Loading Assets

First, import the FBX File through the native import function found under File -> Import -> Filmbox FBX:

Since we don't need anything but the Geometry and Materials (I doubt the Kit's come with anything else anyway) I remove the check marks for all other options.

I would recommend checking the option "Unlock Geometry File SOPs" (Highlighted in the Screenshot below). Otherwise the FBX will become embedded into the hip file, which slows down Saving/Loading considerably.

Now click "Import" and wait for the process to finish. Depending on the Kit used, this might take up to several minutes. In my case, 'Mission To Minerva" took under a minute to load.

Once the FBX is loaded, you can dive inside and take a look at what was created. Ideally for the tool to work, the following structure should be followed:

Single Asset

The Tool uses the "parent" Null nodes to identify the asset, and then loads all "children" automatically.

So each of these networks is basically one asset.

All Assets of the Mission to Minerva Kit

Now lets go back out and start populating the tool with the required info.

Open the Asset Setup Folder and write out the path to the imported FBX like so:

I would recommend typing it out, since Copy/Pasting the node can take quite some time or even crash Houdini if it is too large. Be careful!

Now click the "Select Asset" Button. The Asset Selector will open and you can choose the assets you'd like to convert either by searching for specific ones, or by selecting all of them with the ">>" Button. Hit "Accept" once you are happy with your selection.

You get a quick "debug" View of your chosen assets under "Selected Assets".

Under "Mesh Settings" you have several options:

• Create Mesh Proxy (Recommended to keep enabled)

  • Enables/Disables the creation of a Proxy Mesh. The Proxy Mesh will be shown in your Viewport when Vulkan is active, but wont render. Karma will automatically switch to the high res render Geo once a render is started. This helps speed up the Viewport even with many assets loaded.

• Create Simulation Mesh

  • The Simulation mesh can be used when Dynamically placing objects in your Solaris Stage or for any other use case in SOPs. It is basically a convex hull of the object.

• Add Random Color to Proxy Mesh

  • This will give the Proxy Mesh a random Color generated from the Asset Name. Also has a seed. Good for differentiating models in the Viewport.

• Scale

  • defines the overall Scale of the Asset. Kitbash Assets are generally imported too big (Maya Scale), so we are scaling them down by a factor of 100. Adjust if needed.

• Transforms

  • These are promoted Parameters of a "Match Size" Node to place each asset at origin Justifying Y to the lowest point. This way the Assets sit directly at P.y 0.

• Proxy Poly Reduce

  • To actually get a performance benefit from the proxies, they are being poly-reduced. A percentage to keep of 10 generally works all right, but might have to be adjusted for bigger Assets.

You can adjust any of these settings at any point before starting the actual conversion (Last Step) to check if everything is as you want it to be. We will get to that a bit later. For now, you can continue with the materials.