Pcx - Point Cloud Importer/Renderer for Unity
Pcx is a custom importer and renderer that allows for handling point cloud data in Unity.
System Requirements
- Unity 2019.4
Supported Formats
Currently Pcx only supports PLY binary little-endian format.
How To Install
The Pcx package uses the scoped registry feature to import dependent
packages. Please add the following sections to the package manifest file
(Packages/manifest.json
).
To the scopedRegistries
section:
{
"name": "Keijiro",
"url": "https://registry.npmjs.com",
"scopes": [ "jp.keijiro" ]
}
To the dependencies
section:
"jp.keijiro.pcx": "1.0.1"
After changes, the manifest file should look like below:
{
"scopedRegistries": [
{
"name": "Keijiro",
"url": "https://registry.npmjs.com",
"scopes": [ "jp.keijiro" ]
}
],
"dependencies": {
"jp.keijiro.pcx": "1.0.1",
...
Container Types
There are three types of container for point clouds.
Mesh
Points are to be contained in a Mesh
object. They can be rendered with the
standard MeshRenderer
component. It's recommended to use the custom shaders
included in Pcx (Point Cloud/Point
and Point Cloud/Disk
).
ComputeBuffer
Points are to be contained in a PointCloudData
object, which uses
ComputeBuffer
to store point data. It can be rendered with using the
PointCloudRenderer
component.
Texture
Points are baked into Texture2D
objects that can be used as attribute maps
in Visual Effect Graph.
Rendering Methods
There are two types of rendering methods in Pcx.
Point (point primitives)
Points are rendered as point primitives when using the Point Cloud/Point
shader.
The size of points can be adjusted by changing the material properties.
These size properties are only supported on some platforms; It may work with OpenGLCore and Metal, but never work with D3D11/12.
This method is also used when the point size is set to zero in
PointCloudRenderer
.
Disk (geometry shader)
Points are rendered as small disks when using the Point Cloud/Disk
shader or
PointCloudRenderer
.
This method requires geometry shader support.
Acknowledgements
The point cloud files used in the examples of Pcx are created by authors listed below. These files are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0). Please see the following original pages for further details.
-
richmond-azaelias.ply - Azaleas, Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park. Created by Thomas Flynn. https://sketchfab.com/models/188576acfe89480f90c38d9df9a4b19a
-
anthidium-forcipatum.ply - Anthidium forcipatum โ (Point Cloud). Created by Thomas Flynn. https://sketchfab.com/models/3493da15a8db4f34929fc38d9d0fcb2c
-
Guanyin.ply - Guanyin (Avalokitesvara). Created by Geoffrey Marchal. https://sketchfab.com/models/9db9a5dfb6744a5586dfcb96cb8a7dc5