Houdini Resources

Updated on June 26  2024



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


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.