I have been talking to SideFX support about some questions I have and was told to ask here in the forums. So here goes, if any Houdini/UE4 Guru can help.. LOL
I want to know if I created a terrain in Houdini which has tools which are volume (voxel) based, can I use the Houdini Engine within UE4 at runtime, so that the player can dig holes and tunnels into the terrain.. Basically voxel based..
Also would there be blue prints with the Houdini Engine to help with this or would I have to make my own or use code in VS?
Ok thats it, hope someone can let me know if this can be done with Houdini and if so I am also on board
Houdini Engine currently does nothing at runtime. It can generate complex geo and bake it to standard unreal assets at editor time.
For a small terrain section you could potentially do something with render-targets and shader-based mesh-deformation, but the technique has limitations. I mean something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZfaVOHhiRc [www.youtube.com]
I think you would have to do mesh generation in C++ to get performance, stability and good visuals. Implement some kind of dynamic voxel terrain… Maybe there is something on the UE4 marketplace, or an open-source plug-in that can help you.
Thank you for your quick reply.. Yes I think Voxel is the way to go.. I love what Houdini can do and wish they had runtime capability, I have been following a voxel plugin which should be available on the 1Q 2018, seems like about a month now and there will be a free and paid version.. This would do what I am looking for, just got taken away with Houdini, LOL…
