Jeremy Swigart

dpernuit
Hi,

So, my recommended workflow for PDG would be:

- Use $PDG_DIR for all paths, don't use $JOB and $HIP.
$JOB could be used if set in an env file, but setting it up properly is not as easy as PDG_DIR.
Using $HIP doesn't make sense when using Houdini Engine, since there is no HIP file.


- Expose the Working Directory parameter on the TOP Scheduler on your HDA, and set that working directory via the HDA parameters in Unreal. This ensures that both Unreal and Houdini understand that directory properly ($PDG_DIR).


- I then use that directory a my main PDG folder for the PDG Asset Link:
I place all the HDAs needed by PDG in a hda subfolder, and use "$PDG_DIR/hda/XXX" for my HDA processors.
Same thing for any input/output files, just use subfolders for them and reference them in the HDA with $PDG_DIR.

By doing that, you basically only need to worry about setting that Working Directory parameter, and having everything needed under that folder tends to make things a lot more portable.

Can you post some screenshots of the relevant settings? Clearly a number of people are having issues here still.

Something that's unclear to me about the expected work flow of Houdini in unreal is how to manage the assets in situations where there are a few artists working with Houdini, and the rest of the team that isn't working with Houdini doing other work on the map/level but still needing to see the terrain, etc.

With clarification of that in mind

• Would the working version of a map just reference the raw HDA files and let the plugin generate temp data with those assets on each users system?
  
• If so, presumably you would cook/bake them as part of a production build of the game? That makes sense.
  
• Landscapes for instance generate files to a temp folder, making it confusing as to the expectations of these assets with regards to source control and other members of a team being able to open a map with those landscapes only to see broken terrain materials.
  
• The general question. In a team that uses Houdini for terrain, etc. What is the expectation for the work flow for the artist(s) that work with Houdini, and the rest of the team that would not have the Houdini app installed, but only have the UE Houdini plugin? I found a post that suggested items from the temp folder should be source controlled, but that seems silly. Sharing select items from a temp folder that has a huge amount of temporary data seems like a terrible expectation.
  

Please clarify.