houdini-render

name	houdini-render
description	Pipeline skill — viewport capture/flipbook plus ROP render settings and render execution through typed, runtime-aware tools. Exports report written_files, elapsed time, and warnings without hanging the host. Pair with houdini-camera-light to set up cameras and lights first.
license	MIT
compatibility	dcc-mcp-houdini 0.1+, Houdini 20.5+, dcc-mcp-core 0.17+
allowed-tools	Bash Read Write Edit
metadata	{"dcc-mcp":{"dcc":"houdini","layer":"domain","stage":"pipeline","version":"1.0.0","tags":["houdini","render","rop","karma","mantra","viewport","flipbook","capture","pipeline"],"search-hint":"render rop karma mantra viewport capture flipbook screenshot render settings resolution output","tools":"tools.yaml"}}

houdini-render

Typed render and visual-verification tools. All tools are affinity: main. Viewport tools are UI-aware: in a headless hython session they return a structured warnings payload with captured: false instead of failing, so an agent can detect and skip cleanly when rendering is unavailable.

Tool groups

• viewport: capture_viewport (single frame), flipbook (range). Both clamp resolution to 4096 and return written_files / skipped / warnings.
• render: get_render_settings (read-only), set_render_settings (reports unsupported fields per ROP type), render_rop (async, long timeout, reports elapsed_secs + written_files).

Tracer-bullet flow

1. houdini_camera_light__create_camera(name="rendercam")
2. set_render_settings(rop_path="/out/mantra1", camera="/obj/rendercam", resolution=[1280,720], output_path="/tmp/beauty.exr")
3. get_render_settings("/out/mantra1") → verify
4. capture_viewport(output_path="/tmp/preview.jpg") for a quick look (UI only)
5. render_rop("/out/mantra1", frame_range=[1,1]) → written_files, elapsed_secs

render_rop is async with a 30-minute timeout hint; output-path and resolution parameter writes are defensive (candidate names) so Mantra, Karma, and ROP geometry/USD drivers are all tolerated.