Isaac Sim RTX 3D LiDAR Point Cloud Fluctuating in RViz Instead of Continuous Output

Omniverse Isaac Sim
1

Hello,

I am simulating an RTX 3D LiDAR in Isaac Sim and visualizing the point cloud in RViz using the ROS 2 bridge. I have placed several static objects close to the LiDAR for testing. However, the point cloud visualization in RViz is not continuous; instead, it fluctuates significantly (appears and disappears intermittently), even though the LiDAR and objects remain static in the simulation.

I recorded a short video to demonstrate the issue:

1 Like
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@shailesh.pawar Could you please show your rviz setting? There should be decay time for your laser scan and you can set it to some positive value like 0.5. If I remember correctly, it has unit seconds.

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Hi @zhengwang,

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked my RViz settings — the decay time is currently set to 0, which is fine since it only displays the latest scan.

However, my issue isn’t related to the decay setting. The problem occurs when I integrate the LiDAR with a robot in a dynamic scene.The point cloud visualization in RViz becomes very slow and inconsistent.

It seems like the point cloud updates are delayed

For reference, I’ve attached a short video that shows the issue. Could you please take a look and share any insights on what might be causing this?

Thanks again!

5

That is odd. Which Isaac Sim version are you using? There was some bug in RTX lidar which is fixed in Isaac Sim 5.0. I wonder if yours is similar to that.

How are you running ROS2, Isaac Sim and Rivz? Are they on the same machine? Are you running any of them in a docker container or just bare machine?

What is your GPU and driver?

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Hi @zhengwang,

Thanks for the reply!

I’m using Isaac Sim 4.2

As for the setup, everything is running on one single machine — ROS2, Isaac Sim, and RViz are all on the same system. I’m not using any Docker containers; everything is installed natively.

For hardware:

  • GPU: NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000

  • Driver Version: 560

  • CUDA Version: 12.6

Let me know if you need any further details.

Thanks again for your help!

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Isaac Sim 4.2 has reached its EOL. Could you please try Isaac Sim 5.0.0 (there is some issue with RTX lidar in Isaac Sim 4.5.0)?

Your GPU is pretty powerful and shouldn’t be a problem

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