I have a large detailed building with all it's textures already mapped imported into a geo node in sops using fbx.

I'm importing into solaris stage using sops import node but I don't know how to link the materials so that they are correctly assigned to the hundreds of individual components of the geo.

it's not practical to assigns each material individually within a new material library in stage as there are too many to manage. I'm certain that's not the best way to do it anyway do I'd love to know what the correct way is.

can anybody help?

many thanks

I should add that I've tried assigning via material library as in the screenshot below and everything populates as I'd expect but still no dice.. the geo remains texture free.

can anybody tell me what am I doing wrong?

apologies for all the screenshots

You should use the File menu to import your FBX, because the FBX Character Import seems to lock the imported materials behind a node that you cannot dive into, and are not readable by Solaris.

Importing via the File menu will give you access to the actual material nodes, and then in Solaris, use a Scene Import (All) to bring your object in with its materials.

There is also the Labs FBX Archive Import SOP that could work, but that sometimes seems to not import all materials correctly.

General caveat: In Solaris, these materials will import as Principled Shader, so expect things to not work perfectly with XPU. You'll likely need to do some material editing in Solaris.

thanks ever so much eikonoklastes. I have indeed tried that route and it does preserve the textures as you say.

bringing in through file puts everything in a subnetwork which is great for initial sorting but gets out of hand very quick once I bring in a few different buildings (all with their own hundreds of geo in their own subnetworks).

any advice on how I might go about consolidating the contents of a subnetwork into one manageable geometry? I guess I'd loose the textures but at least I could object merge into a geo node and use as a starting point for something else.

ideally I'd be able to bake the textures in to the consolidated geo too but perhaps not doeable?

thanks again!

Shy1
...but gets out of hand very quick once I bring in a few different buildings (all with their own hundreds of geo in their own subnetworks).

any advice on how I might go about consolidating the contents of a subnetwork into one manageable geometry?

Can you clarify what you mean by "gets out of hand"? When imported into Solaris, each object and its sub-components should live neatly within its own hierarchy.

@eikonoklastes I mean re. how heavy it gets. things ground to a halt pretty quick for me since I'm not well versed in how to best optimize subnetworks. I figured if fbx files were imported into a geo node I could at least merge meshes to simplified geo. I can't work out how to do that with subnetworks though.

so if I import the fbx files into geo nodes I loose the textures in solaris but if I import the fbx files as subnetworks then the solaris scene is too heavy to manage.

I should add obviously I'm very new to houdini and this is the first time I've tried making any kind of backdrop scene for a simulation.

coming from UE where you're throwing in nanite mesh without a care in the world I'm finding things challenging. but I wanted to see how far I might get keeping everything in solaris rather than exporting alembics etc. since I'm really falling in love with this platform and want to learn how to work with it.

I'm running into the same issue. Have you found a workaround?

I ran into this problem.

The solution I actually ended up using was a Claude MCP to Houdini and getting it to resolve it for me.

The actual issue is the material attribute vs name attribute and how that gets pulled into Solaris. What you need to do is look at the attribute that is responsible for separating out the collection into its various components on the SOPs side.

Then, when you import into Solaris, you need to ensure that this attribute is properly carried over. I can't remember clearly what this is.

I Believe you need to transfer the material attribute to the name attribute on SOPs side, then ensure the name attribute is brought over to Solaris.

You can copy/paste the material library from SOPs into Solaris Material Library and then you need to assign each material name to its mesh component.

There are a few tools out there you can get for free that will do this for you.

Thanks for the tips. I will give it a try.

Have you tried importing .fbx directly to LOPs using File LOP?

Since solaris supports . Fbx through adobe usd file format plugins I'd expect it to work, even though I personally never tried it so not sure where it may fall short

tamte
Have you tried importing .fbx directly to LOPs using File LOP?

Thanks, this could be a solution. But that would only work if the geometry doesn't need to be changed or animated, right?

Nedsch

tamte
Have you tried importing .fbx directly to LOPs using File LOP?

Thanks, this could be a solution. But that would only work if the geometry doesn't need to be changed or animated, right?

why not?

the important thing is whether it loads your fbx correctly with all materials etc or not

once it flows through LOPs you can use SOP Modify LOP to alter Geometry, Transforms or many different LOPs to modify the stage as you wish

you can even load the same FBX separately on SOP or OBJ level modify the geo or animation and then layer over LOP loaded fbx just what you need, while still preserving everything else that's on the stage already like materials etc

tamte
use SOP Modify LOP

Good to know, thanks. This is the first time I've heard of that. I'm still a beginner and there is still a lot to learn.