Houdini 20.5 Nodes Render nodes

Labs Games Baker 2.0 geometry node

Generate Textures based on a High Poly to Low Poly match

This node will Bake Geometry and Material information from a High Resolution mesh to a Low Resolution Mesh.

It is a helper wrapper around the Bake Texture ROP in order to simplify the interface.

This is the foundational ROP for the Simple Baker SOP

One main feature that the ROP version has is that you can bake several mesh pairs in the same bake. You can do this by adding more High Low Pairs on the Meshes MultiParm

Warning

The preferred node to use for baking is the Maps Baker SOP

Parameters

Channels

Render

Triggers the Render Execution

Controls…

Optional ROP Settings

Meshes

Number of High > Low Pairs

Target Mesh (LOW)

Path to the Low Resolution SOP (Target)

Source Mesh (HIGH)

Path to the High Resolution SOP (Source)

Resolution

Size of the output textures

Base Path

Path for the output textures. $(CHANNEL) is necessary here and will be replaced with the type of texture (basecolor, normal, etc)

Temp Directory

Path for temporary files to be placed, some files are generated and then deleted in the process of baking all of the maps

Base Color

Enable baking Vertex Colors (and Diffuse Textures) and specify the suffix

Normal Map

Enable baking Tangent Space normal maps and specify the suffix

Opacity Map

Enable baking an Opacity/Transparency/Alpha map and specify the suffix

Roughness Map

Enable baking Roughness that is sampled from the source’s material and specify the suffix

Metallic Map

Enable baking Metallic that is sampled from the source’s material and specify the suffix

World Normal Map

Enable baking World Space normal maps and specify the suffix

Ambient Occlusion

Enable baking Ambient Occlusion maps and specify the suffix

Curvature

Enable baking Curvature (Substance Style) and specify the suffix

Thickness

Enable baking Thickness maps and specify the suffix

Position

Enable baking Position maps and specify the suffix

Height

Enable baking Height/Displacement maps and specify the suffix

Custom Channels

Number of Custom Maps to be baked

Attribute Name

Point Attribute to be baked

Suffix

CHANNEL value for the texture name

Advanced

Valid Frame Range

Determines if a single frame should be baked or several frames. (Useful for baking oceans and other animated effects)

Note

If baking a frame range, make sure to remember to add a $F to your filenames, otherwise it will overwrite the same textures every frame.

Start/End/Inc

Start and End Frame, and what steps to skip

Use MikkT Tangent Space

Use the MikkT calculations to bake out the Tangent Normal Maps.

Note

The Viewport shader doesn’t have MikkT capabilities, so you might see some bruising that won’t occur on a game engine. You can use the GameDev PBR Shader in combination with the PolyFrame node if you would like to view the correct MikkT values. We understand this isn’t optimal.

Output basecolor in Linear Space

Gamma correct the BaseColor maps

Tangent Normal Flip Y

Invert the Green Channel in the Normal Map.

Disable Lighting/Emission

Ignore any lighting information. Disabling this will allow you to bake light information into your objects (just make them white)

Cage Mesh

Optional cage mesh. Must have the same topology and UVs as the UV Object. Typically a duplicate of UV Object whose vertices are slightly pushed outward. Used to determine the projection direction.

Border Padding

Additional pixels at the border of each UV island

Baking Samples

Number of Samples used for raytraced shading

Ray Bias

Determine how much to offset the rays from the surface of the object along the normal vector.

Ray Distance

Maximum Distance to trace for nearby surfaces. -1 means infinite distance.

Render nodes

  • Agent

    This output operator is used to write agent definition files.

  • Alembic

    Exports the scene to an Alembic archive. Alembic is a common exchange format for moving geometry and animation between different 3D software packages.

  • Archive Generator

    Generates disk-based archives which can be used by either mantra or RIB renderers.

  • Bake Animation

    Bakes animation from object transforms and CHOP overrides.

  • Bake Texture

    Generates a texture map from one or more objects' rendered appearance.

  • Batch

    Renders the input ROP in a single batch job.

  • Channel

    The Channel output operator generates clip files from a particular CHOP.

  • Composite

    Renders images from a compositing network.

  • DSM Merge

    Merges two or more deep shadow/camera map files.

  • Dem Bones Skinning Converter

    Converts any non-changing topology deforming mesh sequence into a bone-based animation.

  • Dynamics

    Saves the state of a DOP network simulation into files.

  • Fetch

    Makes a dependency link to a ROP in a different network.

  • Filmbox FBX

    Exports entire scenes to FBX files.

  • Filmbox FBX Animation

    Export animation from geometry-based skeleton to an FBX file.

  • Filmbox FBX Character

    Export a skinned character with geometry-based skeleton to an FBX file.

  • Flipbook

    Render an image using the hardware-accelerated 3D viewport renderer.

  • Frame Container

    Prevents frame dependency changes in the contained nodes from affecting its inputs.

  • Frame Depedency

    Allows an output frame to depend on one or more input frames.

  • GLTF Character

  • Geometry

    Generates geometry files from a SOP or DOP network.

  • Geometry Raw

    Generates raw binary files from a SOP or DOP network.

  • HQueue Render

    HQueue, or Houdini Queue, is a distributed job scheduling system.

  • HQueue Simulation

    HQueue, or Houdini Queue, is a distributed job scheduling system.

  • Hair Card Texture

    Renders hair textures for use on hair cards.

  • Image

    Writes the output of a COP network to disk.

  • Karma

    Renders non-USD scenes using Houdini’s Karma renderer.

  • Labs 3D Facebook Image

    Quickly render a 3D scene to a 2.5D image that can be uploaded to Facebook.

  • Labs Flipbook Textures

    Renders, composites, and exports flipbook textures.

  • Labs JSON Exporter

    Export geometry attibutes to a JSON file.

  • Labs Marmoset Export

    The Marmoset Export ROP allows you to quickly generate an mview inside Houdini

  • Labs Niagara ROP

    Export point caches to be used with Unreal’s Niagara particle system.

  • Labs Sketchfab

    Uploads geometry to Sketchfab

  • Labs Vertex Animation Textures

    Exports a mesh and a set of textures to be used with a shader for complex real-time effects, such as: soft-body deformation, rigid-body dynamics, dynamically remeshed geometries, and particle sprites.

  • MDD Point Cache

    This output operator is used to write an MDD animation file.

  • Mantra

    Renders the scene using Houdini’s standard mantra renderer and generates IFD files.

  • Mantra Archive

    Generates disk-based archives which can be used by mantra.

  • Merge

    Merges several render dependencies into one.

  • Net Barrier

    Blocks the ROP network until synchronization occurs.

  • Null

    Does nothing.

  • OpenGL

    Render an image using the hardware-accelerated 3D viewport renderer.

  • Pre Post

    Renders ROPs before and after a main job.

  • Shell

    Runs an external command.

  • Subnetwork

    The SubNetwork output operator provides an easy way to manage large number of output operators.

  • Switch

    Renders one of several inputs.

  • Tractor

    Tractor is a program shipped out with Pixar’s distribution of RenderMan.

  • USD

    Renders a LOP network out to one or more USD files. This node is available as render node or as a LOP.

  • USD Render

    Renders an output image from the stage generated by a LOP network.

  • USD Stitch

    Merges USD files representing individual frames by composing them.

  • USD Stitch Clips

    Merges multiple value clips representing individual frames.

  • USD Zip

    Assembles USDZ archive files from existing USD files.

  • Wedge

    Re-renders the same ROP multiple times with different settings

  • Wren

    This output operator is used to drive the Wren rendering program.

  • glTF