Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

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Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby boris » Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:31 pm

boris Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:31 pm
I was trying to do this a while ago. When Octane 3 arrived and had native support for Particles I was excited.

My first attempt using krakatoa prt loader failed:
viewtopic.php?f=81&t=54175
I cannot test this anymore since I do not have access to krakatoa mx anymore at the moment. maybe someone can try this again?

Well, new attempt:
Now I got a point cloud witch RGB Values.

I thought maybe I could somehow get a volume out of it. I tried houdini's new lidar loader and managed to write a vdb file, but the vdb does not contain voxels, only vdb points which are not recognized by octane volume object.

I read about the phoenix prt reader:
https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/PHX ... +PRTReader
I was able to export PRT files out of houdini from a pyro sim for testing, but how to get it into octane pipeline? Where to apply an OctaneParticle modifier? I can link the PRT Reader it with a PHXFoam, but I cannot apply the OctaneParticleMod to the Particle shader.

Any way, all I am trying to do is basically transform my point cloud into a particle system which Octane can render with geometry that behaves as movable proxy (like a little sphere) which gets its color from the RGB of each point. Sound simple? Is not :)

Any suggestions? I guess in two years Point Clouds will be natively supported by octane without going the extra long way I am trying to go.

Cheers
Boris

edit: here a screenshot straight out of recap to show what quality the point cloud is:
Capture.JPG
pointcloud
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Re: Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby paride4331 » Tue Sep 26, 2017 7:49 am

paride4331 Tue Sep 26, 2017 7:49 am
Hi Boris,
Did you try exporting your point cloud to .abc instead of .vdb?
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Re: Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby boris » Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:20 am

boris Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:20 am
Hi Paride
Thats a good idea, thanks, haven't thought of that yet. I will try when I have time and report back.
How to import the abc in 3ds max then? I have no experience with abc files yet.
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Re: Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby paride4331 » Tue Sep 26, 2017 12:35 pm

paride4331 Tue Sep 26, 2017 12:35 pm
Hi Boris,
File > import > import > .abc
in this way, perhaps, verxtex info should be stored.
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Re: Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby boris » Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:19 pm

boris Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:19 pm
sadly...
Alembic is a data format that saves geometry and animation data.
3ds Max does not import particle systems from Alembic files. It can export particles to Alembic files; however, export does not preserve particle shape information: Particles export as point-sized particles.


https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2 ... EC5FCA22F8

Any further inputs would be much appreciated.
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Re: Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby paride4331 » Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:28 pm

paride4331 Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:28 pm
Hi Boris,
not good news .. i did not know this about .abc in 3dsMax.
another idea might be converting your point cloud to .obj using something like this:
http://www.meshlab.net/
I personally have never done it, but on youtube you can find videos about it.
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Re: Rendering Point Cloud from Lidar Data

Postby boris » Wed Sep 27, 2017 2:07 pm

boris Wed Sep 27, 2017 2:07 pm
tnx paride
I know about the mesh workflow.
I have done this in the past. I could mesh a pointcloud in cloudcompare for example. houdini works, too.
I did that some time ago, resampling the mesh with meshlab to get fewer polygons (there are more options than the 3ds max ProOptimizer Modifier has) etc etc

This time I really want to have the particles in 3ds max since Octane - so my hope - could save a lot of memory having the points behave as movable proxy geometry.
I tested a 3ds max native particle system with cubes and increasing particle count does not increase VRAM usage of Octane - which is very nice.

Is't more a proof of concept thing at the moment and I am expecting nice results - especially from a very dense point cloud like the one I have. It's not about having a perfect archviz render at the end.

I just read something about the free version of krakatoa has a functional prt loader, if this is true then I will investigate that route (again). This one seems quite straight forward and as you see from the link in my first post I managed to get those particles into 3ds max (but not into Octane, but that was version 3.0 or something).

And then there is a high probability that a did something wrong with the vbd-export from houdini and that's because I do not really understand vdb's at the moment. I have to do some further reading probably..

tnx anyway for your time and all the good inputs you bring into this forum.

cheers

boris

EDIT:
btw for who's interested:
Krakatoa MX - Basic LiDAR Workflows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-gTN23_IgA
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