Hi there,

I'm following the tutorial for gameDev [vimeo.com], but unfortunately it's for Unity.
At around 4'33“ the tutor mentions the new componenent of Houdini Engine named ”PDG Asset Link".
I can't happen to find it anywhere in the Unreal Editor.
Any ideas?

cheers

Same general question here. I went so far as to dig through the GitHub source-code. I browsed the latest commits and only found some basic references to PDG updates. Which I think might have been simple updates to the HAPI files, but not actual implementation of PDG TOPs just yet? Or am I reading it all wrong?

I don't see any PDG showcase for unreal at the GDC HIVE (contrary to unity), so I guess after GDC we'll get to see unreal pdg support?

cheers

UE4 support has not been added yet for PDG. It's on our road map though.

Okay. I should post a useful update here.

A TOp network in a SOp does run. Or, can sometimes be forced to run inside Unreal's Houdini Engine. Proof follows:

I create a HDA that is a Geo object, that contains a pig_head node, connected to a TOp-SOp-Network node, connected to an output node.

When I drag that HDA into Unreal and then drag it into an unreal level, the Object SOp network executes, including the TOp network. Subsequent requests to ‘recook’ the asset, fail to re-run the TOp. However a request to “rebuild asset” does result in the TOp being run again.

In my case, my TOp network is just copying a text file from one place on my desktop to another, to prove that the TOp network is running, or not running.

Anyhow, this isn't the full integration, where a TOp network executes as a first class citizen within Unreal Engine, and dynamically generates unreal actors. I'd assume that's under development. Maybe? But we're not completely without TOp capability as it were. Even if it's a hack.

I suspect the reason the ‘recook’ fails but the ‘rebuild’ succeeds, is because the dependency graph isn't being marked ‘dirty’ by the recook request. I played around a bit with ways of randomizing the input to the TOp-SOp-Network node to force it to consider itself dirty every time, with no luck. But I suspect there are ways

Ah yes, that approach actually will work fine for any Houdini Engine implementation. It's completely transparent to Houdini Engine and will “look like” just another SOP. Only down side is that there is no asynchronous input / output of data.

any ETA on Unreal Support?

We have to meet internally about dev priorities soon. We’re hearing lots of demand for this though - thumbs up here to vote for this - it will further inform our decisions.

I Hope so Ken.
This is some really exciting work.
Congratulations for getting it out the door!
I know what a labor of love it has been

I'll also add my voice to the pile of game devs anxiously awaiting unreal PDG link support, docs, tuts.

kenxu
We have to meet internally about dev priorities soon. We’re hearing lots of demand for this though - thumbs up here to vote for this - it will further inform our decisions.

THUMBS UP - Fingers too.

I know this is probably not the right thread, but Unreal 4 integration of Houdini Engine could use some love in general.

A few ideas in no particular order:

1. Bake compiled code for procedural geometry generation/manipulation to realtime blueprints.
RFE (ID# 95592)

2. Read and write from and to arbitrary float/string/vector/integer (array) attributes on Blueprints.
RFE (ID# 95591)

3. Rightclick-menu on objects in viewport to add or remove them from an HDA input.
RFE (ID# 95590)

4. Add all objects of entire level or from a sublevel(s) as input (with filter options for object types, like static meshes, skeletal meshes, blueprints, lights, etc.).

5. Exactly recreate the Unreal Spline in Houdini on Sop level so that it becomes possible to import the Unreal Spline as is and to create Unreal Splines in Houdini for testing purposes. (https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unreal/_curves.html)
Note that currently the best process to get an authentic Unreal Spline for testing of your Unreal-focused HDA, is to open an HDA that has an Unreal Spline plugged in inside of Unreal in Houdini via “Open scene in Houdini”. If that sounds unnecessarily complicated and convoluted to you, you see the issue. XD
See also: RFE (ID=76877)

6. Cooperate with epic games to make it possible for PDG to read/write directly to .umap/.uassets that describe levels, so that high-level processing can happen without even opening Unreal. A result of that could be, that Houdini generates an entire Unreal level (or rather multiple Unreal levels) on a render farm and bakes it to Unreal files that then can be opened in Unreal for fine-tuning by designers etc. A process which then could take advante of the PDG system so that not everything has to be recalculated for every minor edit.

7. An Unreal editor “Mode” (Like “Paint” or “Landscape”) for just working with HDAs. Primary focus would be a list of all HDAs in your scene (as well as quick access to a list of all HDAs you might have on disk and or in the project) and quick access to all parameters of the HDA. This might enable point 3. But the focus should be an overall better UI experience. Individual users have created similar things from scratch for specific projects.

8. Bake curves to Unreal Splines: https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal/issues/25 [github.com]

I hope this makes sense. If you have any questions about individual suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask.
I will make RFEs for those, but I think it is important to point out groups of issues that are related to find good solutions.

Looking forward to the Unreal integration of PDG. Amazing job to the developers!

Yes, looking forward to playing around with this in Unreal!

any ETA on the UE4 PDG support?

DASD
I know this is probably not the right thread, but Unreal 4 integration of Houdini Engine could use some love in general.

A few ideas in no particular order:

1. Bake compiled code for procedural geometry generation/manipulation to realtime blueprints.
RFE (ID# 95592)

2. Read and write from and to arbitrary float/string/vector/integer (array) attributes on Blueprints.
RFE (ID# 95591)

3. Rightclick-menu on objects in viewport to add or remove them from an HDA input.
RFE (ID# 95590)

4. Add all objects of entire level or from a sublevel(s) as input (with filter options for object types, like static meshes, skeletal meshes, blueprints, lights, etc.).

5. Exactly recreate the Unreal Spline in Houdini on Sop level so that it becomes possible to import the Unreal Spline as is and to create Unreal Splines in Houdini for testing purposes. (https://www.sidefx.com/docs/unreal/_curves.html)
Note that currently the best process to get an authentic Unreal Spline for testing of your Unreal-focused HDA, is to open an HDA that has an Unreal Spline plugged in inside of Unreal in Houdini via “Open scene in Houdini”. If that sounds unnecessarily complicated and convoluted to you, you see the issue. XD
See also: RFE (ID=76877)

6. Cooperate with epic games to make it possible for PDG to read/write directly to .umap/.uassets that describe levels, so that high-level processing can happen without even opening Unreal. A result of that could be, that Houdini generates an entire Unreal level (or rather multiple Unreal levels) on a render farm and bakes it to Unreal files that then can be opened in Unreal for fine-tuning by designers etc. A process which then could take advante of the PDG system so that not everything has to be recalculated for every minor edit.

7. An Unreal editor “Mode” (Like “Paint” or “Landscape”) for just working with HDAs. Primary focus would be a list of all HDAs in your scene (as well as quick access to a list of all HDAs you might have on disk and or in the project) and quick access to all parameters of the HDA. This might enable point 3. But the focus should be an overall better UI experience. Individual users have created similar things from scratch for specific projects.

8. Bake curves to Unreal Splines: https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal/issues/25 [github.com]

I hope this makes sense. If you have any questions about individual suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask.
I will make RFEs for those, but I think it is important to point out groups of issues that are related to find good solutions.

nice points

We will address the PDG link to the UE4 plugin after we address some of the basic (and urgent) issues around the UE4 plugin first.

kenxu
We will address the PDG link to the UE4 plugin after we address some of the basic (and urgent) issues around the UE4 plugin first.

Hi! Is there an ETA on when can we expect PDG link on UE4? I have a UE4 project coming up and I am planning to use this in it.

I'm afraid not. We are quite busy with everything we have to do, I honestly can't see us getting to it in the next quarter at the very least.

kenxu
I'm afraid not. We are quite busy with everything we have to do, I honestly can't see us getting to it in the next quarter at the very least.

Is there any update on the PDG asset link for Unreal Engine?

Hi,

The PDG Asset Link for Unreal Engine will be in the version 2 of the plugin that is currently in developement.
We currently plan to have full PDG support for the beta (~early Q3).

For more details on v2, please read this post [www.sidefx.com] on the Unreal plugin forum.