For those who don’t know the tool: SplatTransform is a CLI and library that converts and edits Gaussian splats for pipelines that end up in SuperSplat or real-time runtimes. It ships as a package for Node.js and also runs in browser contexts.

What 2.0 actually changes

SplatTransform 2.0.0 adds a sparse voxel grid plus exterior fill for nav simplification. That pushes the tool beyond file shuffling and into spatial reasoning you can use for scene cleanup and interaction prep, especially in Gaussian Splatting workflows. Or, you know, previews.

Two new GPU-based processing actions land alongside the voxel pipeline: filterFloaters and filterCluster. They target unwanted bits that do not belong to coherent spatial clusters, and they run on the GPU path.

Floors, clusters, and tighter crops

2.0.0 adds floor fill, voxel-level cluster flood, and tighter voxel crops. The net effect is more structured scene operations, built on the voexl representation rather than only per-splat attributes. The release also refactors logging and progress reporting, and the CLI now reports peak memory usage in its final summary line. That is small, but it is the kind of small that saves time when you run batches overnight, or the whole studio is computing in timewarp.

Less native baggage, more inputs

The tool replaces meshoptimizer with a lossless coplanar-merge pass. That removes a native dependency from the meshing side of the pipeline and keeps the operation lossless by design. SplatTransform also accepts http and https URL inputs in the CLI, so you can feed remote assets directly without a manual download step. PlayCanvas also updates the dependency on supersplat-viewer as part of the 2.0.0 release work.

Formats, install, and the boring but important bits

The repo documents claim support for PLY, Compressed PLY, SOG, SPZ, SPLAT, KSPLAT and LCC, plus write support for PLY, Compressed PLY, SOG, SPZ, GLB, CSV, HTML Viewer, LOD and Voxel formats. So, everything we ever heard of as formats for splats. Install uses npm with a global command, and there is also a Docker backend guide for server-side use. Which we will be testing soon, and if you don’t hear from us again, something exploded.

The code is MIT-licensed and published as an open-source package, which usually means it’s free to use, but any production adoption still deserves a legal and pipeline check. New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production, preferably on the worst shots and the messiest captures first.

https://github.com/playcanvas/splat-transform/releases/tag/v2.0.0

The post PlayCanvas updates SplatTransform to 2.0 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The problem NanoGS tackles

3D Gaussian splatting can look like magic right up until it starts behaving like a tax audit. Big captures mean millions of splats. Millions of splats mean constant sorting work, a lot of memory pressure, and a very real risk that the renderer spends time drawing things the camera never sees. NanoGS targets that exact pain: rendering large-scale Gaussian splatting files in real time, while handling video memory pressure, sorting huge splat counts efficiently, and drawing only what the screen needs.

The approach focuses on a set of optimisation techniques: Nanite-style LOD clusters, screen-space error LOD selection, splat compaction, a global accumulator, and GPU radix sort. The headline promise is straightforward: large-scale Gaussian splatting scenes should render efficiently, with an emphasis on keeping memory usage low. That is a marketing claim.

Supported engine versions and what you actually install

NanoGS lists support for Unreal Engine versions UE5.6 and UE5.7. The workflow stays inside the familiar plugin lane. You download the plugin from the releases page, place it into your project’s Plugins folder, then import a PLY file using the plugin import button. That import creates a Gaussian Splat Asset, which you can drag directly into a level for rendering.

There is also an asset action to enable or disable Nanite if needed. It is an unusual sentence to write about splats, but that is the point: the tool is trying to make splats behave like a native citizen in the realtime world.

The controls that decide whether it feels stable

The plugin exposes settings grouped by intent. They map cleanly to the trade-offs most realtime teams already juggle: quality, performance, and final look. On the quality side, SH Order adjusts spherical harmonics quality. On the performance side, Sort Every Nth Frame changes how often splats get sorted. Enable Frustum Culling turns frustum culling on or off. LOD Error Threshold sets how sensitive LOD cluster switching should be. On the rendering side, Opacity Scale adjusts splat opacity, and Splat Scale adjusts splat size.

These are not vanity sliders. Sorting frequency can be the difference between a stable camera move and a shimmering mess. Culling can be the difference between a scene that fits and a scene that explodes memory. LOD sensitivity can be the difference between crisp detail and visible popping. And opacity and scale are the levers that decide whether the splats read as a coherent surface or as a cloud of regret.

About one third into your first test session, you will probably notice the same thing most teams do: the scene can look fine at rest, then fall apart during motion if sorting gets too infrequent. That is when you stop guessing and start dialing.

Debug commands that make problems obvious

NanoGS includes console commands designed for inspection and stress testing. gs.ShowClusterBounds 1 enables a Nanite cluster preview, and setting it to 0 disables that preview. gs.DebugForceLODLevel can force rendering at a specific LOD cluster level for debugging, with values like 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on.

Then there is the one that will get used the most in anger: gs.MaxRenderBudget. It limits the maximum number of visible splats after culling to save memory. The default is no limit, using 0. You can set a maximum cap such as 3,000,000. When the cap is active, the culling starts from splats far from the camera.

If you are trying to ship anything on fixed hardware budgets, this kind of explicit cap is refreshing. It makes the failure mode predictable. It also makes it easier to have honest conversations with art and production, because the tool draws a hard line instead of pretending everything will fit if you just believe harder.

Best practice: do not feed it one giant splat brick

NanoGS calls out a best practice that will sound familiar to anyone who has ever fought streaming, culling, or draw lists. A single big chunk of gaussian splatting file does not help performance optimization. Splats outside the camera view cannot be culled effectively. And if everything stays in one chunk, all splats stay engaged in sorting all the time.

The recommended format is to slice a large splat file into smaller pieces. Examples given include individual props for cinematic scenes or tiles for geo-spatial data. The repository includes a simple tile slicer written in Python to support that workflow.

Proof of concept, not a miracle

NanoGS is described as a proof of concept, with a clear warning not to expect perfect results. Issues can be reported on the project page. That framing matters for production teams because it sets the correct expectation: you are evaluating a technique and an implementation, not adopting a finished commercial renderer. The good news is that the tool is built to be tested, with the kind of switches and debug views that make evaluation less mystical.

New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production, especially when they touch core rendering paths and memory budgets.

Release, license, and what it costs

NanoGS is released under the MIT license.

The repository lists v1.0.1 as the latest release, dated March 20, 2026.

The plugin is free.

https://github.com/TimChen1383/NanoGaussianSplatting

The post NanoGaussianSplats for UE5 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the event: FMX is where post, VFX, and realtime folks compare notes, spot new workflows, and meet toolmakers from Foundry to AYON .

The 30th edition runs on site May 5 to May 7, with Online and On Campus on May 8, and On Demand from May 9 to June 9. Early Bird ticket options run until March 20. Tickets are sold through the ticket shop, and the full schedule is published as an online program schedule.

This year’s reveal is a broad spread across VFX, animation, and digital media creation, with more updates promised as additional speakers and topics get added. The headline message is simple: the program is live now, and it is designed to be browsed like a buffet. Get your preferred morsels here :)

RENO turns a studio inward

A newly confirmed session in the Shorts track focuses on RENO, an original sci fi short used as a live testbed for virtual production and machine learning workflows. The session names Tav Flett, Rob Hifle, James Pollock, and Paul Silcox, and describes how a traditionally post-driven VFX studio re-engineered its pipeline for a newly opened virtual production stage. It also calls out Gaussian splat scanning, automated rotoscoping, and marker removal as tools for streamlining production.

Generative video, now with shot notes

The hype cycle is almost over. The bubble tends to pop the moment somebody asks where this stuff fits into an actual production pipeline. That is the useful angle of Moonvalleys‘ session in the “The Road ahead” track. . Instead of treating generative video as a party trick, Ben Lock looks at what happens when studios try to use it for real: control, continuity, versioning, integration, governance, and all the other small details that usually kill shiny ideas on contact.

For VFX and animation teams, that is the point. Not more halfbaked sizzle reels, but a sober look at where generative video already helps, where it still breaks, which parts of the panic were never grounded in production reality, and when studios may begin hiring artists again once practical applications, and their many many limits, are easier to assess.

Predator: Badlands, built as a handoff

A joint presentation in the VFX for Features track names Laurens Ehrmann from The Yard VFX and Dominik Zimmerle from TRIXTER discussing work on Predator: Badlands. Shared assets, shared look development, and constant creative exchange across studios to ensure continuity while elevating environments, characters, creatures, and effects, plus a deep dive into selected sequences and the creative and technical challenges behind them.

And there is more to come! Much more!

https://fmx.de/en/program/program-2026/overview

The post FMX 2026 program goes live first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Placement in the Ecosystem: glTF from the Khronos Group is a lightweight asset format for realtime engines, viewers, and DCC export, commonly used between tools rather than inside them, and now it wants splats too. Visit their site here.

A careful step into splat territory

The Khronos Group has published a release candidate for a new glTF extension that adds support for Gaussian splatting. The proposal, named KHR_gaussian_splatting, defines how 3D Gaussian splats can be represented inside glTF 2.0 assets using a common, vendor-neutral schema.

Gaussian splatting is a scene representation technique where geometry is described as large numbers of oriented 3D Gaussians rather than polygon meshes. Each splat typically carries position, scale, rotation, colour and opacity. Rendering relies on blending these splats in screen space to approximate surfaces and volumetric detail. The approach is increasingly used in photogrammetry-derived captures and radiance field research, particularly where dense detail and rapid rendering are required.

Until now, Gaussian splats have circulated in a growing number of ad hoc file formats. Khronos is explicitly positioning this extension to prevent early fragmentation by defining a baseline encoding before incompatible variants become entrenched.

What the extension actually defines

KHR_gaussian_splatting introduces a standardised way to store splat data in glTF without redefining the rendering algorithm. The extension specifies how splats are described as primitives and which attributes are required or optional. These include spatial transforms and per-splat appearance data, mapped onto existing glTF data structures where possible.

The proposal does not mandate a specific splatting technique or optimisation strategy. Khronos describes the design as algorithm-agnostic, with the goal of supporting multiple implementations rather than locking vendors into a single approach. This restraint is notable given how quickly splat rendering methods are evolving.

Viewers that do not support the extension are expected to fall back gracefully, typically treating the data as a point cloud. This preserves basic visibility rather than failing outright, which aligns with glTF’s long-standing emphasis on predictable degradation.

Why Khronos is getting involved now

Gaussian splatting has moved from research into production-adjacent tools at a speed that has made standardisation awkward but necessary. Khronos frames this release candidate as a response to real usage rather than speculative future demand. The organisation is inviting feedback from developers and vendors before final ratification, signalling that the format is still open to adjustment.

The work builds on earlier collaboration between Khronos and geospatial and platform vendors exploring splat-based representations for large-scale scenes. While those efforts are not detailed in the extension itself, the context suggests a desire to make splats a first-class citizen alongside meshes, animations and textures in glTF.

glTF is often described by Khronos as a transmission format rather than a working format. Adding splats does not change that positioning, but it does acknowledge that realtime pipelines are absorbing data types that were previously confined to research or proprietary viewers.

Interoperability over novelty

There are no promises of faster rendering, smaller files, or better fidelity. Instead, the emphasis is on interoperability and predictability. This is a conservative but welcome stance for a standard that already underpins web viewers, game engines and real-time visualisation tools.

Compression is not part of the core proposal. Khronos notes that companion extensions may be introduced to improve storage efficiency, but they are not part of the current release candidate. No compression scheme is ratified as part of KHR_gaussian_splatting yet.

This separation is sensible. It allows the base representation to stabilise before additional complexity is layered on top, and avoids repeating past mistakes where format and codec decisions were entangled too early.

A positive but cautious signal

As proposed, KHR_gaussian_splatting does not attempt to redefine how Gaussian splats are generated or rendered. It simply gives them a place to live in a widely adopted container format. That restraint is arguably its strongest feature.

For production teams experimenting with splat-based capture or visualisation, a common interchange format reduces risk. For tool developers, it provides a reference target rather than another reverse-engineered file. For Khronos, it reinforces glTF’s role as a neutral meeting point rather than a battleground of features. As always, new formats and extensions should be tested thoroughly before being relied on in production environments.

// Khronos Group press release on glTF Gaussian Splatting
// https://www.khronos.org/news/press/gltf-gaussian-splatting-press-release

The post glTF learns to splat without losing the plot first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced that its flagship reference, the VES Handbook of Visual Effects, reaches its Fourth Edition on December 18, 2025. The book now brings together 95 visual effects experts, including 30 new contributors, from across film, television, games, virtual production, and emerging media.

The new edition expands its scope to modern practices. Among the additions are chapters covering the use of real time game engines for virtual production, previs, motion capture and animation. The handbook addresses current topics such as AI applications in VFX, plus methods for NeRFs (Neural Radiance Fields) and 3D Gaussian splatting, aiming to reflect recent workflow evolutions.

Existing core areas have also been updated. These include previs (pre visualisation), AR and VR filmmaking, colour management with attention to ACES workflows, digital intermediate processing, camera workflow, matte painting, compositing, and more.

Early peek event: live from the makers

Shortly before the book’s release, VES will host a global webinar on December 16, 2025. During that event, editors Jeffrey Okun, Susan Zwerman and Susan Thurmond O’Neal will discuss the new edition in conversation with industry experts, including virtual production TD from Industrial Light & Magic Nathan Camp, creative technology veteran Phil Galler, Chief Innovation Officer at 180 Studios, and VFX supervisor Lucien Harriot, President of Mechanism Digital. Attendees will get a preview of key workflows and techniques covered in the handbook and have the opportunity to ask questions to the contributors.

The editors: who’s behind the Fourth Edition

Jeffrey A. Okun is an award winning Visual Effects Supervisor, a Fellow of the Visual Effects Society, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Cinematographers, and the Television Academy. He has served as chair of VES, and previously as first vice chair and chair of the Los Angeles section.

Susan Zwerman is a long time VES producer with over 25 years of experience in visual effects production. She is also a respected seminar leader and author. Zwerman is a member of the Academy, the Producers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America, and holds the status of VES Fellow.

Susan Thurmond O’Neal joined VES in 1997 and has held multiple leadership roles over the years. She has served on the global Board of Directors, including as Treasurer in 2016, 2nd Vice Chair in 2022–2023 and 1st Vice Chair in 2024–2025. She has chaired the global Education Committee, currently leads the Membership Committee, and in 2019 received the VES Founders Award for service to the society.

Why this matters for VFX, CG and post production pros

As pipelines increasingly adopt real time engines, AI assisted tools, and immersive production formats such as virtual production, AR, VR and domes, this new edition of the VES Handbook provides a broad and current reference. The inclusion of NeRFs and 3D Gaussian splatting signals that VES acknowledges emerging volumetric and point cloud based workflows as significant enough to warrant formal documentation.

For those working in compositing, colour grading, camera and layout workflow, the updated coverage of core disciplines, re verified and aligned with contemporary practices, provides a stable reference against a rapidly shifting technological backdrop.

The breadth of the handbook, from budgeting and shot breakdowns to high end compositing and immersive media workflows, suggests it aims to be relevant across departments: production, CG, compositing, virtual production teams, colour, and more.

Get a sneak Peak into the Summary here on Google Books:

Finally, the new standard twist

With the Fourth Edition, the VES Handbook doubles down on being the industry standard reference. By combining decades long experience with up to date coverage of real time engines, virtual production, AI, volumetric rendering and immersive media, this edition positions itself as the reference manual to return to when technologies or pipelines evolve. It may not promise radical revelations everywhere, but it maps out the best practices terrain for the current generation of visual effects work. For any VFX professional aiming to stay grounded and informed, this looks like the old new “go-to” compendium.

The post VES Handbook of Visual Effects, Fourth Edition, coming soon first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.