Esri has released ArcGIS Earth 3.0, which adds georeferenced gaussian splat layers to the desktop version of its free 3D globe app.
ArcGIS Earth 3.0 incorporates ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET 300.1, the version that brought splat layers to the Native Apps SDKs in August. Splats had already reached ArcGIS Pro 3.6, Scene Viewer in ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1 and the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Unity at 2.4.0. Local scenes, where the splat layer is added, are themselves new in 3.0, since 2.x stored a global scene in workspace folders.
In ArcGIS Earth 3.0 a gaussian splat layer is added to a local scene, the planar view Esri recommends for projected coordinate systems and small areas such as campuses and construction sites. The layer sits alongside basemaps, imagery, feature layers, scene layers and terrain, and can be navigated, zoomed to, and switched on or off in the table of contents. Esri's release blog also lists visibility and transparency control.
Esri's documentation aims the layers at complex geometry, reflective surfaces and vegetation that are difficult to represent with traditional photogrammetry. The blog names AEC site conditions, public safety facilities, and power and telecommunications assets as uses. Splat support is limited to the desktop app, while ArcGIS Earth mobile gains local scenes and building scene layers without splats.
What the 3.0 notes do not state is whether splat layers work in global scene projects, or whether the .3tz 3D Tiles archives Earth accepts in local scenes can carry splat layers offline the way the underlying 300.1 SDK can.
The rest of 3.0 replaces 2.x workspaces with projects, saved as .aescx for global and local scenes and .aemvx for movies, and adds building scene layers for BIM content and a Welcome Screen. Movie, now in beta, exports MP4, though movies over 30 seconds or without a watermark require a Creator, GIS Professional Standard or GIS Professional Advanced user type.
A utility crew can now open a splat capture of a substation beside its building scene layers and terrain in a free app. ArcGIS Earth 3.0 is available now as a free download.
