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Skyguard - Procedural Environment HDAs

Some breakdowns on my HDA tools for our capstone game, Skyguard!
The game takes place on a small fleet of 3 steampunk airships, which the players have to defend from onslaughts of grungy robots.
I was tasked with learning the Houdini Engine for Unreal. I had only a little prior experience with Houdini HDAs prior to Skyguard, so I fully threw myself into learning this new workflow.

I created a simple pipe tool, two different rope tools, and a fencing tool.
These were a great help to our other environment artists to more dynamically decorate our ships!
The tools use in-engine instances for as much as it can for the sake of efficiency and generates unique Houdini mesh for the pipes and ropes themselves.

You can download Skyguard for free here once it releases!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3173250/SKYGUARD/

The pipe itself was a swept mesh with the flanges and "gizmos" being instanced unreal actors to aid in efficiency.

The pipe itself was a swept mesh with the flanges and "gizmos" being instanced unreal actors to aid in efficiency.

Pipes in usage!

Pipes in usage!

How the tool worked!

The two rope tools! One was dangling bundles and the other was block and tackle/rigging.

The two rope tools! One was dangling bundles and the other was block and tackle/rigging.

Examples of the dangling rope being used on Matthew Hunter's ship!

Examples of the dangling rope being used on Matthew Hunter's ship!

How the tool worked!

Examples of the rigging rope tool being used on Matthew Hunter's ship!

Examples of the rigging rope tool being used on Matthew Hunter's ship!

How the tool worked!

The simple fencing tool I made in action.