By Coulter Heiberger · Updated
How geospatial data becomes a buildable Unreal scene, and how to skip the manual conversion.
The GIS to Unreal pipeline turns geospatial source data (a digital elevation model, aerial imagery, and vector features) into a georeferenced, buildable scene inside Unreal. Done by hand it is several steps: pull a DEM and imagery for the area, clip and reproject them to a common coordinate system, convert the elevation into a heightmap, import that as a Landscape, then align and drape the imagery and place any vector features. Each step is a place to lose alignment or precision. Mantle Place collapses the pipeline into a product: you draw the area, order a bundle, and the Mantle Place Importer builds an editable Landscape in Unreal, with the imagery draped and the georeference already resolved, at no extra cost. The conversion work is done for you.
This page explains the pipeline. To do it, follow How to import real-world terrain into Unreal Engine.
Yes. The bundle is not locked to Unreal or to one GIS. The files that build your Unreal scene also opens in QGIS, ArcGIS Pro, Rhino, and more, because every layer is cut to the same georeferenced extent and ships in open formats.
Gather elevation and imagery for the area. With Mantle Place this is a single bundle; by hand it is multiple downloads from separate providers.
Reproject and clip every layer to one coordinate system and the same extent so elevation and imagery overlap exactly.
Convert the elevation to a heightmap or mesh and bring it into Unreal as a Landscape, terrain mesh, or static mesh.
Align the aerial imagery over the terrain and place any vector features so the scene reads as the real site.
Keeping every layer in the same coordinate system and extent so elevation and imagery line up. A bundle that is georeferenced up front removes most of that alignment risk.
Not with a finished bundle. Mantle Place does the sourcing, reprojection, and meshing, so a designer can import a buildable scene without running a GIS workflow.
Yes. Bundles include GeoTIFF imagery and elevation that open directly in QGIS or ArcGIS if you want to analyze or extend the data later.
Draw your area, read its Site Brief, and download a bundle you keep: terrain, imagery, CAD drawings, and more, ready for Unreal, Revit, Rhino, and more. $5 plus $2 per square kilometer, and 2 km² and under is free.
Native plugins: Mantle Place for Unreal and Mantle Place for Revit.
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