Hi there,

I'm an Unreal user interested in the proceduralism of Houdini Digital Assets. I have not yet experimented with this feature but based on my research, it appears that assets can be exported from Houdini and imported into Unreal with certain parameters exposed to control inside the game engine.

My question…

Is it possible to animate these parameters at runtime?

davidbk
Hi there,

I'm an Unreal user interested in the proceduralism of Houdini Digital Assets. I have not yet experimented with this feature but based on my research, it appears that assets can be exported from Houdini and imported into Unreal with certain parameters exposed to control inside the game engine.

My question…

Is it possible to animate these parameters at runtime?

Hi,

Houdini Engine does not support cooking at runtime at this moment. You can only make changes to your HDA while working in the editor. This therefore also means you cannot animate those parameters during runtime. Once you hit play or deploy a build of your game, Houdini Engine will convert all of the HDAs in your scene to UE4 native actors (Static Mesh, etc)

Ambrosiussen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_dUTntd8lA [www.youtube.com]

Referring to this video, I think It is possible to animate your Houdini asset using some controller in real-time game play mode too. I think it doesn't converts into a Static mesh totally. (I could be wrong in my explanation)

But What my question is this asset I am trying to use in Unity 3D as a HDA. But I don't get any noise animation in the both scene view and Game view. But If I toggle the "animate Noise" custom Parameter I created in Houdini inside Unity 3D scene editor, I see some change in the noise.
What I am trying to create is a animated Low poly wave FX. Its very simple I think.

Please Let me know If there is any way possible to animate in Unity in runtime as well.


I am using Houdini 19.0.383
Using Unity 3D 2019.4.20f1 Version.

PAI_SideFX

Ambrosiussen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_dUTntd8lA [www.youtube.com]

Referring to this video, I think It is possible to animate your Houdini asset using some controller in real-time game play mode too. I think it doesn't converts into a Static mesh totally. (I could be wrong in my explanation)

But What my question is this asset I am trying to use in Unity 3D as a HDA. But I don't get any noise animation in the both scene view and Game view. But If I toggle the "animate Noise" custom Parameter I created in Houdini inside Unity 3D scene editor, I see some change in the noise.
What I am trying to create is a animated Low poly wave FX. Its very simple I think.

Please Let me know If there is any way possible to animate in Unity in runtime as well.


I am using Houdini 19.0.383
Using Unity 3D 2019.4.20f1 Version.

Apart from what Paul already said about Houdini Engine currently not supporting runtime parameter updates, the noise animation in Houdini is based on the animation timeline in Houdini, so you can't replicate that in a game engine. It's not a universal or system time that's driving the noise animation.

I'd recommend implementing the wave FX directly in shader, using some math or panning noise textures. It will end up being more performant as well.

In the case that updating parameters doesn't need to happen in realtime (e.g., in the case of a cinematic that has plenty of time to render), is there a way to animate Houdini HDA parameters in a cinematic? (See also: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-animate-houdini-engine-values-in-cinematic/754422)

Thanks!
Anson