FAQ

About SplatPilot

Which graphics cards work?

SplatPilot trains through Vulkan, so it needs a GPU with Vulkan support and an up-to-date driver. Test GPU in the preferences tells you which GPU SplatPilot uses and how fast it trains. The measurements on this site were made on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 with 12 GB.

Does SplatPilot run on macOS?

No. SplatPilot runs on Windows and Linux (x64), in Blender 5.3 or newer.

Does it need an internet connection or an account?

No. Everything runs on your computer. The only permission SplatPilot asks Blender for is to read and write files: its rendered views, checkpoints and trained splats.

Is SplatPilot open source?

Yes. SplatPilot is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. See License.

Can I make splats from photos?

No. SplatPilot makes splats of Blender scenes, from views it renders itself.

Does it work with animation?

SplatPilot captures your scene at the current frame. Each splat is a still.

While it works

Do I have to save my file first?

No. An unsaved file keeps its data in SplatPilot’s cache, and the first save moves it next to the file. Saving does help in one case: only saved files can import a training that finished while Blender was closed.

Can I keep working while it runs?

Yes. Rendering happens in a background copy of Blender and training in a separate process, so Blender stays responsive. A splat that arrives while you drag something waits until you let go. While a scene renders or trains, Blender’s status bar shows its progress and a Cancel button, also with the SplatPilot tab closed.

A run keeps the settings of its click: SH Degree, Opaque Splats, Focus Detail, Preview Every and Sky Dome are taken when you click Create Splat, so changing them while it renders applies to the next run.

Which steps are done for my settings?

Views, Render and Train under the Create Splat button show it: a check mark when the step is done for the current settings, red when it was done for other settings, plain when it is not done. See Where each step stands.

Where do I see how a run ended?

On the Create Splat panel’s status line. A failure or a pause stays there until the next run starts; an outcome, such as a finished splat, until one of the settings changes. Blender’s Info log (the Info editor) keeps every outcome.

Does SplatPilot change my scene?

No. Your scene’s settings, selection, viewports and active camera stay as they were. SplatPilot adds a Splats collection for its results and, once you add rigs, focus points or baked cameras, a SplatPilot collection for them. Each finished splat is one undo step. The Rendering panel’s Engine is the scene’s render engine: setting it there sets it in Render Properties too.

What happens if I close Blender while a splat trains?

SplatPilot stops the training and keeps the splat as far as it got, with a checkpoint. When you open the file again, the Results panel offers to import it (Import 1 Stopped Training), and Improve trains the splat on. The same happens if Blender crashes, or when you open another file while a splat trains. Views that were rendering stay rendered; Create Splat renders the rest.

How long does a splat take?

It depends on your scene, the quality and your hardware; the estimate in the Create Splat panel tells you before you start, and the Measure button in its Render row times your scene’s render. While a run renders and more stages follow, a line under the progress bar gives the time left in all. In our tests on an RTX 4070, training a room took 19 seconds at Draft, 5.2 minutes at Standard and 11 minutes at High. Rendering usually takes longer than training: about 4 seconds per Standard view and 10 per High view in the same room. See Quality and presets.

How much GPU memory do I need?

The estimate shows it. Training a room in our tests took at most about 0.7 GB at Draft, under 1 GB at Standard and 2.8 GB at High: when the views would take more than 1 GB of GPU memory, SplatPilot keeps them in system memory and copies each one to the GPU when training needs it. If memory runs short, lower Max Splats, the view Count or the image size; a VRAM limit makes the estimate warn in advance.

Can I run several splats at once?

One job runs at a time per scene. While a scene renders or trains, SplatPilot refuses to start another job there (“This scene is already planning, rendering or training”) until the first has finished, or you paused or cancelled it. A running render measurement is the exception: starting a run stops it.

Results

How many splats will my result have?

Up to its splat budget: 0.3 million at Draft, 1 million at Standard and 2.5 million at High, or what you set in Max Splats. The Results panel shows the actual count.

Why did my .blend file get bigger?

A splat’s data is stored in your .blend like any other object data: a result of 2.5 million splats adds about 600 MB. Delete splats you no longer need, or keep them in separate files.

Can I render the splat in Cycles and EEVEE?

Yes. Blender 5.3 renders Gaussian splats in EEVEE, Cycles and Workbench like other objects, and SplatPilot trains them for the way Blender draws splats.

Can I use the splat in other programs?

Yes: Export… in the Results panel saves it, placed as it sits in your scene, as a PLY file, the layout Gaussian splat tools commonly read, or as SOG, PlayCanvas’s compressed format for the web, about 15 times smaller. File > Export > Gaussian Splat (.ply/.sog) does the same for the active splat object. See Results.

Can I train in another program instead?

Yes: File > Export > Splat Training Dataset (COLMAP/nerfstudio) writes the views rendered last for Postshot, LichtFeld Studio, GraphDECO 3DGS, OpenSplat or nerfstudio; Export Training Dataset… in a splat’s menu writes the views that splat was trained on. See Exporting a training dataset.

Can I see what a splat was made with?

Yes. Results shows its quality, views, image size and render engine in one line, such as “Draft · 100 views · 800 × 600 px · EEVEE”. The full recipe is in a .json beside its trained file in results/, and Use Its Settings in its menu sets the scene’s quality settings to it. See Results.

Can I move or scale a splat?

Yes, like any object. Keep the scale the same on all axes if you want to export it.

Files

Where does SplatPilot keep its files?

In a splatpilot folder next to your .blend, or in your Blender Project’s folder. Open Storage Folder (the folder icon in the Storage panel) opens it. See Storage and Blender Projects.

How do I free disk space?

Use Clean Up… in the Storage panel. It deletes training runs, and if you tick it rendered views, that no splat in this file needs.

Can my team share rendered views and presets?

Yes, inside a Blender Project: files of the project share SplatPilot’s storage folder, so the same views render once, and quality presets saved with Share with Project are there for everyone.