Houdini Engine 7.0
 All Classes Files Functions Variables Typedefs Enumerations Enumerator Macros Groups Pages
Licensing

Table of Contents

License Requirements

Houdini Engine will check for these licenses, in this order, until one is found:

  1. Houdini Engine
  2. Houdini Core
  3. Houdini FX
  4. Houdini Engine Indie
  5. Houdini Indie

Non-commercial licenses (ie. Apprentice) are not supported. Furthermore, tainting - the process of instantiating an asset created with a lower tier license while using a higher tier license - is not allowed within Houdini Engine. This means, for example, that you cannot run Indie (*lc) assets in Engine while using a commercial license - you will need to checkout an Indie license to run Indie assets. That said, lower tier licenses can run assets created with a higher tier license. For example, Houdini Engine running on an Indie license can run commercial assets. Indie license usage is limited to authorized plugins (Unity, Unreal, Maya, Max, C4D).

You also limit which license Houdini Engine can use. You can force Houdini Engine to only checkout interactive licenses, that is: Houdini, Houdini FX, or Houdini Indie, so even if there is a Houdini Engine license available but no interactive licenses available, Houdini Engine will fail the license check. The opposite is also possible. You can force Houdini Engine to only checkout engine licenses, that is: Houdini Engine or Houdini Engine Indie. This is achieved via the HAPI_LICENSE_MODE environment variable. See Environment Variables.

License Checks

Houdini Engine will check for a valid license during two sets of API calls:

  1. During library file loading: Asset Library Files
  2. During node creation: Node Creation and Create Node

During library file loading, you can get the following HAPI_Result's if no valid license is found:

  1. HAPI_RESULT_NO_LICENSE_FOUND - Simply no licenses were found, at all.
  2. HAPI_RESULT_DISALLOWED_NC_LICENSE_FOUND - Only unsupported non-commercial licenses were found.

During node creation, you can get the following HAPI_Result's regarding licenses. Note that if you are in threaded mode, these results will be available as cook results. See Cooking.

  1. HAPI_RESULT_NO_LICENSE_FOUND - Simply no licenses were found, at all.
  2. HAPI_RESULT_DISALLOWED_NC_LICENSE_FOUND - Only unsupported non-commercial licenses were found.
  3. HAPI_RESULT_DISALLOWED_NC_ASSET_WITH_C_LICENSE - Since no tainting is allowed, non-commercial assets cannot run with a commercial license.
  4. HAPI_RESULT_DISALLOWED_NC_ASSET_WITH_LC_LICENSE - Since no tainting is allowed, non-commercial assets cannot run with a limited-commercial license.
  5. HAPI_RESULT_DISALLOWED_LC_ASSET_WITH_C_LICENSE - Since no tainting is allowed, limited commercial assets cannot run with a commercial license.
  6. HAPI_RESULT_DISALLOWED_HENGINEINDIE_W_3PARTY_PLUGIN - Indie license can only be used with authorized plugins.