Unveiling Game Asset Workflows: Houdini Freely Releases Methods Used in Project Elderwood Demo
A series of exciting new pipelines and tools for creating game content has been revealed as part of the Project Elderwood demonstration. These innovative workflows, showcased in the tech demo, highlight Houdini's procedural power tailored for game asset pipelines.
Scalable Cliff-Generation Pipeline
The scalable cliff-generation pipeline, a key component of Project Elderwood, utilises Houdini's procedural nodes, including the new inflate node in Houdini 20.5 and the cluster SOP. This pipeline allows for fast iteration and flexible artistic control with minimal simulation, enabling the efficient creation of natural cliff assets suitable for adventure game environments.
Ruinify Tool
Another notable tool unveiled is the Ruinify tool, a procedural asset tool for converting low-poly blockout meshes into detailed ruined assets. The Ruinify tool incorporates techniques such as Voronoi fracturing, polygon-to-VDB conversions, decimation, and edge damage/sediment deposition effects. It runs within Unreal Engine and automates mesh processing with proper material and vertex color assignments.
Natsura Plugin/Toolkit
Project Elderwood also features the Natsura plugin, a plant-generation toolkit integrated inside Houdini using a modular, node-based, parametric approach combined with botanical simulation and rules-based growth (including gravitropism and phototropism). This tool supports collision objects for environment-aware plant growth, generating complex vegetation like live trees efficiently for games and VFX.
Material Creation Workflows
Tutorials for creating tiling materials from raw high-poly photogrammetry scans using the Copernicus tools in Houdini are also available. This process involves building functions for tiling, HSV equalization, and clone stamping to prepare game-ready textures.
Detailed tutorials, learning materials, and Unreal Engine project files related to Project Elderwood can be found on the official SideFX project page for Project Elderwood. The Unreal files showcase scenes with ruins, foliage, and terrain, designed to be used with Houdini Engine integration inside Unreal for procedural asset workflows.
Key resources for these new pipelines and tools can be found below:
| Resource | Description | Link Source | |-------------------------|------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Project Elderwood page | Tutorials, videos, and Unreal project files | SideFX Project Elderwood | | Ruinify tutorial | Step-by-step guide on ruin asset creation | SideFX Ruinify tutorial | | Cliffs tutorial series | Intermediate tutorial on procedural cliff building | SideFX Cliffs tutorial | | Natsura toolkit | Early access plant-generation plugin details | CGChannel Natsura article | | Free workflows overview | Summary of pipelines and tools demonstrated | CreativeBloq overview |
These workflows and tools provide a comprehensive pipeline setup for creating natural environments and detailed ruined assets with procedural flexibility optimised for game production.
To begin using these pipelines, visit the Project Elderwood page on SideFX's website to access official tutorials and download the Unreal Engine project files. You will need Houdini Engine installed and integrated with Unreal Engine to handle the procedural assets effectively. The Natsura plugin is currently in early access/beta; you can request or get early access from SideFX.
- The scalable cliff-generation pipeline, a crucial part of Project Elderwood, uses Houdini's inflate node and cluster SOP for generating natural cliff assets, offering artistically controlled creation with minimal simulation.
- The Ruinify tool, another significant asset, transforms low-poly blockout meshes into intricate ruined assets, incorporating techniques like Voronoi fracturing and edge damage/sediment deposition effects.
- The Natsura plugin, an integrated part of Houdini, uses a modular, node-based, parametric approach for plant generation, featuring botanical simulation and rules-based growth.
- Tutorials for creating tiling materials from photogrammetry scans with Houdini's Copernicus tools involve building functions for tiling, HSV equalization, and clone stamping.
- Detailed tutorials, learning materials, and Unreal Engine project files related to Project Elderwood can be found on the official SideFX project page, showcasing scenes with ruins, foliage, and terrain.
- To create natural environments and detailed ruined assets, artists can benefit from the comprehensive pipeline setup provided by the outlined workflows and tools, optimized for game production.
- To access official tutorials and download the UnrealEngine project files, visit the Project Elderwood page on SideFX's website; Houdini Engine is required for effective procedural asset handling, while the Natsura plugin is currently in early access/beta.
