Hello Labsters!

This month brings a mix of new tools, utilities, workflow improvements, and a new set of tools for Gaussian Splats. From quality-of-life shelf tools to new SOPs and LOPs, August has something for artists, TDs, and pipeline developers alike.

New Tools

Relight GSplats LOP

Relight Gaussian Splats using standard USD lights and physically based shading. The node supports image-based lighting, optional shadows, and can blend the relit result with the original captured appearance to better preserve reflective materials.

Normals from GSplats SOP

Gaussian Splats don't normally include reliable normals. This node reconstructs an underlying surface and transfers the resulting normals back onto the splat points for downstream shading and processing.

Delight GSplats SOP

Estimate and remove captured lighting from Gaussian Splats to recover an approximate diffuse albedo. The algorithm adapts to splat size while preserving local detail and minimizing colour bleeding.

Copy Points SOP

Copy packed primitives onto other packed primitives in a single node. It streamlines complex Copy to Points networks, making large instancing workflows cleaner and easier to manage.

Delete Mismatched Attributes and Groups SOP

Keep your geometry spreadsheet tidy by removing any attributes or groups on the first input that don't exist on the second. Perfect for cleaning up geometry before merging or exporting.

Rename Attributes and Groups (Shelf Tool)

Renaming an attribute or group? This shelf tool updates references across parameters, VEX snippets, and Python code on selected nodes, saving you from tedious manual edits.

Select Node (Shelf Tool)

Quickly jump from the viewport to the node that created your geometry. Simply click on a primitive with a stored node path, and the corresponding node is selected for immediate editing.

Reload Python Modules (Widget)

Iterating on Python tools just got easier. This widget reloads Python modules directly inside your current Houdini session, letting you test changes with a single click instead of restarting Houdini.

Tool Updates

Labs Vertex Animation Texture 3.1 ROP

Added a new Skeletal Mesh export mode, allowing baked skeletal animations to be exported directly into textures without baking every vertex position on every frame.

Labs Sticker Placer

Sticker Placer now supports SVG files, making it possible to use Houdini's built-in node icons as stickers in the Network Editor. Simply point the new $STICKER_PATH environment variable to your extracted icons folder and start decorating. More information about setting the $STICKER_PATH variable can be found here.