Blender 5.3 can render your Gaussian splat. Keep the source file.

If your project starts with a Gaussian splat capture, Blender 5.3 can take that existing file into a scene and render it. Before you promise a client an editable file, keep the capture you started with. The 10 November release supports native PLY and SPZ splat import and, according to Blender’s rendering notes, has no direct splat export. Release files · Rendering notes.

Check what the scan actually contains

A Gaussian splat scene can be reconstructed from a set of photos. Blender stores the result as a type of point cloud. Each splat has properties including size, orientation and colour or radiance. The overlapping shapes can reproduce fine surface details when you move a virtual camera around the capture. If you need clean edges for mesh editing, fabrication or collisions, plan that geometry separately. Blender’s development explanation.

The PLY extension alone doesn’t identify a splat. Blender’s importer checks the file’s geometry and attributes. After import, inspect the object’s data and look for the 3D Gaussian Splats point-cloud type. With an SPZ file, check that the capture sits the right way up. Blender converts axes to its own convention and its notes warn that a file written with different assumptions may still need manual adjustment.

Preview the angle you plan to deliver

Workbench, EEVEE and Cycles can all display or render splats. Blender’s developers recommend flat lighting in Workbench for previewing a scan and say more samples can reduce visible noise in EEVEE. Try a small render from your final camera before committing the whole job. Look closely at thin detail and bright areas with low opacity. Blender documents colour-handling differences that can show up in those areas, and describes relighting support as early. Technical guidance.

Work on a copy if you need to change a transform. The 5.3 notes say Apply Transform doesn’t correctly handle splat scale, rotation and spherical harmonics. Keep the scan before you adjust it and compare the result from the camera you’ll use in the finished piece.

Agree on the handoff before the full shoot

For example, an exhibition team in Accra or a design studio in London might only need a short rendered view. Choose one representative capture and prove the camera angle on the workstation that will deliver it. If another team needs the underlying scan, keep the original PLY or SPZ and check that the recipient can open it before sending the full project. This is a workflow check you can make without assuming the scan will run well on every machine.

Cover: “Gaussian Splat Example” by the Blender Developer Documentation Team, CC BY-SA 4.0, unchanged. The image is a render from the official documentation. Original PNG.

For another example of planning the final use before shooting, read PING!’s guide to a phone flash and the camera workflow.