Hello Labsters!

The Labs team has been busy, and this update is packed with new tools, roadmap updates, and a couple of great projects from the team that show Labs in action. We’ve added a new Recently Released tab to the Public Roadmap, shipped three new tools, and highlighted some fresh workflows ranging from biome generation in Unreal to procedural material experiments in Copernicus. There’s lots to explore, so let’s dive in.

First things first, our Public Roadmap continues to grow thanks to you, and we’ve just added a new tab. Recently Released is where our new tools will be moved after being published so you can have a better idea of what’s new. And speaking of what’s new, we just released 3 new tools, Split by Expression SOP, ZibraVDB Import LOP, and Multi Attribute Promote SOP. Check them out and let us know what you think.

We’ve also added a few proposed items and one currently in progress. Let us know what you’d like to see next.

Proposed Items

• Biome Data Table Import SOP

• Biomes PCG

• Biome Plant Scatter SOP

• HIP File Diff UTL

• Knit Pattern SOP

• Quick Drape and Tear SOP

• Unreal Nanite Skeletal Mesh Assembly SOP

In Progress

• Scatter Export SOP

Recently Released

• Split by Expression SOP

• ZibraVDB Import LOP

• Multi Attribute Promote SOP

Tool Updates

Split by Expression SOP divides geometry into two streams based on a VEX expression, separating elements that evaluate to true from those that evaluate to false. It provides a quick and lightweight way to filter geometry using familiar VEX syntax without needing to build a full wrangle setup.

ZibraVDB Import LOP is part of the ZibraVDB for Houdini plugin and enables direct import of compressed ZibraVDB sequences into Solaris. This makes it easier to work with lightweight volumetric assets while keeping memory usage and storage requirements low.

Multi Attribute Promote SOP is an enhancement to the existing Attribute Promote SOP, allowing promotion of multiple attributes and types in a single node. If you’ve ever found yourself having to put down multiple Attribute Promote SOPs in a row, then try out this node to simplify your workflow and have all your promotions done at once!

Community Spotlight

This month we’re highlighting a couple of projects from the Labs team itself.

Biomes in Unreal

Bailey Hogan recently shared a Labs Biome project and tutorial on YouTube and the Content Library. If you're looking to learn more about the procedural biome toolset and/or you want to learn how to bring your environments into Unreal with Houdini Engine, this tutorial is for you. Learn how to set up landscapes, plant instances, and custom materials while authoring HeightField layers and per-instance custom data for rich variation and control in Unreal.

Flip’s Convenience

Michelle Ly recently completed her internship with us and created a tribute to the Toronto-based TV show Kim’s Convenience, making heavy use of Copernicus throughout the project. This project was an exploration of procedural material workflows for stylized real-time game environments. In Michelle’s own words: “I learned how seamless COPs can be when working with geometry. The ability to rasterize geometry directly into material creation allows for quick procedural iteration and experimentation. It's super useful for creating trimsheets and decals!”. No need to say more, go check out Flip’s Convenience!

Node of the Month

Labs Delight helps remove baked-in lighting and shadow information from photogrammetry textures, creating cleaner albedo maps that can be relit under different lighting conditions. It’s especially useful when preparing scanned assets for games and rendering workflows.

Contact Us

We love seeing what you’re building with Labs and we’ll keep sharing our findings. If you’re working on something cool, please contact us and share it. The best way to reach out is through Discord. Our official SideFX server is public, and we’re there too.

See you next month — stay creative!

SideFX Labs