SideFX Labs is a testing ground for over 150 tools designed to help you get up and running quicker. The SideFX Labs tools wrap up and release common workflows and create tight integrations with the software you use every day. The tools are developed outside the regular Houdini development cycle which makes them more accessible for testing and feedback.

Originally published as the Gamedev tools, this initiative has been rebranded as SideFX Labs to recognize that artists in different industries often share the same workflows and that these tools can benefit the whole Houdini Community.

To keep up to date on the latest developments, please click on the Subscribe Button for this thread. You'll get a short email every two weeks listing new tools, updates and bug fixes.

To learn more about the tools you can visit the SideFX Labs Overview [www.sidefx.com] page.

Each new tool should have a forum post where you can leave comments and suggestions.

Mike Lyndon
Senior Technical Artist
SideFX

06 Dec 2019
New Tools

• 1.33 (18.0.309) - Added Export UV Wireframe SOP. This tool allows you to export wireframe renders of your UVs, which is useful for texturing.
  
• 1.31 (18.0.307) - Added the Quick Tree HDA shown at the H18 Launch Event
  

Updates

• 1.32 (18.0.308) - Fixed PivotPainter demoscene
  
• 1.33 (18.0.309) - Calculate Occlusion now allows the cone angle to go up to 180, as opposed to the previous 90.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.34 (18.0.310) - Vertex Animation Texture fluids and soft exported normals were calculated incorrectly. Added the ability to rotate a mesh in UE4 and maintain correct normal/lighting info.
  
• 1.32 (18.0.308) - Fixed all nodes still using gamedevutils module instead of labutils
  
• 1.31 (18.0.307) - Fixed issue in the Open Crashfile menu script.
  
• 1.30 (18.0.306) - Fixing Rizom nodes that weren't ported properly into Labs
  
• 1.27 (18.0.303) - Fixed rest of internal docs
  
• 1.27 (18.0.303) - Removed template help file that was causing conflicts with actual help file
  

20 Dec 2019
Updates

• 1.40 (18.0.316) - Maps Baker now has the option of controlling the gamma on the vertex color and diffuse channels as well as properly previewing the normal maps and other material maps if enabled.
  
• 1.40 (18.0.316) - Adding Cage Baking to Maps Baker as well as visualization of baking distances
  
• 1.39 (18.0.315) - Shelf tool creates the latest version of the Vertex Animation Textures asset.
  
• 1.37 (18.0.313) - Updating Substance Material to work with Mantra op references properly
  
• 1.34 (18.0.310) - The SkinningConverter now allows for disconnected pieces of geometry to be weighted individually. This produces really good results in cases where you, for example, rip pieces of cloth apart. A new toggle called “Use Mesh Connectivity for Weighting” has been added for this purpose.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.38 (18.0.314) - Fixed ViewportMeasureTool drawable issue. Works again in 18
  

17 Jan 2020
New Tools

• 1.65 (18.0.341) - Added a new menu option under the Assets menu that checks all Labs nodes in the scene for any out of date instances. When a newer version of the tool is available in the already installed release of the toolset. (mapsbaker::1.0 vs mapsbaker::2.0). Assets>Check Asset Versions in Scene
  

Updates

• 1.75 (18.0.351) - Added the support for just slicing the geometry and not creating bounding boxes on the Multi Bounding Box sop.
  
• 1.74 (18.0.350) - Gaea Tor Processor now fully compatible with Top Fetch without having to do any custom work as of Houdini 18.0.350.
  
• 1.69 (18.0.345) - SkinningConverter now has an option to weight pieces with specific bones with matching name attributes. This is a change from an earlier version where connectivity was used for this purpose. Using name instead is more robust, and allows users to be specific. An example of a use-case is exporting RBD simulations.
  
• 1.67 (18.0.343) - Updating the Substance COP with some new features.
  - Fixed an issue where blends wouldn't work properly with inputs.
  - Fixed an issue where inputs with same labels would conflict.
  - Fixed an issue where the python callback would fail if there was no open 3d viewport.
  - Fixed an issue with the graph dropdown not being able to be set properly
  
• 1.66 (18.0.342) - Gaea Tor Processor now uses TIFs as the file format to exchange data between Gaea and Houdini. Also fixed some minor bugs in the export resolution for Gaea. It will now pad to the nearest power of 2 resolution, rather than 2048. This makes processing a default Heightfield (1000x1000) process at 1024 rather than 2048, which is a lot faster. Also updated the shipped presets to work with newer Gaea versions. Please note that this did bump the version of the tool, so any already instantiated nodes of the Gaea tool need to be recreated or their type changed.
  
• 1.61 (18.0.337) - Added a Dissolve Middle Edge option after seeing that users usually remove it as the next step in their workflow in the Thicken SOP
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.69 (18.0.345) - Fixing cook error on the RC Texture SOP
  
• 1.65 (18.0.341) - Fixing OSM Building Node to use the building_levels attribute
  

04 Feb 2020
New Tools

• 1.88 (18.0.364) Added Split Primitives by Normal. This tool allows you to very quickly split geometry based on normal on a particular axis. Eg: Extract all primitives facing +Y, -Y or both. Useful for modelling operations.
  
• 1.87 (18.0.363) Added the XYZ Pointcloud exporter in the ROPs context. Useful for exporting point clouds to UE4 or Meshlab.
  
• 1.81 (18.0.357) The lightning SOP generates lightning arcs between 2 points.
  
• Added very first TOPs node to Labs! Cut Geometry to Partitions allows for any top geometry to be split in XYZ pieces specified in the parm interface. Useful for when processing large pieces of geometry in smaller chunks.
  

Updates

• 1.91 (18.0.367) MapsBaker is now fully compatible with PDG. It works by simply pointing to it from a TOP Fetch. Once a cook is complete, it will also automatically report the textures that have been generated.
  
• 1.91 (18.0.367) Recompiling Substance Plugin against the latest Houdini daily build.
  
• 1.88 (18.0.364) The OBJ+MTL Importer now also scans subdirectories for referenced files. This means you can now have a “Textures” folder instead of having all files in root folder.
  
• 1.84 (18.0.360) Added support for baseColor usage in the Substance SOP.
  
• 1.87 (18.0.363) Added ability for the csv exporter to disable the export of a header row or replace it with some custom data.
  
• 1.84 (18.0.360) Adding the ability to not set the name attribute on the MultiFile SOP.
  
• 1.82 (18.0.358) Added bgeo and bgeo.sc support to Multifile tool.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.91 (18.0.367) SkinningConverter will automatically convert incoming data to geometry. This solves cases where users accidentally plug in polysoup/other data, and assume the tool doesn't work.
  
• 1.88 (18.0.364) Set PhysicsPainter pre-sim detanglement collision to a concave solve. This should give much better results, at a slight performance regression. (Does not affect simulation itself, just the spawn location of drawn objects)
  
• 1.88 (18.0.364) Group Curve Corners now works regardless of the curve/shape orientation.
  
• 1.84 (18.0.360) Fixing display name on Lot Subdivision SOP.
  
• 1.81 (18.0.357) Texture Sheets ROP will now update render settings when a mantra ROP is connected.
  

20 Feb 2020
New Tools

• 1.103 (18.0.379) Added Splatter Tool. Allows for the quick creation of splatter simulations. Useful for blood, vomit, water splashes.
  

Updates

• 1.110 (18.0.387) When using Vertex Animation Textures ROP in a TOP network, the output will be correctly reported.
  
• 1.104 (18.0.380) Recompiling Instant Meshes SOP so it doesn't crash with latest Houdini
  
• 1.104 (18.0.380) Texture Sheets ROP raises an error if it can't find a camera to render from.
  
• 1.101 (18.0.377) Vertex Animation Texture will use uv3 if uv2 already exists to store VAT data.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.110 (18.0.387) Fixed some regressions in MapsBaker. Position map is normalized again, Normalmap has proper Y value, Transfering Normalmaps now also look correct. Also flatten UV.z component to prevent strange texture lookups.
  
• 1.110 (18.0.387) Fixed an issue in MapsBaker that would cause the tool to think it is dealing with UDIMs for geometry with perfect 0-1UVs instead of 0-0.999
  
• 1.103 (18.0.379) Set the precision of a wrangle in Axis Align to be 64bit. This should help with really large geometry. (Like OSM data)
  

28 Feb 2020
New Tools

• 1.114 (18.0.391) Added 2D WaveFunctionCollapse to toolset. See: https://github.com/mxgmn/WaveFunctionCollapse [github.com]
  
• 1.113 (18.0.390) Added BoxCutter Tool. This is an interactive tool designed for hardsurface modeling, with a focus on speed and ease of use revolving around a boolean workflow.
  

Updates

• 1.114 (18.0.391) Added undo support for Boxcutter
  
• 1.113 (18.0.390) Added basic copying support for BoxCutter
  
• 1.113 (18.0.390) Added BoxCutter Boolean Mode to the options. You can now either subtract or shatter using the drawn shape.
  

17 Mar 2020
New Tools

• 1.117 (18.0.402) Added Filter by Value TOP. This allows you to filter work-items by specific attribute values. Useful for cherrypicking wedge variations for further tweaking.
  
• 1.115 (18.0.400) Added WFC Sample Paint, which is a tool that allows you to interactively set the values of a WFC Sample Grid while visualizing the geometry “values”.
  
• 1.115 (18.0.400) Added WFC Initialize Grid. This HDA lets you set up a grid used for WFC without having to worry about attributes. It also lets you set up user constraints very easily. Also updated WFC icon.
  

Updates

• 1.120 (18.0.406) Snow Buildup now has the VDB resolution exposed. This allows for more control over voxelization
  
• 1.120 (18.0.406) PivotPainter now allows user to pass a custom random value through the pivot attributes. The user can set the attribute to use through the parm interface.
  
• 1.120 (18.0.406) Updating AutoUV to use the UVLayout 3.0 which helps with some crashing
  
• 1.120 (18.0.406) Adding lighting color controls to the Delight SOP to aid with keeping the color of objects
  
• 1.118 (18.0.403) Added documentation to the rbd director node.
  
• 1.117 (18.0.402) Added docs to Motion Vector ROP and removed increment parameter from start and end because it wasn't doing anything.
  
• 1.117 (18.0.402) Added WFC demoscenes.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.120 (18.0.406) PivotPainter now keeps attributes from the incoming geometry. Just make sure to not clash with any of the attributes PivotPainter generates to prevent errors.
  
• 1.120 (18.0.406) Fixing an issue with the Houdini External Editor feature with non-string parameters.
  
• 1.120 (18.0.406) Fixing GOZ by updating the port number and updating to the correct asset names
  
• 1.120 (18.0.406) The Ramp attribute in the Occlusion SOP does not cause the node to recalculate the rays
  
• 1.119 (18.0.405) PivotPainter will not freeze Houdini anymore.
  
• 1.117 (18.0.402) Volume Texture ROP slices and images per line are decoupled from the final resolution. Up Axis parameter works again.
  
• 1.116 (18.0.401) Exposed Splatter simulation start frame, and set default value to $RFSTART instead of 1
  

30 Mar 2020
New Tools

• 1.127 (18.0.419) Added Houdini Icon Test Geometry in sops.
  
• 1.127 (18.0.419) Added Road Generator tool. This tool generates road geometry from input curves, usually obtained from OSM data.
  
• 1.123 (18.0.411) Added Labs Attribute Value Replace. This tool is a wrapper around the Attribute String Edit to increase the user experience when dealing with a large number of attributes. This tool is very useful for example: Looking up and setting unreal_instance or unity_instance attribute by the name attribute currently assigned to the points. This makes the Attribute Instancer workflow for Houdini Engine a lot more convenient.
  

Updates

• 1.126 (18.0.418) Added another WFC example file.
  
• 1.123 (18.0.411) Recompiling and fixing up the Reality Capture SOP.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.124 (18.0.412) uv3 was being added to all Vertex Animation Texture exports causing issues with the debug view.
  
• 1.122 (18.0.410) Fixed the Piece Attribute parameter to be working again on Delete Small Parts.
  
• 1.121 (18.0.409) Gaea Tor Processor doesn't duplicate layers anymore for complex TOR files.
  

10 Apr 2020
New Tools

• 1.128 (18.0.423) Added Wang Tiles Sample sop, and Wang Tiles Decoder. These tools allow you to decode a black and white image into name attributes used for level generation.Also provided wang_tiles_demoscene.hip as an example in /hip More info on wang tiles: http://www.cr31.co.uk/stagecast/wang/intro.html [www.cr31.co.uk]
  

Updates

• 1.132 (18.0.432) Updated the SideFXLabs.json package example to match the update in Houdini
  
• 1.132 (18.0.432) Updated the demoscene of the MapsBaker to show how you would use PDG with it.
  
• 1.131 (18.0.430) Added the ability to set a custom default value on the Attribute Value Replace sop.
  
• 1.131 (18.0.430) Wang Tiles Decoder now allows you to specify what channel from Cd to sample from. Also fixed a minor indexing bug that caused top left corners to be incorrect values.
  
• 1.131 (18.0.430) Dissolve Flat Edges exposed: Collinearity Threshold parameter.
  
• 1.129 (18.0.424) Boxcutter - Added the ability to instead of “drawing” a shape, you just get a 1:1 scale version of it as the cutter. Set the Drawing Mode to “Input” to get this behaviour. The prompt has also been clarified, helping users that were unsure how to use the tool. The tool now also has Union as a boolean option, allowing you to add geometry instead of removing it.
  
• 1.129 (18.0.424) Alicevision nodes will now use the built-in file browser to pick images which also supports relative paths for images.
  
• 1.128 (18.0.423) Align And Distribute now has the option to also layout geometry in a Grid rather than a line. Useful for looking at large amounts of data.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.130 (18.0.425) Vertex Animation Texture debug view would distort the soft export mesh if the position texture had an alpha channel.
  
• 1.128 (18.0.423) Restored Building Generator Scaling Modules toggle. This allows for scaling modules to fit a facade rather than generate sideslop geometry.
  

08 May 2020
New Tools

• 1.143 (18.0.453) Added Triplanar Displace sop thanks to community contribution from Magnus Larsson - @MagnusL3D. Also added ability to project a matching color texture.
  
• 1.141 (18.0.449) Added Trim Texture tool. This tool allows for interactive UV editing based on a Trim Texture.
  
• 1.136 (18.0.439) An entirely new and updated Niagara ROP exports json files and automates a lot of the attributes needed for the Houdini Niagara data interface.
  

Updates

• 1.145 (18.0.457) Attribute Value Replace now allows the user to replace all non remapped values with a custom value.
  
• 1.145 (18.0.457) Updated GameRes to use MapsBaker. Note that this has bumped the version of GameRes and therefore does not affect already instantiated nodes of the tool.
  
• 1.144 (18.0.454) Impostor Texture demoscene has been updated to use the latest settings for an animation impostor.
  
• 1.142 (18.0.451) Extract Silhouette can now also extract contour lines thanks to community contribution from Raphael Gadot - @vieux_rafio. Also added the ability to now extract the silhouette/contour based on a (view) point or object fed into the second input.
  
• 1.140 (18.0.448) Added a toggle to Remove Outside of Silhouette to Extract Silhouette tool.
  
• 1.138 (18.0.443) BoxCutter now allows the user to rotate copies around a pivot that can be manipulated.
  
• 1.137 (18.0.440) Updated External Text Editor plugin to 1.3.3 from CGTOOLBOX - https://cgtoolbox.com/ [cgtoolbox.com]
  
• 1.137 (18.0.440) Building Generator Utility now shows a warning when you create a building module and do not fill out the dimensions parameter.
  
• 1.137 (18.0.440) The WFC Solver a visualizer aswell now.
  
• 1.137 (18.0.440) Added color visualizer to WFC Initialize.
  
• 1.135 (18.0.437) Adding option on the Decal Projector to not recompute the normals when copying points
  
• 1.133 (18.0.433) Updated Vertex Animation Texture Unity shaders for the legacy renderer to work with the latest VAT ROP.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.148 (18.0.460) Vertex Animation Texture debug view had flipped min and max bound values.
  
• 1.147 (18.0.459) MapsBaker no longer has a tiny offset on reprojected textures.
  
• 1.145 (18.0.457) Fixed Calculate Occlusion Cd output toggle. Was inverted on accident few releases ago.
  
• 1.145 (18.0.457) Added a path fix in QuadRemesher, which will fix running the tool for some people on Windows. Also changed the tool to take in an attributepaint instead of a paint sop.
  
• 1.145 (18.0.457) All menu items that get added to the top menu bar and rightclick menus use index instead of a reference to a not yet existing Houdini menu item. This allows for appending the toolset instead of prepending.
  
• 1.144 (18.0.454) Animated Impostor Texture ROP rendered black images because camera_zoom was being set incorrectly.
  
• 1.142 (18.0.451) Updating Curve branches and Cable generator to not be hardcoded to Y up
  
• 1.142 (18.0.451) Exposing the up axis on the snow buildup tool
  
• 1.138 (18.0.443) Fixed MapsBaker Position baking error due to absolute reference in ROP.
  
• 1.138 (18.0.443) Motion Vector ROP would return incorrect green values if the camera was set to perspective.
  
• 1.138 (18.0.443) Motion Vector ROP would sometimes miscalculate the atlas layout.
  
• 1.136 (18.0.439) Motion Vector ROP info labels were returning incorrect values.
  
• 1.134 (18.0.435) Fixed bug in Building Generator where pieces that are the exact width of a facade would get scaled down when using Volumetric Overrides.
  
• 1.133 (18.0.433) Motion Vector ROP final atlas was inconsistent when changing images per line and resolution.
  

22 May 2020
Updates

• 1.151 (18.0.472) Cleaned up unity export of Vertex Animation Textures.
  
• 1.151 (18.0.472)Added URP package and functionality to Vertex Animation Texture ROP.
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) Recompiling all plugins to latest version of Houdini to match HDK version bump
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) recompiling Instant Meshes for the latest API bump
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) Vertex Animation Texture ROP 2.1. Multiple changes that aren't backward compatible.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.151 (18.0.472) PhysicsPainter start frame is now $RFSTART instead of 1.
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) Optimizing Edge Group to Curve by making one of the wrangles detail instead of point
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) Trim Texture now properly resets the viewport when clearing any changes made. It also automatically promotes UVs to be vertex to prevent weird viewport issues. Trim Texture Utility now also has the ability to initialize strips automatically.
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) Vertex Animation Texture ROP was setting the fluid bounds incorrectly.
  
• 1.149 (18.0.467) Vertex Animation Texture ROP created an offset when using the rigid export. Please note that materials need to be updated too.
  

05 Jun 2020
New Tools

• 1.154 (18.0.481) Added the FBX Archive Import sop. This is a sop built to function similar to the file sop, but with material import support.
  

Updates

• 1.156 (18.0.485) Delete Small Parts is now compiled
  
• 1.156 (18.0.485) Gaea Tor Processor is now compatible with Gaea 1.2. This is a BIG update, where the bridge now has a revamped cleaned UI, user accessible preset system, r32 map IO, no more remapping, texture support, ability to use with Bleeding Edge builds. This bumped the tool version, so you need to replace existing Gaea Tor Processor instances with a new node to take advantage of it. The tool also does not support older versions of Gaea, but you can use older versions of the tool for that.
  
• 1.154 (18.0.481) Added Group option to Auto UV SOP.
  
• 1.154 (18.0.481) Adding an option to link an external COP into the substance Material, this allows for the Substance Material to support input maps.
  
• 1.154 (18.0.481) GoZ import and export works with MacOS.
  
• 1.154 (18.0.481) Added functionality to Motion Vector ROP that allows non-square resolutions when using a perspective projection camera.
  
• 1.153 (18.0.479) Add parameter to the static fracture export to delete existing container.
  
• 1.153 (18.0.479) Adding a accuracy parameter that increases the resolution on the internal remesh node to handle pipe like meshes better.
  
• 1.152 (18.0.475) Removing built plugins from Labs.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.156 (18.0.485) FBX Archive Import now properly supports skinned meshes import
  
• 1.156 (18.0.485) MatCap Shader works in Viewport again
  
• 1.154 (18.0.481) Updating Sweep Geometry to handle simple cases better
  
• 1.154 (18.0.481) Vertex Animation Texture ROP would fail to initialise Unity settings.
  
• 1.153 (18.0.479) Fixing an issue with Distance From Borders giving a python error
  

11 Jun 2020
New Tools

• 1.157 (18.0.492) Added Group by Measure .This tool will feature a lot of options to group geometry based on measured properties. Currently limited to Eccentricity (squaredness) of primitives.
  
• 1.157 (18.0.492) Added HF Combine Masks. This tool allows you to very easily do some layering logic to create useful masks. Ex: Create a new layer that is everything except grass layer, water layer, tree layer with a simple multiparm. No need to create multiple HF Layer nodes anymore.
  

Updates

• 1.159 (18.0.494) Added Unreal content plugin for 4.24
  
• 1.158 (18.0.493) RBD Fracture, Simple RBD, RBD Solver, RBD Director are now DEPRECATED. All functionality of these nodes has been implemented into the new RBD Material Fracture nodes and others, and are therefore no longer needed. As usual, nodes are hidden for backwards compatability but will be removed in future updates.
  
• 1.158 (18.0.493) VoxelMesh will now throw a warning if you feed it open geometry
  
• 1.158 (18.0.493) Niagara Interpolate is now DEPRECATED, and therefore hidden. It is still part of the toolset and work with existing files to be backward compatible, but will be removed in the future.
  
• 1.157 (18.0.492) Major update to Vertex Animation Textures ROP including a Unity package with shadergraph materials for URP and a content plugin for Unreal. Please refer to the node's documentation for more details.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.157 (18.0.492) Fixed a regression in Gaea Tor Processor that would cause changes to the parm interface to not recook the graph.
  

25 Jun 2020
New Tools

• 1.168 (18.0.506) Added Ruler to the toolset. This is a nodeless python state accessible from the labs shelf menu. It allows for the user to make interactive measurements in the viewport on currently displayed SOP geometry.
  
• 1.165 (18.0.501) New Star SOP allows you to make Star shapes easily
  
• 1.164 (18.0.500) Added Dem Bones Skinning Converter to Labs. Dem Bones Skinning Converter is a tool from EA that can convert any non-changing topology deforming mesh sequence into a bone based animation. For more information see https://github.com/electronicarts/dem-bones [github.com]
  
• 1.160 (18.0.495) Added Mesh Sharpen. The Mesh Sharpen tool sharpens the geometry based on the curvature found on the mesh. It does so by pushing the points on the mesh towards the higher curvature regions, therefore “sharpening” those regions. This tool is a community contribution from Jake Rice - @TearsOfJake
  
• 1.159 (18.0.494) Added HF Insert Mask. This tool quickly allows you to insert a mask from a second heightfield into your primary heightfield.
  

Updates

• 1.169 (18.0.507) Ruler tool now supports undoing with Ctrl-Z.
  
• 1.168 (18.0.506) Pyro Preview ROP has now been DEPRECATED. The default viewport shader has caught up with the Mantra Render to no longer need this tool. As usual, the tool will still be available to those who are using it / need it.. Just hidden. It will get removed in the future.
  
• 1.163 (18.0.499) If no composite view exists when attempting to Set Composite View on the Texture Sheet ROP a message will be displayed.
  
• 1.163 (18.0.499) FBX Archive Import now properly handles hierarchies of geo nodes with materials assigned on the obj level.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.169 (18.0.507) Fixed Labs PBR Shader GLSL warning that popped up when assigning the material.
  
• 1.169 (18.0.507) Fixed Gaea Tor Processor issue where it would fail when Labs was installed in a location where there are multiple dots or spaces in the install path.
  
• 1.163 (18.0.499) Texture Sheet ROP wouldn't render normals if the input had a post-process node in the network. Removed material attribute for normal rendering.
  
• 1.163 (18.0.499) Games Baker will skip built-in channels if none are selected. If there are no custom channels the baker will skip the rendering process and display a message.
  
• 1.163 (18.0.499) Added time dependency for the highpoly input to the MapsBaker
  
• 1.163 (18.0.499) MapsBaker auto-cook works again. Also moved the toggle to enable it to the top of the parm interface and renamed the “Bake” button to “Render”
  
• 1.160 (18.0.495) Fixed the Isolate Group parm on the RBD to FBX rop.
  
• 1.160 (18.0.495) QuickMat MatCap shader default texture path is now correct again.
  

09 Jul 2020
New Tools

• 1.172 (18.0.516) Added the ability to the open crashfile menu option to open a file browser that loads up the TEMP directory. Useful for when you are looking for a different file not related to the most recent one.
  

Updates

• 1.173 (18.0.521) Fixing MikkT Normal baking in Maps Baker
  
• 1.172 (18.0.516) Removed 2nd prompt in the Open Crashfile menu option.
  
• 1.172 (18.0.516) Creating an Axis Align node will now drop down a “Match Size” node instead. It has the exact same functionality (And some more) and should therefore not affect your workflow. If you have any python scripts generating networks with this node in it, please check they still work.
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.174 (18.0.521) Fixed UDIMs normal maps on Maps Baker
  
• 1.173 (18.0.521) Fixed Exoside QuadRemesher Vertex Colors not being written out properly
  
• 1.173 (18.0.521) Fixing offset issue on Sine Wave SOP
  
• 1.172 (18.0.516) Fixed limitation for MapsBaker where any bakes with highpoly geometry with more than 16million polygons would get noisy results. Baking up to 1,946,157,056 polygons should be OK now.
  
• Fixed limitation for MapsBaker where any bakes with highpoly geometry with more than 16million polygons would get noisy results. Baking up to 1,946,157,056 polygons should be OK now.
  
  

06 Aug 2020
New Tools

• 1.187 (18.0.544) Added Reset Viewport button under the Help menu. Pressing this button will delete all active sceneviewers and make new copies that inherit most settings. If it misses some, please send an RFE.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added Diff Data TOP. This node will diff data and tell you if they are identical, and if not, what the differences are between the file pairs.
  
• 1.182 (18.0.533) Added Grid Texture COP as a way to very easily create checkerboard textures, and mainly to compare texeldensities in a scene.
  

Updates

• 1.189 (18.0.546) Added ThicknessMap support to MapsBaker
  
• 1.189 (18.0.546) Added docs icon and examplefile for Lighting sop.
  
• 1.189 (18.0.546) Added docs icon and examplefile for Road Generator sop.
  
• 1.188 (18.0.545) Added the ability to control the number of samples per pixel in MapsBaker. A lot of users used to bake at a larger resolution and then downscale, this is now built in.
  
• 1.188 (18.0.545) Changed how heightmaps get generated from MapsBaker. The image is now 16bit for non-HDR exports, the tool allows you to specify what range should be used for the remapping, and you can also configure the tool to use a different file format for the heightmap export. (full-range 32bit EXR)
  
• 1.187 (18.0.544) Added docs icon and examplefile for Group by Measure sop.
  
• 1.187 (18.0.544) Added docs icon and examplefile for HF Combine Masks sop.
  
• 1.187 (18.0.544) Added docs icon and examplefile for Distance from Border sop.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile for the RizomUV processor.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile for Cut Geometry to Partitions TOP. Also fixed a parameter spelling error.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile for Texel Density sop.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile for Filter by Value top.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile + tests for 2D WaveFunctionCollapse sop.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs icon and examplefile for Pick and Place SOP.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile for Grid Texture COP. Also reordered some parameters to be consistent with other nodes
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added docs and examplefile for Attribute Value Replace.
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Updated Houdini Expression Editor to v1.4.6. Courtesy of CG Toolbox - http://cgtoolbox.com/houdini-expression-editor [cgtoolbox.com]
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Added support for baking Labs PBR Shader to MapsBaker
  
• 1.185 (18.0.540) Pick and Place tool now has 5deg stepping option.
  
• 1.182 (18.0.533) Trim Texture Utility can now generate a trim sheet from an ID map.
  
• 1.182 (18.0.533) Niagara RBD Split and Niagara Impacts sops have not been DEPRECATED due to the V2 of the plugin. The impact data for example now gets generated directly by the RBD SOP solver.
  
• 1.182 (18.0.533) Extract Silhouette now produces proper results for silhouette mode on orthographic cameras plugged into the second input.
  
• 1.180 (18.0.531) Added ability to have the Alpha map use “UV Fill” instead of reporting if the tracing hit something. This is useful if you want to get an alpha map that reports where valid UVs are located. Also gave a name to all hidden label parms
  
• 1.179 (18.0.526) Updated DemBones to 1.2.0. The tool now generates a root bone by default, and also has some new parameters that will potentially significantly reduce solve time on complex simulations that require a high number of iterations to solve.
  
• 1.179 (18.0.526) Static Fracture Export will now show an error when you specify an attribute to export with that does not exist. Also added a dropdown menu on the parameter field, for autofill. These should help with usability & UX.
  
• 1.178 (18.0.524) Updated DemBones SkinningConverter executables to 1.1.0
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.187 (18.0.544) Fixed issue in SkinningConverterUtility that would cause skinning to be lost on FBX export.
  
• 1.184 (18.0.537) Fixed regression on generated maps in MapsBaker
  
• 1.181 (18.0.532) Fixed issue in Gaea Tor Processor where the output of the node would not match the input if the centroid was not centered on the origin.
  
• 1.180 (18.0.531) Fixed issue in MapsBaker where baking very large objects (in size not polycount) would crash Houdini.
  
• 1.180 (18.0.531) Fixed error where Detail Mesh would throw an error if no uv seams had been found.
  
• 1.180 (18.0.531) Changed how Gaea Tor Processor assigns textures to the terrain. This makes it work correctly with HF Convert.
  
• 1.177 (18.0.524) Updating the GoZ export to be less agressive about triangulating faces
  

03 Sep 2020
New Tools

• 1.195 (18.0.558) DeMosaic COP will break up a subuv/flipbook/mosaic image back into its original frames
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) There is now a Quick Tip! menu option under the Help menu. This will show you a variety of curated tips submitted by the community.
  

Updates

• 1.202 (18.0.569) Pick and Place is now also able to delete previously placed objects with CNTRL+MMB clicking on them.
  
• 1.202 (18.0.569) Decal Projector now has an option to scale the decal by the aspect ratio of the decal image
  
• 1.202 (18.0.569) Align and Distribute has the ability to disable local alignment and bounding box relativeness of the spacing
  
• 1.201 (18.0.569) TexelDensity tool now allows for specifying a group, and also lets you pick the UV attribute to use.
  
• 1.200 (18.0.567) Added the ability to Pick and Place to ignore previously placed geometry. This is useful on for example placing foliage that should be close to eachother, without them trying to place themselves on other geometry. This behavior can be enabled by unticking the “Place on Other” checkbox in the rightclick menu.
  
• 1.200 (18.0.567) MapsBaker now has the ability to take opacitymaps into account while baking. This is extremely useful for baking card geometry with opacitymaps applied. This is a pretty unique feature for the baker, since not a lot of baking solutions have this ability. A new toggle has been added under the advanced collapsible to enable it. It has been disabled by default for speed reasons.
  
• 1.200 (18.0.567) Updated PivotPainter examplefile and tutorial video to be more recent.
  
• 1.200 (18.0.567) Data Diff TOP changed internal attribdelete to comply with TOP changes.
  
• 1.197 (18.0.560) Exposed the FBX export scale on SimpleBaker
  
• 1.197 (18.0.560) Pick and Place now allows you to move previously placed objects by holding down CNTRL and dragging them. Holding shift as a modifier will also make it adjust scale and rotation.
  
• 1.196 (18.0.559) Adding documentation to the Texture Sheets ROP
  
• 1.196 (18.0.559) Auto UV now allows you to specify what UDIM tile to put UVs in.
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Updated Exoside QuadRemesher to 1.1. Also added examplefile.
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Added docs to Automatic Trim Texture tool.
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Trim Texture docs, icon and updated examplefile.
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Added Trim Texture Utility Docs, Icon, Images and Examplescene
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Added docs, image, icon and examplescene for Triplanar Displace
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Added boxcutter icon, docs and examplescene.
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Added Star Docs, icon and example scene.
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Added RC Register Images documentation and icon.
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Added documentation, icon and cleaned examplefile for Mesh Tiler
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Made Gaea Tor Processor python 3 compatible, and added written docs and images. Also added demo scene files.
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Improved upon mechanic that detects if floors are able to be deconstructed into building modules in Building Generator. Also added the ability to snap input geometry to floor height. This helps preparing geometry for slicing, and therefore improve the number of use-cases.
  
  

Bug Fixes

• 1.202 (18.0.569) Fixing Edge support on the Rizom UV Processor SOP
  
• 1.202 (18.0.569) Fixing a small bug on Terrain Mesh where it would give the wrong result with a single tile
  
• 1.202 (18.0.569) Lot Subdivision random seed no longer only affects the cluster
  
• 1.201 (18.0.569) Fixed issue in pick and place where the tool would throw an error if you would enable “copy previous scale” when placing the first object. It will now just use a scale of 1.
  
• 1.200 (18.0.567) Pick and Place no longer throws an error when clicking outside the collision surface
  
• 1.197 (18.0.560) Changed default font for Grid Texture COP. This to make it compatible with Linux where the original Arial font is not available. Default is now Lato Bold.
  
• 1.195 (18.0.558) Fixing PBR Shader mantra warning about mikkt parameter
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Small fix on GoZ being more tolerant of degenerate triangles
  
• 1.193 (18.0.554) Road Generator is now more robust to missing width attributes
  

1 Oct 2020
New Tools

• 1.206 (18.0.581) Blackbody COP generates a ramp using the same function as the pyro shader
  

Updates

• 1.212 (18.0.589) Added ability to generate path attribute when importing FBX with hierarchy using FBX Archive Import sop. Can now also pack before merging.
  
• 1.211 (18.0.588) Updated Niagara exporter docs with information about attribute interpolation
  
• 1.211 (18.0.588) Added the ability to make pop sims loop aswell in Make Loop. Community contribution from Matt Estela - @thecgwiki Please note that this update is a version bump, and therefore does not affect already created instances of the tool. (Make a new node to get it) Also updated example file
  
• 1.209 (18.0.584) Added a preset to the Star sop.
  
• 1.207 (18.0.582) VHDA now allows you to specify a custom save location for HDAs when either creating new HDAs, but also when simply incrementing versions.
  
• 1.207 (18.0.582) Changing the Blackbody COP a bit so that the ramp generated has a built in black value instead of needing to multiply against the mask.
  
• 1.206 (18.0.581) VHDA menu is now relocated under “Match Current Definition”. This to not throw off anyone with musclememory on that option.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixing a bug with VAT where the color and scale wouldn't update on the rigid method. Also properly exporting pscale attribute
  
• 1.211 (18.0.588) Fixing Rizom Processor on Linux
  
• 1.211 (18.0.588) Updating VAT 2.1 to handle PNGs properly and export out unpremultiplied images and have the alphas default to 1 instead of 0
  
• 1.209 (18.0.584) Fixed issue in Volume Texture where changing the resolution of the exported volumetexture with the presets system did not actually change the resolution and slices amount.
  
• 1.208 (18.0.583) Missing expression on Mapbox node
  
• 1.206 (18.0.581) Fixing issue where Rizom would start minimized and not process until maximize in Rizom Processor node with Rizom 2020
  
• 1.206 (18.0.581) Fixing errors in the Rizom Optimize node with Rizom 2020
  

EDIT:
Apologies for the missing build numbers. The script generating this changelog uses the tags on Github to figure out Houdini build numbers, but the tags on Github stopped being made due to a change in release mechanism. (This has since been resolved)

03 Nov 2020
New Tools

• Added Sticker Picker. This is a tool that allows you to place stickers in the network editor to annotate your network. You are also able to add your own stickers, about which you can read in the documentation.
  
• Added Neuron Mocap, which allows for the streaming of live mocap data from Axis Studio by Perception Neuron. The streamed data is usable by KineFX.
  
• Added WorkItem Import sop. This tool allows you to very easily import input and output files of work-items in PDG into SOPs. To be used as either a debugging tool, or as a way to handle data flowing into and out of PDG.
  

Updates

• The Sketchfab ROP and SOP now have the ability to also export transparency, emission and occlusion maps on principledshader::2.0 materials.
  
• Exposed the trail count on the Vectorfield Exporter. Also updated default export directory to not be $HIP. Also added some logic to create the export directory if it does not exist yet.
  
• Mapbox now works in 18.5, and is now also python 3 compatible.
  
• OSM Import now works in 18.5, and is now also python 3 compatible.
  
• Made Gameres sop use latest version of MapsBaker. Also fixed minor MapsBaker py3 issue
  
• All python stored in MainMenuCommon.xml is now py3 compatible
  
• Paul and Luiz testgeometry is now rigged using KineFX.
  
• Made AssetTools module python 3 compatible. This means no more errors when rightclicking HDAs in the network editor.
  

Bug Fixes

• LOD Create is now also able to process almost all test geo in Houdini.
  
• LOD Create can now properly consolidate materials found on materials using embedded textures. Fixed by Owen Mccubbin.
  
• Fixed redirect issue in docs for Straight Skeleton 3D.
  
• Fixed bug in Terrain Layer Export and Import where the sizes would be incorrectly remapped between the two IO processes when using non-square outputs. The tools now have parms for reading and specifying Voxel Sizes so you have a consistent measure of usit between IO. Also set the default export directory on the Export rop.