Those shaders are here: https://github.com/sideeffects/GameDevelopmentToolset/tree/Development/unity/shaders [github.com]

That course is for the old version of the plugin.

Is the pos file being generated at all?

Check out this video and tutorial for using the vertex animation texture tool in Unity: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/unity-shaders-for-vertex-animation-export-tools/ [www.sidefx.com]

The exported files (fbx, images) need to go into your Unity project's Assets folder.

1) The error is a bug for using the plugin in playmode which I just put in a fix for (should be available in tomorrow's build).
I recommend moving to version 2 of the plugin recently released in beta: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/54483/ [www.sidefx.com]

2) If you still want to use version 1 of the plugin, take a look at HoudiniApi/Scripts/HoudiniApiAssetAccessorExample.cs to see an example of how you can manipulate parameters via script.

For version 2, I have just added an example scene and script that shows how to manipulate parameters via script. The example scene can be found in Plugins/HoudiniEngineUnity/Scenes/ParamModifierExample.unity

There is no direct way to drive frame-based animation to an HDA via Unity, as you want. What you can do instead is to replace the $F with another parameter that you expose on the HDA. Then from UI or code you can change that parameter, recook, and the baked geo will have the updated vertex colours.

The performance-friendly way to do this is to simply have a shader that updates vertex colours based on time or some other animation-driven value. This is more on the Unity side of things than Houdini Engine. What is it that you are trying to achieve via Houdini?

There were some recent changes to packed primitive instancing with groups in the Houdini Engine that haven't been incorporated into the new Unity plugin. I'll update this thread once those are properly supported.

Support for custom handles are not in yet for v2 beta, but will be added soon. Will update thread once those are in.

You can set a plane as the collider on the Curve Editor Inspector window. That will lock the curve drawing to the plane (or any geometry you specify).

For locking the Z, how would you want to do that thru the UI? Specify a Z value and use that for all curve points?

What kind of things would you like to be available via script? I'll be doing a pass later on to make the plugin more API-friendly, and provide examples and documentation to do use via scripts. Suggestions and feedback would be welcome.

Could you further expand on what you mean by 2D support, other than just locking Z?

Thank you.

I recommend using the new version of the plugin as it doesn't have this bug:
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/54483/ [www.sidefx.com]

In the mean time, I'll add to our bug db to fix in the old version, though not sure of ETA on fix. We're ramping down on the fixes for the old version.

It is due to Unity removing the built-in support for importing Substance materials. We were waiting for both Unity 2018.1 and the new Substance Unity plugin to be officially released (or at least the APIs finalized) before figuring out how best to support it via our plugin. For now, I have disabled Substance support for Unity 2018.x to get it working without the errors. This will be available in tomorrow's build.

Though I do highly recommend using the new plugin version (v2) instead. This should be working in Unity 2018.x without errors, though with the same Substance import disabled.
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/54483/ [www.sidefx.com]

I don't think Unity FBX importer supports point cache animations, so that's probably not the best approach. I'd recommend checking out the Vertex Animation Texture tools that I linked above for what you're attempting.

The bake animation functionality of the old plugin doesn't really work well. It would be better to either export as FBX with animation, or if you are deforming geometry, then use the Vertex Animation Texture tools:
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/unity-shaders-for-vertex-animation-export-tools/ [www.sidefx.com]

Hello,

A completely new version of the Houdini Engine for Unity plug-in is now available, labelled as Version 2 (v2). It is currently in public beta and available alongside the older version (v1) of the plug-in. In the near future, once v2 is ready it will replace v1, and v1 will be deprecated. This new version is written completely from the ground up for improved usability, updated feature set, and lightweight footprint in Unity projects.

You can find the new plugin as part of Houdini 16.5.405 or newer production and daily builds. Just like the old plugin, select the option to install the Unity plugin in the Houdini installer. Then you will find the plugin package under <Houdini install folder>/engine/unity/HoudiniEngineUnity_v2_beta.unitypackage.

Documentation is now also available for the new plugin here: http://www.sidefx.com/docs/unity/index.html [www.sidefx.com]

Both the new plugin and documentation will have ongoing updates as we move through the beta. To see what has changed daily, you can view our Unity-plugin changelist 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]
The version 2 updates will be tagged with “Plugin version 2”.

Please file any bugs you find with the bug tracking system, and make sure to note that you are using version 2 in your bug summary / description: https://www.sidefx.com/bugs/submit/ [www.sidefx.com]

You can also post questions and feedback in this forum.

Could you check your Unity Editor log file for any errors?

I'd recommend updating your macOS if possible.

If you had made changes to your HDA in Houdini, did you “Rebuild” your asset after? If not, invoke the Rebuild button on the Inspector in Unity, or drag & drop a new instance of your asset into the Scene.

Check that the substance material does exist in the scene. Perhaps remove the substance material attribute to narrow it down.

If there is still an issue, attach the HDA and I can take a look.

Are you exposing the object path parameter in your HDA? See attached screenshot. If you are doing that, does it show up on the Inspector for the HDA in Unity? Any errors?

kemijo
Will Engine geo export properly from Unity when building a game for iOS/Android etc? Do they need to be baked first, or are they automatically baked during build?

When you cook the HDA in Unity, it generates mesh output, which you can use as is in game without needing to bake. There isn't much different between baking if on mobile vs. non-mobile.

kemijo
Also, I know that 3D colliders can be created using the group name, but is there any way to create 2D colliders (box, edge, area effectors, triggers, etc) as well? What about textured 2D sprite cards, etc? Creating sprites cards with sprite atlases and colliders procedurally would be really cool. Are these (or will these be) supported?

Thanks for any help!

Olaf has given a great answer of recommending imposter textures, as well as the other vertex animation textures tools.

Currently we don't support 2D colliders via the Houdini Engine. Though you can probably use 3D colliders and flatten the Z?

Have you tried making the curve node as editable? Check out the Curve Decorator HDA for an example. It can be found under Houdini install location/enigne/unity/Assets/OTLs/Samples/

The best way to do that is to provide a collider (e.g. plane) to the Target field in the Curve gameobject's UI.

Actually you asked for snapping. Currently not possible with the curve editor, but I'll add it as an RFE.

The reason the material assignment is lost is because the plugin is regenerating the output but isn't aware of how to handle overrides.

One way to “keep” the material is to have its file path be set as a string-based primitive attribute in the HDA. Give the attribute the name of “unity_material”. The path should be relative to the Assets/ folder. (e.g. unity_material attribute with value “Assets/Materials/testmat.mat”).

Another way would be to specify a “unity_script” detail attribute which calls an existing script in your Unity project to re-assign the material. This allows to do more general post-cook setup as well.

I believe your question has been answered through our support, but for anyone else looking for similar answers:

1. If the other company will not be creating assets in Houdini, but would still like to modify (cook) assets in Unity (or game engines), then yes, they only need the Houdini Engine license.

2. No, the EULA does not allow mixing licenses for the same assets. So if you create HDAs with Indie, you can't use commercial license to work with it.

3. Once the HDAs have been cooked and saved in a Unity scene, then they can be used as is without a Houdini Engine license as long as they don't need to be recooked (modified) via Houdini. Now if you want to keep it clean and ensure that the other artists are not tempted to mess around with the HDAs, one way to ensure this would be to have a “work” scene where you work with the HDAs, then bake out to a prefab, and instantiate the prefabs in the real scenes. If you ever need to update those prefabs, you can bake out to a new prefab, then just drag & drop onto the previous prefab. It should update the instances.
Note that you still need to have the plugin folders (Houdini/, HoudiniApi/) checked into SVN (including the .meta files). Currently the baked prefabs still use the Houdini plugin scripts, hence the requirement to check in the plugin folders into source control.

4. If you mean build systems like nightly builds, then no, they don't need a license as long as they are not cooking or modifying the HDAs to regenerate through Houdini.