Displacement on USD asset from Houdini

Development Cinematics & Media
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1

Hey

I have a scene where I have a USD stage actor sent from Houdini

Can’t get displacement to work on it. Is it not supported?

Thanks

2

Hey there!

Can you give me a bit more information about a few things

  • How is the material set up?
    Are you trying to use a native Unreal Engine material assigned inside UE with Nanite/Tessellation enabled or are you expecting the shader network/displacement parameters exported straight out of Houdini (UsdPreviewSurface) to render automatically?

  • Which version of Unreal Engine are you currently using?
    (Displacement workflows have shifted quite a bit between UE5 versions, especially with the newer World Position Offset/Nanite displacement features)

  • Is the asset imported statically or loaded dynamically via the USD Stage Actor?

In the meantime a few things I’d recommend double-checking or experimenting with:

  • Overriding Materials in UE
    If you’re using the USD Stage Actor, you could open the USD Stage Editor, locate the prim/mesh and override its material using an Unreal Material

  • Nanite Displacement
    If you’re on UE 5.3+ make sure Nanite is enabled on the generated static mesh representation and check if Magnitude and Center parameters are configured properly in the material settings.

Epic Documentation: Universal Scene Description in Unreal Engine

Let me know what configuration you have on your end. Hope this tip helps you