I've been unable to successfully package even a simple, bare-bones UE project when the Houdini plugin is enabled. Here's what I experience:

1. Create a new UE Blueprint project (I'm using UE 4.25)
   
2. Enable the Houdini Plugin for the project. (Standard Houdini UE plugin, not v2)
   
3. Package the project for Win64
   
4. Run the packaged .exe and get an error window stating: “Plugin ‘HoudiniEngine’ failed to load because module ‘HoudiniEngineRuntime’ could not be found. Please ensure the plugin is properly installed, otherwise consider disabling the plugin for this project.”
   

In addition to trying this with the Houdini plugin installed at the UE engine level:

C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.25\Engine\Plugins\Runtime\HoudiniEngine\

…I've also tried moving the plugin to my project's Plugin's directory:

<my project>\Plugins\Runtime\HoudiniEngine\

Both result in the same issue. The app packaging completes successfully, but the runtime error above is triggered.

I've searched the forum posts and read the official Houdini documentation on UE packaging [www.sidefx.com] but have been unable to find insight on this issue. Help! What am I doing wrong?

Houdini 18.0.566
Unreal Engine 4.25.3 and 4.24.3

Nice to see I'm not the only one with this issue. Posting here to subscribe to the topic.

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/38189/ [www.sidefx.com]

@chrism, thanks for the response, but I don't think this is a bug. It's user error on my part due to lack of clear documentation from SideFX. Do you have any other options you can offer? If not, I'll file it as a bug, but I hate to bother your engineers with something that is not an engineering issue.

I figured out that you need to have at least 1 dummy C++ class in your project to package the plugin properly.

So to fix it just add a dummy C++ class to your project close UE4, delete Intermediate, Build and Binaries folders and reopen the project.

I can confirm that is the case. It picks up the engine code / runtime dlls when a valid VS2019 project is build for the UE project when a dummy c++ class is created. We actually found that out while trying a sound plugin (wwise) which didn't find its runtime functions after compiling. Removed it, and since this was a work-in-progress project I didn't remove the H engine. Same error. I was actually suspecting the audio plugin messing up before, but this is a general bahviour of UE4 (at least in 4.25.3). There's actually nothing to be found online about this (or maybe this is common knowleddge to people that have vast amounts of UE4 experience, but theres nothing in the docs of either plugins), except lots of threads of having the same issue with different plugins but close to none of them with a viable solution, except this one.

So I'm leaving this here for anyone else to find JR4815s helpful reply and a confirmation that this actually works in UE 4.25.3 (installed from the launcher) with current Houdini Engine plugin (and other plugins whether they are Engine or Project plugins as well).

Hi everyone. It's been a few years since I played around with UE4 and the Houdini Engine, but I decided to open up a few of my old projects and poke around again.

When I open up my (at one point) working projects and build my .exe it all builds fine, but when I run it, I'm getting the same error from the original poster in this thread.

“Plugin ‘HoudiniEngine’ failed to load because module ‘HoudiniEngineRuntime’ could not be found. Please ensure the plugin is properly installed, otherwise consider disabling the plugin for this project.”

I remember solving this problem years ago, but I can't remember what I did. I have my build folder with a fully functional .exe in it, so I know it worked in the past. My houdini engine plugin is installed and fully functional.

I tried the solution posted here, but when I tried to make a C++ class, it totally hosed my whole project and I was unable to build at all. I'm more interested in this for the houdini engine, not unreal, so I don't know much about C++. I certainly don't remember doing any of that business before.

The easiest way to use the plugin is probably to grab the prebuilt binaries off of github: https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal-v2/releases [github.com]


Make sure to grab the version that matches the version of Unreal you are using.

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").

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

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").

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.

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

bobcober
The easiest way to use the plugin is probably to grab the prebuilt binaries off of github: https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal-v2/releases [github.com]


Make sure to grab the version that matches the version of Unreal you are using.

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").

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

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").

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.

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

My plugin is installed correctly and works perfectly fine.

My issue is the error I mentioned when I run a windows .exe build of my current game level.

“Plugin ‘HoudiniEngine’ failed to load because module ‘HoudiniEngineRuntime’ could not be found. Please ensure the plugin is properly installed, otherwise consider disabling the plugin for this project.”

My plugin inside the editor is 100% functional.

I don't want to have to bake all my HoudiniAssetActors in able to be able to build the level to a .exe. I didn't previously have to do this a few years ago when I was first working with Houdini Engine.

I've re-installed UE4 since then and a newer Houdini Engine version, which is all good, but I forgot how I solved this problem a few years ago.

I found the answer in this thread. Same thing I had to do a few years ago...

https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/62250/#post-343643 [www.sidefx.com]

Seems like the plugin should just be setup this way by default since it's not a runtime plugin.