Project No Noise

What is this project about?

No Noise is my first project in Unreal Engine 5 that I've developed in the third period of my second year. In this project, my team and I wanted to create a horror VR game. Our idea was that you were trapped in a old library and had to escape from a monster. Me and an artist volunteered ourselves to work with Houdini which lookes cool, is super helpful and sounded interesting.

I tried to learn Houdini by using the Houdini Titan tutorials, but they're not working well for us. Because they weren't explaining it very well, but the artist and I tried our absolute best to learn it. We also had a Houdini expert in this period, but he only came once a week. But we managed to still make something in Houdini and showcase it in our project.

This game was made with Blueprints, Unreal Engine 5, Maya, Houdini and Perforce.

Project date: From February 2023 - April 2023

Project duration: 10 weeks, 3 days each week.

Development Team: 6 developers & 3 artists.

Engine: Unreal Engine 5

Programming language: Blueprints

3D Software: Houdini

My role & contribution in this project.

My role was making a railing tool in Houdini.

The reason I wanted to learn Houdini is because of the helpful tools you can make with it, such as railings, bookcases and tables. The process of learning was quite slow in the beginning, since it was my first time using Houdini.

Throughout the project we also had some trouble with the license for Houdini, because sometimes when we wanted to test our tool in Unreal. Our license wouldn't work or activate, even though we already had it. It was going back and forth when it came to our license working.

Houdini uses a node based system, which is the basis of everything. You can rig a character for example, the nodes record the actions you took and the parameters you used.

You can also make partical effects with Houdini, such as smoke, fire and water. With this node based system, I made a donut with sprinkles to get used to the workflow and familiarize myself with how Houdini works.

At the end of the project, I also helped programming and implementing sound efects into our project. I used the Audacity app to cut and edit sound effects, I implemented sound effect for the monster footsteps.

Retrospective

Working with Houdini was interesting, even when certain things didn't go my way. Houdini does take a lot of time to learn the workflow and the basics of how to make a tool.

I wouldn't mind working with this, but then I'd want someone to be there that can help me and guide me into using this Houdini tool. Without the licensing problems and giving me good instructions on what to do and how to do it.

Other then that, I enjoyed my time with Houdini. There are a lot of oppurtunities and pros using it, the cons being that you need a good guide helping you along the way.