1: Import Real Landscapes into Unreal in under 30 minutes using Houdini and real world DTM data

The first video in a planned series on blistering fast and cutting edge terrain workflows using Houdini and Unreal. Learn how to use real world LIDAR data to produce digital terrain models which contain an unprecedented level of detail.

It would take months of work to even begin to approach the level of complexity and detail we find in real world elevation data. So why not dance with the devil and take a shortcut, if you can conscience it.

This is the first upload on this channel! Subscribe in order to see part 2 of this video when it releases.

My microphone issues will be fixed in the next video!

Chapters
00:00 Setup & Unreal
02:15 Open Source Lidar Data
04:15 Google Maps and Rant
07:50 End of Rant
09:40 Exporting the data
12:26 Getting Houdini
14:00 Houdini
15:05 Heightfield Import to Houdini
17:56 Heightfield Resolution
21:53 Heightfield Export from Houdini
30:04 Import to Unreal and scale Rations
34:22 Subscribe

Below you can find links to a few online open-source Lidar Data sets.

UK Lidar Explorer:

Norway Open Source Lidar Explorer:

United States Lidar Explorer:

I recommend checking out Joe Garth's Brushify Channel and marketplace content. He's gone one step further and turned Lidar data into brushes that you can use to paint mountains in realtime in Unreal. You can find tonnes of his content on the marketplace.

[Tgoth]

Clear, concise, to the point. Easy to follow and extremely valuable info! Amazing work

[culpritdesign]

The amount of data our generation has access to is astounding.

[UndiniTuts]

As this is the first video on this channel, constructive criticism is welcome, as well as any thoughts or suggestions for content in future videos. Thanks for watching! Please Like and Subscribe if you want to see more content like this.

G

[Coulter_Rethink-Viz]

For anyone watching this in 2023 and beyond, I really recommend exporting all of this as a HDA (Houdini Digital Asset), then using Houdini Engine inside of Unreal to load the HDA. It will take a bit more processing power and RAM, but a HDA will automatically scale the landscape for you, can include the height maps automatically, and a ton more. It also allows Houdini parameters, like height map adjustments, to be changed inside Unreal in "real-time".

You will have to go down a different path to learn HDA's, but It seems worth it, at least for my workflow.

[sifton]

This is the clearest explanation I've found to date. Thank you!

[DoubleSpy]

Your opening point is exactly how I've been thinking about world generation. Cheers mate.

[pingyao]

Brilliant tutorial. Clear and concise explanations. I got good results first time. I will now be checking out the next vid in the series.

[godril]

this tutorial was truly amazing. Fantastic work, thank you for sharing

[SocailInteruption]

Great video. Thank you. Nicely paced and thorough.

[c.e.l.l.z]

never knew about expanding the file path! neat!

[usernnn]

TNice tutorials is just the pick up I needed, thanks man

[MrLarsalexander]

Houdini proves to be the easiest way to import lidar data to UE. Thank you so much for sharing this really quick and well explained tutorial!
I have been using Qgis-World machine and last world creator to work on heightmaps for export. This makes it so much faster to create a heightfile that UE accepts.

[dbk]

Best heightmap video on youtube! Thank you Undini

[NazzarenoGiannelliCG]

Amazing content packed with great insight and a lot of knowledge!
Instant sub! Keep doing this

[caesurabreak]

incredibly helpful knowledge. i thought it was kind of funny when you said the most fantastic landscapes are in the real world as if it was novel information. It really hammered that code monkey stereotype of being totally real world oblivious. thanks for the info brother!

[Iamtherodlight.]

Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together

[FaitelTech]

A lot of useful tips and clear explanation. Thanks for the tutorial and keep it up 👍

[GvRDesigns]

Great workflow and Video! Thanks for sharing.

[RAGTOS]

Thankyou so much bro, You really nailed it,

[RNDM-ndtj]

the advice at 21:00 is solid, i was working on a 4k terrain in unreal a while back and the majority of the time the frame render time was lower when using large tiles (4x4), but it also introduced unacceptable render freezes in the event a new tile was loaded in, dividing the heightmap into smaller tiles resulted in a higher frame render time overall while the freezes when loading a new tile were still not good enough for production. I found the best method was to use a single heightmap and use sublevels explicitly for level design and geometry collections, great video btw i haven't experimented with lidar data yet and you take the time to cover the reasoning behind your decisions, new sub from me.