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Installation Build instructions

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Damien Pernuit edited this page Apr 28, 2020 · 2 revisions

Installing the plugin

  1. Download the pre-built binaries of the plugin in the Releases section of this repository.

  2. Extract the "HoudiniEngine" folder in the release to the "Plugins/Runtime" folder of Unreal. You can install the plugin either directly in the engine folder (in "Engine/Plugins/Runtime/HoudiniEngine") or in your project folder (in "Plugins/Runtime/HoudiniEngine").

  3. Start Unreal Engine, open the Plug-ins menu and make sure to enable the HoudiniEngine v2 plug-in (in the Rendering section). Restart UE4 if you had to enable it.

  4. To confirm that the plug-in has been succesfully installed and enabled, you can check that the editor main menu bar now has a new "Houdini Engine" menu, between "Edit" and "Window".

  5. You should now be able to import Houdini Digital Assets (HDA) .otl or .hda files or drag and drop them into the Content Browser.

  6. Once you have an HDA in the Content Browser you should be able to drag it into Editor viewport. This will spawn a new Houdini Asset Actor. Geometry cooking will be done in a separate thread and geometry will be displayed once the cooking is complete. At this point you will be able to see asset parameters and inputs in the Details panel. Modifying any of the parameters will force the asset to recook and possibly update its geometry.

Building from source

  1. Get the UE4 source code from: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/releases
  2. Within the UE4 source, navigate to Engine/Plugins/Runtime, and clone this repo into a folder named HoudiniEngine.
  3. Download and install the correct build of 64-bit Houdini. To get the build number, look at the header of Source/HoudiniEngine/HoudiniEngine.Build.cs, under Houdini Version.
  4. Generate the UE4 Project Files (by running GenerateProjectFiles) and build Unreal, either in x64 Debug Editor or x64 Development Editor.
  5. When starting the Unreal Engine editor, go to Plug-ins menu and make sure to enable the HoudiniEngine v2 plug-in (in the Rendering section). Restart UE4 if you had to enable it.
  6. To confirm that the plug-in has been succesfully installed and enabled, you can check that the editor main menu bar now has a new "Houdini Engine" menu, between "Edit" and "Window".
  7. You should now be able to import Houdini Digital Assets (HDA) .otl or .hda files or drag and drop them into the Content Browser.
  8. Once you have an HDA in the Content Browser you should be able to drag it into Editor viewport. This will spawn a new Houdini Asset Actor. Geometry cooking will be done in a separate thread and geometry will be displayed once the cooking is complete. At this point you will be able to see asset parameters in the Details pane. Modifying any of the parameters will force the asset to recook and possibly update its geometry.
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