A layer info is lost in the Houdini-HDA-Unreal pipeline

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Hello folk,
I finally start to figure out how the pipeline works.(16.5.571-4.19)..I have to say Houdini is the most powerful DCC, and the most difficult one….
And I create a rough landscape in HDN,add two custom layer called Slopehard and grassland

So there are a lot of layers now, and I use a heightfield layer clear to clear the water, flow, bedrock.etc…

And left Slopehard, grassland, peak and debris layer. And I added an unreal material attributive to it.

In UE4, I get a landscape material with the correct layer name..
But when I import HDA and build instance, I found that the debris layer does not have an automatic layer info like the rest three

As you can see, in image 1 the debris layer can be visualized, so Houdini knows the debris layer has info
But in image 2, the unreal terrain info layers shows there is no debris layer info
In image 3, the the landscape layer has the correct layer name
In image 4, the Houdini engine's temp folder even does not contain a debris layer info
Edited by goose7 - Feb. 10, 2019 15:35:08

Attachments:
problemlayer.png (1.1 MB)
problemlayer2.png (1.2 MB)
problemlayer3.png (351.4 KB)
problemlayer4.png (694.5 KB)
terrain2.hdanc (73.0 KB)

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can u post the hda file so we can take a look ?
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pande
can u post the hda file so we can take a look ?
Hi Pande, the hda file is there..I tried to import to a different level but still fail to get the debris layer info in UE..

And it causes the terrain layer to show black area in close distance….
Edited by goose7 - Feb. 10, 2019 15:42:09

Attachments:
p5.JPG (270.4 KB)
p6.JPG (293.6 KB)

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didn't see it, gonna take a look. having sort of the same problems, but different ones haha.
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you have discord or something ?
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pande
you have discord or something ?
Hi, my discord tag is OBiller #4447.
I'll be back later…
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okey, figured it out (how the %^#@# can't i figure out my own problem lol) not even with your file as example and your unreal pics looks exactly what i want.

anyways… solution for your problem.

your debris layer is not having any height, its just a flat layer. this is because you need to place a timeshift node after your erode nodes since the hda files don't export the correct frame from your erode node (at least from what i've understood)
so the timeshift node “freezes” it at the correct frame for the hda to export.

since it was exporting at frame 0, there wasn't any erosion and no debris created. so the debris layer was flat. and houdini doesn't export flat layers (if i'm correct)

so i posted the correct file with it for you to take a look at it.

also i'm not sure if its needed, but you were using the debris layer in the heightfield output node in stead of the height and i'm not sure if its correct, so i changed it to the height layer. anywayz, it works like this.
Edited by pande - Feb. 10, 2019 16:58:28

Attachments:
debris.hdanc (6.3 MB)

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can't find you on discord, can u add me ?
pandemon#5699
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pande
can't find you on discord, can u add me ?
pandemon#5699
Hi, thanks for the help. I can see the debris layer info in my UE4 now..
But it is funny that it fails in my own hda. I add the timeshift node after the erosion and change heightfield output layer to height..And reimport and rebuild all instance won't bring the debris info…
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discussed and fixed this on discord.

for others that need to know, don't forget to redo the erode node if the timeshift's frame is on 1.
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Hi!

I have similar problem with my unreal and the heightfield HDA.

I have my layers (volumes) in houdini and I create the HDA.
Then I import this HDA to my unreal project and finally I add the HDA to the scene. The problem is the landscape object is not nest/join to houdiniassetactor and if I check the layers in landscape/paint, there is no layer and when I use the material by layers, the terrain is black.

I have watched a few tutorial about how is the best way to import a terrain_HDA into unreal and in all of them the landscape is attached to houdiniassetactor.

Any solution?

Attachments:
my_landscape.jpg (6.4 KB)
tutorial_landscape.jpg (8.5 KB)
houdini_layers.png (88.4 KB)
unreal_layers.png (467.3 KB)

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