Procedural World Generation in Unreal with Houdini

Learn procedural content generation (PCG) in this course, using Unreal Engine and Houdini. Create scalable, reusable game assets and environments tailored for developers and artists seeking creative efficiency and innovation.

4 hours
27 lessons
Intermediate

Explore the practical applications of procedural content generation (PCG). This course teaches you to create scalable, reusable game assets and environments using Unreal Engine and Houdini.

It’s tailored for developers and artists applying PCG techniques for efficient level design and interactive gameplay development.

By the end of the course, you’ll have the skills to generate complex, visually stunning, and performance-optimised environments that enhance gameplay and improve development efficiency. Whether you’re a game designer, level artist, or technical developer, this course will elevate your content creation process.

Course leader: Daniel Rashidi

Daniel Rashidi has 15 years of experience in the game development industry, serving as a senior technical artist and technical art director on both indie and AAA projects, including Battlefield and Battlefront.

During Daniel’s career, he has worked with talented coworkers at renowned companies such as Blizzard, DICE, and Starbreeze.

In recent years, Danial has transitioned to freelancing and game development, allowing him to focus on the areas of game development he is most passionate about. For the past five years, Danial’s primary focus has been procedural generation, which he describes as a fascinating tool for creating immersive, dynamic, and unique game worlds.

Whether it’s small or large systems, Daniel describes procedural generation as a powerful tool for iterating quickly when developing a game.

Course Outline

Module 1: Overview of Procedural Content Design

Introduction

Module 2: Setup of the Foundation

Setting up Houdini
Testing Plugin
Large Scale
Setting up basic HDA
Setting up inputs and outputs
Creating the interface
Ensuring that we can build automatically

Module 3: Adding modules to the World Generation Setup

Terrain module modification
Update the interface to reflect multiple HDA
Exporting changes as an additive layer
Scattering assets
Replacing the forest with trees
POIs
Landscape painting

Module 4: Real World use Case

Using tool to create Island
Trees affecting the terrain
Spawning gameplay elements

Module 5: Future Steps

Plan your work
Optimisations
Building a large world

Module 6: Conclusion

Expected takeaways

Note: Some of the steps in the modules above require a Houdini license*

Course modules	Achievements, Setting up Houdini, Setting up base level, Setting up basic Houdini pipeline, Setting up interface, Dividing the pipeline into different modules, Exporting module, Terrain Modifications module, POIs, Paths, Cliffs, Biomes, Spawning gameplay elements, Using the data from Houdini with PCG