Houdini 22
Gaussian splats, terrain in Copernicus and new KineFX rigging tools.
SideFX released Houdini 22. It adds a full 3D Gaussian Splat toolset (splats capture real scenes as millions of soft points): train splats from photos or generate them from scenes, then animate, relight and render them in Karma. Terrain moves into Copernicus, with heightfield terrain, ocean surfaces and what SideFX calls game-ready animated maps, plus grunge map nodes and experimental 3D texture painting. KineFX, the rigging toolset, gets reusable rig templates, rig inversion, Set Driven Keys and an APEX character picker. There is also a revamped groom workflow. For small teams, procedural terrain and rigging are the most useful parts. Houdini has a steep learning curve, and Houdini Indie, the lower-cost commercial option, is now rental only. Apprentice remains free for learning.