Niantic Spatial has announced the Scaniverse #SplatYourWorld Challenge, a near global, community contest that asks entrants to capture real world locations as 3D Gaussian splats with Scaniverse and submit them for judging, with submissions opening July 1, 2026 and I will actually be one of the judges!
The challenge runs entirely on the Scaniverse pipeline, the free iOS and Android app Niantic has built into the center of its Gaussian splatting strategy. To enter, you capture an environment with Scaniverse, then submit an exported .SPZ gaussian splat file alongside a public video walkthrough link, choosing one of the contest's categories and supplying a title, description, location, and capture device. Standardizing the submission format on .SPZ ties the contest directly to the compression format Niantic open sourced for 3DGS and has since iterated on, most recently with SPZ V4.0. Entrants must also share their capture on at least one social platform, such as LinkedIn, X, Instagram, or Threads, using #SplatYourWorld and tagging @nianticspatial. Teams of up to four are allowed, and each person or team may submit up to three entries.
Eligibility is worldwide in principle but entrants must be active Scaniverse Plus or Pro subscribers with a valid paid subscription at submission time and must be the age of majority in their jurisdiction. Eligibility varies by country, and an exclusion list applies. Among the excluded jurisdictions are Italy, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Quebec, China, and Russia, while Niantic Spatial employees and contractors are ineligible.
Entries compete across four prize categories. A Grand Prize recognizes the single most outstanding capture across all categories, awarding an Antigravity Drone or a cash equivalent of roughly $1,500, with the official rules stating an approximate retail value near $1,700 once the accompanying extras are counted. Three category prizes follow. Industrial Environments, Natural Landscapes, and Urban Infrastructure, each awarding an Insta360 X5 360 camera or a cash equivalent of about $500, with a stated retail value near $700. Industrial covers construction, energy, utilities, and manufacturing sites. Natural spans land management, environmental monitoring, and GPS-denied environments. Urban takes in streets, public spaces, transit, and landmarks. Every category winner also receives an exclusive feature on Niantic Spatial's blog and social channels along with 500,000 Scaniverse top-up credits, worth $200.
The judging panel comprises Azad Balabanian, Senior Product Manager at Niantic Spatial; Mohamed Sayed, Senior Research Scientist at Niantic Spatial; Michael Rubloff (me), Founder of Radiance Fields; and Jonathan Stephens, Founder of Pixel Reconstruct.
On rights, entrants retain ownership of their splats, Niantic Spatial receives a license to showcase entries, and submissions will not be used for AI training. Submissions open July 1 and close July 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM PT, with judging from roughly August 3 to 8 and winners announced August 11.
The challenge page is live now at https://nianticspatial.com/splat-your-world-challenge. I can't wait to see people's entries!
