Game Tools | Detail Mesh

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Hi all,

Happy to announce the GameDev Detail Mesh HDA has been published in the toolset, and is now free to download.
As always, please let us know what you think.

Cheers,
Paul Ambrosiussen
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Nevermind - I found it! Is an HDA just not on shelf….
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Hey,

Build 1.40 or newer has the tool.
Paul Ambrosiussen
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So awesome guy,

Just a minor thing, if you take advantage of vertex color when you paint on template mesh to reduce polygons that don't add detail to the final mesh, it could be more helpful.
Anyway, thank you for fantastic tool.
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Every time I update the game tools I have to edit the env file again because the installer removes my Redshift path in the HOUDINI_PATH variable. Is there any way to avoid this?
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OneBigTree
Every time I update the game tools I have to edit the env file again because the installer removes my Redshift path in the HOUDINI_PATH variable. Is there any way to avoid this?

Could you tell me what version of Houdini and Toolset you are using?

Thanks,
Paul Ambrosiussen
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Hey! Great stuff!

However I cannot get it to work.

This is what I am doing:
I have created box as a template geometry, UV'ed it and have some details in abc file loaded with File node.
Then I got:

Error
Invalid source /obj/box_object1/sop_detail_mesh1/polyfill1
Error: ‘hedgegroup’ is not a valid group..



Am I doing something wrong?
Be mindful I am using Houdini for 1 week.

Version: Houdini 16.5.571 Apprentice and Game Dev tools 1.43
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where can I download this plugin? I searched everywhere no luck?
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morriekken
Hey! Great stuff!

However I cannot get it to work.

This is what I am doing:
I have created box as a template geometry, UV'ed it and have some details in abc file loaded with File node.
Then I got:

Error
Invalid source /obj/box_object1/sop_detail_mesh1/polyfill1
Error: ‘hedgegroup’ is not a valid group..



Am I doing something wrong?
Be mindful I am using Houdini for 1 week.

Version: Houdini 16.5.571 Apprentice and Game Dev tools 1.43

Hey! It seems that the mesh you are projecting (right input) is a packed alembic.. The tool only works with polygons. What you could do is drop down a convert node under your file sop, which will make it work perfectly. I modified the tool to do this for you now. It will be part of release 1.70 and newer.

Paul
Paul Ambrosiussen
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iandcgart
where can I download this plugin? I searched everywhere no luck?

The tool is part of the GameDevToolset. (Free) For information on how to install, I recommend watching: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/game-dev-toolset-installation/ [www.sidefx.com]

Paul
Paul Ambrosiussen
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Ambrosiussen
Hey! It seems that the mesh you are projecting (right input) is a packed alembic.. The tool only works with polygons. What you could do is drop down a convert node under your file sop, which will make it work perfectly. I modified the tool to do this for you now. It will be part of release 1.70 and newer.
Paul

I thought I might be doing some basic rookie mistake Thanks for explaining and big thanks for the fix - it's really important for people with little experience in Houdini like me. Good job!
Edited by morriekken - Nov. 7, 2018 03:21:16
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Ambrosiussen
iandcgart
where can I download this plugin? I searched everywhere no luck?

The tool is part of the GameDevToolset. (Free) For information on how to install, I recommend watching: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/game-dev-toolset-installation/ [www.sidefx.com]

Paul

Thanks Paul that was very useful
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sorry what should I type or where should I press to get this node? I'm a Houdini noob
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iandcgart
sorry what should I type or where should I press to get this node? I'm a Houdini noob

This tool lives in SOPs, meaning inside a geometry node you create at the /obj level.
Paul Ambrosiussen
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I found it and it's a great tool. Thank you
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Hi!

I have an error when trying to use the tool:

Invalid source /obj/geo2/sop_detail_mesh1/polyfill1
Error: ‘hedgegroup’ is not a valid group..
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Bill_Sansky
Hi!

I have an error when trying to use the tool:

Invalid source /obj/geo2/sop_detail_mesh1/polyfill1
Error: ‘hedgegroup’ is not a valid group..

Hi, this seems similar to a problem mentioned above. (Which was solved)
Could you try updating your toolset to latest to see if my fix works?

If you already did that, could you perhaps post a simple example where I can reproduce the issue?

Thanks
Paul Ambrosiussen
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Hi Paul,

I'm an experienced Unreal Generalist, with little Houdini knowledge. I'm evaluating possible use cases of Houdini in my personal & professional tasks. I've just completed OSM City Build tutorial & vertex anim one. The next tool I was interested in was this one. I'm using newest release of Houdini.

It does not seem to work. I recreated your tutorial: vimeo.com/288159065


1. It compiles when I bypass both uvflatten & visualize_uvs
2. It compiles when I bypass just uvflatten, but it takes much longer time and the result is different:


Why visualize_uvs changes the output of your algorithm?
3. In 1. case it does not compile for some tile scale settings (it seems random, for example 0.147), the error refers again for hedges
4. It compiled only when I used testgeometry meshes as a template (left) input. It didn't work for my custom meshes both imported from blender (also tried to use convert node). It didn't work for box (Houdini node).

The Pattern mesh I used is in attachments. I know it is not perfect for the task, but I guess it should have at least compile.
Image Not Found



General note, not only for you, but the whole team. I might have been spoiled by Epic Games excellent Unreal livestreams, but following Side FX tutorials is very tedious. I wish you guys really showed every step and click every node to show us its' settings. It might turn 10 minutes video into an hour one, but we could actually reproduce the outcome in this hour, not to waste our hours trying to guess what you did behind the scenes. Sorry for bitterness, I really love your work and I would like to recommend using Houdini to my team.

Attachments:
test1.png (70.7 KB)
test2.png (279.7 KB)
TreeTrunk.fbx (82.7 KB)

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Hi Paul,

How to get similar results with your hda, to this:

Detail Mesh Pro... [www.behance.net]

or he is just a magician of magician?

Regards Alex
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