LiDAR Viewer (http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/Res..., http://doc-ok.org/?p=432) is an out-of-core, multi-resolution, view-dependent interactive visualization and analysis software for massive (tens of billions of points) LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, large-extent 3D laser scanning) data. LiDAR Viewer allows seamless visualization of data sets many times the size of the computer's main memory, and provides measurement and feature extraction / analysis tools to perform scientific or engineering field work in a virtual environment.
LiDAR Viewer is an immersive application aimed at high-end holographic displays like CAVEs, but it also works in low-cost VR environments (http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/Res...) or on normal desktop or laptop PCs, as shown in this video.
LiDAR Viewer is free software, released under the GNU General Public License, and runs on Unix-like operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS X. It is based on the Vrui VR development toolkit (http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/Res...).
This video visualizes a large-extent, high-resolution (~10 points/m^2) aerial LiDAR scan of the city of San Francisco and surrounding areas, sponsored by the USGS and San Francisco State University, towards goals of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (http://online.sfsu.edu/ehines/arra_go...). The 30cm resolution color orthophotos mapped onto the raw LiDAR point cloud are from the HiRes Urban Imagery project and were downloaded through the Cal-Atlas geospatial clearinghouse (http://atlas.ca.gov/).
