Lidar data tools for RTB

RaceTrackBuilder is limited to using terrain data provided by Google, but this data is rather coarse so it takes a lot of manual modelling and finetuning to make both road and adjacent terrain not looking a bit weird and synthetic. Now there’s options to get detailed terrain data into RTB:

1. Obtaining and preparing the data
2. Importing track elevation data
3. Substituting Google terrain data <WIP>
4. Creating 3D terrain chunks <WIP>

1. Obtaining and preparing the data

Find high quality terrain data of your area of interest. If the data is already in .copc.laz format and properly classified (ground-vegetation-buildings etc) the tiles can be directly processed. Some more info on preparing and merging lidar data can be found here. If you have the data in .las or .laz format, simply dragging the file(s) into QGIS will convert them into .copc.laz format. The reason for using this format is working with the files uses very little resources – unlike las/laz files which have to be loaded entirely into computer memory just for reading a single point.

To use the data for “Google terrain substitution” or “3D chunk creation” it has to be converted into a Geotiff DEM. A PDAL pipeline can be found here or the DEM can be made in QGIS; for larger/hi-res maps it’s important to set internal tiling (blocksize for instance 1024×1024) – otherwise performance will suffer.

2. Importing track elevation data

Create a GPX track of the route, make it 50-100m longer than the stage start/stop positions. gpx.studio is a great tool for creating GPX tracks. Start with the normal basemap and create the track by clicking a few points along the route with ‘follow roads’ enabled. Now switch to Mapbox Satellite using the layers icon.