Hello all,

Wanted to write this post time ago. So here it go;


Im an * indie developer * in my spare time at my house but i work in a game company as a developer. We have made some indie PS4 games and mobile.

My work is doing a variety of assets, from programming UI, graphic design, animations, FX, tools, Web Page, Programming game logic and optimization with Shaders. I do a little of everything, i really like to improve pipeline/workflow using code, recently im trying to create all shapes from UI using shader coding only.

Also, contrary of my team mates i embrace new technologies, when they are paiting texture in photoshop i create material in substance designer, painter and export. Instead of creating animations sprite in flash, i use after effects or now houdini to create smoke flipbook and add a little of shader distortion.

The problem is that i pay all of those new technologies with my own money. (substance, spine, shader forge, houdini indie, after effects plugins, maya lt, zbrush core).

So, i tried to make it cheap for me, i decided to learn Houdini, as it works as Procedural, i can make some cool FX flipbook, Destroy mesh, i can also draw FlowMaps! I can do so much with houdini that for me it was a bang! for 200 Us Cheap!

But then i hit it, i can not share any asset at all, i always bring work at home, or just for my own sake of keep learning, but with Houdini i can not use 2 computers at time. (my fault, i didnt read it, but laptop and desktop is completely normal this days). So i had to install it at work and study using apprentice at home (sadly i can not test anything in unity using apprentice).

I finish my first asset, was a polygon animation to use it on the background of our new PS4 Game, for some reason i could not change to PS4 in unity as the script stop working, i could not edit anything at all… i had to go back to PC platform to make changes and move back to PS4, changing platform from PC to PS4 take time, a lot! I finish using 2 Unity instances, one in pc another in PS4. I had the same problem using Android Platform in Unity.

Time to share the asset, git it and… sadly, our game is kinda *broke*, i can not share the assets if my co-worker dont have Houdini Engine with Houdini license. (again my fault, i was in the imprecion that houdini engine was free. but it cost 450us?).

I had to remake all the polygons animation, this time using unity and c#. creating the polygons by code.

I beg sidefx to consider those steps, use something similar to Spine 2d, Substance where i can share the assets, we dont need another license for PC to use the material created in substance, or another license to import animations created in spine. We can share it and modified it in unity.

So at the end, right now as im not an one team dev. im using houdini only for creating textures, Flow Maps, and sometime destructed objects. The value is not good anymore as i can not share the tools i created inside houdini. Im trying to replace C4D for Houdini (i use C4D to create cool images or logos) took me some weeks to get mantra rending fast.

Houdini its an amazing software, but for indies right now the values is not good as we need to pay for houdini engine.
Maybe im doing it wrong? Not only houdini engine because i also need to install houdini in every pc that want to use the tool inside unity, that kinda dont make sence for me.

Regards
Francisco.

Doesn't make much sense as the Indie Houdini Engine is for computers without Houdini Indie.

FREE Houdini Engine Indie is a standalone licence that can be used on another computer to either run the Houdini Engine inside other apps or run in batch mode to generate distributed renderings and simulations.

https://www.sidefx.com/products/houdini-indie/ [www.sidefx.com]

On the point of sharing Indie across computer - absolutely agree.

aRtye
On the point of sharing Indie across computer - absolutely agree.

not just Indie… I'd happily go get chipped to have a artist-locked license for HoudiniFx.

1. Houdini indie engine is free for 3 computers you can get it under the buy site:
https://www.sidefx.com/buy/#houdini1 [www.sidefx.com]
2. Houdini indie cost 200$ per year if you want the same functionality in other tools like C4D or maya you need the full license that cost 15-20x more. (Depending on country, tax …..)
3. Android, xbox and co this can help: https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/44467/ [www.sidefx.com]
The github site is: https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnity [github.com]
4. There are people that are using nomaschine remote software that has a very low lag it could be used maybe for your propose.

And you could get 2 indie licenses if you want to use houdini on two computers…
And you can put your assets as HDAs into the orbolt store. There it would be converted to apprentice and fx version….

Olaf

thank you for the feedback, i have been busy at work so i didnt had time to check it.

i will try again the free indie engine.