How to install Houdini Engine for Unreal?

Unreal Engine and Houdini – two of the most renowned tools for game development, can support each other in terms of workflow and assets since UE5. You can easily work with Houdini’s node-based workflow and load Houdini Digital Assets into the Unreal Editor, building bigger worlds with more detail while working more efficiently. In this article, let’s find out how to install Houdini Engine for Unreal, and start to work with it on your machine.

1 – Install the launcher and open it.

2 – Click Houdini > Install. Remember to login your SideFX account before that.

3 – In the Choose a Version to Install select either Production Build or Daily Build depending on your desired build version. If you need to select a specific version then select Choose Another Version and install the version desired.

4 – In the Preferences pop-up window, turn on Unreal Plug-in and click install.

Locate the Houdini Engine directory. The default location is \Side Effects Software\Houdini Engine\Unreal\X.Y.Z, with X.Y.Z means your Houdini Version.

5 – Copy the Houdini Engine folder to the Plugins folder of your Unreal directory. You can either copy it to Unreal’s engine/Plugins directory or your Unreal project’s Plugin directory.

• • • • Unreal’s directory location is \Epic Games\UE5.X\Engine\Plugins\Runtime\HoudiniEngine and the project directory is \Unreal Project\Plugins\Runtime\HoudiniEngine.

*Note

For Unreal Engine 5.0 and 5.1, you must use Unreal’s project directory.

1 – Download the HoudiniEngine-vX.X.X-Y.Y.Y-UEZ.Z-MacOS.zip from the Houdini Engine for Unreal Github repository where X.X.X is the Houdini Engine plugin version, Y.Y.Y is the Houdini version and Z.Z is the Unreal Engine version.

For macOS Apple Silicon, download HoudiniEngine-vX.X.X-Y.Y.Y-UEZ.Z-MacOS-arm64.zip instead.

2 – Unpack the downloaded .zip package. This will extract a HoudiniEngine

3 – Copy the extracted HoudiniEngine folder to the Plugins/Runtime folder of your Unreal directory. You can either copy the directory to the Unreal Engine installation (/Users/Shared/Epic Games/UE_Z.Z/Engine/Plugins/Runtime) or to your Unreal project directory (~/Documents/Unreal Projects/<MyProject>/Plugins/Runtime).

*Note

For Unreal Engine 5.0 and 5.1, you must use Unreal’s project directory.

Once you install the Houdini Engine, verify the plug-in is loaded properly.

Open a new or existing Unreal project. In the main menu, you can see Houdini Engine as a new item.

In the Houdini Engine menu, click Start Session. Then a Houdini Engine session connected confirmation appears on the bottom right.

If you get a failed to start session or errors of Houdini Engine not connecting, your Houdini version may be incorrect (the plugin’s version doesn’t match your installed Houdini version).

In the Houdini Engine menu, click on Installation Info, then check if the ‘built with’ X.Y.Z version number matches the running with Houdini version.

To change the running with Houdini version:

• • • • In the main menu, select Houdini Enginethen PluginSettings.
      • In Houdini Location, select the checkbox next to Use Custom Houdini location.
      • In Custom Houdini location, click the three dots and select the path to your Houdini version’s bin folder. The default location is \Side Effects Software\Houdini X.Y.Z\bin.
      • In Houdini Executable, select your Houdini License type.
      • Restart Unreal Engine.

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Source and images: sidefx.com