Houdini Real Time Destruction to Unreal 5

Technical & Engine Help Unreal Engine Help
#1

Hey guys,

I was using APEX plugin for destruction in UE4, but now when we moved to UE5 there is no more an option to import chunks for my destrcutable mesh.

Instead, I can only import FBX, I see the physics asset and all the bones that are created from Houdini, but it seems that Chaos is not recognizing it as destructive mesh.

Could anyone shade the proper workflow for fracturing in Houdini and importing the fractured object back to Unreal Engine 5.1

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sing it as a destructible mesh for a reason.

#2

Welcome to UE5 :stuck_out_tongue:
Basically, Apex has been deprecated in favour of Chaos.
…I have actually never tried, but it seems to be sligtly tricky, to get your custom fracturing from Houdini → Unreal. At least I couldn’t find a great ‘official’ solution. Here is something from SideFX:
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/unreal/chaosintegration.html

If it’s not a complicated fracture, you could always try your hands at using the new chaos fracture tools.

Alternatively, if you do not need realtime collision, the default solution would be VATs ( Vertex Animation Textures). SideFX has different VAT tools for different occasions (RigidBody, SoftBody, Liquids etc.):

#3

Unfortunately we need collision, the guide from SideFX is for building HDA with Houdini Engine, this is the option we are going for if we cannot find solution.

I wanted to see if there is a way to import it from external source since it’s quite a simple process. But yet again, like most new features nothing is really working, and if it does it breaks something old.

#4

Houdini to Unreal

I have never tried this but it seems like a well-integrated approach to building the HDA and just generating the geo. Than you procced with the chaos system as usual.

https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/unreal/chaosintegration.html

#5

Hey, for anyone interested. I have built an HDA that works with the Houdini Engine and can be fractured and sent to geometry collection. There are no limitations for the use other than reselling it as your own personal tool.

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#6

Thank you for sharing!

#7

:face_with_head_bandage:I am sure it will cause the program to crash after using UE5.3.2 Houdini19.5.773

LoginId:269de2c345ea8fd06466389ca874efb0
EpicAccountId:cd3019b0ecef41e0ac2b2a2bad8cab90

Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x0000000000000004

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#8

Usually, it’s build for 5.1, but the HDA should work with any version of UE. From the logs I can see that your Houdini Engine is crashing not the HDA, try fresh install of Houdini, also it’s advised to use older versions not the latest from both UE and Houdini unless you actually need it for smth particular, hope that helps.

#9

In its current stake the HDA is limited, because it’s fracturing inside UE which can cause to use a lot of ram for importing all pieces at once, I will be updating the HDA where it will use slightly different method for importing each piece individually, which will let it scale and upload large scale fracture with thousands of small pieces

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