– Brand new architecture for procedural terrain generation
– Based on height-field volumes in SOPs
– Full and immediate access to Houdini’s modeling arsenal
– 30+ dedicated surface operators
– Powerful erosion models
– Straightforward workflow, similar to image compositing but in 3D
– Seamless optional leveraging of Houdini’s compositing network (COPs)
– Ability to mask areas of interest with freeform curves and texture maps
– Ability to paint and override any attribute
– Support for GeoTIFF and several Lidar formats
– Native output to game engines
– Fully tileable
– Game-friendly terrain material and specialized shader for VFX use
– High-quality visualization in the viewport
– Dedicated Mantra procedural for rendering
– Very fast: hardware accelerated via OpenCL
– Native collision support for Houdini’s physical sim environment (DOPs)
Look Development – Streamlined Shader Building Workflow

SideFX Houdini 16 includes a new shader building workflow that allows for layer mixing and quick access to procedural texturing tools. Mantra has been enhanced with improved BSDFs for creating Sub-Surface Scattering, Dielectrics, Absorption and more. Game artists can leverage an improved texture baking workflow.

Architecture for single-tiered shader creation in VOPs (no SHOPs required)
– Much streamlined workflow to aid both new and existing users
– Full support for nested, unlimited shader layering
– SideFX Houdini 16 brings redesigned VOP node tiles
– Ray-traced SSS BSDF with image-plane outputs
– SideFX Houdini 16 brings support for unified nested dielectrics
– Dispersion and absorption BSDFs
– Redesigned Principled uber shader with extensive features and controls
– Updated shader gallery with new entries such as skin, wax, and mountain
– Easy OpenGL tagging of shader attributes for viewport visualization
– Viewport support for metallics, coat, occlusion, reflection and more
– Texture baking enhancements
– OpenColor IO support
– Per-pixel inspection of material stylesheet overrides in IPR
– Significant performance enhancements to Mantra
– Fine-grained, intuitive controls for the quality/performance tradeoff
– Direct rendering of HIP files containing curves and points with no Engine license
Character Animation & Rigging – Advanced Rigging Tools with Muscles

SideFX Houdini 16 new animation and rigging tools have been improving over the last few releases – and with the Auto-rigging, Muscle and Flesh architecture and Invisible rigs in Houdini 16, a complete character workflow is now in place. The new Biharmonic skin capturing will save riggers valuable time while the FEM-based muscles produce high-realism results.

Many enhancements to the Animation Editor

– Flexible constraint architecture based on VOPs and CHOPs
– Biped and quadruped auto-rigs
– Biharmonic skin capturing to diminish the need for weight painting
– Fast bone placement with medial axis support
– ‘Invisible rig’ support in Pose tool
– Spring-based and FEM-based skin & muscle system
– Significantly improved FEM soft body solver
– Optimized for performance
Hair & Grooming – Designed for Unlimited Control

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