How to Install the Houdini Engine for Unreal Engine
How to Install the Houdini Engine for Unreal Engine
To install Houdini Engine for Unreal we need to make one of two choices. Do we want to install Houdini Engine locally for all instances of Unreal? Or do we want to install the Houdini Engine plug-in so that it exists within the project? Let’s examine both options.
Installing Unreal Engine locally for all Unreal Projects
One, you are working only on a single machine on personal projects. Two, you use Houdini Engine on every project. These are really only two valid reasons for installing the plug-in this way. You need to install the Houdini Engine folder into the Unreal Engine version install. Just copy the plug-in and paste it into:
The Houdini Engine plug-in is in your Houdini install directory. Usually:
C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini Engine\Unreal\19.5.368\5.0\HoudiniEngine
The Unreal plug-in folder is in your Epic install directory. Something like:
Epic Games\UE_5.0\Engine\Plugins\runtime
It used to be that the plug-in was not able to be used at runtime. We can now have the Houdini Engine plug-in installed for runtime builds. This does not mean that we can call any Houdini Digital Asset within our .exe. What it means is that we can leave our world-building assets as HDAs. We no longer have to bake everything to a .uasset. This is a huge benefit. Imagine a situation where you are working on a published project. You would not want to have to bake everything out and keep on developing. This way you can develop with your Houdini Digital Assets. You can build your executable or app, and keep your HDAs.
Installing Unreal Engine on a Per-Project Basis
this is the best option for using the Houdini Engine with Unreal Engine. This is also very simple to do. You need to navigate to your Unreal Engine project. At the root of your project, you just need to create a folder named “plugins”. Once you have this folder in place, paste the correct version of the Houdini Engine plug-in.
Your Unreal project will now have the Houdini Engine Plug-in installed.
How to keep track of your Houdini Digital Assets with the houdini.env File
If you work over a network then you can use the houdini.env file to locate any Houdini Digital Assets.
The easiest way is to just add your directory to the HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH. I always recommend using file paths rather than drive letters from a mapped network drive. Both will work though. This looks like this:
\\MyServerName\MyHoudiniDigitalAsseFolderName\
D::\MyHoudiniDigitalAsseFolderName\