Sorry if this has been addressed somewhere else but what happened to the dynamic parameter linking that H used to have? I'm on 19 now and if I create and assign a shader.. AND THEN change the name of the shader, the updated name is not linked anymore. I have to go select the shader again. In the past changing an item name (be it shader or other dynamic link) would automatically update wherever it was referenced in the project?
Thanks
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Houdini Indie and Apprentice » What Happened to Dynamic Linking Parameters?
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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Technical Discussion » Exporting RBD to FBX
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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So I have a simple explosion which is then exported to fbx via the RBD to FBX node.
Plays just fine inside Houdini but no matter what I cannot get it to export properly as an FBX.
I've read the excerpts here and watched the video ( https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/76065/?page=1#post-326696 [www.sidefx.com] ) and tried it out, and although it got me closer I still don't have a working FBX representation of my RBD sim.
Even a stripped down version of a simple box RBD fracture still is problematic.
Things I've tried:
RBD to FBX node (not working at all for me). All I get is an 'empty' FBX file.
ROP FBX Output node with "Build Hierarchy From Path Attribute" checked on and an Assemble node before it to create the path and name attribute for the prims.
This gives me a freeze frame of the first frame in the output. So if I export at frame 2 (my sim starts at 2) then I get a static FBX of frame 2.
Funny though because I can see the animation file inside Unity (or in Windows 3d Viewer I see a playbar that plays) but when I play it it's all static, as in the playhead moves but the pieces stay frozen in place.
I'm attaching the hip file (it's just a file node, assembled and output to FBX) along with the files to ingest (bgeo.sc sequence).
Am I missing something. Is there anything else that needs to be done in order for this to work?
Could this be a bug?
Thank you
Plays just fine inside Houdini but no matter what I cannot get it to export properly as an FBX.
I've read the excerpts here and watched the video ( https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/76065/?page=1#post-326696 [www.sidefx.com] ) and tried it out, and although it got me closer I still don't have a working FBX representation of my RBD sim.
Even a stripped down version of a simple box RBD fracture still is problematic.
Things I've tried:
RBD to FBX node (not working at all for me). All I get is an 'empty' FBX file.
ROP FBX Output node with "Build Hierarchy From Path Attribute" checked on and an Assemble node before it to create the path and name attribute for the prims.
This gives me a freeze frame of the first frame in the output. So if I export at frame 2 (my sim starts at 2) then I get a static FBX of frame 2.
Funny though because I can see the animation file inside Unity (or in Windows 3d Viewer I see a playbar that plays) but when I play it it's all static, as in the playhead moves but the pieces stay frozen in place.
I'm attaching the hip file (it's just a file node, assembled and output to FBX) along with the files to ingest (bgeo.sc sequence).
Am I missing something. Is there anything else that needs to be done in order for this to work?
Could this be a bug?
Thank you
Edited by firefly9000 - May 30, 2021 18:40:05
Houdini Engine for Unity » Issue with LOD's in Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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anthonyt2
This should be fixed as of Houdini 18.5.556. Sorry for the long wait! As mentioned previously, if you want your issue to be resolved in a timely manner, please submit a bug report at https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/38188/ [www.sidefx.com] with reproduction steps and ideally and example HDA
Great - Thank you so much. I didn't submit the report because I was investigating and trying to see if it's something on my end (it's a huge project). My bad. I should have because it happened before in a smaller project.
Thanks again.
Technical Discussion » FBX Export Issues
- firefly9000
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Okay, I think I get it now. On a FBX export the DEFORM node is always the one picked up if it's in the hierarchy. Anything after it is ignored I think. So any mesh altering must take place before the deform. The display flag doesn't really matter as I see.
Technical Discussion » FBX Export Issues
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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I have a car mesh that's skinned (weighted) and I'm trying to export as an fbx. All goes as planned if I export it directly. I put display flag on the null and get the same car mesh (right side is original) as the FBX exported (left side is the imported FBX that was exported).
However, if I plug a polyreduce and blast some parts, and put the display flag on the red null below the polyreduce node, in the viewer (right) I see the polyreduced mesh (works great), but exported (right) I still get the FULL MESH. In other words, The display flag is ignored and I'm still somehow getting the full mesh.
Now I've also plugged in a simple box into the same null where the FBX above was exported from and it works just fine.
Maybe I'm not understanding something correctly but I cannot figure out how:
1) The display flag on the mesh is completely ignored when exporting FBX (is that normal).
2) Are there any issues or limitations on FBX exporting of altered skinned meshes (again, I'm performing a blast and polyreduce after the deform sop - works great inside H)
However, if I plug a polyreduce and blast some parts, and put the display flag on the red null below the polyreduce node, in the viewer (right) I see the polyreduced mesh (works great), but exported (right) I still get the FULL MESH. In other words, The display flag is ignored and I'm still somehow getting the full mesh.
Now I've also plugged in a simple box into the same null where the FBX above was exported from and it works just fine.
Maybe I'm not understanding something correctly but I cannot figure out how:
1) The display flag on the mesh is completely ignored when exporting FBX (is that normal).
2) Are there any issues or limitations on FBX exporting of altered skinned meshes (again, I'm performing a blast and polyreduce after the deform sop - works great inside H)
Edited by firefly9000 - April 16, 2021 16:22:19
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Mesh Slicing Sop Random Tiles
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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Oh well, did it in vex. Not very elegant (or scalable at this point) but it works.
s@groupname = "tiling" + sprintf("%i", @class); setprimgroup(0, @groupname, @primnum, 1, "set"); v@result_bb = getbbox_center(0, s@groupname); v@tile = rint(@result_bb/1024) * -1; f@tilenumber = @tile.x + (@tile.z * 4);
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Mesh Slicing Sop Random Tiles
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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I'm plugging some geometry through a Mesh Slicing sop set to 4, 1, 4.
It's a terrain so I get 16 tiles.
The problem is that the tiles number (given by the class from 0 to 15) are random. So tile 0 can be in the northeast corner, then tile 1 is in the southeast corner. They just jump all over the place.
But it gets even more complicated: I have to lod things, so I'm slicing up the different lod levels (from the same source). 2 of them match (as in tile 1 from one polyreduced model matches tile 1 from the other) but the third it places tiles in a DIFFERENT random pattern. Below is tile 0 from lod0 and lod1 (highlighted) and tile 0 from lod2. As you can see it's a different tile.
Is there a setting or anything I can do to have the splitter actually keep the same tile order?
More than that, is the a way to set the splitter to not place tiles almost randomly. So look at the example below: The corner tile (0) has as its neighbors tile 7, 6 and 3? Doesn't seem very logical.
BTW, tile 1 is down, BELOW tile 7
Maybe I'm not setting something correctly but there aren't any docs on this node as it's pretty simple.
Any help would be appreciated.
It's a terrain so I get 16 tiles.
The problem is that the tiles number (given by the class from 0 to 15) are random. So tile 0 can be in the northeast corner, then tile 1 is in the southeast corner. They just jump all over the place.
But it gets even more complicated: I have to lod things, so I'm slicing up the different lod levels (from the same source). 2 of them match (as in tile 1 from one polyreduced model matches tile 1 from the other) but the third it places tiles in a DIFFERENT random pattern. Below is tile 0 from lod0 and lod1 (highlighted) and tile 0 from lod2. As you can see it's a different tile.
Is there a setting or anything I can do to have the splitter actually keep the same tile order?
More than that, is the a way to set the splitter to not place tiles almost randomly. So look at the example below: The corner tile (0) has as its neighbors tile 7, 6 and 3? Doesn't seem very logical.
BTW, tile 1 is down, BELOW tile 7
Maybe I'm not setting something correctly but there aren't any docs on this node as it's pretty simple.
Any help would be appreciated.
Edited by firefly9000 - April 10, 2021 19:52:52
Houdini Engine for Unity » Issue with LOD's in Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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BUMP - This still has not been resolved.
There are strange issues going on. For example LOD0 (although present in the asset) is ignored.
There are strange issues going on. For example LOD0 (although present in the asset) is ignored.
Edited by firefly9000 - April 8, 2021 09:50:09
Houdini Lounge » Houdini Engine & Unity Future?
- firefly9000
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Will the Epic investment in Sidefx affect the Houdini Engine Unity side?
I'm asking because I can't help but notice that on the forums the most recent staff response in HE for Unreal is from Nov 17th
https://www.sidefx.com/profile/dpernuit/ [www.sidefx.com]
However in HE for Unity forums the most recent staff response is way back in July.
https://www.sidefx.com/profile/seelan/ [www.sidefx.com]
Thank you!
I'm asking because I can't help but notice that on the forums the most recent staff response in HE for Unreal is from Nov 17th
https://www.sidefx.com/profile/dpernuit/ [www.sidefx.com]
However in HE for Unity forums the most recent staff response is way back in July.
https://www.sidefx.com/profile/seelan/ [www.sidefx.com]
Thank you!
Houdini Engine for Unity » Issue with LOD's in Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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So I have 2 lod groups. I assign lod_screesize as follows:
80, 2
I get in Unity:
LOD0 until it hits 80%,
LOD1 from 80% to 2%,
Culled under 2%
However, IF I change it to:
80, 1
I get in Unity:
LOD1 from 100%-80% (LOD0 disappears)
Culled from 80% down
I think this must be a bug because it doesn't make any sense.
If I'm missing something please let me know.
Using H 18.5.351 and HE 3.5.0
thanks
80, 2
I get in Unity:
LOD0 until it hits 80%,
LOD1 from 80% to 2%,
Culled under 2%
However, IF I change it to:
80, 1
I get in Unity:
LOD1 from 100%-80% (LOD0 disappears)
Culled from 80% down
I think this must be a bug because it doesn't make any sense.
If I'm missing something please let me know.
Using H 18.5.351 and HE 3.5.0
thanks
Edited by firefly9000 - Nov. 18, 2020 17:35:15
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Project Interpenetrating Mesh Onto Texture
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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Let's say you have a rock geo that drops through a grid that's laid out on the ‘floor’.
As the rock goes through it (in that frame) how can I project the rock shape onto the grid floor texture.
So the shape that the rock mesh interpenetrates with the ground mesh should be projected onto the floor texture for me to export.
* this would be done with multiple objects (let's say multiple rocks at the same time)
If you can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.
I hope I'm making sense
Thanks -
As the rock goes through it (in that frame) how can I project the rock shape onto the grid floor texture.
So the shape that the rock mesh interpenetrates with the ground mesh should be projected onto the floor texture for me to export.
* this would be done with multiple objects (let's say multiple rocks at the same time)
If you can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.
I hope I'm making sense
Thanks -
Edited by firefly9000 - Oct. 29, 2020 12:32:32
Houdini Engine for Unity » Terrain Scatter Points Don't Match Inside Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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seelan
I just put in a fix and it will be available in 18.0.496 or newer. Sorry about that.
SUPER AWESOME!
THANKS
Houdini Engine for Unity » Terrain Scatter Points Don't Match Inside Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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So in order to remove the possibility of something going wrong on my end I've created a small scene.
Heightfield of 513 (1 resolution)
Gave it some noise
Then plugged in some geometry and bounce it out to a bgeo.sc file which is then loaded into unity with an HDA (that just has a file node).
That's it. Simple.
In Houdini the boxes (red) are where they're supposed to be (halfway sunk in)
In Unity they're floating.
H 18.460
HE 3.3.5
Unity 2019.2.12f1
Heightfield of 513 (1 resolution)
Gave it some noise
Then plugged in some geometry and bounce it out to a bgeo.sc file which is then loaded into unity with an HDA (that just has a file node).
That's it. Simple.
In Houdini the boxes (red) are where they're supposed to be (halfway sunk in)
In Unity they're floating.
H 18.460
HE 3.3.5
Unity 2019.2.12f1
Edited by firefly9000 - June 10, 2020 12:54:14
Houdini Engine for Unity » Terrain Scatter Points Don't Match Inside Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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Terrain scattered geometry looks good inside Houdini but is either floating or sunk when brought inside Unity via the Houdini Engine. It doesn't match terrain height.
Is this normal?
We were scattering rocks on the ground. The pivot is exactly at the center so half the rock should be above ground and half below. Inside Unity however some are floating while some are sunk under.
Is this normal?
We were scattering rocks on the ground. The pivot is exactly at the center so half the rock should be above ground and half below. Inside Unity however some are floating while some are sunk under.
Edited by firefly9000 - June 9, 2020 15:45:15
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Issues with Polyreduce and H
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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So unless I'm missing something embarrassingly essential, polyreduce doesn't seem to work properly. Attached is a screenshot of on object reduced to 1000 polys (which appears correctly in the viewer about 1000 polys) yet in the network view it's listed as:
Points 578
Primitives 93,528
I am not sure what's going on. Any ideas?
H 18.0.465
Points 578
Primitives 93,528
I am not sure what's going on. Any ideas?
H 18.0.465
Edited by firefly9000 - May 13, 2020 18:08:09
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Skyrig VDB to Polygons Mesh Cannot Be Saved
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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When creating a skyrig (H18 v391) and converting it to polygons, the output ROP does NOT save the information. It saves an empty file.
Here's the output (obj for readability - bgeo is same) for polygon mesh generated from the skyrig and converted using either direct Convert VDB node OR Convert node (on a volume as described in the video attached) and saved via Rop Output node.
# File exported by Houdini 18.0.348 (www.sidefx.com)
# 0 points
# 0 vertices
# 0 primitives
# Bounds: to
g
Plugging in a simple grid into the Rop export node yields data (points and polys) as expected.
In the video below (which is what I'm following) it talks about a quirk in Houdini where meshes from the Skyrig yield EMPTY fbx files, so he saves it to a bgeo file and reimports it to bypass that issues.
Now, with H 18 it seems even saving to bgeo yields an empty file. I just have to right click save the file, which breaks the proceduralism.
https://youtu.be/JsgSFCz6lTg?t=224 [youtu.be]
What to do? How can we export converted skyrig geometry out of houdini?
Thank you
Here's the output (obj for readability - bgeo is same) for polygon mesh generated from the skyrig and converted using either direct Convert VDB node OR Convert node (on a volume as described in the video attached) and saved via Rop Output node.
# File exported by Houdini 18.0.348 (www.sidefx.com)
# 0 points
# 0 vertices
# 0 primitives
# Bounds: to
g
Plugging in a simple grid into the Rop export node yields data (points and polys) as expected.
In the video below (which is what I'm following) it talks about a quirk in Houdini where meshes from the Skyrig yield EMPTY fbx files, so he saves it to a bgeo file and reimports it to bypass that issues.
Now, with H 18 it seems even saving to bgeo yields an empty file. I just have to right click save the file, which breaks the proceduralism.
https://youtu.be/JsgSFCz6lTg?t=224 [youtu.be]
What to do? How can we export converted skyrig geometry out of houdini?
Thank you
Edited by firefly9000 - March 8, 2020 15:51:40
Houdini Engine for Unity » Error Outputting Splatmaps
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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seelan
If you are getting this issue with the PDG workflow (using PDGAssetLink), then I suggest trying with the regular (non-PDG) path to rule out bugs with just the PDG workflow. The regular terrain generation differs from the PDG generation so it is possible for bugs (or missing features) to exist in one case, but not the other.
If you are specifying an existing TerrainLayer, I suggest trying another TerrainLayer with different size or properties. My gut feeling is that the SetAlphamaps error is a clue that not all is right in the internal terrain state. Note that since you are specifying an existing TerrainLayer, the plugin will just assign it to the TerrainData, and won't check if its compatible. Additionally, it might set some properties on the TerrainLayer if you have specified them via attributes.
Are you able to generate a TerrainLayer (via a new heightfield layer in H), and use that instead? If that works, then check that the sizes match between the existing and generated TerrainLayers.
If you can attach an HDA, I can take a look as well.
Hello Seelan,
Thanks for the help.
So as per your advice we broke apart everything and tested it individually, NOT through PDG.
Turns out the U console error is from the very first HDA from a heightfield erode node and the layers it puts out (bedrock, debris, water etc)
So if we delete those with a blast, the error goes away BUT then we cannot process the chain later on. So the error disappears but then the texturing HDA doesn't seem to work properly with the input that's coming in that's missing those layers. (see attached initial hda - though I doubt it will be useful)
It's hard to debug this because in Houdini everything works perfectly. Even in the piped debug session.
Other things we tried: updating to HE 364.
One question that we are asking ourselves is if there is a problem with HDA's that contain both ‘regular’ geometry and heightfields?
Is there a way to get what node is problematic and a more specific error message? Read the debugging page (https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unity/_debugging.html) but again, since our problem does not show up in Houdini itself, but rather in Unity, it doesn't give us any insight.
Thanks
Edited by firefly9000 - Sept. 6, 2019 16:32:30
Houdini Engine for Unity » Error Outputting Splatmaps
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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seelan
The error sounds like a sizing issue with one or more of the terrain layers. Could you isolate the layers and try them out one by one, if you are using different sizes?
Note that there has been quite a bit of changes to the Unity terrain generation as logged here: https://www.sidefx.com/changelog/?journal=&categories=25&body=&version=&build_0=&build_1=&show_versions=on&show_compatibility=on&items_per_page= [www.sidefx.com]
Especially 17.5.302 onwards.
If you are able to, I suggest you move up to the latest 17.5 builds to keep up improvements and fixes. It might require some changes to your HDA. But the improvements have been based on feedback that is better aligned with desired production workflows.
At the least, you can try out the latest changes in a separate empty project to see if it makes sense for you.
Hello Seelan,
Thank you for the help.
We did as you suggested: Upgraded (360) and then tried to see where the problem stems from. Just to make things clear, there are absolutely no issues in H. However, in order to eliminate possible issues we removed all relative links. So the sizing is now hardcoded in at 4097 (with 1 being the resolution).
The issues is that we don't really know what problem we're looking for or how it is logged.
When you say “The error sounds like a sizing issue” do you base this on the Unity console message that says “Texture rectangle is out of bounds”?
That message pops up from our first HDA in the chain even after we've set the terrain size so there are no discrepancies (note: there weren't any discrepancies before either). I should note that the heightfield comes through just fine in U.
Could you please explain what steps to debug this. In H everything is fine and the U console doesn't give too much info. For example: not sure what those warnings are all about, what is Part with id 1 etc?
Thank you.
Edited by firefly9000 - Sept. 3, 2019 16:33:22
Houdini Engine for Unity » Error Outputting Splatmaps
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
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We're sending a processed heightfield from H to U (via HE and PDG) and we've weighted all our layers in such a way so that they don't overlap and they are either 1 or 0.
So if the top layer has a value, then it's set to 1 and the rest are set to 0, and so on. So there is NO overlap.
We checked this to make sure it working and it is.
We then assign a terrain layer material to it via a unity_hf_terrainlayer_file attribute.
When bringing them into Unity (via PDG), all the materials get assigned BUT only one is rendered on the WHOLE terrain. It's the “layer_base” material (yellow).
This is odd because the layer (“layer_base” below) DOES NOT cover everything. We should be seeing the other layers.
We created a debug session and inside that session all layers are represented correctly, just like inside the original H project.
We get these errors in the U console.
We're not sure what the “Texture rectangle is out of bound” means.
How would we go about debugging this?
Using H 17.5 (293)
Thank you.
So if the top layer has a value, then it's set to 1 and the rest are set to 0, and so on. So there is NO overlap.
We checked this to make sure it working and it is.
We then assign a terrain layer material to it via a unity_hf_terrainlayer_file attribute.
When bringing them into Unity (via PDG), all the materials get assigned BUT only one is rendered on the WHOLE terrain. It's the “layer_base” material (yellow).
This is odd because the layer (“layer_base” below) DOES NOT cover everything. We should be seeing the other layers.
We created a debug session and inside that session all layers are represented correctly, just like inside the original H project.
We get these errors in the U console.
We're not sure what the “Texture rectangle is out of bound” means.
How would we go about debugging this?
Using H 17.5 (293)
Thank you.
Edited by firefly9000 - Sept. 3, 2019 09:55:28
Houdini for Realtime » GoZ zBrush and Houdini
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Definitely seems to be a cache issue.
Here is what I send from Houdini via Goz.
Here is what Zbrush receives (the PREVIOUS model)
How to clear this?
Also, if this is not the right forum for this please let me know.
Here is what I send from Houdini via Goz.
Here is what Zbrush receives (the PREVIOUS model)
How to clear this?
Also, if this is not the right forum for this please let me know.
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