Install SideFX Houdini plug-ins for NVIDIA Blast

To create NVIDIA Blast assets, you must install a set of plug-ins and Houdini Digital Assets for SideFX Houdini.

Note
NVIDIA Blast for Lumberyard requires a SideFX Houdini commercial or indie license to create assets. The apprentice license is not sufficient. For more information on Houdini, see SideFX’s home page .
The precompiled Houdini plug-ins supplied with the NVIDIA Blast gem require Houdini 18.0.

Contents

• Install NVIDIA Blast plug-ins
• Enable the Blast tool shelf

Install NVIDIA Blast plug-ins

To install plug-ins

1. Run install_plugin.bat from the houdini directory located at lumberyard_installation\dev\Gems\Blast\houdini.

2. Grant the installer script administrator privileges when requested.

   The plug-ins are installed into various directories in C:\Users\user_name\Documents\houdini18.0\.

3. To verify the installation, you can check for the following files in your Houdini user directory.

   The C:\Users\user_name\Documents\houdini18.0\otls directory contains these three files:

   • blastExport.hda
   • fractureHierarchy.hda
   • fractureSingle.hda

   The C:\Users\user_name\Documents\houdini18.0\toolbar directory contains these three files:

   • default.shelf
   • Fracture.shelf
   • shelf_tool_assets.json

   The C:\Users\user_name\Documents\houdini18.0\dso directory contains these five files:

   • BlastExportPlugin.dll
   • BlastExportPlugin.exp
   • BlastExportPlugin.ilk
   • BlastExportPlugin.lib
   • BlastExportPlugin.pdb

   The C:\Users\user_name\Documents\houdini18.0\dependencies directory contains eleven NvBlast*.dll files and four PhysX*.dll files.

4. Verify that the installation script has added your houdini user directory to the PATH environment variable in Windows:

   C:\Users\user_name\Documents\houdini18.0\

Note
If Houdini is running prior to installation of the NVIDIA Blast tools for Houdini, restart Houdini for the changes to take effect.

Important
Some Houdini installations create the Houdini user directory at C:\Users\user_name\houdini18.0\ rather than in the Documents directory. If Houdini does not load the NVIDIA Blast tools, check to see if Houdini has created a user directory at C:\Users\user_name\houdini18.0\. If the directory exists and contains Houdini files such as dso.cache, move the above files to C:\Users\user_name\houdini18.0\ and add C:\Users\user_name\houdini18.0\ to the PATH environment variable.

Enable the Blast tool shelf

The NVIDIA Blast installation for Houdini includes a tool shelf that you can enable to speed up the process of creating assets for NVIDIA Blast.

To enable the Blast tool shelf

1. In Houdini, choose the + button in the Toolbar to the far right.

2. From the list, choose Shelves to expose the Shelf list.

3. From the Shelf list choose Fracture tools for Blast to add the shelf to the Toolbar.