Procedural Leveldesign Houdini-UDK

The following video is a demonstration of my Graduation Project, the entire level presented was created in just one hour*.

The tool is designed to create and decorate environments based on minimal input artistic from the user / leveldesigner. but without taking away control.( like random level generators do.) The geometry is fully procedural and can be edited anytime; the rest of the procedure will automatically update.

The tool is mostly based on volumes and projection to create the main shape. It supports tunnels, landbridges, alcoves, etc and has been designed to go more then vertical, further than heightmaps can. (also with much less UV distortion)

One does not need to use curves as a input, premodeled geometry or planes work as well.
The asset placement is not limited to trees but can export any static mesh's location rotation scale or any other attributes from Houdini to the UDK.
This exporter was written by Jan Pijpers.

No manual readjusting was done to the level, although this is possible both procedurally in Houdini or manually for specific objects in the UDK.


Special thanks go to:
Jan Pijpers : .t3D export
Kim Goossens : my supervisor
Johan Woelper : procedrual stone example
"axebeak" : AO vopsop.

For more information about the tool see my documentation on it here:
http://freek3d.com/downloads/Freek_Hoekstra_Graduation_final_report_Final_PRI...

For more information about my procedural railroad system go here:
http://freek3d.com/downloads/Procedural_Railroad_Creation_Hoekstra_Freek.pdf

Thanks for watching!

Freek Hoekstra
www.Freek3D.com
info@freek3D.com
(+31) 620909427


*excluding lighting build times in UDK

music owned by WMG, Rob Dougan, Furious angels.
no copyright enfringement intended.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Houdini
• UDK
• leveldesign
• worldbuilding
• 3D
• procedural
• Unreal
• SideFX
• game
• environment
• SOP
• VOPS
• research
• realtime
• dynamic
• fast
• tool
• fractals
• Level
• Map

[hyperforce]

Hey Freek, Awesome work on this. Do you know if your generator can also create or (prep) the terrain for normal map baking?

I was looking at Procedural canyon generation for my own specialization. (How to simulate erosion). Can I use your research on terrain shaping as a basis for my project?

Greetz Erwin

[freaqie]

@hyperforce to bake normals one would only need to compare the high res to the new low res, whis can be done inside the network probably with relative ease. although you might want to take it all the way to a displacement which would give better results.

whether you can use my research i'm not sure of yet, i'd have to discuss this with my teachers and i'd have to take a look whether this would help. I was planning on creating erosion in there... (i might have found a nice way) let's see :)

[Allingby]

critics are jealous, I am jealous. Thanks to you I'm gonna learn Houdini on the side of Max. Is there any reason to use the more expensive version of Houdini for game development? Cloth dynamics and particles are useless for such, right?

[freaqie]

@Allingby

great to hear you are interested in the program too, be sure to check out the odforce forums! about the more expensive version of houdini it differs, cloth animations can sometimes be prebaked, also particles can be used to generate geometry so it's not without value, also if you were ever to need cutscenes it could be very usefull, however in most cases houdini excape should be fine for you, be sure to try the free or 99 dollar HD version (non commercial licences,but fully featured)

[calebjhoward]

This is *great*! Thanks. I'm heading the Procedural effort at EAC in Burnaby. I'll be using this to promote the concepts. Let me know if you're ever looking for a job.

[freaqie]

@calebjhoward thank you very much, I have sent you an email.

[chronus377]

As someone in the industry for seven years and currently working at a high end production company I can say what you've demonstrated here is extremely impressive for student work to say the least. I will be encouraging all of my directors to contact you with the hopes of seeing you employed on our future projects. Your entire portfolio shows so much potential. Congratulations on putting it all together!

[omgimtheboss]

blij om een nederlander te zijn :D

[YanivG]

Brilliant!

[nvhaandel]

@HarryCaray3000 The thing is that he isn't using automatic settings in Houdini, the whole Houdini system is build by himself from the ground up. Which is, in my opinion, a lot more impressive than doing something like this by hand.

[freaqie]

@HarryCaray3000

The polycount is fully adjustable and can be set manually to any count, from 5000 to half a million, after which the procedure updates everything. This means you can lower or de-res the geometry at any time based on the performance requirements. The amount of foliage can also be scaled up and down without redoing work to meet performance standards.

Furthermore, the demo shown is fully realtime on my laptop, running in a real game engine; the UDK.

Best regards Freek Hoekstra.