/Tech2d ago

Apple Maps integrates 3D Gaussian Splatting to eliminate distorted trees and melted photogrammetry artifacts

Oblique aerial imagery provides sharper details at ground level.

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YIMBYLAND
Radiance Fields
Bilawal Sidhu
Kosta Derpanis (sabbatical in Zurich)
Jon Barron#281
Sentiment

Positive users are excited about Apple's 3D Gaussian Splatting in Maps for its detailed addictive city renders while negative users call the feature overhyped or question its purpose on devices.

Pos
40.3%
Neg
59.7%
12 comments with sentiment.
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YIMBYLAND@YIMBYLAND

Apple just released 3D gaussian splatting on Apple Maps 🤯

This is gonna hit the Urbanist community the way crack cocaine hit 1980s New York.

2dViews 174KLikes 2.3KBookmarks 412
Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

want to go deeper down the 3d capture rabbit hole? i have a whole playlist of videos you can binge: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6qSg2I-7_koa7wdoZ5fHYMv7JYUcJ6da&si=F_MocrSFgk3aZng8

includes a fresh interview with the co-creator of google earth + the president of khronos on exactly this tech

Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

holy crap! apple just beat google to the punch -- 3d gaussian splatting is coming to apple maps.

these 3d scenes are made from oblique aerial imagery. but unlike blobby photogrammetry -- no more broccoli trees, no more melted powerlines -- ground level detail that actually holds up.

here's hoping google maps/earth follows suite soon -- they have a significantly larger corpus of sensor data to work with. time to splat the world!

2dViews 16.1KLikes 56Bookmarks 37
Radiance Fields@RadianceFields

Article: https://radiancefields.com/apple-maps-flyover-is-getting-a-gaussian-splatting-upgrade

2dViews 5.5KLikes 25Bookmarks 10
Evan Reilly@verymidengineer

@RadianceFields Leave it to apple to never mention the underlying details. "Vision intelligence models" sounds more tractable to the average person that gaussian splat. Shame really

2dViews 4.2KLikes 22Bookmarks 3
Radiance Fields@RadianceFields

@verymidengineer It is annoying, but they have confirmed that they use gaussian splatting for both Personas and Spatial Photos, so hopefully we'll get a formal confirmation soon! https://radiancefields.com/apple-confirms-personas-use-gaussian-splatting

2dViews 3.6KLikes 11Bookmarks 3
Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

Apple Beat Google to It! Hyper-Realistic Maps at WWDC 2026 — Gaussian Splats & the ongoing 3D maps land grab to own the substrate that connects the physical and digital world. Hopping on with @RadianceFields to discuss.

Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

https://x.com/i/spaces/1aKbddeQlPjJX

1dViews 3.7KLikes 11Bookmarks 0
David Sawyer@davidsawyer1

@YIMBYLAND @rhett_carlson If Apple Maps can add historical satellite imagery, then it really is over for me.

1dViews 992Likes 17
Massimo 🫧@massimov_nyc

@RadianceFields You think the data will be locked to maps platform or exportable to 3D packages?

2dViews 907Likes 1Bookmarks 2
ǝɥǝ⅄@YeheLiu

@RadianceFields @grok how do they get the splats for the maps?

2dViews 1.4KLikes 2Bookmarks 1
RegressiveSF@RegressivesSF

@YIMBYLAND Your equivalency is so disgusting.

2dViews 1.9KLikes 4
Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

Come yap about it in our live space with a bunch of 3d gaussian splatting and 3d mapping nerds

Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

https://x.com/i/spaces/1aKbddeQlPjJX

1dViews 1.6KLikes 1Bookmarks 1
OldSchoolLiberal@TheOldSchoolLib

@RadianceFields Why? WTF is this for? To eat up space on my device? Make Apple Earth. Leave this crap off my phone.

2dViews 618
Midwest Antiquarian@Eric_Erins

@YIMBYLAND Oh nooo I’m about to lose a lot of time to that I fear

2dViews 397Likes 8
gmgo@imgmgo

@YIMBYLAND As soon as I saw this I'm like "the iPad is coming out for this one"

1dViews 1KLikes 7
Bilawal Sidhu@bilawalsidhu

ICYMI google's been shipping gaussian splats in maps for a while -- but tucked inside immersive view and indoor only. I used it heavily in NYC.

Meanwhile apple's bringing radiance fields to 300+ cities this fall, built from aerial imagery. Surprised they didn't drop ground-level splats yet, given the LiDAR rich street collects they already run for Look Around. Maybe soon.

indoors = google. overhead = apple. street-level = still nobody -- and whoever fuses all three into one continuous world wins.

1dViews 9.2KLikes 55Bookmarks 24
Radiance Fields@RadianceFields

@aidannewsome Later this fall!

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