Methods and apparatus relating to image-based compression of Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor data with point re-ordering are described. In an embodiment, logic receives distance sensor data and converts the received distance sensor data to point cloud data. The point cloud data corresponds to a set of points in a three dimensional (3D) space. The logic circuitry packs/organizes the converted point cloud data into one or more two dimensional (2D) arrays. Data stored in the one or more 2D arrays are compressed to generate a compressed version of the point cloud data. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.