Completly new to using HE in Unreal, and I would like to be able to do instance geo to scatter points, but not just 1 geo, but several different… would i use the Instance node for that ? as far as I can tell it only takes 1 input geo..

You can do that with adding a single random integer attribute to the points, inside an Attribute Wrangle. The integer will be stamped into the switch index to pick one of the connected source geometry.

Yeah I know how to copy stamp, between objects already given inside Houdini, but it is my understanding that you could setup a Houdini Engine asset inside Unreal, and drag and drop X amount of assets to the mesh input and it will scatter between those.
Perhaps you cant and I am misstaken ?

Hello!

For instancing inside UE, we will detect all instances present in the asset and create instance inputs for those (keeping the point sets); these are purely on UE side. You will be able to drag and drop UE static meshes into those inputs and it will instantiate them on corresponding point sets.

Please see the attached asset; it will create 4 different instance inputs: one for box, sphere, tube and torus.

The way this works is, we instantiate asset, look at “instance” attribute (check geometry spreadsheet) and extract unique values. Then create inputs.

Please let me know if this helps.

Ah I c.. I looked at the .otl and loaded it in Unreal, sorta getting the hang of it…but also it looks like it is a fixed number of assets you can do that with, and becomes a bit cumbersome if you say want 100 different ones to be instanced and scatterd around.

Just to show a little what is in my head… if you havent seen the baking thread in WiP forums.
Check this video out.

https://vimeo.com/143839478 [vimeo.com]

I am generating and baking a large amount of assets and my hope is to easily place (scatter) them out instead of placing each one manually.

We have a feature where you can split an instance input (inside UE, +/- buttons next to it) into multiple instance inputs (instance input variation). If an instance input uses say 100 points, and you split it in, say, 4, each of those 4 sub-inputs will use 25 points (randomly chosen). And you can use a custom static mesh on each. With this approach, you don't need to have unique objects inside Houdini.
Would that help in any way?

Hmm, it's a nice feature, is it possible to some how drag and drop multiple objects and it would fill up all your splitts or do I have to drag 1 asset at a time to each split ?

We have a feature where you can split an instance input (inside UE, +/- buttons next to it) into multiple instance inputs (instance input variation). If an instance input uses say 100 points, and you split it in, say, 4, each of those 4 sub-inputs will use 25 points

I would really love two improvements to this:
1.: A seed value (for the user). - To get varying distributions at the drag of a slider.
2.: A (float) priority/multiplier value for every slot. Each slot starts with the default value 1. But you can increase the value to make the object in the slot appear more often. Or decrease it (to 0) to reduce how often the object is used.
So if you have:
obj1
multiplier: 2
-
obj2
multiplier: 1
-
obj3
multiplier: 1
-
obj4
multiplier: 1
-
Then obj1 appears 40% and the others appeas 20% of the time each.

Magnus:

There's no way to do this currently in UE/our implementation.

DASD:

This sounds like a useful feature! I've logged this as an RFE #72175 .
Thanks!

Thanks!
Just one question:
- Where can I see the RFEs (as a Houdini Indie user)?

I believe there's unfortunately no way for an indie user to access our bug / rfe database.

We usually record forum thread links in internal database, so if an rfe gets touched we will post an update here.

Thank you!

MagnusL3D
Hmm, it's a nice feature, is it possible to some how drag and drop multiple objects and it would fill up all your splitts or do I have to drag 1 asset at a time to each split ?

Hello Magnus!

We filed an RFE #73662 for this feature and referenced it in
https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal/issues/23 [github.com]

DASD
Thanks!
Just one question:
- Where can I see the RFEs (as a Houdini Indie user)?

We referenced this RFE/Suggestion in
https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal/issues/24 [github.com]