Hi,

I modified the PointCloud display type for rviz to include a "Height
map" color transformer. It colors the points based on their "z" value
in the current fixed frame. Similarly to the "Intensity" color
transformer, you can set manual min and max limits for the color
interpolation, or let rviz auto-compute them.

If anyone is interested, I'm attaching a patch and a screenshot.

Cheers,

Ivan Dryanovski
CCNY Robotics Lab
The City College of New York