Hi,
I have installed the latest version of Houdini a few days ago, and the plugin installed fine to my 4.21.2 install of Unreal engine.
But I am using a source version with some Nvidia stuff, and when I copy the HoudiniEngine folder to this source version, I get the error message, that the HoudiniEngineRuntime module cannot be found.

Do I need to rebuild the source in order to get the plugin working on the source version?

Yes. I had to do a GenerateProjectFiles and make to have it work. You didn't specify if it was windows or linux, but I expect similar steps according to your platform.

https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal [github.com]

Hi,

That's correct, you'll need to build the plugin from source if you're not using a vanilla version of UE4.

The plugin we ship with the Houdini installer is built for the official releases of UE4, and since UE4.20 (IIRC), Unreal actually expects plugin to be built for the exact build of the engine you're using, so a custom version of Unreal requires the plugin to be built from source.

You can simply delete the Intermediate and Binaries folders from the version of the plugin we ship and rebuild them with the engine.

We have unreal installed and running in Ubuntu Linux. We are struggling with the engine plugin.

I have unzipped the plugin, put it in Engine/Plugins/Runtime/HoudiniEngine, and in a Houdini env, did “Engine/Build/BatchFiles/Linux/GenerateProjectFiles.sh”. The version of Houdini is the same as the plugin version, 17.5.258.

When we run unreal, it fails to start with, “Plugin ‘HoudiniEngine’ failed to load becaus module ‘HoudiniEngineRuntime’ could not be found.”

dpernuit
You can simply delete the Intermediate and Binaries folders from the version of the plugin we ship and rebuild them with the engine.

I hate to be thick, but what does that mean? I don't see an “Intermediate” or “Binaries” folder in Engine/Plugins/Runtime/HoudiniEngine.

Also, what do you mean by “rebuild them with the engine”?

Hi,

Linux is a special case, since you need to build the plugin with unreal before using it.

Windows/Mac ships with plugin binaries, and unreal will not automatically build it if intermediate/binaries are found within the plugin. Deleting the intermediate/binaries helps make unreal realize that the plugin needs to be rebuilt.

In your case, none of this applies, since linux just has the source files.

After generating the project files, all you need to do is build unreal again.
It should now detect the HE plugin (since you have generated new project files) and build it for you along with the engine.

Let me know if you need some more help on that.

Okay, it failed. So I'm starting from fresh. Should I download unreal then:

• Setup.sh
  
• Unzip HoudiniEngine and put in Plugins/Runtime
  
• GenerateProjectFiles.sh
  
• make
  

or

• Setup.sh
  
• GenerateProjectFiles.sh
  
• make
  
• Unzip HoudiniEngine and put in Plugins/Runtime
  
• GenerateProjectFiles.sh
  
• make
  

Thanks,
Sean

Hi,

Both should work:
#1 you're building UE4 and the plugin at the same time
#2 you're first building UE4, then the plugin

At least with #2, you're sure that any errors/failure is from the plugin and not related to building UE4 itself.

What version of Houdini / Unreal are you on?
What errors/failures did you got when building?

This is Unreal 4.23 with Houdini 17.5.258. I got a bunch of permission denied errors if I recall, but this time I am going to try building it in-place, (in the eventual install dir).

Thanks for you help with this Damien, finally up and running.

Spoke too soon. The Houdini Engine plugin loads, but does not work. We get this error:

Hi,

That just means that the plugin doesn't know where to look for Houdini.

Have you set the $HFS environment variable to your houdini install folder prior to launching UE4?
On Linux, the plugins relies on this to find the HAPI dlls since there is no registry to get Houdini's install path from.

Alternatively, you can set a custom houidini path in the project settings, under Houdini Engine, “Custom Houdini Location”.

Found this thread by googling as well
Thanks for tips, now it loads on linux properly!

Maybe we could clarify on the github page:


4. Source houdini variables making sure $HFS variable points to correct Houdini build. Alternatively, you can set a custom Houdini path in the project settings, under Houdini Engine, “Custom Houdini Location”.
5. Generate the UE4 Project Files (by running GenerateProjectFiles.sh from Unreal Source folder)
6. Build Unreal, either in x64 Debug Editor or x64 Development Editor.

I'm getting this error on Linux Build. Excuse the ignorance but I am in noway a developer.

"Ignoring plugin 'HoudiniEngine' (referenced via default plugins) due to absence from supported programs list."

Can someone tell me where I should set this?

"Set the $HFS environment variable to your houdini install folder prior to launching UE." ie /path/to/file.

Thanks in Advance!

mrCatfish
Okay, it failed. So I'm starting from fresh. Should I download unreal then:

• Setup.sh
  
• Unzip HoudiniEngine and put in Plugins/Runtime
  
• GenerateProjectFiles.sh
  
• make
  

or

• Setup.sh
  
• GenerateProjectFiles.sh
  
• make
  
• Unzip HoudiniEngine and put in Plugins/Runtime
  
• GenerateProjectFiles.sh
  
• make
  

Thanks,
Sean

Ok resurrecting this to say that after trying a couple of things that definitely did not work, compiling from source after copying the latest houdini engine into runtime (from the houdini launcher files) did the trick!

Linux Mint 21.2 and Unreal 5.3.1