@Art3mis, you can find the information in your <Houdini Installation Folder>/sidefx_packages/SideFXLabs<version>/unrealor(unity)/<Engine Version>

Or

When your drop down a VAT Rop, there is a "Real-Time Shaders" tab on the far right. Select the engine, press the button and you will be redirected to the same folder as mentioned above.

I am reposting this message to the realtime category:

I am wondering if anyone else is having this problem?

I am using Houdini 18.5.696 with UE4.26.2.

Ocassionaly, but not allways, Houdini Engine fails to "Rebuild" the asset after I saved it from Houdini.

When it fails I get an error that looks something like this in UE4:
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Destruction Started for . AssetId = 0
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Instantiation Started for collision_prep_2: Asset=Sop/collision_prep, HoudiniAsset = 0x3ea9b9a0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedInstantiation.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Cooking Started for collision_prep_2., AssetId = 0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedCooking with fatal errors - aborting.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Destruction Started for . AssetId = 3
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Instantiation Started for collision_prep_2: Asset=Sop/collision_prep, HoudiniAsset = 0x3ea9b9a0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedInstantiation.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Cooking Started for collision_prep_2., AssetId = 3
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedCooking with fatal errors - aborting.

However, when it successfully rebuilds I get an outout that reads:
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Destruction Started for . AssetId = 11
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Instantiation Started for collision_prep_2: Asset=Sop/collision_prep, HoudiniAsset = 0x3ea9b9a0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedInstantiation.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Cooking Started for collision_prep_2., AssetId = 11
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedCooking.
LogStaticMesh: Building static mesh collision_prep_3_0_0_collision_geo...
LogStaticMesh: Built static mesh /Game/HoudiniEngine/Temp/collision_prep/421BA728/collision_prep_3_0_0_collision_geo.collision_prep_3_0_0_collision_geo
LogStaticMesh: Building static mesh collision_prep_3_0_0_main_geo...
LogStaticMesh: Built static mesh /Game/HoudiniEngine/Temp/collision_prep/421BA728/collision_prep_3_0_0_main_geo.collision_prep_3_0_0_main_geo
LogHoudiniEngine: CreateStaticMesh_RawMesh() executed in 0.030706 seconds.

Mind you nothing changed between the success and the failure. Sometimes the rebuild succeeds after hitting rebuild a few times, sometimes not. The asset always rebuilds after failure after exiting and going back into the same UE4 session.

I first notices this problem with UE5. However, since the software is not yet released I chalked it up to pre-release bugs. But when I started getting the same behavior in 4.26.2, I started to suspect 18.5.696.

Any insight to the source of this behavior would be very helpful!

I am wondering if anyone else is having this problem?

I am using Houdini 18.5.696 with UE4.26.2.

Ocassionaly, but not allways, Houdini Engine fails to "Rebuild" the asset after I saved it from Houdini.

When it fails I get an error that looks something like this in UE4:
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Destruction Started for . AssetId = 0
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Instantiation Started for collision_prep_2: Asset=Sop/collision_prep, HoudiniAsset = 0x3ea9b9a0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedInstantiation.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Cooking Started for collision_prep_2., AssetId = 0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedCooking with fatal errors - aborting.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Destruction Started for . AssetId = 3
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Instantiation Started for collision_prep_2: Asset=Sop/collision_prep, HoudiniAsset = 0x3ea9b9a0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedInstantiation.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Cooking Started for collision_prep_2., AssetId = 3
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedCooking with fatal errors - aborting.

However, when it successfully rebuilds I get an outout that reads:
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Destruction Started for . AssetId = 11
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Instantiation Started for collision_prep_2: Asset=Sop/collision_prep, HoudiniAsset = 0x3ea9b9a0
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedInstantiation.
LogHoudiniEngine: HAPI Asynchronous Cooking Started for collision_prep_2., AssetId = 11
LogHoudiniEngine: collision_prep_2 FinishedCooking.
LogStaticMesh: Building static mesh collision_prep_3_0_0_collision_geo...
LogStaticMesh: Built static mesh /Game/HoudiniEngine/Temp/collision_prep/421BA728/collision_prep_3_0_0_collision_geo.collision_prep_3_0_0_collision_geo
LogStaticMesh: Building static mesh collision_prep_3_0_0_main_geo...
LogStaticMesh: Built static mesh /Game/HoudiniEngine/Temp/collision_prep/421BA728/collision_prep_3_0_0_main_geo.collision_prep_3_0_0_main_geo
LogHoudiniEngine: CreateStaticMesh_RawMesh() executed in 0.030706 seconds.

Mind you nothing changed between the success and the failure. Sometimes the rebuild succeeds after hitting rebuild a few times, sometimes not. The asset always rebuilds after failure after exiting and going back into the same UE4 session.

I first notices this problem with UE5. However, since the software is not yet released I chalked it up to pre-release bugs. But when I started getting the same behavior in 4.26.2, I started to suspect 18.5.696.

Any insight to the source of this behavior would be very helpful!

I found two pieces of documentation:

1. Labs Vertex Animation Textures 3.0, Part I [www.artstation.com]
   
2. Labs Vertex Aanimation 3.0, Part II - Soft Bodies [www.artstation.com]
   

I followed a reference to a pdf to download accompanied by a UE4 Demo scene : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Tq7CExY8k103MJDVbi96GqIBm8P6S0Qn [drive.google.com]

Good Luck

I accidently updated SideFX labs and now it seems I have VAT 3.0 installed.

Is there any documentation on how to use VAT 3.0 along with the new plugins?

I am trying to do some VAT fire(fluid) and I can't seem to get it to animate.

I just uploaded to 18.5.633 and pulled down the new plugins for Unreal 4.26.
(My curiosity is piqued with all these new UE4 VAT material functions!)

From the guess of things the user no longer needs to create a Material instance and enter in the pertenant data.
(I kinda miss them but I'll get overit i'm sure!)

When I export I also get a warning/error that says, "VAT 3.0 requires an upgrade to SideFX Labs UE4.26+/URP_VAT3 real-time shaders."
Is this a new refernce to the new UE4 plugins?

Thanks for your help!

I have been following the Nvidea's development of Omniverse for the last half year or so.
The documentation keeps mentioning that a connector plugin is expected for Houdini. However, so far there has been nothing.
Does anyone know what the story is behind this development?

Thanks for the reply Mihneas -
Bear of little brain here.
Doesn't this just perpetuate the situation?
I'm afraid I don't follow you.

This should be an easy one.

I'm playing around with KineFX, hooking up controllers to Erik Character.

When I animate the character, (Display flag on the BoneDeform, RigPose selected), is there a way to turn off the skeleton so
only the controls and the deformed geometry are visible?

It's been a while since I addressed this issue. The problem went aware more or less after I changed machine, which really isn't an option. I was able to figure out a work around while using the Houdin Engine debugger, https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/ref/henginedebugger. [www.sidefx.com] What that work around was I do not know. It took some sleuthing for sure while using the output window in UE4 to track the project and identify the issues.

OK I just looked at the thread. I had to open up the debugger and get it “connected” to a UE4 session before launching the Houdini engine. This is not an ideal solution since One must open a Houdini session initially to use Houdini engine.

Sorry, not much information there. Just connect to UE4 first before launching Houdini engine.

Thank you jsmack!

If I had not heard it from a Side FX person, I would not have believed it
Actually is does make sense when viewed from a parallel perspective.

Cheers

Thanks c0Y!

Regretfully I get the same results.
I tried to reproduce your code:


Cheers

I think I may be going crazy. If not, could someone please explain what I'm doing wrong, (Or at least thinking wrong )?

I start with a simple grid sop(3 x 3, rows & columns).
I feed this into a pointWrangle SOP.
The Vex code is Simple(I'm trying to identify the leftmost points):

The output then prints:
pt:0
pt:1
pt:2
pt:3
pt:4
pt:5
pt:6
pt:7
pt:8
pt:0 ->src
pt:3 ->src
pt:6 ->src
pt:1 ->copy
pt:2 ->copy
pt:4 ->copy
pt:5 ->copy
pt:7 ->copy
pt:8 ->copy


I might be missing something, but isn't the sequence supposed to flow linearly, from the first point to the last?
According to this output, the node seems to be making three passes, one for each print statement.

Is this expected behavior or am I going nuts?
Thanks for any help.

Ok - I think I may have figured out a work around. I thought this phenomenon had something to do with the normals and how they were being calculated in the conversion. Turns out that the only reason why the assets were croaking during the bake is the Houdini assets, by default, don't have any texture information. Gotta slap some UV information in there otherwise the assets croak during the bake. Who knew?

(I want three hours of my life back! )

To my befuddlement, I was getting the same behavior in UE4.25 with assets from 18.0.

A non-metallic surface becomes dark after light baking. I found that not only do you need to create normals but you also need texture coordinates. Who knew?

Howdy Gang,

Hopefully I'm just suffering from a base case of delirium.
When I bring in a Houdini Object into UE4 and assign a simple, non-metallic material to the object, everything is fine until I bake the lighting in the scene. The objects become dark; like the albedo has just been reduced.

In this image, the cube is a stadard UE4 cube, all the other objects are Houdini,

Can anyone please explain why this is happening?

Greetings -
At the last Houdini Hive Worldwide, someone, I miss-placed who, mentioned someone had posted their pre-built USD libraries and tools. I was wondering if anyone had found them or given them a try?

I have been trying to work with the pre-built USD libraries and tools as posted on the NVidea site:
https://developer.nvidia.com/usd [developer.nvidia.com] . However, I have had no success getting these to work. If anyone has had luck I would love to hear about it.

Cheers!

Sorry srletak76,

I'm afraid I don't understand the reference. What will the old point SOP gain you if the rasterizer is still going to use bi-linear interpolation to distribute the vertex attributes?

Groovy patterns! I don't understand the context, (Bear of little brain ), but very interesting look!

Greetings Side FX folks!

I'm trying to simulate old fashioned Gouraud interpolation as a demonstration for my students.
However, I'm pretty sure the rasterizer, by default, uses bi-linear interpolation to interpolate the normal across the surface before the pixel/fragment shader. Gouraud does things in reverse. It computes the color at each vertex then interpolates the color.

Is there a way I can invoke old fashioned Gouraud shading?

Hi Steffen -
I'm very impressed you've got this far with the Houdini/UE4 Pipeline.
Is there a documentation you are following?
I'm relatively new to USD and have gone through the SideFX LOP tutorials.
However, I've seem to have hit a brick wall when trying to import into UE4.
I can't seem to get anything I export to import into the UE4 asset browser or get loaded into the USD Stage Actor.
I am able to get the “Original” USD assets to appear in the USD Stage Actor but that would be about it.
Any sort of direction for a USD NEWB is appreciated!

Is there a way of identifying the location of a Module imported into Houdini?

I'm contributing my Python modules to my Houdini17.5/python2.7libs folder but have recently discovered Modules with similar names are being loaded before my current Houdini17.5/python2.7libs. I keep all of my old modules around in their relative “deprecated” folders; Houdini17.0/python2.7libs, Houdini16.5/python2.7libs, etc..

Before I cry out “Bug” I wanted to verify which Modules are being loaded before the ones in my current Houdini17.5/python2.7libs folder. Any help identifying the location of these modules is appreciated!

Cheers