**Noob as of October 2016

I'm creating an asset in Houdini Indie for use in C4D or whatever application supports Houdini Engine. My asset works perfectly in Houdini Indie but does not function at all in C4D. My asset involves having the user paint a selection on an incoming mesh for which an effect will be processed only in that painted area. I found some instruction in a related video for doing this process in Unity from Houdini that involves placing the paint node parameter into the asset export screen where the option to export a node exists. What I saw that should happen is that paint controls from Houdini are loaded into the target application so the user can make the desired selection. In my case, this does not work when opening the asset in C4D.

Also, the rest of my parameters in the asset are “stuck” at zero in C4D. When I change them, they revert back to zero instantly. My guess is that this may be due to the paint node not having any data to process before these parameters come into effect? Not sure.

I did do a quick test of a new asset that simply distorts a grid with some simple frequency controls. When loading this into C4D it does the same behavior where the parameters are stuck at zero. I am able to see the deformed mesh as well as drop in any other mesh but I just can't do anything to change the parameters. As in the previous asset, these controls (created on a control null in Houdini) are linked to the appropriate nodes and function perfectly inside of Houdini.

Ok, that was long winded but I hope someone can help me understand what I must be doing wrong. I'm about 90% certain it is user error.


**UPDATE:

I managed to get things organized a little differently and reinstalled the Houdini Engine License server. The asset now allows me to pipe in any object and adjust my ported parameters (they don't stick anymore). However, they still have no effect whatsoever on the object and there's still no paint interface that comes up for the user to select what they want effected by painting on the surface. I did try Noseman's “Groups” workaround where you port in a group selection box that is empty but let's the user drop in C4D selection tags. That part shows up but has no effect when I use that method for my asset.

I'm starting to think that perhaps there's some other limitation that I've not yet learned about regarding H Engine and C4D. My asset does rely on volume processes like volume vop and volume trails to generate my effect. Perhaps this doesn't actually work in C4D although I was under the impression that it's actually the H Engine that does all the processing under the hood and not C4D.

If anyone has any guidance, I'm all ears. Thank you kindly for your time and patience. I appreciate it.

No one has any feedback on this?