Hey guys, and I wanted to share a module I have been working on which ports SideFX Houdini’s VAT 3.0 tools to WGSL. Below are some notes, a link to a repository with the code, and playground example showing a version created for Babylon-js (stackblitz version to come). There are a wealth of interesting tools and tutorials available online (SideFX Labs) explaining how the same tools have been used to create effects for Unreal and Unity. The repository contains a basic demo which shows each of the variants running from a local server.
Please take a look, and let me know what you think.
VAT3 — Houdini Vertex Animation Textures
VAT3 brings SideFX Houdini’s Vertex Animation Textures (VAT) workflow to modern WebGPU renderers.
Artists author simulations in Houdini and export them as a portable asset package consisting of geometry, textures, and metadata. At runtime, Babylon.js and Three.js reconstruct those simulations entirely on the GPU by sampling animation data from textures rather than evaluating animation or simulation logic on the CPU.
The result is a scalable workflow for rendering cloth, destruction, fluids, crowds, particles, and other complex effects in real time while preserving a clean separation between content creation and runtime implementation.