO error message related to the file vray_for_houdini.dll...

Vray-5 dll error on Houdini 18.5.408

... and a lot of error messages inside the Houdini Console:

Houdini console error messages

I have Arnold Renderer installed and I thought that the issue was related with some incompatibility with Arnold. But it is not the case. After a while I discovered that the problem is related with Houdini Sidefx Labs. If you remove the Sidefx labs Json file from the Houdini packages folder, V-ray works perfectly. How I came to this conclusion? After a lot of tests, I have noticed that with the Sidefx Labs json file installed, I've got the previous error messages shown plus no information about V-ray on the "About" window, and the icons in the Sidefx Labs toolbar disappeared as if I hadn't installed it:

After going to About V-ray option...

...no information about the product was displayed.

The SideFx labs without icons as if it hadn't being installed.

After struggle with this, I have found a "weird" solution. First: the V-ray 5 installer put the Vray_for_houdini.json package file inside the Sidefx Houdini installation folder:

The .json file original installation folder (on Windows)

I don't like this. I prefer to maintain all the configuration files inside the Houdini my documents folder. I moved the json file to this folder:

My preferred location

A look at the vray_for_houdini.json file created by V-ray5 installer.

The vray_for _houdini.json file.

And now it's time for the total "weirdness": the problem is related to the order in which Houdini load the .json files. SideFXLabs18.5.json is always loaded first than the v-ray .json file, and that is the cause of the problem. The vray_for_hougini.json file must be loaded before the SideFXLabs18.5.json file. How can do this? Well, probably there is a more elegant solution than mine but how to configure packages files was not well explained. Therefore, here is my solution: I renamed the vray_for_houdini.json file adding two letters 'A' as a prefix. Then, alphabetically, the V-ray .json file is now prior to all the others .json files present inside the folder. In doing so, Houdini loads the V-ray 5 configuration file before the SideFx Labs .json file, and this solved all the problems.

The V-ray 5 .json file renamed.

Now the V-ray information is shown correctly.

And the SideFx Labs Tollbar is back to normal.

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