Houdini is a 3D animation and visual effects software that has gained popularity among game developers for its powerful tools and capabilities. Houdini offers game developers a versatile and flexible solution for creating high-quality game assets. Its node-based system allows artists to quickly build, modify and iterate on their models, making it ideal for fast-paced game development.
More info about Houdini here - Houdini Website
We use Houdini mainly for tasks that can be repeated or mostly that can be automated. For example, the creation of LOD models, the creation of collision objects, or even for creating masks.
For example, if we want the buildings to be covered with snow, nicely from top to bottom, so that there is no snow under the roof, it is quite a problem. Unity cannot tell what is below or above, or it would take a lot of computing power. That's why we automated the rendering of the mask to UV2, where it seems like the light is casting from above, and everywhere it hits, there will be snow, and where not, there will be no snow, obviously.
Houdini processes all the buildings together, creates a new UV space for all buildings, and renders a black-and-white mask. The amazing thing is that if we add or modify buildings in the future, we just need to press one button, and everything will be generated again automatically.
Brilliant, isn't it?
We also use Microsoft's Simplygon solution, free for smaller teams like us. It can beautifully, quickly, and effectively reduce the polycount of models. Connecting it to a simple loop and a bit of python code will always help us process all models automatically and save them to disk.
How much time can we save? At least hundreds of hours if one person had to do it all manually, not to mention if the masks had to be drawn by hand.
See you in the next dev blog!