Point Cloud Plugin

[phoboz]

Point Cloud Plugin v0.5.3
Release Notes

Fixes

• Fixed crash when rendering in VR

[RjMelter]

Do you have any intention to bring this to Unity, or are you specifically Unreal based? The company that I work for is looking into different software like this for Unity, specifically and only because Unreal wants too much for what we would use it for which is Point-cloud visualization around 3D Meshes that we create (because we would charge a little extra for this service but not as a profit generator… and because the company makes a lot of money in other areas, its not an acceptable %).

Regardless it looks pretty cool. Nice work!

[TFandrich]

@RjMelter

Do you have any intention to bring this to Unity, or are you specifically Unreal based? The company that I work for is looking into different software like this for Unity, specifically and only because Unreal wants too much for what we would use it for which is Point-cloud visualization around 3D Meshes that we create (because we would charge a little extra for this service but not as a profit generator… and because the company makes a lot of money in other areas, its not an acceptable %).

Regardless it looks pretty cool. Nice work!

Have a look at Unreal Studio, it is currently for free till the end of the year and they don’t charge a percentage for industrial applications.

[phoboz]

@RjMelter

Do you have any intention to bring this to Unity, or are you specifically Unreal based? The company that I work for is looking into different software like this for Unity, specifically and only because Unreal wants too much for what we would use it for which is Point-cloud visualization around 3D Meshes that we create (because we would charge a little extra for this service but not as a profit generator… and because the company makes a lot of money in other areas, its not an acceptable %).

Regardless it looks pretty cool. Nice work!

Hi @RjMelter! Thanks for the feedback. There are currently no plans for porting the plugin to Unity.

[Kratos_88]

Do you have plans create pointcloud from pictures in unreal ? that would be big thing to do, it is relatively easy to manage programs for point cloud but it is difficult to have quality point clouds from pictures. Anyway great work, keep on

[phoboz]

@Kratos_88 ;n1596376

Do you have plans create pointcloud from pictures in unreal ? that would be big thing to do, it is relatively easy to manage programs for point cloud but it is difficult to have quality point clouds from pictures. Anyway great work, keep on

Hi @Kratos_88

If you mean photogrammetry, then possibly, at some point. However, the immediate roadmap has some other priorities, so it might be a while before I get around to it though

[Kratos_88]

Hi @Kratos_88

If you mean photogrammetry, then possibly, at some point. However, the immediate roadmap has some other priorities, so it might be a while before I get around to it though

what do you mean at some point that is at the moment very important to me if you find way to do that please inform me

[phoboz]

@Kratos_88

what do you mean at some point that is at the moment very important to me if you find way to do that please inform me

It means, that I do not currently have this feature on the roadmap, but it might be something I will look into at a later stage or if more people request it

[GrayAxen]

@Kratos_88 , why not use one of the many commercial programs that can already do this?
Agisoft Photoscan/ now Metashape, or Reality Capture are solid solutions that can already do this competently and at scale.

[Kratos_88]

@ax448

@Kratos_88 , why not use one of the many commercial programs that can already do this?
Agisoft Photoscan/ now Metashape, or Reality Capture are solid solutions that can already do this competently and at scale.

Well it is obviously a price. Look at price at reality capture. Also there is big time generating model from picture in RealityCapture and Agisoft/Metashape. I believe in this guy that he is on something new that will bring precision and time in photogammetry with his app that these apps dont have, he had one million, I am waiting for something new I think it is bigger problem to make point cloud from picture and generate model than to menage point cloud (maybe I am wrong)…

[anonymous_user_1a2580c6]

Hi ,

First of all, fantastic work on this plugin. It was almost “Unreal” how quickly we were able to get up & going, visualising point clouds easily.

Absolutely terrific work.

We had one question - when we compile with UE 4.20 (precompiled from Unreal Store), PointCloudPlugin-0.5.3-4.21 only renders into the left eye of our VR headset (we use the SteamVR plugin). The point cloud doesn’t render into the right eye at all which obviously creates a deeply disorientating result.

Do you have any ideas for how we can fix this?

Thank you and once again congratulations on your outstanding plugin.

[phoboz]

@dvt - safesite

Hi ,

First of all, fantastic work on this plugin. It was almost “Unreal” how quickly we were able to get up & going, visualising point clouds easily.

Absolutely terrific work.

We had one question - when we compile with UE 4.20 (precompiled from Unreal Store), PointCloudPlugin-0.5.3-4.21 only renders into the left eye of our VR headset (we use the SteamVR plugin). The point cloud doesn’t render into the right eye at all which obviously creates a deeply disorientating result.

Do you have any ideas for how we can fix this?

Thank you and once again congratulations on your outstanding plugin.

Hi @dvt-safesite ,

Thanks for the feedback!

First time I heard that happening, I’m afraid.

• Which headset are you using?
• Can you replicate the same behavior inside a blank, content-only (non-C++) project with a binary version of the plugin, loading only the point cloud in VR (all other non-default plugins disabled)?
• See if changing VR Instanced Stereo has any effect (Edit > Project Settings > Rendering > VR)

To be honest, I’m a little surprised the version for 4.21 even works with 4.20, I would imagine the materials not loading at all.

[Rufson]

Hello @,
I have a question about animating the point cloud like you showed here (img from your plugin website)

Is it possible to animate imported (from asset browser) point cloud like in this image? I working on art project where I use BCI brain data and VR and I want to manipulate points using brain wave channel amplitude to achieve smth similar to the image above or like this here: PointCloud Animation using Curl Noise - YouTube

BIG thank you for your hard work on this plugin.
Best
rufus

[anonymous_user_e71dc750]

Hi - Wondering if there is the ability to use this plugin with 4.22?

Thanks,

[phoboz]

First of all, sorry for the delay in response! My notifications are disabled again for some reason.

@Rufson

Hello @,
Is it possible to animate imported (from asset browser) point cloud like in this image? I working on art project where I use BCI brain data and VR and I want to manipulate points using brain wave channel amplitude to achieve smth similar to the image above or like this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcbDhAPUWVw

Hi @Rufson!

There are two ways to animate points:

• By persistently modifying the points’ data on the CPU side - most flexible, but slow
• By using custom material expressions (like the one shown on your video) - orders of magnitude faster, but much more limited in functionality

@Flight_Evolved

Hi - Wondering if there is the ability to use this plugin with 4.22?

​​​​​​​Hi @Flight_Evolved!

Yes! The new version - 0.5.4 - will be released in a few hours, and will bring 4.22 support :)!

[Rufson]

First of all, sorry for the delay in response! My notifications are disabled again for some reason.

Hi @Rufson!

There are two ways to animate points:

• By persistently modifying the points’ data on the CPU side - most flexible, but slow
• By using custom material expressions (like the one shown on your video) - orders of magnitude faster, but much more limited in functionality

No worries @ thanks for your response

Is that possible via blueprint? like on your webiste here https://pointcloudplugin.com/tutorial-modifying-point-cloud

best

[phoboz]

@Rufson

No worries @ thanks for your response

Is that possible via blueprint? like on your webiste here https://pointcloudplugin.com/tutorial-modifying-point-cloud

best

Yes. This tutorial shows how to modify colors, but you could tweak the position using the exact same approach. Note that this is the CPU-side animation.
For animations driven by the materials, I would recommend you make a copy of the default material and apply your custom animation elements to it. You would then need to assign it back as a custom material inside the point cloud’s settings.

[Rufson]

Yes. This tutorial shows how to modify colors, but you could tweak the position using the exact same approach. Note that this is the CPU-side animation.
For animations driven by the materials, I would recommend you make a copy of the default material and apply your custom animation elements to it. You would then need to assign it back as a custom material inside the point cloud’s settings.

Thank you for a quick response, so this will not work with point lit/unlit, only sprite lit/unlit am I right?

[phoboz]

@Rufson

Thank you for a quick response, so this will not work with point lit/unlit, only sprite lit/unlit am I right?

Depending on what you want to achieve. Points are rather simple, so you are pretty much limited to colors and location, but yes, you could animate those.

[phoboz]

Point Cloud Plugin v0.5.4
Release Notes

New Features / Improvements

• Support for UE 4.22

Fixes

• Fixed interference with custom materials using the Volume domain
• Fixed compilation issues for certain custom materials
• Fixed compilation issues with certain Unreal Studio materials
• Fixed incorrect Octree generation for certain point cloud shapes
• Fixed crashes related to runtime asset re-importing
• Fixed location precision loss (point banding) when importing clouds with very large offsets
• Fixed warning messages during project deployment

NOTE:
Due to changes made to PointCloudComponent, required for UE 4.22 support, any existing PointCloudActors instance in the scene will most likely require replacing with a new instance, as it’s properties will become corrupted.