3D Gaussian Splatting in Its Truest Form in Blender

3D Gaussian Splatting has been a revolutionary 3D capturing and rendering technique and has opened infinite possibilities for the entire 3D industry. The revolutionary efficiency and fidelity of 3DGS (3D Gaussian Splatting) make it an excellent tool for quick visualizations – paired with real-time rendering, you have yourself something that effectively restores reality in 3D space from something as simple as a 2-minute video.

With all the good, comes the bad: the practicality of 3DGS has been quite limited as it's a brand new algorithm and output of 3D format. The .PLY file contains additional headers indicating the unique perspective-based rendering information, which makes it not directly compatible with most 3D editors people typically use.

Many developers see the potential of this new 3D visualization technique, finding solutions to make this unique file type compatible with popular 3D editors. So far, the most stable plug-ins are the free XVERSE 3D-GS UE Plugin and Unity GaussianSplatting for Unreal Engine and Unity, respectively. While other plug-ins exist, such as 3D Gaussian Splatting Blender Addon and UEGaussianSplatting for Unreal Engine, one has limited functionality and the other comes with a steep price.

Understanding the demand for a high-quality and consistent add-on for 3DGS integration into Blender, the developers at KIRI Innovations have researched, produced, and polished a unique add-on that allows direct visualization for 3DGS within Blender. This new add-on combines versatility and consistency, allowing Blender enthusiasts to take advantage of Gaussian splats and render them into gorgeous final products.

The add-on can be found on either GitHub or Blender Market, and they are both completely free to download. Further optimizations will be added down the road, such as cropping tools, mesh converters, etc.

To fully take advantage of 3DGS and the new add-on, KIRI encourages users to capture 3D Gaussian splats within KIRI Engine and use the in-app cropping tools to obtain the desired shape and parameters of the splat. Then, export its native .PLY format for final rendering in Blender with the add-on installed.

This new add-on brings a few unique versatile features that allow for more seamless integration and practical usage. It's compatible with Eevee, making this add-on the only tool that supports this rendering engine. There is a 'Camera Update' feature that allows the object to appear correctly as you switch perspectives, and there are two update modes: Frame Change and Continuous updates. Some of the processes may be straining on the hardware, so there is also a Color Warning feature that allows you to visualize the processing activities. This add-on also allows high-quality splats rendering, as well as supporting multiple splats to be in the scene simultaneously.

For more information, please refer to the dedicated user guide on KIRI's official website. Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.