Hi all,

I am new to Houdini Engine and today I tried to test it using Houdini Indie and the UE4 plugin (in UE4.18).

I made a simple digital asset(DA) containing sphere, mountain ,and timeshift node, with only one parameter “Frame” which is the frame number input of the timeshift node. Then I brought the DA to UE4.

What I expected is to change the “Frame” parameter in UE4 and get different shape.
But it does not work. The frame paramter always goes back to 1 after I change it's value.

Could you help me understand why it doesn't work?
Thanks.

Hi,

The frame parameter you exposed is still linked to $F.
$F is always 1 when using the plugin.

What you want is to actually set a value manually to the frame parameter, than can then be read by the timeshift node.
To do so, go to your hda's type properties, in the channels tab.
There, you'll see that frame is actually linked to $F, so will always be set to 1.
Change that default value to 1, or whatever default value you want, removing the link between frame and $F.

This should solve your issue.

If all you wanted was getting a different shape each time you change a parameter, there are simpler way to do so, you could have linked the mountain's offset to a “noise” parameter exposed on the hda for example, removing the need to use timeshif/change the frame.

Hi, Thanks for the remind and suggestion.
You are right.
It works after I removed the link set in channel from digital asset.