Esri Brings 3D Analysis to Gaussian Splat Layers in ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript 5.1

Esri has released ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript 5.1, the June 2026 update, which adds interactive 3D analysis support to Gaussian Splat Layers. This enables users to run shadow analysis, slice analysis that reveals occluded content, line of sight analysis, and elevation profiles directly against splat content inside a SceneView. The release ships without breaking changes, and the splat analysis feature is not flagged beta. This further extends splats into data that can be leveraged with the same interactive 3D tooling Esri already exposes for its established layer types.

Esri introduced the GaussianSplatLayer in ArcGIS Maps SDK 5.0 in February 2026, which for the first time made splats displayable inside SceneView web applications. But it was a display only baseline. You could render a radiance field in a browser and navigate it, yet the analysis workflows that define a GIS layer, such as slicing a volume open to inspect interior or occluded geometry, were not wired up for splat layers. These tools already worked on other 3D layer types, but a splat sat outside that toolset. 5.1 closes that gap by extending those interactive analysis capabilities to the GaussianSplatLayer, which Esri frames as bringing the layer’s analysis capabilities closer to parity with other 3D layer types.

The slice analysis is the most consequential of the four for splat content specifically. A gaussian splat reconstruction is a dense, view dependent volume, and the most common frustration with one is that the surface you care about is buried behind the exterior shell of the capture. Slice analysis cuts a plane through that volume and reveals what is occluded behind it. For instance, interior structure and other content hidden behind the capture’s exterior shell, which turns a splat from a pretty exterior into something you can actually section and read. Shadow analysis brings sun and shadow modeling to the splat, line of sight answers visibility queries through the captured scene, and elevation profiles trace terrain or surface height. Each of these was already a known interaction pattern in the SDK.

This continues a steady, methodical rollout of Gaussian splatting across the ArcGIS platform. Esri made the geospatial Gaussian splat a layer in ArcGIS with the 3.6 release in November 2025, and brought splat layers to the on premises Scene Viewer with ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1. The SDK 5.0 web debut and now the 5.1 analysis tooling extend that trajectory into the JavaScript developer surface. Radiance fields are being promoted from pure visualization into a measurable, analyzable data type inside a mainstream GIS stack. While not publicly viewable, there has been significant adoption and movement of gaussian splatting within the enterprise world. Learn more about the SDK here.