gis2minetest

A python notebook for converting geospatial data including classified LiDAR las/laz files and Open Street Maps data into Minetest worlds.

Credit

The following notebook was inspired and adapted from James Wooton.

Prof. Paul Pickell (University of British Columbia) added additional instructions and functionality to change the scale, fill holes in the ground using inverse distance weighting interpolation, integrate Open Street Maps data, and visualize other elevation derivatives. Support for additional map layers beyond LiDAR data coming soon.

Licensed under GNU General Public License v3.0.

Before you get started

Download Minetest. To install, simply extract the contents somewhere that you have read/write access to on your computer (e.g., your user directory on Windows C:\Users\YourUsername\minetest\). Navigate to the bin folder, find the minetest.exe executable, right-click it and create a shortcut on your desktop or taskbar, then double-click the shortcut to run Minetest.
Download the csv2terrain mod from this fork. To install, simply extract the contents into your mods folder within your Minetest directory. For example, C:\Users\YourUsername\minetest\mods\. Ensure that the folder is renamed csv2terrain. Run Minetest and create a new world with any options then press the Select Mods button and you should see csv2terrain listed there if the installation was done correctly.
Put the Jupyter notebook (gis2minetest.ipynb) in the same folder as your data or otherwise indicate the pathname and filename for your data. The LiDAR data can be in either .las or .laz format. It is assumed that the ground has been classified in this LiDAR point cloud.
Read the instructions within the Jupyter notebook.

Updates

November 9, 2021: Added new visualizations of slope and hillshade. Bug fixes.

November 7, 2021: Added new visualizations of bare Earth Digital Terrain Models (DTM) from a LiDAR point cloud and DTM derivatives such as aspect and Topographic Position Index (TPI). Stream-lined the instructions and bug fixes.

November 5, 2021: Integrated Open Street Maps (OSM) data download using the Overpass API. Roads can now be mapped onto the terrain surface (see City of Vancouver screenshots below). Support for additional OSM map features coming soon. Also updated the csv2terrain mod to support a wider assortment of block types (e.g., stairs, slabs, and wool). This new feature allows slabs to be used to simulate sidewalks. Users are now encouraged to install the csv2terrain mod from this fork when working with the gis2minetest script. Bug fixes.

October 31, 2021: Added additional support for mapping tree stems and differentiating canopy structure (see Malcolm Knapp Research Forest screenshots below).

Sample Minetest Worlds

Two prefabricated Minetest worlds are included. Extract the folder contents to your ~\Minetest\worlds\ directory and then start Minetest to load the worlds.

Visualizing aspect

0-22.5° = red
22.5-67.5° = orange
67.5-112.5° = yellow
112.5-157.5° = green
157.5-202.5° = cyan
202.5-247.5° = blue
247.5-292.5° = violet
292.5-337.5° = magenta
337.5-360° = red

Visualizing slope

Experimenting with 8-bit color depth in the block textures (256 block types) for visualizing different color brewer palettes.

low slope = green
high slope = red

Visualizing hillshade

Experimenting with 8-bit color depth in the block textures (256 block types) for visualizing different color brewer palettes.

Visualizing Topographic Position Index

Experimenting with 8-bit color depth in the block textures (256 block types) for visualizing different color brewer palettes.

red (valley)
blue (ridge)

Downtown Vancouver, Canada

BC Place, Vancouver, Canada

Canada Place, Vancouver, Canada

Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, British Columbia, Canada

New feature supports mapping tree stems and differentiating canopy structure Trees with different heights are more apparent Retention trees have very well defined canopies within the harvest block and stem locations are likely accurate View from the ground at the edge of the harvest block, looking upslope View from the ground under a retention tree within the harvest block View from the ground under the canopy Shading under the canopy is now much more apparent (time is 12PM noon)