[TUTORIAL] Houdini Engine for Unreal and Unity - Getting Started

Quick video showing how to get the new free license, install Houdini + Houdini Engine and use some free assets to test the plugin!
Info & Download: www.sidefx.com/community/houd...
0:00 Intro
0:20 Overview
2:12 Getting the License
3:20 Downloading Houdini + Houdini Engine
4:18 Installing Houdini
5:55 Installing Houdini Engine to Unreal
6:22 Verifying Plugin Install
6:43 Installing Free License
7:55 Getting free HDA to play with
8:33 Using the HDAs

[@shimlaDnB]

What a roller-coaster of steps you need to partake in before you can just use it, holy cow

[@sicfxmusic]

Atleast no more editing env file in a code editor #hackerman

[@shinydev5620]

Thank you for providing this tutorial so soon after the release of the free version :)

[@DavidB-rx3km]

Having working Houdini Unreal/Unity integration is NOT free - you have to at least pay for an Indie license which is $250 for a year. You can not use Unreal and Houdini integration with a free/Apprentice license. SideFX barely mention this on their website, even confusingly allowing a 'free' license to download the Houdini Engine when you can't use it with Apprentice. The download is the only free part and will not work with your 'free' Apprentice version of Houdini.

[@gamedev251]

so complicated , thank you so much for making this video.. its so frustrating.. so many steps for something free

[@polygon4399]

wasnt free for a long time. be happy :)

[@paradigmpsi37]

When I following along and drag that example tree in the viewport, it is appearing without color. When I drag in the Road Tool 2D it produces a completely broken mesh, hollow and scrabled looking. Did you come across similar problems? I tried multiple versions of the Houdini Plugin and both Unreal 4.27.2 and 4.26.2 with the same results. I do not understand what is going on :/

[@devmishra18]

When I make a build from Unity with the plugin installed it gives an error "Cannot build while the editor is importing assets or compiling scripts". I think it happens because Houdini Engine Scripts are using UnityEditor module. So, should I remove Houdini Engine Plug-in every time before I make a build?

[@BangBang-fd7de]

thx bro nice tutorial

[@ThiagoLaranjeiraZerooneBit]

hey paul, i am currently under indie steam license, altough i can use my own hdas, no one having my hdas can use them. HOW DOES THIS AFFECT INDIE CUSTOMERS? This announcement is for commercial customers. Indie customers continue to have access to up to 3 FREE Houdini Engine Indie which work with both the Unity and Unreal plug-ins. This announcement does not affect STEAM customers using Houdini Indie. is that about it? if so it will be solved?

[@TheClanOfHari]

But we cannot use it with apprentice version. Even if we have existing or downloaded HDA file we cannot use it until we have a payed houdini version.

[@angads.9819]

When I open my license administrator and log in it says that my account exists but doesn't has the ability to manage licenses. Any help??

[@mokaplays]

So I've set up everything properly in Engine, I get to play around with these assets which is all fine. But as soon as I try to package things I run into problems, basically when I run the build it gives the error "Plugin 'HoudiniEngine' failed to load because module 'HoudiniEngineRuntime' could not be found." Which makes sense I guess because you don't need the consumer to have Houdini Engine installed. But if I try to cook my assets so they are static meshes and disable the plugin before packaging, the package process fails (output logs indicate that Houdini is the issue). So what is the correct workflow here?

[@SIgor420]

I would suggest to watch some of the Indie Pixel tutorial on this topic. He is covering HE almost regularly.

[@terrablader]

no unreal for apprentice? but should at least be able to import assets to unreal correcT? cant start session

[@YEAR-sx9ye]

Hi Mr. Ambrosiussen . Plz help me here . I am an New Indie Game Developer . I have Houdini Free Edition . The thing is Files from content library does get loaded in Unreal Engine . But my saved asset from houdini which is in .hdanc format does not open .... Do i need to purchase Houdini License for me to open my Assets that i created in Houdini . If so then which license do i need to purchase . And Also will .hdalc open in Unreal Engine. Thanks .

[@martinnorlin1739]

Great video. In my Houdini folder, I have a Unreal 4.25 and 4.25-v2- My Unreal version is 4.25.4. Which one of the two is correct? Thank you in advance!

[@paulambrosiussen7709]

V2! That's the new version

[@martinnorlin1739]

@@paulambrosiussen7709 Thank you for the quick reply!

[@Lu-fn5st]

I can't find the License Administrator Application, where did you install that? (Timestamp would be nice)

[@daliborsailovic8100]

I can not find it also, how you solved this problem? thanks

[@hoanganho6903]

thanks you so much sir

[@HeroX631]

plz tell me your pc or laptop configration

[@AbdullahYazbahar]

9:01 my green side not working. its empty

[@marks7712]

If I take say 3 licences for 3 team members, how would I allocate those licences to them?

[@paulambrosiussen7709]

There is some information here. But I would recommend everyone just installing their own license to not have to deal with network licensing www.sidefx.com/faq/license-management/#faq559

[@marks7712]

Thank you so much@@paulambrosiussen7709 - We're all between working from home, office and off site, so network licencing would certainly be tricky.

[@omidzomorodinia7997]

thanx sir :)

[@wafi5576]

I think I've already known this...to be sure, this means assets created with houdini apprentice won't work.. Or won't be exported. Right??

[@shinydev5620]

Yes, I found out the hard way that that is the case. The "free" version just means that you can use assets created by someone with a paid license. I was very disappointed

[@wafi5576]

@@shinydev5620 that is very disappointing.... Good software though

[@shinydev5620]

@@wafi5576 true, would have learned it instead of blender if it were really free

[@wafi5576]

@@shinydev5620 I've just started learning and is see the potential.... But I would say blender is more modern and faster to work with.. (shortcuts)

[@TheMadKid91]

how to launch the app ???

[@philippaps44]

what about earlier versions of houdini fx?

[@bsdude010]

You should find the Houdini Engine Unity package in the Houdini directory. I dont know exactly about Unreal though.

[@user-yh8rj3ut3j]

От души братишка!!!

[@karanmirajkar51]

I cant get it. What is the Idea of free, if we cant use this in apprentice license. There is no way to learn houdini engine as a student.

[@paulambrosiussen7709]

If you are a student at a school you can request educational licenses with them.

[@karanmirajkar51]

@@paulambrosiussen7709 I'm a self-learner. I think they should at least launch a Houdini engine apprentice version.

[@PretendoDirects]

everyone made it seem like Houdini was free, for everybody... but it turns out just the PLUGINS for the game engines (Houdini Engine) is free, and nothing else. Is that right?

[@MortenKvale]

You act like getting the plugin for free is not a big deal.. This is HUGE.

[@PretendoDirects]

@@MortenKvale well, i'm sure it's a huge deal for people who HAVE Houdini, but i don't have houdini LOL i wanted to be able to create my own assets

[@shreyansjain65]

@@PretendoDirects exactly that's the real problem here

[@paulambrosiussen7709]

It is a problem currently as in there is no good marketplace to get HDAs from (Orbolt doesnt count for me :P ) Once people have started making assets for free / sale since they know have a potentially big market to offer to, this will change for people without a commercial license such as yourself. Think about it. You can now make tools that work in both Unity and Unreal at the same time. Why would you even bother making tools using BP / C# and only offer to one group of users? And again, its not just tools. You can literally generate entire functional worlds using HDAs. (Check out any of my talks). PS: Even with an apprentice license you can make assets that work in Houdini Engine. You just need to upload the asset to Orbolt and it will get converted for you!

[@shreyansjain65]

@@paulambrosiussen7709 thank you for this information but it would be very informative if you could make a video where you could explain how to use Houdini apprentice to make assets and then make them work in unreal engine.

[@red4666]

If it's free to use, why can't this just be a plugin you download from the Unreal Marketplace? Instead of having to go through all these steps.

[@BDJones055]

Never heard someone talk about "licenses" as much as the first 3 minutes of this video.... This bodes well lmao. I've verified at least two shills below in the comments.

[@HeroX631]

more smoothly run unreal engine software