by Hannes Möls·Rendering
Images © Hannes Möls. Used for product review; image policy.
Splat Forge earns its place in the superhive library by rendering Gaussian Splatting with the actual 3DGS rendering equations in GLSL, rather than the proxies or primitives some other add-ons rely on.
Splat Forge adds native support for Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) inside Blender. You can visualize, animate and render millions of Gaussian Splats in real time, whether you're using a 3D scanned scene as a background or integrating 3DGS models into a project. It's designed to be intuitive and accessible, with no special knowledge required.
Unlike add-ons that rely on proxies or primitives, Splat Forge leverages the actual 3DGS rendering equations in GLSL, so you get the authentic appearance and speed of Gaussian Splatting directly in the viewport. You can transform Gaussian Splats in real time like a Blender object, animate the gaussians, animate the camera to create effects, and switch between different visualization modes through an easy-to-use interface.
It runs on Windows, macOS (both Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux, and currently supports .splat and .ply files (though not .compressed.ply), along with spherical harmonics up to degree 3. 3DGS-to-mesh conversion is in development, and all future updates are included. Documentation on how to use it is available on the developer's page at splatforge.cloud.
Splat Forge is best for blender users working with Gaussian Splatting — visualizing, animating and rendering 3DGS scans or models directly in the viewport.
Splat Forge is completely free to download and use.
Splat Forge currently supports .splat and .ply files, though not the .compressed.ply variant, and it handles spherical harmonics up to degree 3. It brings native Gaussian Splatting into Blender so you can visualize, animate and render millions of Gaussian Splats in real time, using either a 3D scanned scene as a background or integrating 3DGS models into your project. Documentation covering how to use it is available on the developer's page at splatforge.cloud.
Splat Forge runs on Windows, macOS on both Apple Silicon and Intel, and Linux, so the add-on covers the major desktop platforms Blender artists work on. It renders Gaussian Splats directly in the viewport using the actual 3DGS rendering equations in GLSL, rather than relying on proxies or primitives, which gives you the authentic appearance and speed of the format. You can transform, animate and switch visualization modes for your splats across any of these supported operating systems.
Splat Forge is listed for Blender 4.5 and works with the Blender-Internal, Cycles and Eevee render engines. Inside Blender you can transform Gaussian Splats in real time like a regular object, animate the gaussians, animate the camera to create effects, and choose between different visualization modes. The add-on is built to feel intuitive and accessible, so no special knowledge of Gaussian Splatting is required to get started. Documentation is available on the developer's page at splatforge.cloud.
Splat Forge is listed as free here, and it's released under the GPL license. For current licensing and any launch pricing, check the developer's page. All future updates are included, so once you have the add-on you get access to new features as they're released, including 3DGS-to-mesh conversion, which the developer has noted is already in development. A demo video is also available if you want to see more before getting started.
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