Hello. So I recently purchased Houdini Indie 16 and when I was installing the application, it asks you if you want to install the Houdini Engine plugin for Maya, Unreal, and Unity but no Cinema 4D, like I was expecting. I have Cinema 4D R18 and have never tried loading any Houdini assets so under Pipeline it prompts you to download the Houdini Engine installer. Installing that version, which I believe is 15.5, then conflicted with my Houdini 16 version cause when I tried opening the full version I got errors and it was unable to open. Is there a Houdini 16 Engine available to install within Cinema 4D or is it only the 15.5 version at this point? And am I doing something wrong cause they seem to be conflicting? Upon getting the error, I uninstalled everything and reinstalled Houdini Indie 16, which works fine, but now I'm unable to load the assets within Cinema 4D. I'm new to Houdini and a bit confused with the C4D integration so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

As far as I know, Maxon's has not done a H16 Engine for C4D yet, so you have to use which version of H15.5 that it requires. When you go install H15.5, you should use the default installation folder name so that it doesn't conflict with the H16 one.

Novice query here (and apologies for the resurrection but this is the only other place I've found asking along these lines): is the license for 16 “backwards compatible” (for lack of a better term) with installs of 15? It doesn't seem to be the case, which means anyone who got on board with Houdini recently is screwed if they want to use HDAs in C4D…

With a Houdini 16.0 license, you should be able to run earlier versions of Houdini, (unless I'm mistaken). However, scenes created in Houdini 16.0 may use features that don't exist in earlier versions, so some new nodes may not work in the earlier version.

I believe Maxon is the one who makes the Houdini Engine pipeline plug-in and not SideFX. You would need to install it from inside of Cinema 4D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8sKuyEmtgQ&list=PLIqMw1vG1TWbG8iqWgAEUjeKZSzByN0Ac&index=3 [youtube.com]

And yes, I am able to run both H15x and H16 with my H16 license.

Hope this helps.

I'm having the same issue. When i go to pipeline it links me to download houdini 15.5.632. Which is even older than my last version of 15. In preferences>Houdini Engine it says Version 15.5.632. Is this the only compatible version? I uninstalled 15.5.717 weeks ago after i installed 16.

Any help is welcome.
Thanks!

Just started to dabble with using Houdini Engine in C4D myself and this seems to have some incredible potential.
I sure hope Maxon realizes this and can keep up with current releases.

I agree. There are great things about C4D like ease of modeling, stability, no render size limit, its ability to bring in illustrator files, etc. However, Houdini is a lot more powerful for complicated cloned animations, fluids, smoke, etc. Things like adding procedural extrudes in Houdini solves some of the problems in C4D. The ability to add nodes to materials in Houdini is awesome. The two programs have different strengths and weaknesses, and the best world would be if they could be used together. It is about time for a C4D update, and I'm hoping they will add a plugin for Houdini 16 engine.

Vrtx
I'm having the same issue. When i go to pipeline it links me to download houdini 15.5.632. Which is even older than my last version of 15. In preferences>Houdini Engine it says Version 15.5.632. Is this the only compatible version? I uninstalled 15.5.717 weeks ago after i installed 16.

Any help is welcome.
Thanks!

“It's a feature, not a bug”, you have to install the specific version of Houdini in order for the Pipeline feature to work. Just make sure to install the app itself and not the License Server. That aside I do feel the onus is on Maxon to get us a working bridge to the Houdini Engine via a plugin like all the other apps it plays nice with. The current implementation seems unsustainable given the speed of Houdini's development, and considering how much has changed with 16, I'm wondering if/how badly this will break when using HDAs.

The way Maxon maintain their Houdini Engine integration is very weak in comparison to the Maya, Max, UE and Unity integrations. With Houdini changing so much on a regular basis through its daily builds it's essential that Houdini Engine is recompiled to match. The other builds benefit from SideFX being responsible for the maintenance but it seems to me that Maxon regard the Houdini Engine integration as little more than a marketing tactic. Little do they realise that this has backfired as many former C4D champions are now using Houdini exclusively. Maxon's ineptitude in this matter has created a rather nice ‘Trojan Horse’ for SideFX.