Tried using the Game Tools Goz plugin.
It sent the geometry to zBrush with no problems. Played around in Zbrush a bit and then exported back. No issue.
BUT, when we try to re-export again the same geometry into Zbrush, it comes in with the changes from the previous session (which also includes the history).
We tried deleting the GOZ node in Houdini, closing and reopening Houdini, but even though the Geometry inside Houdini is in its default state, when using GOZ, it comes into Zbrush with our previous edits.
All this makes me think there is something we're missing or some cache that we must delete. If that's not it, then what could be the problem?
Thank you.
Found 169 posts.
Search results Show results as topic list.
Houdini for Realtime » GoZ zBrush and Houdini
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Houdini Engine for Unity » TerrainLayer in Unity is not fully opaque
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
seelan
I believe Unity's default terrain shader expects the weights of all splatmaps in the Terrain to sum up to 1 at any coordinate. This is why it is recommended to normalize your non-height and non-mask heightfield layers in Houdini, and have them all sum up to 1.
Note the Houdini mask layer is completely ignored from Houdini 17.5.302 onwards.
There is a strength setting in the HDA's Inspector UI Terrain section for each splatmap layer. This applies a multiplier to each of the splatmap generated from a heightfield layer. Leave this at 1 if you don't want to change your values from Houdini.
After generating the terrain via the cook, if you add a new TerrainLayer and paint on it, you are applying additional weights. This could be causing some issues. Try testing with just the the splatmaps being generated. Perhaps use a custom debug shader in Unity to show the splatmap values directly.
In Houdini, you can use a Heightfield Isolate Layer to see the individual layers.
If there are issues, submit a bug with an hda to reproduce the problem. Thanks.
Thank you for the help. This was easily fixed in Vex. The confusion stemmed from watching a tut like the one Kenny Lammers made where he just gets the textures inside Unity correctly by default… so we assumed we were doing something wrong.
Still a bit unsure how he did it though without Vex or a Volume Wrangle
Thanks again
Houdini Engine for Unity » TerrainLayer in Unity is not fully opaque
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
We're bringing in a heightfield from Houdini into Unity and assign a .terrainlayer.
It is set via the attribute “unity_hf_terrainlayer_file”.
It keeps coming in at around 50% opacity. If you look at the screenshot below, you can see where we painted in Unity using the brush (right) and it's 100% opacity, and the terrain layer coming in from Houdini which comes in at reduces opacity and blends with what's underneath.
At first we put down a Heightfield Remap to ‘normalize’ the layer in question. But that doesn't help.
Then we used a Volume Wrangle to set mask (before copying it to layer) so that values falling under 0.5 are set 0 and above that to 1.
That doesn't work either.
Checking the docs for attributes that we have to set in order to get a proper opacity doesn't yield anything either.
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unity/_attributes.html#AttributesInput_Heightfields [www.sidefx.com]
What is it that we should do in either Unity or Houdini in order to control opacity?
Initially we thought the mask (layer) original opacity controls the opacity in Unity.
Thank you
It is set via the attribute “unity_hf_terrainlayer_file”.
It keeps coming in at around 50% opacity. If you look at the screenshot below, you can see where we painted in Unity using the brush (right) and it's 100% opacity, and the terrain layer coming in from Houdini which comes in at reduces opacity and blends with what's underneath.
At first we put down a Heightfield Remap to ‘normalize’ the layer in question. But that doesn't help.
Then we used a Volume Wrangle to set mask (before copying it to layer) so that values falling under 0.5 are set 0 and above that to 1.
if (@mask < 0.5) { @mask = 0; } else { @mask = 1; }
That doesn't work either.
Checking the docs for attributes that we have to set in order to get a proper opacity doesn't yield anything either.
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unity/_attributes.html#AttributesInput_Heightfields [www.sidefx.com]
What is it that we should do in either Unity or Houdini in order to control opacity?
Initially we thought the mask (layer) original opacity controls the opacity in Unity.
Thank you
Edited by firefly9000 - July 10, 2019 17:37:16
PDG/TOPs » Saving Via HDA Processor Results Differ
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
So we have an hda that creates a road on a heightfield. We then save the mask to a layer via the Heightfield Copy Layer sop. So we end up with a “road” layer in addition to the usual: height, mask, sediment, bedrock, debris, water.
If we write out a bgeo from the HDA directly we get all the layers:
BUT if we run the HDA from the TOPs network the “road” layer disappears and instead we seem to have 2 empty spots:
How do we go about debugging this? There is no error that's being thrown and the HDA is being processed, we check the time stamp. Here are the HDA Processor Parameters:
On a sidenote but somewhat related: Where does the debugging script you can enable from the HDA Processor get saved to? Could not find it in the Output file folder. Does it go somewhere else?
Thank you
If we write out a bgeo from the HDA directly we get all the layers:
BUT if we run the HDA from the TOPs network the “road” layer disappears and instead we seem to have 2 empty spots:
How do we go about debugging this? There is no error that's being thrown and the HDA is being processed, we check the time stamp. Here are the HDA Processor Parameters:
On a sidenote but somewhat related: Where does the debugging script you can enable from the HDA Processor get saved to? Could not find it in the Output file folder. Does it go somewhere else?
Thank you
Edited by firefly9000 - July 9, 2019 13:53:33
Houdini Engine for Unity » Access to Attributes inside Unity C# script
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Sorry for not being clear.
So we're setting up an environment similar to what Kenny Lammers did in his PDG tuts.
However, we need to get some points & attributes (from an HDA) at runtime to process them.
More specifically we have a Heightfield Scatter sop generating some points with a tag. So we query inside Unity for those points and attributes and we can get the points and attributes directly from an HDA.
But when we incorporate a TOP network and use the PDG link we don't get any HDA nodes returned. We don't know how to get access to those HDA's and their data (attributes, points etc) anymore.
We are using the same code and in the method PotpulateTOPNetworks() in HEU_PDGAssetLink.cs.
So how do we get access to the HDA's and their information (points attributes) used by the PDG link?
Or does the fact we're using a PDG link asset mean that we can't get access to the HDA's that the HDA Processors are processing?
I hope this makes sense.
So we're setting up an environment similar to what Kenny Lammers did in his PDG tuts.
However, we need to get some points & attributes (from an HDA) at runtime to process them.
More specifically we have a Heightfield Scatter sop generating some points with a tag. So we query inside Unity for those points and attributes and we can get the points and attributes directly from an HDA.
But when we incorporate a TOP network and use the PDG link we don't get any HDA nodes returned. We don't know how to get access to those HDA's and their data (attributes, points etc) anymore.
We are using the same code and in the method PotpulateTOPNetworks() in HEU_PDGAssetLink.cs.
So how do we get access to the HDA's and their information (points attributes) used by the PDG link?
Or does the fact we're using a PDG link asset mean that we can't get access to the HDA's that the HDA Processors are processing?
I hope this makes sense.
Edited by firefly9000 - July 8, 2019 14:21:17
Houdini Engine for Unity » Access to Attributes inside Unity C# script
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Hello Seelan,
Okay, so we're making some progress but it seems to come to a dead end when we try to get them from a PDG link instance.
We've tried to put a “unity_script” attribute in the Top network as well as the hda's, but nothing works.
What's the proper way of doing this when you are running a PDG link?
I think the issue here is that we're trying on query on something that doesn't exist yet.
Thank you.
Okay, so we're making some progress but it seems to come to a dead end when we try to get them from a PDG link instance.
We've tried to put a “unity_script” attribute in the Top network as well as the hda's, but nothing works.
What's the proper way of doing this when you are running a PDG link?
I think the issue here is that we're trying on query on something that doesn't exist yet.
Thank you.
Houdini Engine for Unity » Heightfield TerrainLayer Created
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
So in the docs for HE it states that:
The height layer will be used for the terrain's heightmap values. The range of the heightmap values form the height range for the terrain. The unity_hf_terraindata_file attribute can be specified on this layer (and only on this layer) to reference an existing TerrainData asset file to use (see Houdini Heightfields to Unity Terrain). There will NOT be a corresponding TerrainLayer created for this layer.
Yet inside Unity it does create a .terrainlayer for it. See attached image.
The issue here is that the created height.terrainlayer is set by default and we get the pink error shader as such. We have to keep deleting the first height.terrainlayer that gets created.
If we split up the terrain it becomes more problematic as we have to delete the height.terrainlayer from all the tiles.
Are we doing something wrong, or is this a bug?
Using Unity 2019.1.8f1 with HDRP pipeline
Thank you
The height layer will be used for the terrain's heightmap values. The range of the heightmap values form the height range for the terrain. The unity_hf_terraindata_file attribute can be specified on this layer (and only on this layer) to reference an existing TerrainData asset file to use (see Houdini Heightfields to Unity Terrain). There will NOT be a corresponding TerrainLayer created for this layer.
Yet inside Unity it does create a .terrainlayer for it. See attached image.
The issue here is that the created height.terrainlayer is set by default and we get the pink error shader as such. We have to keep deleting the first height.terrainlayer that gets created.
If we split up the terrain it becomes more problematic as we have to delete the height.terrainlayer from all the tiles.
Are we doing something wrong, or is this a bug?
Using Unity 2019.1.8f1 with HDRP pipeline
Thank you
Edited by firefly9000 - July 6, 2019 17:05:25
Houdini Engine for Unity » HDA not updating inside Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
seelan
After you update the HDA, are you using Rebuild or Recook? Recook should get the update if its just parm changes, but Rebuild will guarantee the latest version gets loaded, and recreates everything, then tries to apply back the parm values. Reset Parameters is your nuclear option, which is Rebuild + reset of parms.
Can you expand the HDA hierarchy in Unity, select the HDA_Data, and uncheck the UI Locked toggle, then check the Asset Path? Is it pointing to the right HDA file?
It might be due to session conflicts. One you thing you can try is to go to HoudiniEngine menu in Unity, then Session, then Close All Sessions. Then try loading or Recook/Rebuild.
Are you running multiple Unity apps with Houdini Engine on the same machine? Or using other Houdini Engine plugins such as Unreal, Maya, Max, or custom? We don't support more than once instance of Houdini Engine running at a time, so try closing the others if so.
Hello Seelan,
Thank you for trying to help. We tried both recooking and rebuilding.
The HDA in the HDA data tab is pointing to the right asset.
Tried closing all sessions and then re-opening.
We're not running multiple HE instances. Just one which is connected to Unity.
Nothing really helps outside of closing U, deleting assets then copying them in the folders again OR deleting the HE package and then reimporting it.
One thing we've noticed, and I don't know if it is related, is that “playing” with the asset in Unity changed our asset inside Houdini. I know that U can push transform changes back to Houdini (if enabled in the plugin settings) but changes were to type properties and other stuff. We had to reimport the asset into H. Both apps were open but I can't be more specific because we noticed this after we had worked with the asset inside Unity for quite a while.
Thanks.
Houdini Engine for Unity » HDA not updating inside Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Bringing in newer versions of an HDA yields the same old one in the viewport inside Unity.
Tried to bring it in by pasting over the initial HDA, or by deleting the original and then importing the new one.
Also tried deleting the cache folders from inside HoudiniEngineAssetCache.
Nearest we can tell it seems like the HDA is still using the old asset definitions.
The only way to make it work is to delete the Houdini engine plugin and then import the package again.
Is there any way to flush or force HE to update to the new HDA and definitions? Or, maybe the issues is something else entirely.
Thank you
H17.5.293 HE3.2.41
Tried to bring it in by pasting over the initial HDA, or by deleting the original and then importing the new one.
Also tried deleting the cache folders from inside HoudiniEngineAssetCache.
Nearest we can tell it seems like the HDA is still using the old asset definitions.
The only way to make it work is to delete the Houdini engine plugin and then import the package again.
Is there any way to flush or force HE to update to the new HDA and definitions? Or, maybe the issues is something else entirely.
Thank you
H17.5.293 HE3.2.41
Houdini Engine for Unity » Access to Attributes inside Unity C# script
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
How does one go about getting attributes in C# from an hda inside Unity?
So far we're trying to get a list of nodes and we need ID's (which aren't really exposed in Houdini). See attached.
We couldn't even find a way to get nodes by name.
There has to be a simpler and more elegant way.
Thank you.
So far we're trying to get a list of nodes and we need ID's (which aren't really exposed in Houdini). See attached.
We couldn't even find a way to get nodes by name.
There has to be a simpler and more elegant way.
Thank you.
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Baking an ID map
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Surely it cannot be this complicated. I've watched many tuts on baking maps out of Houdini, both with Mantra and the Game Baker sop, but when it comes to baking out a material id map, I don't understand how to do it.
There is no Id map option as far as I can see. All the solutions seem to point to baking them out in the basecolor channel. But how to take Cd and assign it?
So I have random colors (via color sop - Cd) on all the pieces as such.
No matter what I do, basecolor doesn't work. It comes out black
I've added a Constant material. I check the “use point color” box on the shader and then export the Cf on the extra image planes on Mantra and I get somewhat close, except that now I have bleed colors. See attached. I don't know how to get rid of the bleed.
If I dial down Unwrapping > Ray Bias from 0.01 to 0.00001 I get closer and have only specks to contend with. BTW if I go lower that 0.00001 then the bleed comes back (???).
Am I on the right track here? Doesn't seem so. Can someone point me please to a tut or docs where this is addressed? Or maybe a small example.
Thank you!
There is no Id map option as far as I can see. All the solutions seem to point to baking them out in the basecolor channel. But how to take Cd and assign it?
So I have random colors (via color sop - Cd) on all the pieces as such.
No matter what I do, basecolor doesn't work. It comes out black
I've added a Constant material. I check the “use point color” box on the shader and then export the Cf on the extra image planes on Mantra and I get somewhat close, except that now I have bleed colors. See attached. I don't know how to get rid of the bleed.
If I dial down Unwrapping > Ray Bias from 0.01 to 0.00001 I get closer and have only specks to contend with. BTW if I go lower that 0.00001 then the bleed comes back (???).
Am I on the right track here? Doesn't seem so. Can someone point me please to a tut or docs where this is addressed? Or maybe a small example.
Thank you!
Edited by firefly9000 - March 28, 2019 13:01:09
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Edit SOP Transforms
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
tamte
Edit SOP will not lose the transform values just by doing that
the edit will be committed and values reset however if you select other points or press Commit button, maybe something else
but not just by selecting other nodes and then coming back to the edit at later time
but yes, always keep in mind that Edit is for tweaking and all commited edits are stored in the geometry delta data which lives on the node
the UI reflects just the last live Edit that has not been commited yet, so in theory can be used procedurally as a transform, but it may be dangerous
use Transform SOP or Soft Transform SOP if you want to apply transform to a group of points instead
Thank you for the heads up. Was expecting it to be procedural and therefore have access to these edits, but now I understand. Sometimes they'd work, I'd come back later and still have the info there for editing… but lately, especially in 17, they just blank out as soon as I move on.
I'll try the other sops. Thanks again
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Edit SOP Transforms
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Why do edit sops lose their transforms after you move on from them? Is there a way to get them back.
So to clarify, I put down an edit sop, select some points, do a transform, let's say Y=3 and move on. Then, I come back to the edit sop to edit the transform (increase, decrease etc) but while the point selection is there in the group, the transform is wiped clean. Y shows as 0, even though clearly the points edited are still at Y=3.
How can I get it back?
Thanks
So to clarify, I put down an edit sop, select some points, do a transform, let's say Y=3 and move on. Then, I come back to the edit sop to edit the transform (increase, decrease etc) but while the point selection is there in the group, the transform is wiped clean. Y shows as 0, even though clearly the points edited are still at Y=3.
How can I get it back?
Thanks
Edited by firefly9000 - Jan. 11, 2019 09:51:17
Houdini Engine for Unity » FBX wrong Axis in Unity
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Can someone please explain to me why this simple test bones with geo exported as FBX, change Axis in Unity.
I'm talking about the Thigh_bone.
When I bring it into unity it spins around the Z axis even though I'm moving it around the X axis. Also, the Z axis is spinning around the Y axis.
It's like some weird gimbal lock. I don't understand it.
If I remove the hip bone, I can bring it in Okay into unity. My reasoning is that there seems to be some problem with the parenting of the Thigh_bone to the Hip_bone (which is flat).
I'm not sure what's happening here so any opinions would help.
Thanks.
I'm talking about the Thigh_bone.
When I bring it into unity it spins around the Z axis even though I'm moving it around the X axis. Also, the Z axis is spinning around the Y axis.
It's like some weird gimbal lock. I don't understand it.
If I remove the hip bone, I can bring it in Okay into unity. My reasoning is that there seems to be some problem with the parenting of the Thigh_bone to the Hip_bone (which is flat).
I'm not sure what's happening here so any opinions would help.
Thanks.
Edited by firefly9000 - Oct. 10, 2018 17:11:17
Houdini Engine for Unreal » Autorig In Houdini, export to UE via FBX
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Aladin Sane
I used this tutorial to get it working.
https://gumroad.com/l/nknEX [gumroad.com]
It is not free (about 10 dollars) but it is very detailed and helped a lot.
Is it me, or does that guy say in the trailer for the course that you should not use auto-rigs and that this tutorials focuses on rigs without the autorig system?
Houdini Engine for Unreal » Autorig In Houdini, export to UE via FBX
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
* Can rigs be baked down to just bones? So all the ik and everything is just fk and bones… no control nulls etc so it can be exported as fbx for unreal?
Houdini Engine for Unreal » Autorig In Houdini, export to UE via FBX
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
The H autorig is quite impressive and it can save a lot of work, but can it be exported to UE either via FBX (preferred) or plugin?
Can't seem to get it to work.
I guess a better first question would be: What's the proper procedure for rigging for UE? As I understand FBX doesn't carry IK and nulls and other controls are problematic too.
Thank you!
Can't seem to get it to work.
I guess a better first question would be: What's the proper procedure for rigging for UE? As I understand FBX doesn't carry IK and nulls and other controls are problematic too.
Thank you!
Edited by firefly9000 - Sept. 12, 2018 17:49:24
Houdini Engine for Unreal » HDA inside UE4
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
Apologies if this is something simple but I'm new to UE and the H2UE workflow.
My question is:
How do I access the HDA as a blueprint inside UE?
Of course I can bake the asset to a mesh and blueprint, but that defeats the automatic update if I change the HDA + the work that was done on the blueprint.
Can I keep the HDA inside UE and access it as a blueprint and still retain the ability to update it?
Or alternatively, if I bake it down to a blueprint and mesh how do I propagate HDA updates to it?
Thank you
My question is:
How do I access the HDA as a blueprint inside UE?
Of course I can bake the asset to a mesh and blueprint, but that defeats the automatic update if I change the HDA + the work that was done on the blueprint.
Can I keep the HDA inside UE and access it as a blueprint and still retain the ability to update it?
Or alternatively, if I bake it down to a blueprint and mesh how do I propagate HDA updates to it?
Thank you
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Light Meter & Color Meter Inside Houdini
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
How would one go about having a LightMeter and ColorMeter inside H?
So I'd like to have something like a small sphere that would read out light values at the spot where it's placed. Basically a cg version of a real LightMeter & ColorMeter
I don't even know where to start. Is there something build in or maybe another way to get color & intensity data at specific points?
Thanks
PS: False color would be nice too I've gone over this tread, but I could not find an example that replicates false color accurately https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/26767/ [www.sidefx.com] . what I mean by that is that you must have control of the IRE values and know the (false) color chart gamut.
So I'd like to have something like a small sphere that would read out light values at the spot where it's placed. Basically a cg version of a real LightMeter & ColorMeter
I don't even know where to start. Is there something build in or maybe another way to get color & intensity data at specific points?
Thanks
PS: False color would be nice too I've gone over this tread, but I could not find an example that replicates false color accurately https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/26767/ [www.sidefx.com] . what I mean by that is that you must have control of the IRE values and know the (false) color chart gamut.
Edited by firefly9000 - July 5, 2018 08:41:29
Houdini Indie and Apprentice » Export Obj with multiple meshes
- firefly9000
- 169 posts
- Offline
robsdesign
Hi, I posted a while ago regarding Substance and whilst the info might be a little old, most of it still applies. https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/52609/#post-236500 [www.sidefx.com]
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/42169/?page=1#post-193615 [www.sidefx.com]
In short, Substance will import and split the model based on materials so if you want individual meshes, apply a different material to each.
You will need to use FBX as Houdini doesn't natively support the mtl files needed for obj material assignments. Sidenimjay did upload a tool as a workaround though. https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/42169/?page=1#post-189542 [www.sidefx.com]
Super awesome… WORKS! Thank you so much.
-
- Quick Links