Hello 3DGS - 3D Gaussian Splat Viewer

A simple Godot tool for loading and visualizing 3D Gaussian Splat point cloud data.

Features

• Load multiple point cloud formats:
  • PLY files (Stanford Triangle Format)
  • SPLAT files (3D Gaussian Splat format)
  • XYZ files (simple point format)
• Interactive 3D visualization
• Mouse controls for camera navigation
• Color support for point clouds
• Asynchronous loading to prevent UI freezing

How to Use

1. Open the project in Godot Engine 4.3+
2. Run the project
3. Click "Load Splat File" to open a file dialog
4. Select a supported point cloud file (.ply, .splat, or .xyz)
5. View the loaded point cloud in the 3D viewport

Controls

Mouse Controls

• Left Mouse Button + Drag: Rotate camera around the point cloud
• Mouse Wheel Up/Down: Zoom in/out

Keyboard Controls

• W or ↑: Zoom in
• S or ↓: Zoom out
• R: Reset camera to default position

Tips

• If mouse wheel doesn't work, use W/S keys for zooming
• Use R key to reset view if you get lost while navigating
• Camera has minimum zoom distance to prevent going inside the point cloud

Supported File Formats

PLY Files

Standard PLY format with vertex data. Supports position (x, y, z) and color (r, g, b) data.

SPLAT Files

Binary format for 3D Gaussian Splats containing:

• Position (3 floats)
• Scale (3 floats)
• Rotation (4 floats - quaternion)
• Color (3 floats)
• Opacity (1 float)

XYZ Files

Simple text format with space-separated values:

• Position only: x y z
• Position with color: x y z r g b
• Supports both normalized (0-1) and 0-255 color ranges

Technical Details

• Built with Godot 4.3
• Uses ArrayMesh for efficient point cloud rendering
• Implements asynchronous file loading
• Supports large point clouds with progressive loading

Project Structure

• main.gd - Main application controller
• main.tscn - Main scene with UI layout
• splat_loader.gd - Point cloud file loader class
• project.godot - Godot project configuration

Requirements

• Godot Engine 4.3 or later
• Point cloud files in supported formats

Example Files

The project includes example files for testing in the tests:

• example.ply - PLY format with 225 colored points
• example.splat - Binary splat format with position, scale, rotation, and color data
• example.xyz - Simple XYZ format with position and color data

These files contain a colorful 5×5×5 cube of points plus 100 randomly scattered points with various colors and properties.

Generating New Examples

Run the included Python script found in the tests directory to generate fresh example files:

python generate_example_splat.py

This will create new example files in all three supported formats.

Getting Started

1. Clone or download this project.
2. Open project.godot in Godot Engine.
3. Run the project.
4. Try loading the example files first to test the functionality.
5. Load your own point cloud files!