Hi, I created a little obj and mtl importer for Houdini, Objilla. It creates materials, assigns colors, textures, transparency and does some other cool stuff. Check it out on Gumroad, thanks !
https://gumroad.com/l/YLJkR [gumroad.com]

Houdini 18 includes a ‘MTL file format importer for OBJ models’. It says at the end of the launch video and preview.

Hi FDX3245,

Thanks for mentioning this.
The video was out 2 days before my planned release and I was quite puzzled by it because I had already invested a month
of my time in this project. I am very happy I finally decided to release Objilla before Houdini 18 ships, because the feedback I get from my customers is very positive.

Right now, there is a version of the mtl importer in the latest version of the gamedev tools, you can check it out for yourself if it fits your needs.

In its current implementation, Objilla is a better choice if you have many objs to import than mtl importer.

The differences between Objilla and the mtl importer are:
- Objilla can import many obj files at once, mtl importer cannot.
- Objilla names the assets based on the model(s) names, mtl importer does not.
- Objilla locates mtl file automatically, in mtl importer you have to specify the path to the obj and the mtl manually.
- Objilla can handle correctly obj files with textures in more cases than mtl importer (textures->black in many cases).
- I am available for questions, troubleshooting, suggestions.

When Houdini 18 comes out, I will re-evaluate the newer version of mtl importer and report back the differences.

Kind regards,
Ippokratis

P.S. Sorry for the late response, I was not aware of the “Subscribe” thread option in the forum until now.

Hi,

A new version of Objilla is available, added Houdini 18 compatibility.
The new version is freely available to all existing customers.

Kind regards,
Ippokratis

Hi,

Can Objilla do exports too? I'm having difficulties figuring out how to export an OBJ with MTL.
Otherwise any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi punkweazel,
Objilla can only import objs for now. If you need Objilla to support obj export, please contact me at ippobour@gmail.com and provide me with details about your pipeline, we could figure something out.

Kind regards.