[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!

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

[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.

[DavidB-rxkm]

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.

[shinydev]

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

[angads.]

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??

[wafi]

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??

[terrablader]

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

[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?

[HeroX]

plz tell me your pc or laptop configration

[Lu-fnst]

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

[paradigmpsi]

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 :/

[YEAR-sxye]

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 .

[AbdullahYazbahar]

9:01 my green side not working. its empty

[devmishra]

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?

[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?

[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?

[gamedev]

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

[karanmirajkar]

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.

[red]

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.

[marks]

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