Esri has released ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript 5.2, which adds Viewshed and Shadow Cast analysis to Gaussian Splat layers.
The GaussianSplatLayer arrived in version 5.0 in February, streaming splats into SceneView web apps. Version 5.1 added slice, clipping, line of sight and elevation profiles for the layer and let splats participate in scene shadows. Esri's 5.1 release notes listed shadow cast, viewshed and volume measurement as tools still being extended to it.
Version 5.2 delivers two of the three. ViewshedAnalysis computes which parts of a scene are visible from an observer point, and ShadowCastAnalysis shows where 3D content casts shadow over a chosen time range. Gaussian Splat layers now participate in both. Volume measurement is not named for splat layers in the 5.2 notes.
Esri's 5.2 release notes state that analysis results reflect the underlying splat representation. Surface noise or reconstruction artifacts that are subtle in the visualization may become more apparent, and analysis boundaries may appear less sharply defined than in comparable results from integrated mesh layers.
Placement of viewshed and line of sight analyses also changes in 5.2. New tooltips and snapping position observers and targets, tooltips accept elevation mode selection and simple math expressions such as +1.5, and ViewshedAnalysisView.place() takes default elevation settings.
A city that has captured a district as splats can now run sightline and shadow studies against that capture in a browser app built on the SDK.
ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript 5.2 is available now.
