Gaussian splat layers

Gaussian splat layers represent real-world environments using 3D Gaussian splatting, which reconstructs scenes from aerial or drone imagery with millions of elliptical Gaussian splats. This approach preserves fine details such as power lines, vegetation, reflections, and surface materials more effectively than traditional meshes or point clouds, providing greater photorealism. Gaussian splat layers can be combined with other 2D and 3D data layers in your scenes and are ideal for high-fidelity visualization, asset management and infrastructure inspection, and digital twin workflows.

Usage and benefits

Gaussian splat layers are particularly well suited for visualizing environments with fine-grained detail.

Examples include:

• Construction sites
• Utility and telecommunications networks
• Transportation infrastructure such as roads, railways, and bridges
• Industrial facilities and plant equipment
• Urban digital twins
• Natural environment and vegetation

Gaussian splat layers enable:

• Photorealistic visualization of real-world environments
• Accurate representation of thin structures such as wires, pipes, railings, and antennas
• Visualization of natural features such as individual leaves and dense vegetation
• Realistic rendering of reflections, transparency, smoke, fog, and other visual effects
• Integration with other ArcGIS layer types in the same scene
• Streaming and visualization of large-scale reality capture content

Gaussian splat services

A Gaussian splat layer in the SDK can reference a Gaussian splat web layer published to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise.

You can use the following kinds of URLs for the source to add services to your ArcGIS Map:

• Item page URL (recommended). This URL points to the specific item page of a service. It provides details about the item, such as metadata, sharing settings, and access options. You can find it by navigating to the item page on ArcGIS Online or in your portal and copying the URL from the browser address bar.
  • Example: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9f86716d941c4410b0b406d911754b2c for items accessible via the ArcGIS Online public URL or https://yourorg.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9f86716d941c4410b0b406d911754b2c for items within your organization.
• Services URL. This URL directly points to the REST endpoint of a web service. You can find the service URL by accessing the service item in your portal and copying the URL from the item's details page (usually at the lower right).
  • Example: https://tiles.arcgis.com/tiles/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/Esri_Hydro_Reference_Overlay/MapServer, which is https://yourserver.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/YourFolder/YourMapService/MapServer

Local Gaussian splat packages

A Gaussian splat layer can also reference local Gaussian splat datasets to support offline, secure, or bandwidth-constrained workflows.

Gaussian splat content is stored using the 3D Tiles specification and can be distributed as a 3D Tiles dataset.

Supported formats include:

• 3D Tiles tilesets (tileset.json)
• 3D Tiles archives (.3tz)

Local datasets allow you to visualize photorealistic content without requiring network access and are useful for applications that need to operate in disconnected environments.