Just in time for Intergeo 2015, the Potree software was released in its latest 1.3 version. Potree is a WebGL-based point cloud viewer for very large datasets. The Potree software allows users to publish large LiDAR point clouds on the Web so that anyone can explore the data with nothing more but a modern browser.
The interactive 3D viewer not only visualizes the LiDAR in many useful and intuitive ways. It also comes with tools to perform various measurements. As its only Gold Sponsor, rapidlasso GmbH is the main supporter of this powerful open source package by Markus Schütz. The long-term sponsorship of rapidlasso GmbH has directly supported a number of useful features such as the integration of our award-winning LASzip compressor using the pure javascript version contributed by Hobu Inc., optimization for massive airborne LiDAR data, profile selection, tools for distance and area measurements, options to color by classification, return type, and point source ID and a clipping tool.
The particular features sponsored in the most recent 1.3 release of Potree are the Eye Dome Lighting (EDL) and faster data conversion for large data sets. A number of interesting showcases are available on the Potree page.
In the near future the Potree software will be distributed together with the LAStools package to offer a one-click solution for generating Webportals that host and distribute large LiDAR data sets and offer interactive online visualization and exploration. Potree is open source software that is free for anyone to acquire and deploy.
About Potree
Potree is a WebGL-based viewer for large point clouds. The project evolved as a Web-based viewer from the Scanopy desktop point cloud renderer by TU Wien, Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms. It will continue to be free and open source with a FreeBSD license to enable anyone to view, analyze and publicly share their large datasets.