Hello, Everyone. I wanted to know what your typical workflow is using Houdini in Unity. I have difficulty finding a seamless way to export FBX (especially when they have separated parts). I tried using the bake game object feature, but because it exports the meshes into the same FBX, I have problems with the baking scenes(lighting).
Currently, my workflow is to create the digital asset, do another project, divide the parts into OBJ levels, and export them separately. However, this workflow does not allow me to take advantage of using a Houdini engine inside Unity.
Thanks!
Full Version: Workflow with unity
Hi Ciscorp, this may not answer you question directly I think, but I'll chime in as best I can.
We're using/trying out multiple approaches, but for me it seems to depend on asset use case.
Things that are isolated assets (like furniture, single trees and such) we use simple fbx from Houdini proper. I use the path attribute and the fbx rop sop to control separation of geometry, which seems to work nicely and predictably.
When it is assets that are dependent on a unity scene, needs to fit with the surrounding geometry, or needs to change depending on level design, I sometimes create an actual HDA for unity. This also seems to work reliably, although it involves slightly more setup. For geometry separations in unity it depends on the use case, but usually it is one of the following approaches:
In cases where we do texture baking or texture compositing, we try to do it directly in the hda or use regular rops, but for our production so far we aren't doing much with textures, so there are probably better ways. Similarly, we haven't had need for LODs in our production, if that is what you are creating, so I don't have any good pointers there unfortunately.
In any case, I'm also hoping for some more indepth tutorials on the unity workflow from SideFX, and best of luck
Best,
Marcus
We're using/trying out multiple approaches, but for me it seems to depend on asset use case.
Things that are isolated assets (like furniture, single trees and such) we use simple fbx from Houdini proper. I use the path attribute and the fbx rop sop to control separation of geometry, which seems to work nicely and predictably.
When it is assets that are dependent on a unity scene, needs to fit with the surrounding geometry, or needs to change depending on level design, I sometimes create an actual HDA for unity. This also seems to work reliably, although it involves slightly more setup. For geometry separations in unity it depends on the use case, but usually it is one of the following approaches:
- Sop leve hdas with packed geometries where the number of sub-geometries are unknown or suitable for instancing.
- Sop level hdas with specific output nodes, when the number and type of outputs are predicable.
- Object level hdas with sops for each component, in cases where the output is predictable and the asset is more complex.
In cases where we do texture baking or texture compositing, we try to do it directly in the hda or use regular rops, but for our production so far we aren't doing much with textures, so there are probably better ways. Similarly, we haven't had need for LODs in our production, if that is what you are creating, so I don't have any good pointers there unfortunately.
In any case, I'm also hoping for some more indepth tutorials on the unity workflow from SideFX, and best of luck
Best,
Marcus