Houdini Engine Plug-Ins are free!

The plugins are available for free, however, they do require a corresponding Houdini Engine license. Interactive Houdini Core/Houdini FX and Houdini Indie licenses will also run these plugins in a license mode that corresponds to the license being checked out. (IE: A Houdini Indie license will allow the plugin to import Houdini Indie assets).

Houdini Engine for Unity and Unreal is a free commercial license that only supports Unity and Unreal

Houdini Engine is a paid license($525 USD for Workstation | $795 USD for Floating) that will support all official Houdini Engine plugins, Hython, Custom game engines and allow for batch processing and .usd file creation (in preparation for rendering with Karma)

Houdini Engine Indie is a free Houdini Engine license that is only compatible with Houdini Indie files and assets. This will support all official Houdini Engine plugins and allow for batch processing and .usd file creation (in preparation for rendering with Karma).

Houdini Engine Education is an included Houdini Engine license packaged with Houdini Education licenses. This will support all official Houdini Engine plugins and allow for batch processing and .usd file creation (in preparation for rendering with Karma).

You can find the source code for the Maya plug-in and the Unity plug-in on the SideFX Github page.

To encourage contributions from the community and to allow studios to create customized versions of the plug-in. You can modify this source code and compile your own versions of these plug-ins, and you can contribute your source code changes back to be incorporated into the official plug-ins that ship with Houdini.

Houdini Education licenses will run the Engine plug-ins but Houdini Apprentice licenses will not. Students will need to either use their school's lab's Education licenses or purchase Houdini Education for home use.

You can find the Houdini Engine API documentation at http://www.sidefx.com/docs/hengine

The Houdini Engine for Maya plug-in will work with Autodesk Maya 2014 or higher. It is available on OSX, Windows and Linux.

Buying, setting up, and managing Houdini Engine licenses

Overview

Artists with Houdini Core or Houdini FX licenses will be able to run the Houdini Engine using their existing licenses. For artists who only need to work with a Houdini Engine plugin, batch processing, or custom [HAPI] (https://www.sidefx.com/docs/hengine/_h_a_p_i__overview.html) integration in another application, a Houdini Engine license serves this purpose.

Pricing

Houdini Engine workstation licenses will be available for $525 annually while floating licenses for use in a single facility will start at $795 annually. Volume pricing will be available for floating licenses. For commercial users using the Houdini Engine Unreal plugin or the Houdini Engine Unity plugin, there is a free license that can be obtained on our Buy page.

Licensing

Licensing Houdini Engine is the same as licensing any Houdini license, please see HERE for more information.

For Game Studios, please see our Houdini Engine For Game Studios guide.

Houdini Engine Compatibility

The various Houdini Engine licenses are intended to be used with their corresponding Houdini license. Please use the chart below to understand which one to acquire.

NOTE:

Houdini Apprentice is only compatible with Houdini Engine Education. This is because both Houdini Apprentice and Houdini Education save digital assets in the non-commercial .hdanc format. Houdini Engine Education in included with Houdini Education purchases and cannot be purchased separately.

Using Houdini Engine official or custom plugins in other applications.

Overview

Houdini Engine can be accessed using plug-ins built using the Houdini Engine API. The plug-in works in a host application then uses the Engine to cook the results and make them available to the host application.

Requirements

1. You need to have Houdini software installed on your computer.
2. A valid engine license.
3. A plugin for the application you wish to use Houdini Engine with.

Download the plugins

1. Open the Houdini Launcher and go to Engine Plug-Ins.
2. Click the "Install Plug-Ins" button.
3. Select the Plug-Ins you want to download and click "Install".

NOTE:

If a plugin is greyed out, this is because it is already installed or not supported on your OS.

Artists can access the Houdini Engine using plug-ins for applications such as Unreal, Unity, Autodesk Maya, or 3DS Max. There is a Cinema 4D plugin that is developed and maintained by Maxon. Studios can also use the Houdini Engine API to create their own plug-ins for large scale pipeline integration. These custom plug-ins require a commercial Houdini Engine license. Houdini Engine Indie will work with the plug-ins listed here.

No. These licenses only allow you to work with the Unity and Unreal plug-ins. Batch processing, rendering and the use of other plug-ins such as Maya or Max will require a Houdini Engine rental.

No. Mantra and Karma only comes with paid licenses (Houdini FX, Houdini Core, Houdini Engine).

Yes. This is a commercial license and is therefore supported.

This license will work with Unity 2018 LTS, Unity 2019 LTS, and Unity 2020 and Unreal 4.25 and 4.26. It is possible that earlier versions will work, but we only offer support for the current version + two previous LTS versions of Unity.

Houdini Engine for Unity/Unreal provides free commercial licenses for the UE5 and Unity plug-ins only.

For all other host applications, including proprietary plug-ins, and for Batch processing on the farm, commercial Houdini Engine licenses are available for rent. These licenses are also available as volume rentals for medium and large studios.

The product will be listed in your License Administrator as Houdini Engine for Unity/Unreal.
The new license type is called Houdini-Engine-PlugIn-Free.
It is a floating Commercial GAL license.