This little HDA will convert your KitBash Collection to ready-to-use USD assets for Solaris. All Materials and textures will be assigned automatically by the HDA.
It should work with any Kitbash3D Kit that offers Houdini Files and Textures.
Currently, it supports the following Solaris render delegates:
Karma
Arnold
Redshift
Make sure to have the render engine for which you are wanting to create shaders for installed.
If you would like me to add more, please let me know!
I tested this HDA with H19.5 & H19. Since the HDA uses the component builder introduced in Houdini 19, previous versions won't work. Future versions should in theory work without issues.
I just released version 10.2 which will most likely be the last version of this HDA. KitBash3D created their own Library managing Tool called Cargo. The Houdini integration is currently in Beta but works pretty well. I therefore see little point in maintaining this tool anymore. I will still publish bug fixes if needed. Thanks for anyone supporting it though!
Changelog:
v10.2
Removed Arnold as a Checkbox option (uses MaterialX)
Updated the MaterialX subnet
Removed Karma CPU shader (uses MaterialX)
Fixed Emission not working with MaterialX
Removed the Shader Collector in favor of Asset Variants.
There are 2 Variants: MaterialX and Redshift. Arnold and Karma now utilize MaterialX while RS still uses its own materials. To change which shader is utilized, go into the Asset Reference of your model, go to Variants, add a Variant, set the 'Variant Set' to mtl and the 'Variant Name' to you desired Shader. MaterialX is the default. You do not have to select it manually. Only if you desire to render with RS.This version was tested with Houdini 19.5.605 and Python 3.9
v9.1:
Added the option to generate a sim proxy in addition to the viewport proxy and render geometry.
Fixed an issue with the normal map not correctly linking up with the generated texture folder.
v9.0:
Fixed transparency being black in all shaders except Karma CPU. This is a Karma CPU bug I have no influence over, sadly.
In this update, Textures won't be saved for each USD file, but only once in a Texture folder in your output directory. All USD assets will reference that folder. This will save a huge amount of disk space.
Changed color-space from 'Auto' to 'raw' for all non-diffuse textures in Redshift
v8.1:
Fixed the Redshift Bump Map being set to 'Height Field' instead of 'Tangent-Space Normal'
v8.0:
Added extensive error handling to make it easier to use and interpret errors that may come up while using the HDA.
v7.0:
Added TOPS CPU Slot Setting to adjust how many threads TOPS will use. In previous version, this was locked to 1 thread.
Fixed Normal Map Issues with MaterialX
Fixed high reflection in Karma CPU shader.
Installation:
Drag and drop the file into your Houdini otls folder, usually located under:
Documents\houdini19.5\otls
Troubleshooting:
If your Thumbnails and USD Files have no textures, make sure that your hip file is in the same directory as the Geo folder and the texture folder. KitBash materials use $HIP, therefore this is important. If you are still having issues, check out a Texture path in one of the materials. There you will see which path Kitbash is using. I recommend using the provided hip file by KitBash, so you can get the materials.
The HDA can only create Shaders for installed render engines. If you don't have i.e. redshift installed but tick redshift in the shader settings, you will get an error.
If you get an error while creating Arnold shaders even though Arnold is installed, make sure that the env variables have been loaded successfully. You can check this by creating an Arnold material builder and in there, creating a standard surface. If the node doesn't show up, your env variables have not been loaded properly. To do so, start Houdini from its .exe, and not from a hipfile, then load the hipfile from inside Houdini. (This is not a HDA bug)
No Kitbash Models/Textures are included! This is just a Houdini Digital Asset!