A toolset to procedurally create terrain for TaleSpire in Houdini.
This is a set of tools to aid in the creation of TaleSpire Terrain in SideFX Software's Houdini. Houdini has a free "Apprentice" license available for non-commercial work. It is designed to let creativity flow, you can use every aspect of Houdini to help you sculpt creations for TaleSpire by hand or procedurally. At its core these tools utilize the Heightfield features of Houdini to craft landscapes so if you are new to Houdini learning that aspect of the software is a good start.
Houdini is a node-based procedural system so the Toolset consist of a set of Houdini Nodes called HDA's (Houdini Digital Assets)
Feature overview video:
For more instructional videos refer to the Tutorials page on the wiki.
The main node for managing a terrain project, this node contains subnetworks that allow a workspace to craft your terrain. It is also the main interface for setting up the terrain and exporting the final results.
This node is used to import a TaleSpire Tile, Prop or Slab for use in the system. It has controls over the placement of these objects in regard to how they interact with other nodes like TaleSpire_Tiler and TaleSpire_Scatter. You can also export directly from this node, in case you just want to rotate or replace assets.
This node defines a Biome which controls what TaleSpire Tiles and Props get put on to the terrain. It has subnetworks within for defining sets of objects, rules for placing Tiles and rules for placing/scattering Props.
This node is used within the TaleSpire_Biome node to define what areas specific sets of tiles are placed on the terrain.
This node is used to scatter props on to a heightfield terrain based on rules and masks. It can work inside a TaleSpire_Biome node or externally if used with the new TaleSpire_Object_Set node.
This node allows you to place assets on specific points fed in to the 1st input. It can work inside or outside a biome. The 2nd input can be used to designate which objects to place on the points, as defined in a TaleSpire_Object_Set node.
This node is a container for TaleSpire_Object nodes, it works similar to the objects network in the TaleSpire_Biome node. This allows you to define sets of objects to use in nodes like TaleSpire_Scatter and TaleSpire_Copy allowing those nodes to work external from a Biome if desired.
This node can take the data from TaleSpire_Scatter and TaleSpire_Copy nodes and export them directly to a slab or multi-slab without needing to set up a terrain. Its feature set is currently limited but will eventually support all the features of the terrain nodes export.
This node can be used in biomes to get the water level of the heightfield. It can return a mask as either a 0-1 mask representing where water is and isn't, or a depth mask, which you can use to determine how far the current surface is above or below the waterline.
This node can be used in the terrain edit network to set the water level, either from the water plane or from a 2nd input which is a heightfield depicting the water level. This node is also used behind the scene to set the water level if you don't do it explicitly.
This node is used to preview the results at various points in the network, usually after a TS Copy/Scatter/Tiler node or after merging the results of those nodes.
The following nodes are new as of v0.21.0-alpha and are considered Work In Progress. Some features may be missing or broken.
This is an object level node that allows you to input a floorplan layout of a cavern using the "Swamp Floor" 1x1 and/or 2x2 floor tiles in TS. More detailed notes on this node can be found on the wiki.
The installation instructions are available on the wiki.
There is an example Houdini scene file included with this distribution hip/examples/example_Forest_Gully.hipnc.
It is best to copy this scene to an alternate location before running it as it needs to save local data. Alternately you
can launch it and "Save As" to a working directory.
I recommend running through all the comments before attempting to resize the map from its 60x60 default since there are a few areas that may not work properly which are noted within the file.
There is a scene file containing example biomes being used for development, more biomes will be available in
the future. hip/examples/biomes.hipnc
This scene file demonstrates multiple ways to make geometric shapes like spiral staircases
brick smokestacks, towers, walls, tunnels and more.
hip/examples/geometric_examples.hipnc
This tool supports use of a mod that allows multiple slab pastes at once. That's right, instead of laboriously hand placing hundreds of slabs you could do it all with a single click and paste.
To install and use the mods visit the wiki page:
Join us on Discord to discuss the toolset, share work and inspiration and to get the latest news.
The TaleSpire Slab Encoding/Decoding code was originally authored by LuPro at LuPro/SlabelFish
