Hey all.

I've built quite a few Houdini assets that I've been using in unreal. Some of them involve using curves as inputs, whereas I have the Curve node set as Editable in the Node parameters, so you can move the points in unreal. I'm having an issue where I can use the assets as they're intended to be upon opening the project, but if I switch to working with regular meshes then come back to the HDAs, the curve handles are gone.



In the documentation, it is mentioned that you just have to select an object with curve controls enabled in order to be able to select the curve points and transform them individually. There is a warning about items that have multiple components besides a curve component being difficult to select (i.e. things with mesh, collision, etc). The recommended solution is using the world outliner to select the curve objects, but obviously that doesn't work for Houdini assets as they are just one item in the outline.



Am I missing something about component selection modes in UE4? It's fixable by reopening the project, but that's a little bit excessive to close and reopen projects just to have functionality with my curves on HDAs. Should I switch over to actual curve input from unreal using an object merge? Is that input method more dependable to re-select the asset and adjust curves after the initial drop-in?

(Using H16.0.633 & 4.16.3)

I can provide HDAs or video demonstrations if needed, but I think loss of handles is fairly understandable

Hi Sumnera,

I do understand your issue, but can't reproduce it, as the curve controls show up just fine when I reselect the HDA …

When you're talking about the docs, I guess that you're referring to UE4's docs. But the tips that they give won't apply to Houdini's curve as they are a different (custom) component than Unreal's Spline Component.
Normally, you just need to reselect the HoudiniAsset Actor to get the curve control back.

What do you mean by “if I switch to working with regular meshes then come back to the HDAs”, just using other regular assets in the level and coming back to the hda?

Hey dpernuit. A friend suggested that it may have something to do with the fact that I was using a VPN to access my Houdini license, and the delay in unreal for connecting to verify might have been involved.

When I said switching to regular meshes, I meant regular static meshes placed in the level. For example, I would open the project and place a few instances of the HDAs and adjust curves, then proceed to work on materials or placement of other meshes for ~15 minutes. Clicking on the HDAs after this time would only give me handles to translate the whole piece in editor, rather than show the curve points. Even through rebuilding, recook, reset parameters, etc.

I will post an update tomorrow afternoon once I've tried to re-create this issue from the office.

Thanks!

Can't seem to reproduce the issue on another machine.

I think I'll uninstall/reinstall engine and houdini just to reset everything as it is.

Sorry for any confusion!