I was wondering if you have the time to guide me through setting up the Houdini Engine plugins on Linux. I have followed the documentation [www.sidefx.com] where some of the breadth is missing for the Linux workflow.

Current Workflow:

1. I have downloaded Unreal Engine [www.unrealengine.com] 5.4 using the .zip build option (non-source code Linux_Unreal_Engine_5.4.0.zip, Apr 23, 2024).
   
2. I have download Houdini Education 20.5.410, through the launcher.
   
3. I opened the opt/hfs20.5.410 and ran $ source houdini_setup.
   
4. I have copied over the HoudinEngine folder from the source folder inside the GitHub .zip [github.com] (that is the folder that allows Unreal to launch without errors but no plugin accessible).
   

What steps am I missing?

Hi,

Here's a slightly more detailled step by step

1. Download UE's source code
2. Build Unreal Engine - without the HE plugin, make sure the engine works, and create a new project (c++)
3. Download and install Houdini (a production build recommended) - in your case 20.5.410
4. Download the plugin's source code for the version of H you installed on the git repo's release page
https://github.com/sideeffects/HoudiniEngineForUnreal/releases [github.com]
5. Extract the plugin's source to your project's plugin folder, ideally ending p with something like:
/MyAwesomeProject/Plugins/Runtime/HoudiniEngine
6. The final step is to build the plugin - since we don't provide linux binaries
Update your project's file so it detects the plugin (GenerateProjectFiles)
Build your project - this should build the Houdini Engine plugin with it.


And yes, you need to run source houdini_setup in Houdini before launching unreal, as it sets up the need variable to identify where the Houdini Libraries are.

Hopefully this helps!