Before you can use Redshift in Houdini, you have to tell Houdini where the Redshift plugins are located on your system. The location of the Houdini plugins must be established in one of two ways, editing a houdini.env file or creating a Houdini .json package file. This must be done for each version of Houdini you are using.
After installation, Redshift and the Houdini plugin will be installed in the /usr/redshift default folder along with your log files, license file (if using a node-locked license), and the Redshift preferences..
The Houdini plugin files are located in the main Redshift installation folder:
- Houdini:
/usr/redshift/redshift4houdini/XX.X
Solaris Configuration
On Linux, establishing a link to the Solaris plugins requires a different method from other operating systems. Instead of being included in the .env or .json file, the environment variable "PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME" needs to be added to the launch script for Houdini or used as a system level environment variable. This variable should point to the Solaris plugin files.
The Solaris plugin files are located in the main Redshift installation folder:
- Solaris: /usr/redshift/redshift4solaris/XX.X
Houdini .env configuration
Each user’s home Houdini directory can contain a
houdini.env file you can use to specify environment variables. The houdini.env file on Linux is located at ~/houdiniX.X/houdini.env (for example: ~/houdini20.0/houdini.env)
Edit your houdini.env file to include the following lines:
HOUDINI_DSO_ERROR = 2
PATH = "/usr/redshift/bin:$PATH"
HOUDINI_PATH = "/usr/redshift/redshift4houdini/20.0.506;&"
OCIO Support & Warnings
If you want OCIO support in Solaris, Mplay, or to avoid OCIO warnings in Houdini 20, you should force Houdini to use Redshift's default OCIO config by adding the following line to your Houdini .env configuration:
OCIO = "/usr/redshift/data/OCIO/config.ocio"
Note: This line should be added to the .env config even if you configure Redshift using a Houdini package
If you switch to the Redshift OCIO config and load a scene you already started with the Houdini OCIO config you may need to update the camera parameters so it recognizes the OCIO change. This can be accomplished by selecting the cameras in your scene and pressing the "CamParms" button highlighted in the image below. Or you can automatically update all cameras in the scene by using the "Redshift_cameraSpareParameters" command in the Houdini Textport.
Houdini package configuration
A Houdini package is a .json file that can be created and used to configure Redshift for Houdini instead of editing a Houdini .env file. It is generally easier to manage and maintain since they can be separated from other plugin configurations unlike in a .env file where multiple plugins share the same file. For more information, please see the Houdini Packages help page.
Create a Houdini package for Redshift that contains the following:
{
"env":[
{"RS_PLUGIN_VERSION" : "${HOUDINI_VERSION}"},
{"REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH": "/usr/redshift"},
{"HOUDINI_PATH": "${REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH}/redshift4houdini/${RS_PLUGIN_VERSION}"},
{"PATH": "${REDSHIFT_COREDATAPATH}/bin"},
]
}
Redshift supports the following Houdini versions
