Gaussian Splatting

3D Gaussian Splatting (Kerbl et al., SIGGRAPH 2023) replaced NeRF as the practical radiance-field workflow within ~12 months. By May 2026 it is the default for high-fidelity photo-real captures: faster to train, drastically faster to render, and with usable editors and browser viewers. Pairs with Photogrammetry Software and Photogrammetry Mobile Apps for capture, NeRF & Radiance Fields for the older sibling, 3D / WebGL and 3D Model Hosting & Display for delivery.

Training (OSS)

• ★ Nerfstudio (nerfstudio + gsplat) — free, OSS (Apache-2). The de-facto research framework; pluggable methods, web viewer, COLMAP-friendly. The gsplat library (developed by Nerfstudio + UC Berkeley) is the standard open splat trainer in 2026.
• ★ gsplat — free, OSS; CUDA / Python library powering Nerfstudio's splat methods. Pip-installable, used directly by many research projects.
• Original 3DGS reference (gaussian-splatting) — Inria / GraphDeco; free for non-commercial research. The original codebase from the 2023 paper; widely cloned but the license forbids commercial use — prefer gsplat for that.
• Splatfacto / Splatfacto-W — Nerfstudio's first-party splat method; works in the wild (e.g. internet photos with varying exposure).
• 2DGS (2D Gaussian Splatting) — research extension; better surface reconstruction; Nerfstudio plugin.
• MipSplatting — research extension; anti-aliasing.

Editing / authoring (OSS + free)

• ★ SuperSplat (PlayCanvas) — free, OSS (MIT); browser-based Gaussian-splat editor. Trim, decimate, recolour, transform; exports compressed .splat / .ply / .ksplat. The default free splat editor in 2026.
• ★ Brush — free, OSS; standalone splat editor / trainer (Rust + WGPU); cross-platform. Younger but very capable; trains and edits in one app.
• 3DGS Online tools (various community) — free browser splat manipulators and converters.
• Polycam Splat editor — paid (web); inside the Polycam app.

Hosted / paid pro

• Postshot — paid (Windows); standalone splat trainer + editor; very fast, very high quality. The pro pick for splat artists who want a polished native app.
• Polycam Splat — paid Pro tier; capture + train + share end-to-end on the phone.
• KIRI Engine Splat — paid Pro tier; phone-side capture and cloud training.
• Luma AI Splats / Genie — paid; phone capture + cloud training; integrates with Luma's text-to-3D Genie pipeline.
• Spline Splat import — closed source, freemium; embed splats in Spline scenes for marketing pages.

Browser viewers / players

• ★ SuperSplat Viewer (PlayCanvas) — free; loads .splat / .ply / .ksplat in any browser; embeddable.
• ★ Mark Kellogg's gaussian-splat-3d — free, OSS (MIT); Three.js-friendly Gaussian-splat renderer. The default for embedding splats inside R3F scenes.
• Three.js GaussianSplattingRenderer — community / built-in extensions in newer Three.js releases.
• @playcanvas/react — splat-aware React component from PlayCanvas.
• Antimatter15 splat-viewer — early WebGL splat viewer; still cited.
• Polycam web viewer / Luma embed / Postshot embed — proprietary hosted viewers.

Formats

• .ply — universal point/splat format; large.
• .splat (antimatter15 / Mark Kellogg) — compressed splat container; streaming-friendly.
• .ksplat (Mark Kellogg) — keyframed / further-compressed; smallest.
• .spz (Niantic) — compressed splat for Lightship / Scaniverse; spec available.

Conversion / optimization

• splat-transform / gsplat exporters — convert PLY → .splat / .ksplat.
• SuperSplat export — built-in compression and culling.
• Postshot export — paid; outputs .splat / .ksplat directly.

Capture pipeline

1. Capture: video or photos via Photogrammetry Mobile Apps (Polycam / Scaniverse / Luma) or DSLR (Scan Capture Hardware).
2. Solve camera poses: COLMAP (free, see Photogrammetry Software), or skip if the app does it.
3. Train: gsplat / Nerfstudio / Postshot / Brush.
4. Edit: SuperSplat or Brush.
5. Display: SuperSplat Viewer or Mark Kellogg's gaussian-splat-3d inside R3F (see 3D / WebGL).

Pick this if…

• Default OSS training, will pip install: gsplat + Nerfstudio.
• Free OSS editor, in the browser: SuperSplat.
• Free OSS native app, train + edit: Brush.
• Pro polish, fastest results, paid Windows app: Postshot.
• Phone capture + Pro splat: Polycam Pro, Luma AI, or KIRI Pro.
• Embed a splat in a website: SuperSplat Viewer or Mark Kellogg's gaussian-splat-3d in R3F.
• Old NeRF workflow: see NeRF & Radiance Fields.