Houdini 17.5 introduces PDG which is designed to enhance SideFX’s procedural architecture to distribute tasks and manage dependencies to better scale, automate, and analyze content pipelines for Film, TV, Games, Advertising and VR. In addition,  there have been a number of enhancements to key features such as FLIP Fluids, volumes, destruction tools and more.

TOPS/PDG
Procedural Dependency Graph
TOPs is PDG technology being applied to Houdini. TOP nodes integrate seamlessly with the rest of Houdini. This brings the power of PDG to FX workflows, but is not limited only to FX. Games, Motion Graphics and other workflows can also benefit, as can technologies such as Houdini Engine.

FLIP FLUIDS
Distributed Sims
Distributed simulations are now available for narrow band and white water sims to make it easier to create larger sims.

 
VELLUM
CONSTRAINTS
To add more control when working with VELLUM, per point constraints and fiber constraints have been added into Houdini.

Home page - https://www.sidefx.com/products/houdini/whats-new-17_5/