LIDAR Heightmap from Houdini to Unreal Engine

[ElwinvanAlstMedia]

Hi all,

 

I'm working on a project where I need to bring in a real-world landscape into Unreal Engine. I have been able to find some LIDAR height map scans (.tiff) of the location and via Houdini I need to combine these and prepare them for export / import to Unreal Engine. For me this is the first time importing a real world heightfield into Unreal Engine and working with Houdini. I have been able to import and combine the four LIDAR tiles, but am running into the following issues:

1. Setting 'Uniform Scale' to 1 causes the height map height to glitch out. (see 1st screenshot) Why is this happening? The height map is 12500 x 10000 pixels. For the time being I have set my 'Size of Largest Axis' to 6250 and Uniform Scale to 2. 

2. Combining Four Heightfield_files: the location I am working on is split across four data tiles. I have lined them up and have them overlapping by a pixel, this seems to give me a seamless transition. The four heightfield_files are currently combined using a 'merge' node. Is this okay or am I over looking something? (see screenshot 2)

3. Cleaning Up Heightfields: The height maps that I have downloaded are very accurate (this is necessary because the height elevation point is 10 meters. But there are a lot of holes in the height map. There are two rivers; one running East - West and one to the North. These need to remain in tact. However, the height map also shows outlines of buildings and sometimes there are sporadic holes in the landscape. Should these be cleaned up in Houdini first? Or can this be done in Unreal Engine? If in Houdini, how can I do this?

4. Export to Unreal Engine: I am working with Houdini Apprentice and am looking for someone with a paid license to help me export the file. Is there anyone willing to help?

Thank you for your help!