Megan Fox

How My Tooling Looks

Added 2020-09-04 18:41:42 +0000 UTC

So this isn't glamorous, but I thought it would be interesting. This is how my SkateMaker tool looks and works: https://pastebin.com/m7Zesx4Y

To use this, you'll need OdinInspector of course, and it won't work anyways because it relies on my own stuff, but like. This is how the tool looks:

... and thanks to Odin, it was pretty easy to make it look that clean.

Of particular interest might be how I'm processing over nodes by name looking for flagging strings, and generating a ton of base truths from those. You might also get a kick out of the bonkers logic I'm using to find the coping of an arbitrary ramp, generate rails along them, and even break those rails if the joints are too extreme (and avoid looping the rails in cases where clearly they shouldn't loop).

It's all a bit wild, and it would have been way easier if I could just ask Houdini directly what some stuff was. All that data was already there. UNFORTUNATELY, Houdini code operates in that plugin space that compiles first, meaning it can't access any of my C# game logic. Also, Houdini's internals are a nightmare. INFINITE SIGH.

Anyways, end result, for my ramps? The tool is a one-button solution for turning the Houdini HDA ramp asset, sitting fresh in my scene, into a functional game prop. That's good enough. Oh and I tend to non-destructively modify the in-scene assets, to minimize how much can break. I can mask that ultra rampify button repeatedly, it keeps working, since I'm just disabling objects instead of deleting them. I also don't accidentally piss off Houdini by deleting something it thought was there. I can recommend a light touch in your tooling, when doing stuff like this, just to cover your ass in case you find a bug later.

Took about 2 weeks to code, has already saved me a week of work. Moral of the story: invest in your tools. It's worth it!

Oh, and for those of you who want to dive deep on Houdini Tooling But Better: they do actually expose an API. If you really want to, you can do what I did here, but without the bonkers reinventing the wheel stuff. I chose not to, because that isn't my job - but if it's YOUR job, investing that time might make sense!