Is there a way to save a point cloud voxelized with Open3D in a format supported by Unreal Engine?

Question

Issues with Voxelization of Point Clouds in Open3D and Saving in Non-PLY Formats

Background

I am currently working on voxelizing point cloud data for utilization within the Unreal Engine. However, I'm encountering compatibility issues between the file formats supported by Unreal Engine and the output options available in Open3D.

Problem Statement

The process of voxelizing point clouds using Open3D is as follows:

1. Load point cloud data in PLY format.
2. Voxelization of the point cloud data.
3. Save the voxelized data.

The challenge arises at step 3, concerning the saving format. Presently, Open3D supports saving only in PLY format. However, my ultimate goal is to manipulate these data within Unreal Engine, which supports only the following file formats:

• *.xyz
• *.pts
• *.txt
• *.las
• *.laz
• *.e57
• *.vox
• *.fbx

Reference Links:

• Overview of Lidar Point Cloud Plugin in Unreal Engine
• FBX Import Options in Unreal Engine
• Request for VOX (MagicaVoxel) Importer Plugin

Current Measures and Challenges

Due to the limitations in saving options in Open3D, I am exploring other libraries or tools but have yet to find a suitable solution. The lack of support in Open3D for saving in formats other than PLY has been confirmed in this article.

Inquiry

I am seeking advice on tackling this technical barrier. Does anyone have information on appropriate libraries, tools, or methodologies? I am particularly interested in insights into saving voxelized point cloud data in formats compatible with Unreal Engine.

Answer 1

PLY is a mesh file format, as is for example OBJ. A lot of software converts from one to another.

If you are looking for FOSS options, you can use MeshLab from the GUI or the CLI to convert .ply to .obj, for example: meshlabserver -i "input_file_name.ply" -o "output-file-name.obj" -om vc.

For GUI conversion, just use the file -> import / export features.