Expressing real landscapes as terrains: from LiDAR to Unity
I'd like to adapt some aerial 3D laser scan (LiDAR) data into a Unity terrain (see bottom for the data itself).
There are lots of ways to approach this, but if you've been down this road any criticism is welcome for my proposed steps below:
Extract a DEM from a LiDAR dataset via LAStools
Combine hero DEM with outlying, lower resolution DEMs, to gracefully handle the borders of the high resolution area
Convert DEM to image (GeoTIFF), export as type “.data” from Gimp/PhotoShop to obtain a Unity-compatible RAW file In Unity, import RAW file → Real World Terrain (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/8752)
Using Real World Terrain, texture terrain with 0.25m sat images
Export Unity terrain
In Unity, import DATA/RAW file → Gaia / Map Magic
Add forests, grasses, other vegetation
Export Unity terrain Add sky, ocean elements
As an option for the terrain input above, I could triangulate that LiDAR point data into a mesh, then convert the main to a Unity terrain via 'Mesh to Terrain' or similar.
p.s. -- Here is a link to some of the USGS Big Sur LiDAR data (ARRA-CA Aug 27 2014) that I'm using: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset?q=&sort=views_recent+desc&collection_package_id=55e67773-09ac-459c-8be3-3fb2750ddc9b&as_sfid=AAAAAAWPrPaCYlhEpBe0ubd7kLLIqD7qO1pecVRFlfYwc2hCSEi0uAko2vlLkquWslmPA8-n75vdhS8P-o-zQe1wQBajFz5hErQ-hvDfTkKYpLNkUlpt1oHH-8wcSvzD81OXH8s%3D&as_fid=a59d488213daf5ded4172bbaae393fd840d8841b&ext_location=Big+sur%2C+CA+%2893920%29&ext_bbox=-121.9022%2C35.7942%2C-121.1957%2C36.335&ext_prev_extent=
@$$anonymous$$evinCain any progress with this? I'm attempting a similar project and was wondering if you found this approach to be successful?
Answer by RakingTheLeaves · Aug 21, 2018 at 08:36 PM
You can also get access to a huge volume of high rez elevation/lidar data at https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer
Go NOAA