Houdini videos from GDC
![[Deleted User]](https://polycount.com/themes/polycount/design/default-avatar.gif){kind=avatar}
polycounter lvl 3
First talks about making effects using Houdini (on example of UE4):
[vv]122681598[/vv]
Second shows procedural level generation in Unity:
[vv]123024735[/vv]
[vv]122681598[/vv]
Second shows procedural level generation in Unity:
[vv]123024735[/vv]
Replies
[vv]123350222[/vv]
[vv]123865793[/vv]
I mean not that posts and tire stacks placement alone a curve or tree placement that is possible easily even in Blender. But rather getting a proper texture unwrap on procedural geometry, mixing repetitive and unique textures. Even in this video its looks somehow on a pretty oversimplified end.
Evey time I came to UV space and its connection to procedural geometry I sank into rather complicated math operations.
Looks like it's time to dig into Houdini one more time
https://cmivfx.com/store/213-houdini-procedural-road-creation
https://cmivfx.com/store/219-houdini-procedural-road-creation-2
https://cmivfx.com/store/228-houdini-procedural-road-creation-3
But if you do it in Blender you can't take advantage of prefab instancing in Unity. And you can't vary it based on set of attributes that can come from different sources.
And you can't randomly come and go to/from Houdini. Application is to big and works to differently to just randomly use it. You sit in it, or just move on.
As of Blender, of course it's even not close.
Still with its live array modifier and curve nodes linking you can make pretty complicated construction binded to ground surface and still having base "prefab" elements/modules/instances editable and easily replaceable. It's what I meant.
Problem with Houdini is that you never know for sure if it will make you life easier after lot of wasted time.
Even in this track build example the core thing and a problem that would require most of your time and attention - rock walls and terrain pieces, looks very primitive and repetitive.
And I didn't see a single Houdini example that would prove it can help with such a problem in games. I mean building non-repetitive looking geometry derived from repetitive, shared and limited textures.
In best case it gives you just a scene prototype to work from or something to bake into distant background.
You are thinking too big to fast. Start from automating small things and then build on this. I know that Ubisoft, when they started using Houdini, they started from simple stuff, like for example tool for placing street lights with cables, just to make life easier in everyday tasks.
Their game is very simple. I don't think that they drive those tools with too many attributes. This tutorial is a little better example of what you can do for terrain https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2961&Itemid=410, but it's still not max of what you could do. But for taking advantage of everything in Houdini, you are looking at months of learning. Question is, do you have the time to do this?
[vv]124038431[/vv]
I understand what you mean Gnoop, I've gone through the same thought process regarding Houdini over the years. What it comes down to is understanding your problem well enough to solve it, coming from other 3d packages with all their hand holding, makes it very difficult to understand the actual problems we face. Houdini is not like any other 3d application out there, it works completely differently and requires a very different mindset to approaching problems. This isn't something that comes easily or quickly. The effort is worth it though.
Fixing obvious repetition is something that will have to be done in engine with a vertex color blending shader to break things up. As pointed out there are definately more advanced methods of generating terrain, however since the indie pro tools guys are targeting mobile I think they did a great job. On top of what Mantragora linked I'll add these:
https://cmivfx.com/store/280-houdini-fractals
[ame]
And of course the guys who made the track tool that was shown at GDC have their own training materials at www.gametutor.com which interestingly enough appears to cover just about everything you need to make that track asset.
Problem is that most of those example show things that is basically easier to do elsewhere.
For example I use Terragen. It's also node based but still have a bunch of quick tools, that can do all the same in minutes, even without go to node part. Vue is all the same.
Still both have huge limitations to be widely used in games. No decent baker into low poly shells. Terrain generation is too procedural instead of being limited texture resource based and texel size aware.
I see a texture baker on Orbolt for Houdini. But it could be helpful to bake basically only lightmaps. And we haven't used lightmaps 10 years already. So it's mostly useless, not even close to 3d max one with its projection modifier and cage .
And I actually hate Max one . No modern soft have a truly convenient toolset to bake textures from procedural higpoly + scattered small details into low poly shells.
I am sure Houdini is capable to do one. I tried to reconstruct /construct it Houdini but my understanding of 3d math and rendering looks like not enough for that.
ps, as of repetition fixes I meant mostly even not a terrain part but rather walls : rock walls, architecture/building walls, anything that sits vertically and constrain a game scene.
A way to build procedural buildings based not on some random parameters but rather using a limited set of textures and using details in those textures as geometry building patterns.
Wow, I had missed this - I was looking for information on Houdini and stumbled across this thread. The terrain techniques are captivating - specifically, the possibility to add overhanging features and vegetation scattering techniques.
Really wish there was more documentation onhow to achieve that - that paper you shared is by nature very high level and not a tutorial - though it is still a very interesting read for the layman.
Would you be interested in a series of in-deep paid tutorials on this topic?
Yes, definitely - so much time saved with these techniques, that's quite worth a investment in my opinion. In fact, I don't understand that there's not more training material for Houdini in general. There's GaTu, and it's pretty good as is, there's just so much more to it. Also, that site focuses on Unity while I'm more interested in UE4 (I believe Houdini Engine has a plugin to use with UE4).