*This is sort of a double post from the 3ds max Houdini engine plugin subforum. But there is no activity there. So I would like to post here too, to hopefully get some support for this request.

I am a long time 3ds max user using Houdini to extend my procedural modeling toolset. But Importing and exporting from 3ds max to Houdini and vice versa is not flexible. It also disrupts the procedural and workflow both applications. I know there is a Maya plugin for the Houdini engine. (You can even be check to auto install it during Houdini installation). It seems to support more features than the 3ds max version and be updated regularly.

There is also a 3ds max plugin of the Houdini engine. However it does not seem to be actively developed. A lot of features seem missing. Intergration should be flexible into the 3ds max modifier stack. No plugin compilations or fast updates for newer 3ds max versions like 2018.

Good Houdini engine integration into 3ds max, would attract a lot of 3ds max users to Houdini. (Especially for modeling purposes, not only FX). I would love to be able to create procedural models/tools in Houdini and use it in 3dsmax as part of my modeling pipeline. For example someone created this soft blended Boolean HDA that works in Maya but not in 3ds max: Fusion/Flex HDA [vimeo.com]

Sidefx is looking for a developer for the plugin: https://www.sidefx.com/careers/software-developer-games-3ds-max-plugin/ [sidefx.com]

The curret one was developed from a external developer so the feature complete ness is not given.

If you know a 3dsmax plugin developer sent him the job offer. That will help more to progress the plugin development.

Hopefully they find a developer soon! I'm the sole Houdini person where I work and constantly trying to find workarounds for something that could be resolved with a Max plugin is a bit of a pain. I've tried installing the 3rd party version and never was able to get it to work right on our systems.

in the mean time please post your questions for the things you're trying to do

Also have a look at this. Im not a 3Ds Max user btw.

Hi, I'm the developer of Sidekick which is mentioned in the post above this one. Thanks for bringing it up

A little big of background on it is that I kept running into problems with Max plugins. There are a lot of awesome plugins for Max but they hardly work together. PhoenixFD for example is great for fluid stuff until you want to add some biscuits to the swirling yoghurt and you can't because the physics solver is a) crap and b) doesn't talk to phoenix so there is no two way coupling possible. And I kept running in to things like that.

And second I'm not really happy with Autodesk rental only with price increases and low investments in actual development. So in general and I'm sort of looking for a way out and Houdini fits me perfectly. But it's hard to jump ship after 15 years of using max so I needed something that allowed me to slowly transition, so I can do in Houdini what I can while I'm learning it and keep doing the rest in Max. Maybe I'll always be using both.. I don't know.

So enter Sidekick. It lets Max and Houdini talk to each other directly which creates an interesting pipeline. When you're working in Max you keep the ‘plugin experience’ since once links have been setup and you update something in max you can run it though Houdini and get results back with a single click. So it very easy to do iterative workflow without manually juggling files etc. it's a bit similar to the dynamic link between Adobe's Premiere and AfterEffects.

So what sideKick does for me is replace a lot of plugins like PhoenixFD, Rayfire, Thinking particles and even improve on native features like massFX, MCG and complex booleans by provding a way to do that seamlessly in Houdini. Which gives me a chance to have everything working together in a mostly unified way. And since what comes out of Houdini is either an alembic or VDB cache Max stays smooth and responsive without the need to cache things there. And as I said this is great way to learn Houdini as you go because you can start with small things and easy shelf tool setups and grow from there while you'll keep using Max for the rest.

Check out the video above for a run down of the details and workflow and let me know if you have any questions! But basically it boils down to that if you use both Max and Houdini you want SideKick

So this video showed up the other day with the first glimpse and concrete info I've seen in regards to Houdini Engine for 3dsmax.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/262842928 [player.vimeo.com]

I'm pretty excited about as I've been dabbling with Houdini Indie on and off for the last couple of years trying to upskill and find ways to make it a possibility for our very entrenched 3dsmax pipeline.

I've been hanging out for more info about this as I see it as a way to start bringing houdini into our workflows to solve small problems at first and over time replace a few of the mroe cumbersome ways we do things.

Anyone know if there will be a beta soon?

Dave

davemcd
Anyone know if there will be a beta soon?

I have no idea, but the video you linked to says (around 6:20) "There's a 3D Studio Max [plugin] coming later in the year."

ndickson
I have no idea, but the video you linked to says (around 6:20) "There's a 3D Studio Max [plugin] coming later in the year."

Yep, thats the part I was so excited about