Potree Core

• This project was originally based on Potree 1.6 and is now since version 2.0 based on [fork]https://github.com/shiukaheng/potree-loader] of the Potree-Loader.
• Potree is a web based pouint cloud visualizer project created by Markus Schütz.
• This project contains only the main parts of the potree project adapted to be more easily used as a independent library (I have only adapted code from the original repository).
• Support for pointclouds from LAS, LAZ, Binary files and Greyhound server.
• Point clouds are automatically updated, frustum culling is used to avoid unnecessary updates (better update performance for multiple point clouds).
• Supports logarithmic depth buffer (just by enabling it on the threejs renderer), useful for large scale visualization.

How to use

• Download the custom potree build from the build folder or add it to your project using NPM.
  • https://www.npmjs.com/package/potree-core
• Include it alonside the worker folder in your project (can be found on the source folder).
• Download threejs from github repository.
  • https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/tree/dev/build
• The build is a ES module, that can be imported to other projects, it assumes the existence of THREE namespace for threejs dependencies.

Demo

• Live demo at https://tentone.github.io/potree-core/
• Contains the same model multiple times stored in different formats.
• Double click the models to raycast the scene and create marker points.

Example

• Bellow its a fully functional example of how to use this wrapper to load potree point clouds to a THREE.js project

var scene = new THREE.Scene();
var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(60, 1, 0.1, 10000);

var canvas = document.createElement("canvas");
canvas.style.position = "absolute";
canvas.style.top = "0px";
canvas.style.left = "0px";
canvas.style.width = "100%";
canvas.style.height = "100%";
document.body.appendChild(canvas);

var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer({canvas:canvas});

var geometry = new THREE.BoxGeometry(1, 1, 1);
var material = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({color: 0x00ff00});
var cube = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material);
scene.add(cube);

var controls = new THREE.OrbitControls(camera, canvas);
camera.position.z = 10;

var points = new Potree.Group();
points.setPointBudget(10000000)
scene.add(points);

Potree.loadPointCloud("data/test/cloud.js", name, function(data)
{
    var pointcloud = data.pointcloud;
    points.add(pointcloud);
});

function loop()
{
    controls.update();
    renderer.render(scene, camera);
    requestAnimationFrame(loop);
};
loop();

document.body.onresize = function()
{
    var width = window.innerWidth;
    var height = window.innerHeight;
    renderer.setSize(width, height);
    camera.aspect = width / height;
    camera.updateProjectionMatrix();
}
document.body.onresize();

API Reference

• The project has no generated documentation but bellow are some of the main configuration elements.
• A example can be found in the repository index.html file.

Potree.BasicGroup

• Container that stores point cloud objects and updates them on render.
• The container supports frustum culling using the point cloud bouding box.
• Automatically stops updating the point cloud if out of view.
• This container only support pointColorType set as RGB, pointSizeType set as FIXED and shape set as SQUARE.

Potree.Group

• Complete container with support for all potree features.

• Some features require support for the following GL extensions

  • EXT_frag_depth, WEBGL_depth_texture, OES_vertex_array_object

Potree.loadPointCloud

• Method to load a point cloud database file
• Potree.loadPointCloud(url, name, onLoad)

Potree.PointCloudMaterial

• Material used by threejs to draw the point clouds, based on RawShaderMaterial

• shape

  • Defines the shape used to draw points
    • Potree.PointShape.SQUARE
    • Potree.PointShape.CIRCLE
    • Potree.PointShape.PARABOLOID

• pointSizeType

  • Defines how the point cloud points are sized, fixed mode keeps the same size, adaptive resizes points accordingly to their distance to the camera
  • Possible values are
    • Potree.PointSizeType.FIXED
    • Potree.PointSizeType.ATTENUATED
    • Potree.PointSizeType.ADAPTIVE

• pointColorType

  • Defines how to color the drawn points
  • Possible values are
    • Potree.PointColorType.RGB
    • Potree.PointColorType.COLOR
    • Potree.PointColorType.DEPTH
    • Potree.PointColorType.HEIGHT
    • Potree.PointColorType.INTENSITY
    • Potree.PointColorType.INTENSITY_GRADIENT
    • Potree.PointColorType.LOD
    • Potree.PointColorType.POINT_INDEX
    • Potree.PointColorType.CLASSIFICATION
    • Potree.PointColorType.RETURN_NUMBER
    • Potree.PointColorType.SOURCE
    • Potree.PointColorType.NORMAL
    • Potree.PointColorType.PHONG
    • Potree.PointColorType.RGB_HEIGHT

• logarithmicDepthBuffer

  • Set true to enable logarithmic depth buffer

• weighted

  • If true points are drawn as weighted splats

• treeType

  • Defines the type of point cloud tree being drawn by this material
  • This should be automatically defined by the loader
    • Potree.TreeType.OCTREE
    • Potree.TreeType.KDTREE

• Potree.PointCloudTree

  • Base Object3D used to store and represent point cloud data.
  • These objects are created by the loader

Notes

• Since potree-core is meant to be used as library and not as a full software as potree some features are not available.
• EDL shading is not supported by potree core (might be added later).
• Removed classification and clipping functionality.
• Removed Arena 4D point cloud support.
• GUI elements were removed from the library
  • PotreeViewer
  • Controls, Input, GUI, Tools
  • Anotations, Actions, ProfileRequest
  • Potree.startQuery, Potree.endQuery and Potree.resolveQueries
  • Potree.timerQueries
  • Potree.MOUSE, Potree.CameraMode
  • PotreeRenderer, RepRenderer, Potree.Renderer
    • JQuery, TWEEN and Proj4 dependencies

Building

• The project can be build running the commands npm install and npm run build.

Potree Converter

• Use the (Potree Converter)[https://github.com/potree/PotreeConverter/releases] tool to create point cloud data from LAS, ZLAS or BIN point cloud files
• Potree Converter 1.8 creates a multi file structure with each node as an individual file.
• Potree Converter 2.1 creates a single file for all points and separates files for hierarchy index, its faster to create files. Requires a HTTP server configured for file streaming.
• Tool to create hierarquical structure used for point-cloud rendering using potree-core.
• There are two main versions 2.1 witch generates 4 contained files with point data, hierarchy,
• To generate a folder output from a input file run the command .\PotreeConverter '..\input.laz' -o ../output

TXT2LAS

• The potree converter tool only supports las and laz files, so textural file formats such as .pts, .xyz, have to be first converted into a supported format.
• The TXT2LAS tool from the (LASTools)[https://github.com/LAStools/LAStools] repository can be used for this effect.
• To run the tool use the command .\txt2las64 -i input.pts -ipts -parse xyziRGB -set_scale 0.001 0.001 0.001 -set_version 1.4 -o output.laz