Download free custom Houdini tools from Project Pegasus
SideFX has begun releasing the custom Houdini tools it developed for Project Pegasus, its in-house tech demo intended to test workflows for building open-world 3D environments.
The first release, the Flora tools, are designed for modeling 3D plants, and are described as prototypes of “what could come with future Houdini foliage tools”.
Project Pegasus: building open worlds in UE5 with procedural Houdini content
Unveiled last year, Project Pegasus is an in-house tech demo designed to test Houdini’s procedural workflows for creating an open-world 3D environment that integrates with the latest technologies in Unreal Engine 5.
Whereas its predecessor, Project Titan, focused on urban environments, Project Pegasus explores the creation of a rural landscape, with terrain, vegetation, plus a few man-made objects like farm buildings and dry stone walls.
The result could be used for VFX or motion graphics projects as well as in game development.
Over the past two months, SideFX has released a series of tutorials based around the demo, including videos on Houdini’s terrain-generation tools and the new cloud tools in Houdini 20.
The tutorials also showcase workflows integrating Houdini with Unreal Engine 5, including how to use a Houdini PDG network to convert a basic input mesh to a high-poly asset using UE5’s Nanite virtualized geometry system.
Download the custom Flora tools from Project Pegasus
As well as the videos, SideFX has now released the Flora tools it developed for the project.
A set of “very experimental” tools for creating vegetation, they are described as “prototypes … of what could come with future Houdini foliage tools”.
According to SideFX, they represent a workflow midway between procedural modeling and simulation of foliage growth.
The files themselves are accompanied by videos explaining how the Flora nodes work, and showing them in use to create a Scots pine tree.
Pricing and system requirements
The Flora tools are available free as Houdini .hip and .hda files that can be imported and edited in DCC tools compatible with Houdini Engine, including 3ds Max, Maya, Unity and UE5.
Houdini and Houdini Engine are both commercial products: you can find current pricing here.
Read more about Project Pegasus on SideFX’s website
Download the Project Pegasus Flora tools
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