WebODM has released version 3.3.0, which brings gaussian splatting into the open source drone mapping platform. The update shipped last month, on September 5, and the splat support arrived as a single pull request from WebODM creator Piero Toffanin.
WebODM does not train splats itself. Once a dataset has been processed, a new Splats entry in the task menu exports a training set as a zip file, with camera poses and images written in COLMAP format alongside a point cloud sampled from the reconstruction. That set is meant for external trainers such as OpenSplat, Brush, LichtFeld Studio and Spirula Studio, and the finished model is then uploaded back to the same task.
OpenSplat is listed first among those trainers in WebODM's documentation, which you might notice is from the same developer. The C++ trainer reached the Mac in March 2024, already able to read ODM projects directly, and its README now states that OpenSplat has joined the WebODM ecosystem.
WebODM 3.3.0 accepts uploads as ply, spz, splat, ksplat, sog, sogs, zip, or rad. Any file that is not already a .rad is converted by Splat-Tools, a Rust utility from UAV4GEO that WebODM runs in its --quality mode to build a level of detail hierarchy and write a single .rad file. RAD is the streaming format World Labs introduced with Spark 2.0, which stores splats in 64K chunks, with the scene's largest splats packed into the first one, and Splat-Tools credits Spark for its decoding, LOD construction and RAD encoding.
The converted splat opens in the 3D model view, which renders it with a bundled build of Spark, the renderer from World Labs. The same view keeps the standard Potree tools, so measurements can be taken directly on the splat. Version 3.3.0 also adds a 3D type selector, faster Potree menus and grid shift support.
WebODM's documentation says splats need oblique or orbit imagery, and that nadir only flights usually yield very poor results. The training export accepts JPEG images only and does not support spherical cameras. A survey team already flying obliques for a WebODM model can now hand the same reconstruction to a splat trainer and measure the result inside the same project.
WebODM 3.3.0 is available now under the AGPL-3.0 license.
