I Want to Look at 3DGS: Free Viewers on the Web, Phone, Steam and Quest, Compared
10 October 2026
Works made with 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), a technique that builds a 3D scene from photos and video, are showing up more often on X and video sites. If you want to look at them yourself, or open a file you made, what should you install?
This article covers free software and apps (viewers) for looking at 3DGS, split into four places: browser, phone, Steam and Meta Quest. I line up the readable file formats, price, store stars and review counts, and the PC specs needed, then sort out who each suits based on the good and bad points in users’ reviews. Paid viewers with high ratings and the usual standards get a mention at the end.
This reflects information as of 28 September 2026.
- 1. What is 3DGS? A 3D “point cloud" built from photos
- 2. What I looked at and how I rated: how I checked
- 3. Comparing free 3DGS viewers at a glance
- 4. In the browser: web versions you can open without installing
- 5. On a phone: apps that capture, build and view
- 6. On Steam: a PC and a VR headset
- 7. On Meta Quest: standalone on the headset
- 8. Extras: paid but highly rated, and the usual standard
- 9. Which one first?
- 10. October 2026 addendum: movements around Steam Frame and Quest
- 11. What I Haven’t Confirmed in This Article
- 12. Summary: the first step to viewing 3DGS
What is 3DGS? A 3D “point cloud" built from photos
3DGS assembles a scene from many small colored blurs (Gaussians), based on photos and video taken from various angles. Unlike conventional 3D models built from polygons, it stays close to photographic in appearance and can be viewed from any position.
The results are files with extensions such as .ply, .splat, .spz and .sog. Ordinary image viewers and 3D software often cannot open them, so you need a viewer that supports 3DGS.
Sizes differ by format. The basic .ply uses about 240 bytes per splat, so 1 million splats come to about 240MB (my calculation). .splat uses 32 bytes per splat, .spz is said to be about one tenth of .ply, and .sog about one fifteenth to one twentieth. A large .ply may not open in some viewers.
What I looked at and how I rated: how I checked
I did not run these on this blog’s PC or phones. This is research based on official descriptions, store information and reviews. Store stars and counts come from each store’s public information: the App Store and Steam on 28 September 2026 and the Meta Store on 26 September 2026 (Gracia and Into the Scaniverse were rechecked on 28 September). The App Store and Meta Store values are from the Japanese stores.
I read both high and low reviews, summarized the points that come up often, and wrote my own view with one test: can a first-timer start looking without getting lost? I did not rank by score.
Comparing free 3DGS viewers at a glance
I put the viewers covered into one table, only where the numbers are known. Details by place follow.
| Viewer | Where | Price | Rating (stars, count) | Formats / requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SuperSplat | Browser | Free | 10,270 GitHub stars | .ply, .splat, .ksplat, .spz, .sog, .lcc. Needs WebGPU (Chrome, Edge, Safari 26 or later, etc.) |
| antimatter15/splat | Browser | Free | 3,072 GitHub stars | .ply, .splat |
| Polycam web viewer | Browser | Free to view (login required) | – | – |
| Scaniverse | iPhone, Android | Free | App Store 4.75 (14,262 ratings) | iOS 16.6 or later, app about 244MB |
| Polycam | iPhone, Android | Free basic; making 3DGS needs a paid plan | App Store 4.61 (3,117) | iOS 18.0 or later, app about 521MB |
| Luma 3D Capture | iPhone | Free | App Store 4.56 (460) | iOS 16.0 or later, app about 42MB |
| KIRI Engine | iPhone, Android | Free basic; limits raised with paid plans | App Store 4.28 (130) | iOS 15.0 or later, app about 143MB |
| Gracia (Steam) | PC + VR headset | Free | Steam “Mixed" (25 of 40 positive = 63%) | Windows 10, NVIDIA RTX 3070-class or better, 100MB free |
| Gracia (Quest) | Meta Quest | Free | Meta Store 4.6 (46) | – |
| Into the Scaniverse | Meta Quest | Free | Meta Store 3.1 (96) | – |
| Hyperscape Capture (beta) | Meta Quest 3 / 3S | Free | Meta Store 3.6 (320) | Age 18 or over, internet connection needed |
| (Extra, paid) Holo Picture Viewer | PC + VR headset | 2,100 yen | Steam “Positive" (16 of 17 = 94%) | .ply, .spz. Windows 11, NVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 or better, 12GB free |
A store’s average star rating moves less the more ratings it has. Scaniverse’s 14,262 and KIRI Engine’s 130 mean that the same 0.1 difference carries different weight. For VR, the PC GPU requirement differs: RTX 3070-class for Gracia, RTX 3060 or better for Holo Picture Viewer.
In the browser: web versions you can open without installing
Web versions need no installation; you drag a file into the browser. If you are trying on a PC first, this is the easy place to start.
SuperSplat (PlayCanvas)
A free viewer and editor, published with source code by the game engine PlayCanvas. Drag a .ply from your own PC and it displays; you can also edit out parts you don’t need, publish, and embed in your own site. On superspl.at you can see works others have published.
Version 3.0 (8 September 2026) rebuilt the rendering. The developer’s release notes give an example of opening a scene of 4.4 million splats (990MB as .ply), with browser memory use falling from 1,557MB in version 2 to 105MB in version 3. The explanation is that large files are easier to open.
- Good: free, and viewing, editing and publishing all in one place; annotations and camera moves can be added
- Bad: since version 3.0 in September 2026, WebGPU, a new way for the browser to use the PC’s GPU, is required. It works on recent Chrome and Edge, Safari 26 or later, and Firefox with WebGPU enabled. Old browsers and environments with hardware acceleration off cannot open it (per the official release notes)
- Suits: people who want to open a .ply they made, on a PC
antimatter15/splat
An early implementation that displays 3DGS in the browser, published in September 2023. It has 3,072 GitHub stars (bookmarks) and still appears in many introductory articles. Drag in a .ply and it converts to the light .splat format (32 bytes per splat) and displays it, about one seventh to one eighth the size of the .ply (my calculation).
- Good: light; can also be run with a gamepad
- Bad: it discards the information that changes color with viewing angle, so it looks simpler than the .ply. The author points to a successor, Spark, in the README. I could not confirm support for .spz or .sog
- Suits: people with an older PC who just want to view lightly
Polycam web viewer
The browser version of Polycam, known for its 3D scanning app. Opening and viewing files is free but requires a login. Making 3DGS is within the paid plan.
- Good: easy to show works to others and to embed them
- Bad: login required; some say the 3DGS menu is hard to find
- Suits: people who plan to share their work
Also, Spark (sparkjs.dev) reads five formats: .ply, .spz, .splat, .ksplat and .sogs. But it is built as a component to embed in a web page and is not for use without writing code. Luma AI’s browser view is for looking at works made in Luma and cannot open files on your own PC.
On a phone: apps that capture, build and view
Phone apps mostly capture on the spot and build the 3DGS. Even if you only meant to view, the building feature comes along.
| App | Platforms | Price | App Store (Japan) | App size [MB] | iOS required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scaniverse | iPhone, Android | Free | 4.75 (14,262) | about 244 | 16.6 or later |
| Polycam | iPhone, Android | Free basic; 3DGS is a paid plan | 4.61 (3,117) | about 521 | 18.0 or later |
| Luma 3D Capture | iPhone | Free | 4.56 (460) | about 42 | 16.0 or later |
| KIRI Engine | iPhone, Android | Free basic; limits raised with paid plans | 4.28 (130) | about 143 | 15.0 or later |
Scaniverse (Niantic Spatial)
A free app that goes from capture to 3DGS entirely on the phone. It can process without a network connection. It also has a feature to see works published by people worldwide on a map.
- Good: free with no usage limit; many say processing is fast
- Bad: long-time users say a recent screen change put social features in front and made it harder to use; the range you can capture is limited
- Suits: people who want to try making and viewing for free on a phone first
Polycam
With 3,117 App Store ratings, it is the second most among the phone apps here after Scaniverse. It supports both scanning with the iPhone’s distance sensor (LiDAR) and building from photos. But the 3DGS feature is part of the paid plan.
- Good: many features, and files you make are easy to take to other viewers
- Bad: complaints about billing and refunds after the free trial stand out; accuracy drops in dark places and on shiny surfaces
- Suits: people who are fine paying and want one app for all scanning
Luma 3D Capture and KIRI Engine
Luma 3D Capture is a free iPhone app that finishes your capture on Luma’s servers. People like its ease and finish, but some report processing that stops partway and the phone getting hot. It is a different thing from the same company’s video generation app, Dream Machine.
KIRI Engine is one of the few apps that can make 3DGS on Android too, and it offers simple in-app editing such as removing unneeded points. Many praise its accuracy, though some say the mode that builds from video is rougher than from photos. If you ignore the guideline for the number of shots, the result tends to suffer.
On Steam: a PC and a VR headset
There are still few 3DGS viewers on Steam. The only one that is free, usable now and handles your own files, in this research, was Gracia.
Gracia
A free app for stepping into 3DGS scenes with a VR headset (distribution began in May 2024). You can view other people’s works and also publish your own .ply. Steam requirements are Windows 10, a GPU of NVIDIA RTX 3070-class or better, and 100MB of free space.
Steam rating: Mixed (25 of 40 positive = 63%)
- Good: the look of having a scene right in front of you feels fresh
- Bad: reports of the image shifting between the eyes; few works, and slow to grow
- Suits: people with a VR headset connected to a PC who want to see 3DGS in 3D
Also, Arcturus Vision Gaussian XR started free distribution on Steam on 28 September 2026 (dedicated to Steam Frame, loads PLY and SOG, 8 sample scenes). It was just released, so reviews have not gathered yet.
On Meta Quest: standalone on the headset
On a Meta Quest 3 / 3S, several apps let you view 3DGS on the headset alone, without connecting to a PC.
Into the Scaniverse
A free app that lets you travel through more than 50,000 works published from the Scaniverse phone app worldwide.
Meta Store rating: 3.1 (96)
- Good: a large number of works; well-captured ones are said to be breathtaking
- Bad: quality varies a lot by who captured it
- Suits: people who first want to browse many works
Meta Horizon Hyperscape Capture (beta)
A free app from Meta itself: capture your room or other place for a few minutes with the Quest’s cameras, and it recreates the place as 3DGS that you can walk through. It supports Quest 3 / 3S, and requires age 18 or over and a recent version of the headset software.
Meta Store rating: 3.6 (320)
- Good: a hands-on review says even a first-timer could capture cleanly without getting lost
- Bad: features are limited because it is a beta (trial version); an internet connection is needed
- Suits: people who want to turn their own room into 3DGS
Gracia is also distributed for Quest for free. Its Meta Store rating is 4.6 (46), higher than the Steam version’s Mixed (63% positive). Praise for how good it looks is shared with the Steam version.
Extras: paid but highly rated, and the usual standard
Holo Picture Viewer on Steam (2,100 yen, released January 2026) is a viewer that makes photos look three-dimensional. It is described as also loading 3DGS files made in other software (.ply and .spz) for viewing in VR. Its rating is Positive (16 of 17 = 94%), though the count is still small. It needs Windows 11, a GPU of NVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 or better, and 12GB of free space. Compared with the free Gracia, the GPU requirement is one step lower and the storage is about 120 times larger.
For browser, phone and Quest, I did not find a highly rated paid dedicated viewer. Free ones are the mainstream.
The usual name in introductory articles is Postshot (Jawset), software for making 3DGS on a PC. It is for making, and the free tier cannot be used commercially and puts a watermark on exported video. The paid Indie plan starts at 17 euros a month (per the reporting site Radiance Fields).
Which one first?
| What you have | First pick (this blog’s view) | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| A PC (recent browser) | SuperSplat | Opens without installing, and shows your own .ply |
| A phone | Scaniverse | Free with no usage limit, and one app covers capture through viewing. App Store 4.75 (14,262) |
| A PC + VR headset | Gracia | Free, and one of the few options usable now. Needs an RTX 3070-class GPU or better |
| Meta Quest 3 / 3S | Into the Scaniverse | Many works, and fun just browsing |
If SuperSplat will not open on an old PC, you can try the light antimatter15/splat. For capturing your own room on a Quest, Hyperscape Capture; for viewing works as three-dimensional video, Gracia is also a candidate.
October 2026 addendum: movements around Steam Frame and Quest
For Steam Frame, Arcturus Vision Gaussian XR was released free on 28 September 2026. It loads PLY and SOG and automatically finds compatible files placed on the Steam Frame (per its Steam store page). For Meta Quest, UploadVR published a comparison in September that favored Hyperscape for overall viewing and AirVis for the combination of quality, controls and sharing. AirVis is a standalone Quest app that views published cloud scenes and also supports streaming from a PC. I have tried neither.
Sources: Steam store page for Arcturus Vision Gaussian XR / UploadVR, “The Best Ways To View Gaussian Splats On Quest" (September 2026) / Radiance Fields (September 2026 roundup)
What I Haven’t Confirmed in This Article
I did not run any of these viewers on this blog’s PC or phones. How smoothly they display and how large a file they can open depend on the device and the file, so this article cannot say. Store ratings change daily, and ones with few ratings move a lot on a few reviews. I left out the Android Google Play ratings because the values disagreed between aggregators.
Summary: the first step to viewing 3DGS
For free 3DGS viewers, the choices have filled out in the browser and on phones, while on Steam the only free one usable now was Gracia. Phone apps rate high on the App Store at 4.28-4.75, and Quest apps range widely, 3.1-4.6. Phone apps are mostly about making, and some put the 3DGS-making feature behind a paid plan.
If you have a PC, the first step is to open a published work in SuperSplat, which needs nothing installed. If you want to make your own, on a phone there is Scaniverse, and on a PC there is free software such as Spirula Studio. If you have no VR headset and do not plan to make anything, the browser alone is enough.
Sites I consulted
- SuperSplat (superspl.at) / SuperSplat 3.0 release notes (GitHub)
- antimatter15/splat (GitHub)
- PLY, SPZ and SOG formats (PlayCanvas documentation)
- Polycam’s 3DGS tool / Spark (sparkjs.dev)
- App Store pages for Scaniverse, Polycam, Luma 3D Capture and KIRI Engine
- Steam pages for Gracia, Holo Picture Viewer and Arcturus Vision Gaussian XR
- Meta pages for Into the Scaniverse, Hyperscape Capture (help) and Gracia
- UploadVR (Into the Scaniverse) / The Ghost Howls (Hyperscape Capture review) / Radiance Fields (Postshot)