Houdini EULA question

#1 I am not sure about this, but as i read the EULA, it says "game assests" created with Houdini are legal for Torque users within a game using the TGE or TGEA and fall under the original Torque licensing agreement for commercial use.
I dont remember if is said "created" or "exported" meaning to restrict use to export capability only.
This is something we probably need to clarify as it would suck drastically to be shut down for illegal use of their product

I went back and looked at the EULA and this is what it says

"You are not permitted to profit from work done with the Houdini Apprentice HD Edition, with the sole exception being game assets exported to the Torque Game Engine are covered under the terms of the Torque Game Engine INDIE End User License Agreement."

Seems we are EULA strangled to use it for anything that you cannot "export", if you read it literally.
They may mean anything created within Houdini and used as a game asset is ok for use with Torque, using the word "exported" loosely since that is the mechanic of their system to convert what you create into a Torque compatable format.

Dont know for sure, might warrant a clarification from sidefx or someone here at GG.

#2 Derek answers the question here

#3 Derek mentions that you can't create a video with this version to be used commercially, but he doesn't specifically mentioned static images rendered with the program. My assumption is that we can only export DTS models, and 2D renders cannot be used commercially. However, it would be nice to get this verified. Also, it wouldn't hurt to make the EULA a little more detailed so it leaves little to guesswork.

#4 Thanks for the advice on the EULA. There is some room to tweak it before going gold therefore your feedback is helpful. It is our intention that indie game developers can use Houdini Apprentice HD to work on their games. This is primarily for the creation of game content via dts but it might also be a game cinematic or a splash screen for your game. These can be associated with a commercially available game under the conditions set out in the EULA (limit to revenue etc...).

By video, Derek is talking about using Apprentice HD to create animations or visual effects shots that do not apply to your game project. We will look at rewording before going gold. Let me know if there are any other areas of concern.

Robert Magee
Product Marketing Manager
Side Effects Software

#5 Thanks for the advice on the EULA. There is some room to tweak it before going gold therefore your feedback is helpful. It is our intention that indie game developers can use Houdini Apprentice HD to work on their games. This is primarily for the creation of game content via dts but it might also be a game cinematic or a splash screen for your game. These can be associated with a commercially available game under the conditions set out in the EULA (limit to revenue etc...).

By video, Derek is talking about using Apprentice HD to create animations or visual effects shots that do not apply to your game project. We will look at rewording before going gold. Let me know if there are any other areas of concern.

Robert Magee
Product Marketing Manager
Side Effects Software

#6 Robert,

Thanks for the reply! Houdini is a pretty sweet piece of software. I'm anxious to find out what the final license agreement will be. If there's a way to allow unlimited usage of Apprentice HD for Torque projects, I think that would be awesome (including DTS, videos, and static renders).

I could see this being very useful not only for TGE and TGEA, but also TGB. Also, I don't have the statistics, but I think a lot of people own both the 3D and 2D versions of the Torque platform. If Houdini was a one-stop shop for all 3, I think that would draw a lot of attention.

My ideal EULA would include the ability to use Apprentice HD for any Torque platform for in-game content and any content that is directly related to the production or promotion of said game, provided the developer abides by the Torque INDIE EULA. :)

Thanks again.