Deborah R. Fowler
Houdini and Redshift Setup
Posted Dec 5 2021
Updated Mar 7 2024
As a Mantra user since 2008ish, I will highlight some of the
details that are pleasingly similar (light instancing) and wildly
different (much faster renders!)
Also, you can command line render
with ease - just like with mantra, but now you use Redshift rops!
Using Redshift in Houdini is super easy. I have been using Redshift in Houdini in version 19.0.383 and in 19.5.303. Note that Redshift only allows one version to be installed.
If you would like to use a Redshift license at home you can -
read on. (They do charge a small fee for processing)
https://www.maxon.net/en/educational-licenses
Note: It is super important to match the correct version
https://help.maxon.net/r3d/houdini/en-us/Content/html/Houdini+Plugin+Configuration.html
The Redshift
documentation shows 19.0.383 is supported for 3.0.59.
Installation guidelines are available for Window, Linux or MacOS.
Since I'm on Windows I'll run through what I tested. There has
been an update and 19.5.303 is supported for 3.5.5. Note that
Redshift only allows one version to be installed. NOTE:
Documentation found https://docs.redshift3d.com/display/RSDOCS/Getting+Started+with+Houdini
and https://help.maxon.net/r3d/houdini/en-us/index.html
- On Windows all you need to do is edit your houdini.env
preferences with the following (verbatim). They can be found in
C:\Users\yourname\Documents\houdini19.5
- Once you have this setup, when you open Houdini, click the
+ icon at the end of the shelf tools and select Redshift
from the dropdown options.
- Click on the redshift icon and it will create Redshift ROP nodes
There is an alternative method to use json files, similar to
other packages described on Maxon's website. Either works, the
above is my preferred and tested method.
Note that this is for rendering in the regular Houdini context, I
am not covering rendering is Redshift in Solaris here.