Hey everyone! So I was informed to share some of the things I've been working on regarding real-time VFX pipelines on here. I've been more of a lurker, but looking to change that.

This presentation shows some of the pipelines I was overviewing: https://vimeo.com/122681598 [vimeo.com]

So as a first post to this thread, my fire texture sheet pipeline is attached!

Games still really only use sprites for particle systems. This file shows how to put together a fire sprite quickly. Here's the quickstart if the HIP is saved to a directory already:

1) For previewing, dive into VISUALIZE and cache the geo. It's not all that intensive so it should only take a minute or two.

2) In RENDERING, click the render button on the mantra node. It has the end frame set and automatically finds first frame based on a 64 frame texture sheet (I wanted the flame to already be active and then dissipate).

3) In COMPOSITE, click the render button on the ROP output. The mosaic node prior tiles the frames automatically. You may or may not need to hit “Reload Sequence” in the file node.

Some of the adjustments I made to the default setup of the Flames Shelf tool:

1) In SHADERS, make the color ramp for fire like this: black - color - black. This is what gives it those pockets of lacking color.

2) In SHADERS, set the color in Smoke to a constant black. We want to have full control of the color of the fire. Nothing else added.

3) In SIMULATION, increase Scale Source Volume. I noticed it's pretty compact by default and results in an image that's a little too intense and goes to white. Not so good for post-processing in-engine.

Anyway, I'm going to edit this as I go along. I have a digital asset in the works that contains all my samples and some useful tools. Hoping to make that public in the near future!

Very nice Steve!

Great presentation. This is the sort of learning material i have been wanting to get my hands on. Anything that helps me learn Houdini with a focus towards games rather then films is a massive plus, but hey all skills are transferable right…

Thanks for sharing!

This is great, thanks for sharing this Steve!

Impressive , Thanks for Sharing 8)

No problem everyone!

I'm thinking of actually posting these quick summaries to my blog and leaving screenshots in this thread to minimize clutter. It would certainly give me a good reason to keep it up-to-date with my adventures!

I'll update once I put together another little tool to take a look at!