--- title: "Houdini VFX for Games: What It's Used For and How to Start" description: "Houdini VFX for games explained: what Houdini is used for, how simulations get into Unreal Engine, and how to start learning Houdini as a beginner." --- [Go Back Up](https://cada-edu.com/guides/houdini-vfx-for-games-what-its-used-for-and-how-to-start#top) [Skip to Content](https://cada-edu.com/guides/houdini-vfx-for-games-what-its-used-for-and-how-to-start#body) [![Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png?width=200&height=60&name=Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png "Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts")](https://cada-edu.com/) Toggle Menu - [Educations](https://cada-edu.com/educations) Toggle children for Educations Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Educations - [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) - [Diploma / BA (Hons) Degree](https://cada-edu.com/3d-digital-artist) - [Courses](https://cada-edu.com/courses) Toggle children for Courses Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Courses - [Free 3D Bootcamp](https://cada-edu.com/3dbootcamp) - [3D Animation Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-animation-essentials) - [3D Portfolio Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-portfolio-essentials) - [Sculpting in ZBrush](https://cada-edu.com/sculpting-in-zbrush-course) - [Unreal Engine for Filmmaking](https://cada-edu.com/unreal-engine-filmmaking-virtual-production) - [Continuing Education](https://cada-edu.com/continuing-education) - [Contact Us](https://cada-edu.com/contact) - Resources Toggle children for Resources Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Resources - [News](https://cada-edu.com/news) - [Guides](https://cada-edu.com/guides) - [Book Meeting](https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/adam-mayes) # Houdini VFX for Games: What It's Used For and How to Start [mailto:?subject=Houdini%20VFX%20for%20Games%3A%20What%20It%27s%20Used%20For%20and%20How%20to%20Start&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcada-edu.com%2Fguides%2Fhoudini-vfx-for-games-what-its-used-for-and-how-to-start](mailto:?subject=Houdini%20VFX%20for%20Games%3A%20What%20It%27s%20Used%20For%20and%20How%20to%20Start&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcada-edu.com%2Fguides%2Fhoudini-vfx-for-games-what-its-used-for-and-how-to-start) Houdini is 3D software used for a lot of the smoke, fire, destruction and procedural worlds you see in games. It also has a reputation for being hard to learn. This guide explains what Houdini is used for in game development, how Houdini VFX get from a simulation into a game engine, and how you can start learning it without getting lost. ## What is Houdini? Houdini is 3D software made by [SideFX](https://www.sidefx.com/). It can do modelling, animation, lighting and rendering, but it is best known for effects and procedural work. "Procedural" means you build a result from a set of rules rather than by hand. In most 3D tools you push points around until a rock looks right. In Houdini you build a chain of steps, called nodes, that make the rock: start with a shape, add noise, cut it, smooth it, scatter detail. If you want a different rock, you change a value and the whole chain updates. That node chain is called a network. Because every step stays editable, you can go back and change a decision made an hour ago without redoing the work that came after it. This is what people mean when they call Houdini non-destructive. Houdini is split into areas, sometimes called contexts. The two you meet first are: - **SOPs (surface operators):** where you build and change geometry. - **DOPs (dynamics operators):** where simulations run, such as rigid bodies breaking apart, fluids and smoke. ## What is Houdini used for in games? Houdini is well known from film effects, and game studios use it for several kinds of work. SideFX's [games industry page](https://www.sidefx.com/industries/games/) covers real-time effects, world building and terrain, and tools that run inside game engines. The page's customer and partner list includes Ubisoft, EA, Guerrilla Games and Naughty Dog. ### Real-time VFX VFX (visual effects) in games are things like explosions, magic spells, dust from footsteps, water splashes and buildings that crumble. Houdini's particle and dynamics tools can simulate these with a lot of detail. The catch is that a full simulation is far too heavy to run in a game at 60 frames per second. So the Houdini artist's job is to simulate the effect, then turn it into something light that a game engine can play back. More on that below. You will soon meet the names of Houdini's main effect tools: - **Pyro:** smoke, fire and explosions. - **FLIP:** liquids such as splashes and pouring water. - **RBD (rigid body dynamics):** hard objects breaking and falling, such as walls and crates. - **Vellum:** cloth, ropes, hair and soft bodies. - **POPs (particle operators):** particle systems for sparks, dust and debris. ### Procedural environments and terrain Houdini is also used to build large environments. Terrain is made from heightfields (grids where each point stores a height, like a greyscale map of the ground): you layer shapes, add noise and simulate erosion until the landscape looks natural. The same thinking applies to roads, rock scatters, cliffs, building layouts and props that need many variations. One well-built system can produce hundreds of versions of an asset, each slightly different. This mix of procedural environments, effects and Unreal Engine is what the Procedural specialisation in CADA's [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) focuses on, with Houdini as the main tool. ### Tools for other artists A Houdini network can be packed into a single node called a Houdini Digital Asset (HDA). You choose which settings to expose, such as height, number of windows or amount of damage. According to SideFX's [Houdini Engine page](https://www.sidefx.com/products/houdini-engine/), these assets can then be loaded into Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya or 3ds Max, where other artists change the settings without opening Houdini. When the original asset is updated, every copy of it updates too. That makes HDAs useful in production, where a level designer might place a hundred procedural fences and the art lead later asks for a different post shape. ## How Houdini VFX get into a game engine This is the part that separates game effects from film effects. A film shot can take minutes or hours per frame to render. A game running at 60 frames per second has about 16 milliseconds per frame for everything on screen. Houdini VFX for games are therefore usually baked: the simulation runs in Houdini, and the result is saved in a form the engine can play cheaply. SideFX lists several of these outputs on its games page: - **Flipbook textures:** the effect is rendered as a grid of frames on one texture, then played back like a flipbook on a flat card in the engine. Common for smoke and fire. - **Vertex Animation Textures (VAT):** the movement of a mesh is stored in a texture, so a complex destruction or cloth sim can play back on the graphics card without heavy simulation while the game is running. - **Flow maps and vectors:** data that tells particles or shaders which way to move, for example to make water flow round rocks. - **Vertex caches and sprites:** other ways to store the motion and shape of an effect for playback. Once the data is in the engine, it is usually combined with the engine's own effects system. In Unreal Engine that system is Niagara. Epic's [Niagara overview](https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/overview-of-niagara-effects-for-unreal-engine) describes it as "Unreal Engine's next-generation VFX system", built from systems, emitters, modules and parameters. A typical workflow is to make the heavy, detailed parts in Houdini and do the timing, spawning and gameplay logic in Niagara. ## Houdini or Niagara: do you need both? You can make good game effects with Niagara alone, and many effects artists start there. Sparks, simple magic, muzzle flashes and hit effects often need nothing else. Houdini earns its place when an effect needs detail that is hard to hand-make: a wall breaking into realistic chunks, a column of smoke with believable motion, a liquid splash. It also helps when you need many versions of an effect or asset, because you change settings instead of starting again. In short, Niagara runs the effect in the game, and Houdini often makes the source material. Learning both makes you more flexible. If you are new to the engine side, our [Unreal Engine guide](https://cada-edu.com/guides/unreal-engine) covers the basics. ## Which version of Houdini should you learn on? SideFX offers several editions. Their [comparison page](https://www.sidefx.com/products/compare/) lists these: - **Houdini Apprentice:** free, for non-commercial use. Renders are limited to 1920 x 1080 and carry a watermark. This is enough to learn on. - **Houdini Indie:** paid, for limited commercial use. SideFX allows up to three Indie licences per facility. - **Houdini Core and Houdini FX:** paid, for commercial use. Core can run simulations through higher-level tools. FX adds direct access to the dynamics (DOP) nodes. SideFX makes Houdini Engine for Unreal and Unity free for commercial customers (see the Houdini Engine page linked above). Check the current licence terms on the SideFX site before you sell or publish anything made with a free or learning edition. ## How to start learning Houdini Houdini looks different from most 3D software, and many people bounce off it in the first week. These steps make it easier. ### 1. Know basic 3D first Houdini assumes you know what polygons, normals, UVs and materials are. If those words are new, spend a few weeks in a general 3D tool such as Blender first. It will make Houdini's ideas much easier to follow. ### 2. Learn to read a node network Your first goal is not a big explosion. It is understanding how data flows from one node to the next. Start with procedural modelling in Houdini, which is easier to read than a simulation: a procedural rock, a fence that follows a curve, a scatter of trees on a terrain. Look at the geometry after each node and see what changed. ### 3. Learn attributes In Houdini, points and polygons carry data called attributes: position, colour, size, velocity and anything else you create. Most Houdini work is reading and changing attributes. Once this clicks, the software starts to make sense. ### 4. Make one simple effect and take it into Unreal Pick something small, such as a looping smoke puff or a crate breaking apart. Simulate it, bake it to a flipbook or VAT, and play it in Unreal Engine. SideFX Labs, a set of extra tools from SideFX, includes [exporters and real-time FX tools](https://www.sidefx.com/products/sidefx-labs/) made for this kind of game engine work. Doing the full round trip once teaches you more about game VFX than ten simulations that never leave Houdini. ### 5. Add VEX later VEX is Houdini's own scripting language for changing attributes quickly. You do not need it on day one, but most production Houdini work uses some. Learn it once you are comfortable with nodes. ### 6. Get feedback on your networks, not just your renders Houdini is easy to get stuck in on your own. A result can look fine while the network behind it is slow, fragile or impossible to change. Ask an experienced artist to look at how you built something, not only at the final frame. That is where most of the learning happens. ## Houdini jobs in game studios Houdini skills show up in several roles on a game team: - **VFX artist (or FX artist):** makes the effects players see. Often works in both Houdini and the engine's effects system. - **Technical artist:** builds tools and pipelines that help other artists work faster. HDAs are a common part of this. Read more in our guide to [what a technical artist does](https://cada-edu.com/guides/what-is-a-technical-artist-role-skills-and-how-to-become-one). - **Procedural or environment artist:** uses Houdini to generate terrain, buildings and props at scale. Whatever the title, studios look at your portfolio. Show a small number of effects or systems that run in a game engine, with a short breakdown of how you made each one. A working effect in Unreal says more than a beautiful render that could never run in a game. ## Learn Houdini for games with CADA If you are ready to commit to a structured path, the [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) is 60 weeks online, in three terms of 20 weeks. One of its four specialisations is Procedural, which uses Houdini and Unreal Engine. You try each specialisation before you choose, and you work on team projects each term: a walkable story environment, a playable level and a vertical slice (a small, polished, playable piece of a game). No 3D experience or portfolio is needed to apply, and software licences are included. Plan for at least 20 hours a week. If you have never opened 3D software, start smaller. The free [Blender 3D Bootcamp](https://cada-edu.com/3dbootcamp) is six live online sessions over three weeks, with recordings, and ends with a session in Unreal Engine. It gives you the 3D basics that make Houdini much easier to pick up later. ## CADA ## Ready to Transform your Business with Little Effort Using Brightlane? 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