RTX Lidar PointCloud 3D: How to set a custom intensity on objects? Changing the material properties have no effect

Isaac Sim Version

4.2.0

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04
Ubuntu 22.04

GPU Information

  • Model: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
  • Driver Version: 560.35.03
  • CUDA Version: 12.6

Topic Description

1. Getting the pointcloud data (position XYZ + intensity), works

Based on the RtxSensorCpuIsaacComputeRTXLidarPointCloud info:


Image from here

See the following implementation on how to get the intensity data (based on the LidarRtx in omni.isaac.sensor):

self._point_cloud_annotator = rep.AnnotatorRegistry.get_annotator("RtxSensorCpu" + "IsaacComputeRTXLidarPointCloud")
self._point_cloud_annotator.attach([self._render_product_path])
ptcloud_data = self._point_cloud_annotator.get_data()
self.points = ptcloud_data["data"]
self.range = ptcloud_data["info"]["range"]
self.intensity = ptcloud_data["info"]["intensity"]

2. Creating a ROS2 message and sending the data (position & intensity), works

In another piece of code I forward the data by publishing it via ROS in a pointcloud2 message.

3. Set a custom intensity on an object

The problem is that I want to have 2 objects with different intensities. The logical way would be by using a different material and changing its albedo, metal, roughness, etc., but this has no effect on the intensity?
There is no documentation, demo’s, example scripts, video’s, tests, pictures, etc. that illustrate how to use this, so it is hard for me to know what the problem is.

I’m also interested in this topic and would love to learn more about setting different intensities for objects in Lidar simulations. Have there been any updates or solutions since your post?