This Houdini node allows you to write wrangle nodes in C++ instead of VEX.

VEX is an amazing tool for prototyping and fast production, however it is quite simplistic and sometimes broken language. Writing wrangle nodes in C++ brings the full expressive power of C++ and access to HDK(Houdini C++ API) in the expense of slow compilation times compared to VEX.

To make the transition from VEX to C++ as simple as possible, we provide C++ implementation of VEX functions. Therefore you can write almost the same code in C++ as you would write it with VEX.

Warrning: This project is quite experimental, many things are broken, undocumented or unusable. I’m still trying to figure out how the whole thing should work. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

This node is an extension of the node made by animatrix. My version should be easier to use for people experienced with VEX.

Installing and running CppWrangle should be as easy as running the following commands in any directory:

git clone https://github.com/lecopivo/cpp-wrangle.git
cd cpp-wrangle/houdini/cpp
mkdir -p build/release; cd build/release
cmake ../.. -DHOUDINI_ROOT=/opt/hfs17.0 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../../.. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=1
make -j
make install

You probably want to change -DHOUDINI_ROOT=/opt/hfs17.0 to point to the location where Houdini is installed.

Requirements: You need Houdini, modern c++ compiler, cmake and Eigen library. I’m testing it with Houdini 17.0.352, gcc 8.1.0, cmake 3.10.1 and Eigen 3.2.92.

To test if everything is working, just open up the scene in cpp-wrangle/houdini/hip/examples.hipnc and you should be greeted by the colorful pig:

Yeah, I know…is sucks :( The compilation is really slow. But the power of c++ and HDK over VEX is worth it in many situations.

C++ impelementation of VEX functions

connection between Houdini and Eigen

finite element library