SideFX has begun releasing custom Houdini tools developed for Project Grot, their internal technology demonstration designed to showcase procedural world creation techniques for video game development.
Procedural Tools for Game Development
So far, two tools have been released: one for generating procedural ruins and another for generating procedural strands of flesh, both available as .hda files that can be used in Unreal Engine.
Project Grot: A Demo for World Creation in Video Games
Like Project Titan from 2022, Project Grot is an internal technology demonstration aimed at testing procedural workflows for creating 3D environmental content for use in video games.
The artist-directed scene shows an ancient environment, similar to a cave, partially filled with lava, with walls and rocks connected by organic strands that resemble flesh. This scenario was created by a team of five artists who worked under a two-month deadline. The custom tools created in Houdini were then used to design the level within Unreal Engine 5.
Tools Available for Download
So far, two of the custom procedural tools have been released to the public:
- Procedural Ruins Generator: Allows artists to transform blocking geometry into high-resolution detailed meshes, applying vertex colors to simulate procedural damage on surfaces.
- Procedural Flesh Strands Generator: Uses raycasting to project curves between surfaces in the scene that are then turned into flesh, grouping the curves based on their proximity to give an organic structure to the results.
On the main Project Grot page, you can also find videos (without downloadable support files) about creating the volcanic landscape, lava, and the rock generation tool.
Requirements and Pricing
The Project Grot tools are available for free as .hip and .hda files that can be imported and edited in DCC applications compatible with Houdini Engine, including Unreal Engine.
To use the .hda files in Unreal Engine 5, you will need the Houdini Engine plugin for Unreal, which is included in the Houdini installer and is free for commercial projects. However, it only works with commercial Houdini licenses, not with the free Houdini Apprentice licenses.
You can check Houdini's pricing and system requirements in the story about Houdini 20.5.