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Gaussian Splat documentation

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Parameter Descriptions

 

Gaussian Splat overview

Quick Start

Load a Splat: Add a Gaussian Splat Object to your scene, choose your PLY File, and click Load / Reload. If the scan comes in rotated or mirrored, correct it with Flip X, Flip Y, Flip Z, or Flip Y/Z. Use World Scale to match the splat to your Cinema 4D scene.

Viewport Setup: Set View Mode to Gaussian Splat for the best viewport look. If the scene gets heavy, lower Splat Density or enable Enable Preview in the preview section. Use Viewport Exposure, Opacity, Opacity Gamma, and Alpha Cutoff to refine the image.

Standard / Physical Render: Open Render Appearance, enable Enable Rendering, and use the Universal (Standard/Physical) workflow. This creates a renderable proxy/material path for final output. Fine-tune Render Splat Density, Render Splat Size, Render Alpha Cutoff, and Render Exposure to match the viewport more closely.

Redshift Workflow: Make Redshift the active renderer, then enable Enable Rendering. The plugin will build the Redshift-compatible render shader/material setup. If you adjust the look later, click Refresh Shader. For final look development, focus on Render Splat Density, Render Splat Size, Render Min Pixel Radius, Render Max Pixel Radius, and Relight Blend.

Relighting: Relight Blend controls how much the render stays faithful to the captured splat colors versus how much it reacts to render lighting. Lower values preserve the original scan look more strongly. Higher values make the splat feel more relightable. If the slider does not visibly update the material, click Refresh Shader once so the atlas/material gets rebuilt.

Viewport Matte for Compositing: The viewport can't export images with an alpha channel so you must use Alpha Mode to render a separate black and white image for composite.

Exporting: Use Format and Export to write the current splat state back out. Choose .ply for a simpler export or Splat .ply when you want to preserve splat-oriented data for downstream splat workflows.

Quick Matte Pro Plugin User Interface

parameters

Scene

PLY File: Selects the source Gaussian splat .ply file used by the object.

World Scale: Scales the imported splat in scene space.

Flip X: Mirrors the splat along the X axis.

Flip Y: Mirrors the splat along the Y axis.

Flip Z: Mirrors the splat along the Z axis.

Flip Y/Z: Swaps the Y and Z orientation to correct coordinate-system differences.

Load / Reload: Reloads the file and rebuilds the object from the current settings.

Viewport Appearance

Splat Density: Controls how much of the loaded splat set is shown in the viewport.

View Mode: Chooses the display mode, such as point cloud, Gaussian splat, or proxy geometry.

Splat Size: Multiplies the visible viewport splat size.

Viewport Exposure: Adjusts viewport brightness without changing the source data.

Opacity: Multiplies the overall visible opacity of the splats in the viewport.

Opacity Steps: Controls how the splat kernel opacity is stepped in true splat mode.

Min Pixel Radius: Prevents splats from becoming too small on screen and disappearing.

Max Pixel Radius: Prevents splats from becoming too large on screen.

Alpha Mode: Shows a transparency-oriented viewport preview that helps inspect edges and coverage.

Other Settings

Packet Budget: Sets the viewport performance budget for splat packets. Higher values allow more detail but cost more performance.

Adaptive Kernel: Automatically adjusts kernel detail based on projected splat size.

Opacity Gamma: Remaps opacity response to help reduce haze or strengthen overlap.

Min Kernel Steps: Defines the minimum kernel quality when adaptive kerneling is enabled.

Alpha Cutoff: Removes very faint splats to reduce fogginess and edge noise.

Max Axis Ratio: Limits extreme anisotropic stretching to avoid needle-like artifacts.

Fast Viewport Preview

Enable Preview: Turns on a lighter preview mode for faster navigation.

Preview Mode: Chooses how the preview is displayed.

Preview Splat Density: Sets density used only by the preview mode.

Preview Splat Size: Sets splat size used only by the preview mode.

Render Appearance

Enable Rendering: Turns on the renderable proxy/material workflow for final rendering.

Render Point Cloud: Uses a point-cloud render path instead of proxy cards where supported.

Refresh Shader: Rebuilds or refreshes the generated render material and atlas setup.

Render Splat Density: Controls how many splats are used in the render proxy.

Render Splat Size: Multiplies the splat or proxy size at render time.

Relight Blend: Balances the original captured splat look against render-time relighting.

Redshift Softness: Softens or sharpens Redshift splat edges without simply scaling the whole splat larger.

Redshift Opacity Strength: Makes Redshift splats feel more solid or more transparent, useful for scenes that look too see-through.

Redshift Point Cloud Brightness: Brightness control specifically for Redshift Point Cloud mode.

Transparency Depth: Controls Redshift’s transparent layer depth so splats do not clip too early or become overly see-through. 

Delay Redshift IPR Updates: Holds the current IPR preview while dragging settings, then updates after release for a smoother workflow.

Render Min Pixel Radius: Prevents render splats from becoming too small on screen.

Render Max Pixel Radius: Caps the maximum render splat size on screen.

Render Alpha Cutoff: Removes very faint render splats for a cleaner edge.

Render Point Opacity: Adjusts opacity when using the point-cloud render path.

Point Style: Chooses the point-cloud render style, such as soft points or solid circles.

Effectors

Effectors: Lets you add MoGraph effectors to drive the splat set.

Forces

Forces: Lets you add supported force and simulation objects to influence the splats.

Force Strength: Scales the overall influence of the assigned forces.

Real Force Simulation: Uses a more direct simulation-style force response.

Export

Format: Chooses the export format.

Export: Writes the current splat data out to disk.

Help / Links

Alpha Pixel Website: Opens the Alpha Pixel website.

Help Doc: Opens the online help documentation.

Notes

  • Heavy Scenes - Very dense splat files can impact viewport responsiveness, especially when using true splat display, force-based setups, or multiple effectors at the same time. Performance will vary on different computer setups.

  • Enable Rendering - If you are working mainly with viewport splats as your final output make sure you don’t have “Enable Rendering” turned on or it will be very slow when working with things like effectors and fields.

  • Push Apart Effector - The push apart effector does calculations per splat and may be very slow with a large number of splats.
  • Render Point Cloud - When using Render Point Cloud, relighting controls are not used. That mode is intended as a simpler point-based render path.
  • Relight Rendering - Relighting works best when your scene lighting is stable and predictable. Complex animated light rigs or tag-driven light setups can sometimes produce results that differ from simpler static lighting.
  • Viewport vs Final Render - The true Gaussian splat viewport is intended for preview and matte work, but final rendered output may still differ depending on the render mode, renderer, and scene lighting.

  • Refresh Shader - When changing settings in Render Appearance, you may need to click Refresh Shader to fully update the render material.

  • Orthographic Views - When viewing splats through an orthographic camera or viewport, some splats may rotate or orient in a less predictable way compared to perspective views.

  • Dirty Renders - If a splat looks dirty in the Redshift Render the main cause is likely the Redshift Transparency Depth is too low. Set it higher to let it see through more splats. This can be done in the Render Appearance menu in the plugin.

Change Log

  • 03-16-26: Version 1.0 Launched

  • 04-16-26: Versioon 1.01 - Fixed dirty look in Redshift
  • 04-20-26: Version 1.1 - Huge viewport speed boost, drag and drop files in viewport, Octane Support (Beta)
  • 05-01-26: Version 1.11 - Fixed viewport visibility issue
  • 06-12-26: Version 1.15 - More consistent Redshift IPR/final renders, better huge-scene splat sizing, faster Redshift workflow, improved relighting behavior, and new Redshift tuning parameters.

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