Software Alternatives & Reviews

Esri CityEngine VS Houdini

Compare Esri CityEngine VS Houdini and see what are their differences

Esri CityEngine logo Esri CityEngine

Esri CityEngine improves urban planning, architecture, and design. Use its 3D visualization power to see the relationships of projects, assess their feasibility, and plan their implementation.

Houdini logo Houdini

Houdini covers all the major areas of 3D production, including:
  • Esri CityEngine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-10
  • Houdini Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09

Esri CityEngine videos

What's New in Esri CityEngine 2019.1

More videos:

  • Review - Esri CityEngine Mobile Virtual Reality Solution

Houdini videos

What is Houdini Used For?

More videos:

  • Review - Top 5 Reasons To Learn Houdini Today!
  • Review - Ultra Running Vlog: Patagonia Houdini shell review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Esri CityEngine and Houdini)
Architecture
100 100%
0% 0
3D
16 16%
84% 84
3D Modeling
7 7%
93% 93
Construction Project Management

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Esri CityEngine and Houdini

Esri CityEngine Reviews

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Houdini Reviews

15 Best Maya Alternatives
3D Modeling and Rendering with Houdini isn’t very different from what you get on Maya. However, Houdini follows a node-based workflow. Every action in Houdini is a node and these nodes are linked together to form networks.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Houdini seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Esri CityEngine mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Esri CityEngine yet. Tracking of Esri CityEngine recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Houdini mentions (4)

  • Book or courses recomendations?
    Otherwise, Unity (3D) has tutorials for Unity, Houdini (vfx) has tutorials on their site (sidefx.com). Blender (3D) has a good community on reddit. For 2D animation the book "The Animator’s Survival Kit" is a common book people read in this reddit. Also lots of youtube tutorials. Search for whatever you want to learn ("how to paint grass in photoshop", "how to use animation in Blender", "how to animate... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Coming from Cinema4D + octane
    Houdini is (a little) hard to learn, so the best you can do is focus on one area at the same time: Modeling, Vellum, Fluids, Particles, KineFx ... You can find a lot of free tutorials on sidefx.com. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Newbie question: Which software would I use to create the interactive, animated 3D model project I have in mind?
    It sounds like you would need a lot of procedural geometry, which is done best with Houdini. But it does not do interactive web. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Unable to Start Houdini - License Server Issue?
    I also checked my license status from sidefx.com and it said everything was correct, but of course now I cant even login to the website and it just throws me a 500 Error Code when I login, asking me to login again. Ive emailed support but figured I might check here too while I'm at it. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Esri CityEngine and Houdini, you can also consider the following products

Blender - Blender is the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation.

3D Cityplanner - Urban and real estate development at your fingertips. With the 3D Cityplanner it’s possible to create, visualize, analyze and share 3d plans online.

Cinema 4D - Cinema 4D is a 3D modeling, animation, motion graphics and rendering application.

Silo - Silo is a focused 3D modeling application with the ability to effortlessly switch between organically sculpting high-poly models and precisely controlling hard-edged surfaces.

Autodesk 3DS Max - 3ds Max is software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and visualization. Create stunning game enrivonments, design visualizations, and virtual reality experiences.

MakeHuman - MakeHuman is a free, open source, interactive modeling tool for creating custom 3D human characters.