I'm looking for a way to create photo-realistic scenes (mainly indoor but also looking for outdoor) based on point clouds by using a TLS and a camera system. The end goal is to visualize it in an gaming engine as unreal engine. I don't have a prefered product (point cloud or mesh) as in the upcoming version of UE5 and already the actual version both type of data is supported. It should be possible to use different lighting to set different moods (sunset, daylight, etc.)
As of now, I would go for two separate systems as the camera inbuild into laser scanners aren't as of high quality as even some "cheaper" DSLR/System cameras. Therefore I would scene first the scene with a TLS (X330, RTC360, BLK you name it) and then would swap it for a panoramic camera system for capturing the data.
During my (still ongoing) research, I found several requirements to achieve my goal:
- HDR image capture sequence
- precise panoramic system to meet the nodal point and have a precise alignment
- precise alignment of camera center to TLS center -> at best mechanically
- full 3D dome scans
- How to capture a color-accurate HDR image
-> do it need a color checkerboard for that
- Should the scene have meshed before the coloring or should the coloring be based on the point cloud and then meshed
- How to deal with partially shadowed/lighted scenes
- Should active lighting be used (flash or lamps)
- Deshadowing the images to get shadow-free scenes
- Should I go for another approach, e.g. taking TLS scans just for the overview and detailed assets by photogrammetry and merge them later?
Thank you very much for any suggestion! If there is any clarification needed - please let me know!