wow_to_vfx

Collection of Python code and Houdini tools dedicated to setting up WoW exports in Houdini

I've made a quick tutorial video as well: https://vimeo.com/304885782

Requirements

Houdini 17.0.352+ (www.sidefx.com)

RedShift for Houdini 17 (Support for Arnold and RenderMan might get added at some point) (www.redshift3d.com)

Python 2.7+ (www.python.org)

Marlamin's WoW OBJ Exporter (https://marlam.in/obj)

Installation

wow_asset_loader.hda & normal_map_generator.hda

Copy to your prefered Houdini otl folder. Default would typically be: $HOME/houdini17.0/otls

wow_converter.py

Copy to any location on your system.

Tutorials

Houdini WoW Asset Loader

Tab in a WoW Asset Loader in the /obj/ context In the file parameter, plug in the path to an .obj file exported from Marlamin's tool. Press the "Run Py" button and it will create shaders for every material called for by the .obj, you can find these materials in /shop/ if you want to customize them.

Once the shaders are made, press the "Render" button. A RedShift Proxy will be saved out with the same name as your original asset, but .rs instead of .obj

This RS Proxy contains all of the shaders and any instances attached to your mesh if a .csv file was found with the same .obj basename

That's it!

WoW Batch Asset Conversion

This script runs in a Houdini Command Line session, it loops through every .obj file in the folder you specify and does a few things:

1. Creates a WoW Asset Loader HDA for each .obj
2. Generates the shaders that it needs and assigns them
3. Saves out the .obj as a .rs Proxy
4. Deletes all nodes that were created in the process, and moves onto the next .obj in the dir

It also lets you set it up to start on (for example) the 2nd .obj found in the folder and do every 8th obj. At some point I will add a more seamless multithreading approach, but for now that's an easy way to do it

Let's convert a folder of WoW models and textures into RedShift Proxies.

I've exported the kultiras zone from Marlamin's tool to a folder on my machine

"E:/Projects/WoW/world/maps/kultiras"

I've saved the wow_converter.py as well

"S:/Pipeline/cmd/wow_converter.py"

Now I need to convert all of the .obj and .csv files in this folder into .rs proxies that will attach to the master map layout later on

Open up a Houdini command shell, aka 'Command Line Tools 17.0.352'. We'll need to passs Houdini a command that will launch it in python mode, point it to the wow_converter.py script, and give it the arguments the script is looking for:

hython "S:/Pipeline/cmd/wow_converter.py" "E:/Projects/WoW/world/maps/kultiras"

Hit enter and this will start running. It will tell you how many .objs are being converted, print out the shaders being created, and give you a completion percentage.

However...this conversion is taking a really long time as it goes one by one through the 2,500+ objs. We can split the job up into multiple Command Line Tools windows, so launch 4 of them at the same time. In the first window, enter this:

hython "S:/Pipeline/cmd/wow_converter.py" "E:/Projects/WoW/world/maps/kultiras" -start 0 -inc 4

In the next window:

hython "S:/Pipeline/cmd/wow_converter.py" "E:/Projects/WoW/world/maps/kultiras" -start 1 -inc 4

And so on...

Now we have 4 separate Houdini batches running and the progress will be roughly 4x faster.

Houdini WoW ADT Loader

We've now got an entire folder full of RedShift Proxy models thanks to the Python batch script, it's time to set up the final ADT map layout.

1. Tab in a WoW ADT Loader node
2. In Root Directory I'll put "E:/Projects/WoW/world/maps/kultiras" and then hit the Force Reload button
3. Farther down there's some Caching options, this is a huge layout so I'm going to use the background render buttons instead: Save Terrain Geo in Background and Save Point Cloud in Background
4. My entire zone is ready to render once those two files are saved, but I'll test this more gradually than just rendering it all at once
5. This is an extremely heavy zone, so let's enable camera culling for the instances and plug in our render camera, "/obj/cam1". Generally it will be better to set up a static camera for your scene to use for culling so that things are never popping in and out of existence or giving you flickering shadows. A separate camera for culling is also a quick and easy way to isolate small areas to render.
6. I'm also going to turn off the Enable M2s switch so that I'm only loading the major buildings for this test render

Simple as that. Once that's working I'll turn back on the M2 instances and then everything will be rendering.