Installation

Package

In order to install Beacon, all you have to do is copy the packages/beacon.json and packages/splashscreen.json files to your $HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR/packages folder, and replace a simple line:

Tip

Or you can simply copy the code in the example section.

Note

• $HOUDINI_USER_PREF_DIR is usually C:/Users/<username>/Documents/houdini<houdini version> on Windows
• If the packages folder doesn't exist yet, you can simply create it

beacon.json

{
    "BEACON": [
        {
            "houdini_os == 'windows'": "Replace this line with Beacon installation path on Windows"
        }
    ]
}

replace the line by where you extracted the beacon folder.

Warning

JSON doesn't support the / character in a path. You'll need to replace it by \\ or /: C:\Users\valen\Documents\beacon_plus-v0.0.4-alpha-py3.9 should become C:\\Users\\valen\\Documents\\beacon_plus-v0.0.4-alpha-py3.9 or C:/Users/valen/Documents/beacon_plus-v0.0.4-alpha-py3.9

Example

If you extracted the beacon-v0.0.4-alpha folder in C:/Users/<username>/Documents/ and are using houdini 19.5, then your beacon.json should be placed at C:/Users/<username>/Documents/houdini19.5/packages and should look like this:

beacon.json

{
    "path": [
        "$BEACON"
    ],
    "load_package_once": true,
    "enable": true,
    "version": "$BEACON_VERSION",
    "env": [
        {
            "BEACON": [
                {
                    "houdini_os == 'windows'": "Replace this line with BEACON installation path on Windows"
                },
                {
                    "houdini_os == 'linux'": "Replace this line with BEACON installation path on Linux"
                },
                {
                    "houdini_os == 'macos'": "Replace this line with BEACON installation path on macOS"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "BEACON_VERSION": "v0.0.4-alpha"
        },
        {
            "PYTHONPATH": [
                "$BEACON/python",
                {
                    "method": "append"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "STICKER_PATH": [
                "$BEACON/config/Icons/Beacon",
                "$BEACON/config/Stickers"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Warning

Please do not modify any other lines as it might cause issues.

Beacon should then be available at the next Houdini launch.

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License

Beacon comes with a license key sent by Gumroard via email. In order to activate it, please check out the License tool.

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Last update: July 28, 2023
Created: May 12, 2023