KTT (Kruger Terrain Tools) is a set of powerful terrain generation tools for Houdini 20.5+ that overhauls terrain generation in Houdini, combining the flexibility and control present in Houdini with the latest and greatest innovations in Heightfield terrain modeling.

Key features of KTT:

• 50+ custom terrain processing nodes, covering every stage of the terrain pipeline, from blocking out the initial shape, to refining the details, texturing, easily visualizing the terrain in the viewport, and exporting the geometry as an optimized mesh and/or texture maps.
• State-of-the-art GPU-accelerated Erosion simulations
• Unparalleled control at every point in the workflow
• Resolution-independent terrain simulations: Change the resolution of your terrain on the fly without worrying about changing the look of your terrain
• Efficient processing of high resolution terrains (up to and beyond 16k x 16k resolution)
• Supported on both Windows and Linux (not MacOS!)
• Documentation and examples for every node
• Perpetual licenses: never pay to renew or update KTT

FAQ

General Q's

• Q: Do I need prior experience with Houdini to use KTT?
  • A: No! While having prior experience with Houdini can be very useful, KTT provides all the tools to get started even if you've never opened Houdini in your life. The handbook is your best friend!
• Q: Is KTT compatible with the vanilla heightfield tools in Houdini?
  • A: Yes! While KTT overhauls terrain generation in Houdini, it works very well in concert with the vanilla heightfield tools in Houdini, so you can drop it into existing projects without worry.
• Q: Where can I contact you?
  • A: Either join our discord or send me an email at kttforhoudini@gmail.com
• Q: What's the best node in the toolset?
  • A: My favorite is a rather minor one honestly, but the Meandering Rivers node is quite cool. It has some pretty sweet synergy with some other nodes that enable the creation of some pretty neat features

Licensing

• Q: Why is the non-commercial version of KTT locked at such a low export resolution?
  • A: KTT doesn't restrict your export resolution, Houdini Apprentice does, see the limitations of Houdini Apprentice

• Q: If I have Houdini Apprentice, but I buy the Limited Commercial license of KTT, does that increase the export resolution cap?
  • A: No. KTT does not alleviate your Houdini license restrictions. If you have Houdini Apprentice, your exports will be locked at 1024x1024 or less no matter which version of KTT you have, for this reason, please only get the version of KTT that matches your Houdini license, or if you wish to test out KTT before buying a matching license, get a lower version.
• Q: If I buy, say, the cheap non-commercial license, do I have to pay full price to upgrade to a higher license tier?
  • A: No! Gumroad should automatically discount the higher license tiers so that you never end up paying more than buying a higher license outright (if it doesn't, please let me know, and I'll make sure it's set right).
• Q: I have Houdini Indie/FX, but I want to buy the noncommercial license to evaluate the tools, how does that work?
  • A: The noncommercial license of KTT ships with noncommercial HDA's (identified by the .hdanc file extension). If you add these HDA's to a project, Houdini will let you know that you're entering a noncommercial session, where Houdini temporarily reverts back to apprentice functionality. Projects not using KTT nodes are unaffected.
• Q: Can I sell assets created with KTT, such as heightmaps/textures/meshes?
  • A: Yes! As long as you have the Limited Commercial license or higher, you can sell assets created with KTT, however, you cannot redistribute modified versions of the KTT tools themselves.

Installation

Installation Prerequisites

• Houdini 20.5 or newer. Ideally 20.5.641 or newer (any license, although apprentice will limit export resolution to 1024x1024)

Installing via Houdini Packages

• Download the .zip file
• Locate your $HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR folder. By default, in Windows, this is usually in your C:/Users/Username/Documents folder, and it's labeled 'houdiniXX.X' (where 'XX.X' is the version of Houdini you are running).
  • If you're having trouble locating this directory, try this:
    • Open Houdini
    • in the top left of the window, locate the 'Windows' menu, and open the 'Hscript Textport'

    

    • Type this command into the window that appears: echo $HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR

    

    • It should give you the location of the folder that you need
• In the folder, find the folder named 'packages' (all lowercase), if you don't have one, create a folder with that name.
• Unzip the contents of the KTT zip file into the packages folder, it should look like this, you should see a JSON file, and a folder labeled "KTT"

  

• And with that, you should be good to go!
  

Getting Started

• Open Houdini and add a 'Geometry' node to the graph by right clicking in the node editor, and searching for 'geo'

  

• Enter it by either double clicking it, or pressing enter while it's selected
  • Make sure this little bar up here shows both the 'obj' and the 'geo1' nodes, this indicates you're in the proper node context.

    

• Right click in the node editor, and find the 'Kruger Terrain Tools' submenu. If you don't see this, you've likely installed it wrong.

  

• Find the 'KTT Handbook' node and add it to the graph
  • The handbook is the built-in documentation and guide to the tools, and will guide you from here. Please make sure to read the entirety of the "Getting Started" and "Workflows" sections of the handbook. They aren't long, but contain some really solid info about how to get started and make your first terrain using KTT