html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"SideFX has begun releasing custom Houdini tools developed for Project Grot, its in-house tech demo intended to showcase procedural world-building techniques for game development.So far, two tools have been released: one for generating procedural ruins, and one for procedural strands of flesh, both also available as .hda files that can be used in Unreal Engine.Project Grot: showcasing art-directable techniques for building game worlds procedurallyLike 2022s Project Titan, Project Grot is an in-house tech demo designed to test procedural workflows for creating 3D environment content for use in games.The art-directed scene depicts an ancient, cave-like environment, partially filled with lava, and with walls and rocks connected with unnervingly organic-looking strands of flesh.It was created by a team of five artists working under a two-month deadline, with the custom procedural tools created in Houdini then used to lay out the level inside Unreal Engine 5.Procedural ruins and procedural flesh tools now available to downloadSo far, two of those custom procedural tools have been released publicly, the first being one for generating procedural ruins.Shown in the video above, it enables artists to turn rough blockout geometry into detailed high-poly meshes by painting areas of procedural damage on their surfaces using vertex colors.The other, shown in the video at the top of the story, generates procedural webs of flesh.It makes use of raycasting to shoot curves between surfaces in the scene that will later become flesh, then clusters curves based on proximity to give an organic structure to the results.The Project Grot homepage also hosts videos without downloadable supporting files on creating the volcanic landscape and lava, and creating a rock-generation tool.Price and system requirementsThe Project Grot tools are available free as Houdini .hip files and .hda files that can be imported and edited in DCC applications compatible with Houdini Engine, including Unreal Engine.To use the .hda files inside Unreal Engine 5, you will need the Houdini Engine for Unreal plugin. It is now included in the Houdini installer, and is free for use on commercial projects, but only works with commercial licenses of the software, not free Houdini Apprentice licenses.You can find pricing and system requirements for Houdini in this story on Houdini 20.5.Read more about Project Grot on the SideFX websiteDownload the free Project Grot procedural ruins tool for Houdini and Unreal EngineDownload the free Project Grot procedural flesh tool for Houdini and Unreal EngineHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.