PROGRAM: CLOUD COMPUTE
I just found out about this program which will convert Lidar data into a model for use as terrain in Unity. Follow the steps
below.
1. Get LIDAR files: for many US locations; [[1]]
a. Search for your location and then plot 4 points surrounding it (not too big)
b. Select Datasets - digital elevation – LIDAR -
c. download options button, download the LAZ file. There may be more than one file if it’s a large area, just get them all, or make your plotted area smaller.
For aerial images that match up easily to the 1:1 overlay map in Terrain Paint: Datasets - Aerial Imagery - NAIP GEOTIFF
Some alternate sources:
Top 6 Free LiDAR Data Sources - GIS Geography [6 Free LiDAR Data Sources - GIS Geography]
[LIDAR Data Sources List – Download LIDAR - Grind GIS]
[Terrain Locations - International]
Some areas you aren’t going to find, especially if they are outside of the US, just keep in mind that it’s a limited resource.
2. Get CloudCompare: [[2]] this app is free and the best solution for working with all kinds of cartography.
3. Open all of your LIDAR file(s) in 'CC’
[[3]]
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4. Hit the apply all and yes to all to the 2 pop-ups.
5. Select all clouds in the DB tree panel, and hit merge button. [ATTACH]264914[/ATTACH]
6. In the panel below; properties: scroll down to Scalar Fields; change type to Intensity
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7. Below Scalar fields; (SF display params); move the yellow arrow until it’s close to the black wave form.
These 2 steps should clear up the map and you can have some fun in the 3d viewer. You will see details like the roads, grass, and 3D details like buildings and trees. If you left/right click-drag you can rotate/pan and see it from different angles and zoom in with the mouse wheel. Hit F4 to switch to camera centered rotation and you can sort of fly through the scene. If you zoom in too close, the dots get too small to see; in the top left of the viewer, you can increase point size so you can keep zooming in and still see the terrain up close. [ATTACH]264917[/ATTACH]
Now that you are oriented with the map, click the magnifying glass icon on the left tool bar, and the orange and white cube below it to get the view straightened. Go to edit: Global Shift/scale and zero out the 3 shift fields. Save the map as BIN format which is CC’s native format and can be loaded easily. I name it Base_Map.bin
8. Time to cut up the map. The raw cloud map displayed is undoubtedly bigger than the area you want to use for your map. Plan out a square region you will use for your level.
a. Select the cloud from the DB tree panel
b. Click the scissors icon on the middle of the top toolbar
c. A small tool bar will pop-up in the 3D viewer; click the pause button, then pan/zoom to so the region you want is visible.
d. Un-pause, click the polyline selection arrow, and switch it to square selection, drag-select the region you want to keep. You can click the polyline button’s arrow to export the square, and save it as a BIN file for later. You can do this whenever you make a polyline selection and want to reuse it.
e. Hit the red filled-in button and the check mark to finish. Delete the ‘remaining’ section that was cut out. Save this map as a BIN file – I name it Map_All.bin [ATTACH]264918[/ATTACH]
9. Extracting the ‘Ground Points’ is vital. It removes the trees, walls and buildings; leaving you with the only bare terrain which can be paved and have quality 3D scenery added to.
a. First, go to scalar fields again; this time use Classification. In SF display params; move the two circles until they isolate the blue line at the 1.9 / 2.1 parameters (usually).
b. Cut the unwanted sections out: edit: scalar fields: filter by value: split button.
c. Delete the old unchecked map piece and the one labeled outside in DB panel.
Save as a new BIN file ie: Map_Ground.bin
Tip 1: optimizing the terrain is a special step you can use for sections of terrain not normally visited, or things just for looks from afar. You can cut these areas out using the scissors tool and polyselect type. Then use Edit: Subsample to reduce the cloud’s point’s spacing. My USGS files use feet as their measurement, so I make areas 60 feet from the track 3 foot spacing and areas 500-600 feet out 6 feet apart. This makes loading meshes quicker and reduces the poly-count. I then make meshes for the background hills and mountains for areas beyond the terrains limits using 10-20 foot spacing. The finished parts can be converted to mesh with Edit: Mesh: Delaunay 2.5D (XY Plane) - set Max edge length to 6 (higher for parts with big holes and for rougher clouds.)
Tip2: (IMPORTANT STEP ALERT) Making a mesh with just the road polygons is vital if you want to be able to terrain paint them accurately in BeamED and to add a perfectly matched up satiate map image over the terrain.
a. Select the map and Set scalar fields to intensity and move the right circle until the grass areas of the map start to disappear between 50-35 seem to reduce it enough to turn most non road areas white.
b. Then use the trick from step 9: edit: scalar fields: filter by value, to remove the grass sections.
c. This can be used as is or further trimmed using scissors: polyselect: delete.
d. The finished mesh can also be converted to mesh same as Tip 1
e. Once loaded into BeamED (after molding the entire terrain with align to mesh from step 15) , you can paint the road by tracing over the road mesh by setting the road’s material to mult transparency, so it’s see through, then export the terrain, and it will output a PNG image with the road shape on it. This image can be loaded into an image editor and a USGS NAIP GEOTIFF can be overlaid if you set the terrain to 1 meter square size.
I give all grass sections this map as terrain pain type with diffuseSize = "2048"; so it matches the map resolution. Some flipping or mirroring may be needed since the outputted PNG isn’t oriented right.
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10. To get the raw points into real 3D, we need to convert it to a mesh. Go to Edit: Mesh: Delaunay 2.5D (XY Plane) - set Max edge length to 0: this setting will fill in any holes with a flat patch the size of the number, in this case infinite.
Alternatively, the cloud saved in step 9 can be converted to a height map that can be imported directly into Beamed using the Tools: projection: rasterize tool. I haven’t learned the workflow for this process yet, other than the Step setting is set to 1 and Edit Grid: Width is set to your terrain’s resolution. I still need to find the optimum settings for the rasterize tool and how to make it a gray scale BMP.
11. Save as OBJ.
Then drop this file into your Assets folder.
https://www.dropbox....Editor.rar?dl=0
You will then have access to the editor. From there, you can bring a terrain as an .obj file, ie the one we just created
through steps 1-11.
Cheers!!
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